paytolaugh/oz_ch01_payload.json

{"book": "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz\nby L. Frank Baum (1900), re-set in 2026\n\nChapter I\nThe Tornado\n\nDorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer\u2019s wife. Their house was a white two-story farmhouse with three bedrooms, at the end of a gravel drive, with a red barn behind it, a green tractor in the yard, solar panels on the south side of the roof, a Starlink dish at the eave, an old F-150 and a Tesla at the barn, and beside them, under a tarp, a red 1968 Mustang convertible that had been her father\u2019s, and a hundred acres of corn planted around it all; and the bank owned most of it. The kitchen contained a stove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and a rack of boots by the door. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had the big bedroom at the front of the house, and Dorothy a little room at the back. There was no attic at all, and no basement\u2014except a small hole dug in the ground beside the house, called a storm cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by two steel doors set in the earth at a slant, which opened outward, from which a flight of steps led down into the small, dark hole.\n\nWhen Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor another house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the corn was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.\n\nWhen Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan\u2014her mother and father had died five years before, when the small plane her father had built with his own hands was caught in a tornado\u2014first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the girl\u2019s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy\u2019s merry voice reached her ears; and she still looked at the girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.\n\nUncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke.\n\nIt was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings. Toto was not gray; he was a big white dog, broad in the chest, with a short coat and small dark eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wide nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him, and loved him dearly. What Dorothy played was basketball. On the days she could bear the farm least she took the tarp off her father\u2019s Mustang and drove to the park in town, Toto upright in the passenger seat, and shot alone on the empty court in a loose jersey with a 22 on it and her high-tops\u2014long threes, one after another, nothing but net\u2014while Toto watched from under the hoop. Then she drove home fast with the radio up and Toto barking at the wind, past the fenced lot where soldiers stood at the gate of a low gray company called Quantum Leap, the dust standing in the air behind her, past the corn that was not doing well, and up the drive in a cloud of dust that settled over Uncle Henry and the tractor he was working on; because there was nowhere else to go, and nobody her age to go to.\n\nToday, however, they were not playing. Dorothy came in from the Mustang with Toto at her heels and the radio still going in the yard. Aunt Em, washing the dishes, did not turn round. \u201cThere are chores on this farm that don\u2019t get done while a person throws a ball at a hoop,\u201d she said. \u201cThe dog stays outside. And take those shoes off\u2014you\u2019re tracking in dirt.\u201d Dorothy said what she said about most things that summer. \u201cBasketball is my way off this farm. It\u2019s a scholarship, if it\u2019s anything.\u201d \u201cThe school doesn\u2019t even have a girls\u2019 team,\u201d said Aunt Em. \u201cThen I\u2019ll try out for the boys\u2019 team,\u201d said Dorothy. \u201cThere\u2019s no rule against it.\u201d Uncle Henry sat upon the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky, which was even grayer than usual. The county\u2019s weather alert had buzzed on Aunt Em\u2019s phone an hour before and been silenced; out here they trusted the sky more than the phone. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto at her side, and looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes.\n\nFrom the far north they heard a low wail of the wind, and Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where the long grass bowed in waves before the coming storm. There now came a sharp whistling in the air from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also.\n\nSuddenly Uncle Henry stood up.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s a tornado coming, Em,\u201d he called to his wife. \u201cI\u2019ll go look after the stock.\u201d Then he ran toward the barn where the cows and horses were kept.\n\nAunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand.\n\n\u201cQuick, Dorothy!\u201d she screamed. \u201cRun for the shelter!\u201d\n\nToto bolted from Dorothy\u2019s side and hid under the kitchen table, and the girl started to get him. Aunt Em, badly frightened, ran out to the storm cellar, threw back the slanting doors and went down the steps into the small, dark hole. Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt. When she was halfway across the room there came a great shriek from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor.\n\nThen a strange thing happened.\n\nThe house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.\n\nThe north and south winds met where the house stood, and made it the exact center of the tornado. In the middle of a tornado the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the tornado; and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.\n\nIt was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.\n\nToto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly; but Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.\n\nOnce Toto got too near the open kitchen door, and fell out; and at first the girl thought she had lost him. But soon she saw one of his ears sticking up over the sill, for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the door, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again, afterward shutting the door so that no more accidents could happen.\n\nHour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again; but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her.\n\nIn spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.", "screenplay": "Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz \u2014 Chapter One: The Tornado\nCredit: from the 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, re-set in 2026\nAuthor: adaptation by Scooter Willis (this chapter simulated by the assistant at the adapter's request, 2026-09-21/22)\nPeriod: Kansas, 2026 - a modern working farm like the Kent farm in Superman: a white two-story three-bedroom farmhouse at the end of a gravel drive, a red barn, a green John Deere tractor, solar panels on the roof, a Starlink dish at the eave, an old Ford F-150, a Tesla, and a red 1968 Mustang convertible, a hundred acres of corn burnt gray by drought; an outside storm cellar beside the house with two steel doors set at 45 degrees. The family is struggling. DOROTHY is sixteen going on seventeen: strong, athletic - a young Supergirl or young Wonder Woman, not wiry - confident, fearless, a tomboy who hates how remote the farm is and does not care how she looks; dark hair in one braid; in this chapter she wears a loose number 22 basketball jersey, loose shorts and high-top basketball shoes. TOTO is a big white American bulldog (played by the real dog Astro), broad-chested, short white coat, dark eyes.