Chapter One
We Wish to Welcome You to Munchkinland
The Yellow Brick Road ran straight for about two hundred yards to the Emerald
City Castle. There it split into two parts, circled the castle, rejoined, and
went away on the far side. To our left was a clump of trees. There was a sign
just before the little woods, shaped like a hand with a pointing finger. On it
was written, LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS.
I read it to Jeremy, who was six and could decipher a few words but not very
many yet. He said, "Oh, my."
The Yellow Brick Road ran down the approximate middle of Chicago's Oz Festival.
The "road" — a yellow background with brown outlines of bricks — was painted
on the central pathway through the Grant Park festival area, where Taste of
Chicago and other big civic events take place throughout the year. At Taste of
Chicago, held in J ... read full excerpt from Hard Road: A Cat Marsala Mystery ebook
