Timmy

My name is Timmy. You probably know me as the Tin Man from that famous journey to Oz. Or, if you went to college with me, you might know me as Tin Can. None of those names matter, though, if you don’t know the story behind them. This is the story of how I became best friends with a brave cowardly lion and a brilliant scarecrow with no brain, and earned a new nickname along the way.

The summer before my freshman year of college was rough. I mean, really rough. My high-school girlfriend broke up with me. I know what you’re thinking: a lot of couples break up before parting ways for college. My response to that would be: that’s probably true, but did those breakups end in one person having a curse put on them? Because mine did. I couldn’t bring myself to say my true feelings to my girlfriend so she used her powers (she’s a witch by the way) to turn me into a tin man, like the tin cage that she claimed surrounded my heart (she was always so dramatic). Let’s just say, I was more than ready for summer to end so that I could get out of my hometown to start school at the University of Oz.

I was the first to arrive at my college dorm room. This made me very excited because it meant I was able to get everything clean and in order before my two roommates showed up.

Something that you should know about me is that I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to things being neat. Cleanliness is next to Ozliness for me, so it was very important to make a good first impression to my roommates by having the room look pristine when they walked in.

After a while, I heard my first roommate, Lionel, a lion, walking in to greet me.

“Hi man. I’m Lionel,” he said.

“Oh hi,” I answered, trying my best not to sound nervous. “I’m Timmy. It’s nice to meet you.”

I got the sense that Lionel was judging me for cleaning the empty dorm room, so I quickly finished up what I was doing and took a seat on my bed. The next few moments were unbearably awkward. I was sure that Lionel was completely disappointed to have a clean freak like me as a roommate. It was impossible for me to come up with anything to talk to him about. What would a lion want to do with tin like me?

Finally, much to my relief, our third and final roommate arrived.

“Hey guys!” he almost yelled coming through the door. “My name is Crowder,” he said.

I look up, smiled, and nodded at him. Crowder was tall, and had all of the confidence that I lacked. He seemed like he was going to be easy to get along with, which was a major relief for me.

The week before classes started was freshmen welcome week, and Crowder saw to it that the three of us roommates went to as many activities together as possible. I appreciated the invitations, but it was a lot for an introvert like me.

At the end of the week, there was a party that Crowder insisted we go to. It didn’t really seem like my kind of thing, but I went along anyway.

When we arrived, my roommates almost immediately broke off into separate groups; Lionel went to hang out with the jocks, and Crowder went to play trivia with the scholars. That left me by myself to go to the kitchen and check out the snack situation.

The place was a mess! I couldn’t help but to start cleaning up all of the trash that had just been left in the room. I was rinsing out soda cans to be recycled when a beautiful witch walked up to me and introduced herself.

“I’m Stella,” she said, smiling and laughing at my obsessive cleaning.

Before I knew it, she was helping me clean up the kitchen. It seemed so perfect until Stella’s friends came to find her.

“What are you doing with the Tin Can?” one asked.

“I...Well, I was just helping him,” Stella replied.

“Well, we don’t need to help trash like Tin Can clean up actual trash,” another one of Stella’s friends said while pulling her away.

My heart sank. I knew that Stella would never talk to me again, and I had the suspicion that her cruel friends were going to spread the nickname ‘Tin Can’ to the rest of our peers (they did). Suddenly I had trouble breathing, so I ran to find Crowder or Lionel.

When I found Crowder, he looked pretty distraught. So did Lionel. It turned out that we all had a bad experience at that party, but I also credit it with the night I became best friends with a Lion and a Scarecrow.

Author's note:

This story is based on L. Frank Baum's character of the Tin Woodman, or perhaps more popularly known as the Tin Man. His real backstory is quite disturbing, so I decided to incorporate parts of the original telling, while still keeping my version lighthearted. The original Tin Man had once been a woodsman who was cursed by the Wicked Witch of the East to cut off his limbs so that he could not marry the love of his life. For my story, I made Timmy's girlfriend a witch who cursed him for not showing his emotions. This change helped me keep this story balanced lengthwise with the first one, Lionel. I feel like I stayed true to the original Tin Man by keeping this theme of being unlucky in love. This also incorporates the original idea that the Tin Man did not have a heart because he was made of, well, tin. I wanted Timmy to be seen as a bit misunderstood because of his very particular and clean tendencies. At first glance, Timmy might seem very machine-like, and very similar to the Tin Man. Once we get to know more about him, though, it is clear that he has very strong feelings and cares for people. My version of Timmy was based on and inspired by the sources below.

Bibliography:

Tin Woodman Wikipedia Page. Web source: Wikipedia.

The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Web source Google Books.

Image information:

Wizard of Oz Photo Illustrations by Marta Fleeter. Web source: Creative Commons.