\nDay: the day of the tornado\nNarrator: yes\nNotes: Every narrated sentence is the adapted text of Chapter One; the opening paragraphs are re-ordered for the screen (park, drive, farm, kitchen), each paragraph's sentences in their written order. The six spoken lines are the chapter's dialogue, on camera. Nothing is taken from the 1939 film.\n\n====\n\nEXT. THE PARK, TOWN - LATE AFTERNOON\n\nKansas, 2026 - a modern working farm like the Kent farm in Superman: a white two-story three-bedroom farmhouse at the end of a gravel drive, a red barn, a green John Deere tractor, solar panels on the roof, a Starlink dish at the eave, an old Ford F-150, a Tesla, and a red 1968 Mustang convertible, a hundred acres of corn burnt gray by drought; an outside storm cellar beside the house with two steel doors set at 45 degrees. The family is struggling. DOROTHY is sixteen going on seventeen: strong, athletic - a young Supergirl or young Wonder Woman, not wiry - confident, fearless, a tomboy who hates how remote the farm is and does not care how she looks; dark hair in one braid; in this chapter she wears a loose number 22 basketball jersey, loose shorts and high-top basketball shoes. TOTO is a big white American bulldog (played by the real dog Astro), broad-chested, short white coat, dark eyes. An empty outdoor court on the edge of a small Kansas town. Dorothy, alone, in the 22 jersey and high-tops, dribbles once and puts up a long three from well behind the arc. Nothing but net. Toto sits under the hoop and watches the ball drop through. She gets it, walks back out, shoots again. Nothing but net.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nIt was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nToto was not gray; he was a big white dog, broad in the chest,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nwith a short coat and small dark eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wide nose.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nToto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him, and loved him dearly.\n\nAnother three. Net. Toto's head follows the ball up and down. Dorothy does not smile; this is work.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nWhat Dorothy played was basketball.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nOn the days she could bear the farm least she took the tarp off her father\u2019s Mustang and drove to the park in town, Toto upright in the passenger seat,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand shot alone on the empty court in a loose jersey with a 22 on it and her high-tops\u2014long threes, one after another, nothing but net\u2014while Toto watched from under the hoop.\n\nEXT. COUNTY ROAD - LATE AFTERNOON\n\nThe red Mustang, top down, fast, radio loud, Toto upright in the passenger seat barking at the wind, Dorothy's braid whipping. A chain-link fence, soldiers at a gate, low gray buildings, a sign: QUANTUM LEAP - gone in a second, dust standing in the air behind the car. Then miles of corn, gray and failing, to the horizon.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThen she drove home fast with the radio up and Toto barking at the wind,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\npast the fenced lot where soldiers stood at the gate of a low gray company called Quantum Leap, the dust standing in the air behind her,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\npast the corn that was not doing well,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand up the drive in a cloud of dust that settled over Uncle Henry and the tractor he was working on;\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nbecause there was nowhere else to go, and nobody her age to go to.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nWhen Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nNot a tree nor another house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThe sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nEven the corn was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nOnce the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.\n\nEXT. THE FARM - LATE AFTERNOON\n\nThe view of the farm from the road: the white house with its solar panels, the red barn, the F-150 and the Tesla, the tractor in the yard with Uncle Henry bent over its engine. The Mustang comes up the drive too fast and stops in a cloud of dust that rolls over Henry and the tractor. He straightens, gray from beard to boots, and says nothing. Dorothy is out of the car and running for the house, Toto after her.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nDorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer\u2019s wife.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nTheir house was a white two-story farmhouse with three bedrooms, at the end of a gravel drive,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nwith a red barn behind it, a green tractor in the yard, solar panels on the south side of the roof, a Starlink dish at the eave, an old F-150 and a Tesla at the barn,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand beside them, under a tarp, a red 1968 Mustang convertible that had been her father\u2019s, and a hundred acres of corn planted around it all;\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand the bank owned most of it.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThe kitchen contained a stove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and a rack of boots by the door.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nUncle Henry and Aunt Em had the big bedroom at the front of the house, and Dorothy a little room at the back.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThere was no attic at all, and no basement\u2014except a small hole dug in the ground beside the house, called a storm cellar,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nwhere the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nIt was reached by two steel doors set in the earth at a slant, which opened outward, from which a flight of steps led down into the small, dark hole.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nUncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nHe was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke.\n\nINT. THE FARMHOUSE KITCHEN - LATE AFTERNOON\n\nAunt Em at the sink with her back to the door, thin and gaunt. Dorothy in the doorway in the jersey and high-tops, Toto pushing in past her legs. The radio still faintly from the yard.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nToday, however, they were not playing. Dorothy came in from the Mustang with Toto at her heels and the radio still going in the yard.