Lionel

I haven’t always been known as a coward. There was once a time when people would have even called me brave. I can trace everything that went wrong back to one night at a college party that I got dragged to with my roommates, Timmy and Crowder. This is how I came to be known as the Cowardly Lion.

My real name is Lionel, just Lionel. I come from a family of lions, and have three older brothers. For as long as I can remember, I have had to prove myself to my brothers by showing no fear. Football was one way that I gained their respect. I became quarterback my senior year of high school, and even won homecoming king. Most importantly, I earned myself an athletic scholarship to the University of Oz.

I was the second person to arrive at our dorm room freshman year of college. When I got there, I saw a Tin Man cleaning the room. How do you even clean a room before anyone has even moved into it? I immediately thought that it was going to be a long and interesting year.

“Hi man. I’m Lionel,” I said.

“Oh hi,” the Tin Man said nervously. “I’m Timmy. It’s nice to meet you.”

I smiled, nodded my head, and racked my brain for something else to say to the guy. Suddenly, I had lost all of my social skills and was sure I was making the worst first impression ever.

After I unpacked my things and Timmy finished cleaning, we both just sat on our beds in silence and stared at the floor. Out of all of the challenges I have faced throughout my life, this is one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever been through. I kept hoping that something would happen: some music would start playing, someone would pull the fire alarm, anything.

Finally my wish came true when our last roommate arrived.

“Hey guys!” he shouted as he busted through the door. “My name is Crowder,” he said.

Crowder was a scarecrow: tall and gangly. He looked like he would be very easy to beat in an armwrestling match, which was very exciting to me.

We sat in silence for a little while as Crowder unpacked his things. Crowder spent the rest of the week trying to get the three of us to go to orientation activities together. We went along with most of them, but things were still very awkward.

On the Friday of freshmen welcome week there was a party. Timmy and I really didn’t want to go but Crowder convinced us that this would be a defining moment for us to find our college friend groups. We reluctantly agreed to go to the party, but we could have never imagined how much this night was going to change our lives.

When we got to the party, the three of us split up (much to Crowder’s disappointment). Timmy headed straight for the kitchen, Crowder went to play trivia with the brainiacs, and I met up with some of the other football players.

After I beat a few of them at armwrestling, they decided it was time for karaoke. My heart stopped. I’m not scared of many things, and I will usually try just about anything, but singing in front of a crowd was something that I just could not do.

“Lionel! It’s your turn,” one of the players shouted.

“Ah, no thanks, guys. I’m going to have to pass this time.”

“Lionel! Lionel! Lionel!” everyone chanted.

They pushed a microphone into my paws, and the music started playing. The song was Somewhere Over the Rainbow. When it came time for me to sing, I completely froze, for like three whole minutes. I just stood there like a statue for the entire song.

Everyone started laughing.

“Coward! Coward! Coward!” they all chanted now.

I rushed to find Timmy and Crowder, who both had their own traumatic stories from that night. For the rest of the school year, we were each other’s closest friends. We did everything together.

So that is how I came to be known as the Cowardly Lion. Who knew that one night and a bad karaoke performance would change everything? It wasn’t all bad, though, because that is how I became close with my two best friends, Timmy and Crowder.

Oh, by the way, feel free to check out a karaoke version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow below.

Author’s note:

This story is based on the character of the Cowardly Lion from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I did not take a specific story about the Cowardly Lion to retell. Instead, I created a backstory for this character that was completely new since Baum never wrote an explicit one for the Lion. Making him the youngest of four brothers was one relatable way that I thought I could set up Lionel to be almost obsessed with being brave. Making his downfall happen at a party over karaoke was something that I thought would be comical to readers since he is a big, tough lion who plays football. I also took pieces from the original work and incorporated them in different ways into my story. For example, in the original book, Lion becomes the King of Beasts. In my story, Lion was crowned homecoming king in high school, which offers a foreshadowing into the future of this character. I also continued the idea that Baum featured throughout the original book that even though other people called the Lion a coward, he displayed bravery throughout his well-known trip to the Emerald City. The original Cowardly Lion and my character Lionel both exemplify how one word or idea cannot define someone. You can be cowardly and brave, smart and confused, and so many different things at once.

I used the sources below to get some background information on Baum’s version of the Cowardly Lion.

Bibliography:

The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Web source.

Cowardly Lion Wikipedia page. Web source.

Image information: Cowardly Lion illustration by Marta Fleter. Web source: Creative Commons.