clean.”
He was overdoing it, but that was his style when he wanted something. I’d learned that from my last trip into the huge chamber. I had nothing left to give him, and I couldn’t imagine Louis B. Mayer holding me up for a kickback from 400 bucks.
“So,” he said, “how would you like to become part of our organization?”
It was my second job offer of the day, but I turned it down. I’d worked security for Warner Brothers for enough years to know I wouldn’t want to go back to it. It had the same drawbacks as being a cop, with none of the advantages except slightly higher pay.
Mayer hadn’t really expected me to accept, and that wasn’t what he had on his mind. I think part of his social interaction was to offer jobs to people he liked.
“It’s been nice talking to you again, Mr. Mayer,” I said getting up, and he looked surprised. I guess people didn’t walk out on him very often; they waited till he was finished.
“You’re a pusher, aren’t you?” he said, standing behind his desk. I shrugged. “I’ve got a job for you,” he said. “A job for you in your own line.”
“Fifty a day and expenses if I take it,” I said quickly. He brushed that away with his hand, and indicated that I should sit down. I sat and he leaned over his desk.
“How much do you know,” he whispered, “about the Marx Brothers?”
“Well, in a few minutes I shall be all melted, and you will have the castle to yourself. I have been wicked in my day, butI never thoughta little girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end my wicked deeds. Look out, here I go!”
With these words the Witch fell down in a brown, melted, shapeless mass and began to spread over the clean boards of the kitchen floor. Seeing that she had really melted away to noth ing, Dorothy drew another bucket of water and threw it over the mess. She then swept it all out of the door. After picking out the silver shoe, which was all that was left of the old woman, she cleaned and dried it with a cloth, and put it on her footagain. Then, being atlastfree to do as she chose, she ran out to the courtyard to tell the Lion that the Wicked Witch of the West had come to an end, and that they were no longer prisoners in a strange land.