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nAunt Em, washing the dishes, did not turn round.\n\nAUNT EM\nThere are chores on this farm that don\u2019t get done while a person throws a ball at a hoop. The dog stays outside. And take those shoes off\u2014you\u2019re tracking in dirt.\n\nDorothy puts Toto out on the step with her foot, does not take the shoes off, leans on the door frame.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nDorothy said what she said about most things that summer.\n\nDOROTHY\nBasketball is my way off this farm. It\u2019s a scholarship, if it\u2019s anything.\n\nAUNT EM\nThe school doesn\u2019t even have a girls\u2019 team.\n\nDOROTHY\nThen I\u2019ll try out for the boys\u2019 team. There\u2019s no rule against it.\n\nAunt Em finally turns and looks at her: a woman who was young and pretty once.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nWhen Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThey had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nShe was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nWhen Dorothy, who was an orphan\u2014\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nher mother and father had died five years before, when the small plane her father had built with his own hands was caught in a tornado\u2014\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nfirst came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the girl\u2019s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy\u2019s merry voice reached her ears;\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand she still looked at the girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nUncle Henry sat upon the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky, which was even grayer than usual.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThe county\u2019s weather alert had buzzed on Aunt Em\u2019s phone an hour before and been silenced; out here they trusted the sky more than the phone.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nDorothy stood in the door with Toto at her side, and looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes.\n\nEXT. THE KITCHEN DOORSTEP - LATE AFTERNOON\n\nThe sky grayer than usual. Uncle Henry on the step, a dark phone in his hand, looking up. Dorothy in the doorway with Toto at her side on the step, looking up too. Through the door, Aunt Em at the dishes.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nFrom the far north they heard a low wail of the wind, and Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where the long grass bowed in waves before the coming storm.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThere now came a sharp whistling in the air from the south,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand as they turned their eyes that way they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nSuddenly Uncle Henry stood up.\n\nUncle Henry stands up.\n\nEXT./INT. THE FARMHOUSE - THE STORM\n\nUNCLE HENRY\nThere\u2019s a tornado coming, Em. I\u2019ll go look after the stock.\n\nHe runs for the barn where the cows and horses are kept.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThen he ran toward the barn where the cows and horses were kept.\n\nAunt Em drops the dish and comes to the door. One look at the sky.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nAunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand.\n\nAUNT EM\nQuick, Dorothy! Run for the shelter!\n\nToto bolts from Dorothy's side and hides under the kitchen table. Dorothy goes after him. Aunt Em runs out to the storm cellar beside the house, throws back the two slanting steel doors and goes down the steps into the dark. Dorothy gets hold of Toto; halfway across the kitchen the wind shrieks, the house shakes, and she sits down hard on the floor.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nToto bolted from Dorothy\u2019s side and hid under the kitchen table, and the girl started to get him.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nAunt Em, badly frightened, ran out to the storm cellar, threw back the slanting doors and went down the steps into the small, dark hole.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nDorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nWhen she was halfway across the room there came a great shriek from the wind,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor.\n\nINT. THE FARMHOUSE, IN THE AIR\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThen a strange thing happened.\n\nThe whole house whirls, and rises. Dorothy on the kitchen floor, Toto beside her, the room tilting slowly.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThe house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nThe north and south winds met where the house stood, and made it the exact center of the tornado.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nIn the middle of a tornado the air is generally still,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nbut the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nuntil it was at the very top of the tornado;\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.\n\nDark. Wind. The house rocks gently, like a cradle.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nIt was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nAfter the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.\n\nToto runs about the kitchen barking. Dorothy sits quite still on the floor.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nToto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly; but Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.\n\nINT. THE FARMHOUSE, IN THE AIR - NIGHT\n\nThe kitchen door has blown open on black roaring air. Toto too near it - and out. Dorothy's face. Then one white ear sticking up over the sill, held by the wind. She creeps to the door, catches the ear, drags him in, and forces the door shut.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nOnce Toto got too near the open kitchen door, and fell out; and at first the girl thought she had lost him.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nBut soon she saw one of his ears sticking up over the sill, for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nShe crept to the door, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again, afterward shutting the door so that no more accidents could happen.\n\nHours. Dorothy alone on the swaying floor, the wind shrieking. At last she crawls up to her little room at the back and lies down on her bed; Toto lies down beside her.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nHour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely,\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nand the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nAt first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again;\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nbut as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nAt last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her.\n\nHer eyes close.\n\nNARRATOR (V.O.)\nIn spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.\n"}