The New Story For Alice
"Clicking her heels of her shoes three times and chanting, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home" Dorothy suddenly found herself lying in her bed. It was all a dream, there was never a place called Oz and she was just having a dream all along. But thinking quietly to her self, she thought that she kind of liked it that way; that it was all just a dream and not reality. And after her thoughts were done, she got out of bed and started to do her morning chores." "And that, my sweet Alice, is the story of The Wizard of Oz. Now that it has came to my mind, that story sounded a lot like the story you have told me about on more than one occasion. You went to a faraway, magical place just like Dorothy, and, again just like Dorothy, it was all just a nights dream." "It was not a dream!" Screamed Alice "This place I went to, which is called Wonderland, my dearest aunt, was real, and I hope to go there again someday." "Sure you do Alice, it sounded like a nice place" Alice's aunt said in a very noticeable mocking tone of voice. "Now, let us settle this dispute some time else, because now, little miss, it is time for bed." Alice's aunt kissed Alice on the forehead and tucked her into bed. Alice's aunt got up, got up and went to shut off the light but before she did so she turned to Alice and said still with a hint of mocking ness in here voice "And Alice, this Wonder Land, ill believe it when I see it. Good night." And she shut off the light. Alice sighed rolled over and fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
When Alice woke up the next morning and to her surprise did not smell the smell of bacon and eggs, and in fact did not smell the smell of breakfast at all. And even more to her surprise when she called for her aunt there was no response. She ran downstairs knowing that something was wrong; but she did not know how wrong it was. Looking out her kitchen window she saw a whole different world outside, and right in the middle of that world was her aunt staring into space (if there was such a thing in this very different world), she soon found herself doing the same thing. But then she asked herself why was she so surprised? "Weirder things have happened to me." Alice thought going outside to join her aunt. "Alice?" Her aunt asked still stunned by the sudden overnight change "You Know how I said that I did not believe you when you said Wonderland was real?" "Yes but-" "Well, I believe you now" her aunt said. "Bu-" "But what Alice!?" "But this isn't Wonderland!" said Alice frustratingly. "Oh" her aunt said looking even more shocked than she was before. Just then they heard a deep laugh coming from behind them; and turning around to see whom it was they saw nothing, not even their house, which was nowhere to be found. Panic started. Her aunt began screaming and running around all over the place, and only stopped when Alice finally talked some sense into her.
"Okay," Alice said, "the first thing we have to do is find out where we are." "O yea, how are we supposed to do that!? Our house is gone so we don't have a map, there's no one around us so we can't ask-although I'm not too sure where that laugh came from-and most of all, this place does not look at all like home!" Her aunt was right, this place did not look like home, it did not look like any place in the world that she knew of and that laugh was too weird, it sent shrivels down her spine. Alice kept thinking of the words Dorothy said when her mother read her the story book "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Alice knew that they were not going to make any progress just standing there so she told her aunt that she was going on a walk to see what there was around. The place they were in was just a big open area with nothing but the ground (which was yellow, by the way, Alice thought that was very particular). Alice decided to start heading straight
"What better of a way to start?" Alice asked herself. So Alice started walking and to her reassuring surprise there were living things in this God forsaken place; over her head flew birds, very colorful birds. All of them flew together and each of them their own color; but every once and a while she saw just a black ugly bird, a bat. Alice hated bats they were so ugly and mean and nasty. "Ugh," she said "bats!" and shivered. Then she saw something absolutely horrid, ten or fifteen of these bats just swooped down and began killing all of the really colorful birds. Seeing this Alice felt a hatred (even more now) towards these God-awful creatures. She yelled up to the bats (although feeling pretty silly because she knew bats couldn't understand humans) but nevertheless, "Go away, bats! I hope you all die every single one of you!" she screamed in fury. And as if her wish came true they all fell to the ground, and died, All but one, which started spinning around in the sky in an unnatural way. It just kept spinning and spinning and spinning until it looked like just a black ball. Then the black ball kept getting bigger and bigger until it took up the shape of a human.well, sort of human. It had a green face, a long black hat and clothes, and warts all over her face. "WHO are you?!" this thing asked in her in it's loud squeaky voice. "I am Alice," replied Alice "would you mind telling me who you are?" "I, am the Wicked Witch of the West, and this," raising her hands and gliding them in a circular motion around her "is the Land of Oz" "You mean like the book The Wizard of Oz?" Alice asked in amazement. "Oh that silly storybook is rubbish, nothing ever happened like that; here, let me straighten that little mind of yours that horrid child Dorothy is still in Oz, I am not dead neither is the wicked witch of the east, and. well, I'll let you find out the rest on your own because your going to be here for a while." And then, she gave the most horrid, ear-piercing laugh Alice has ever heard in her whole entire life. Just then Alice saw about five or six monkeys coming up over the hill all looking very human and standing on twos. Also, they looked like they were marching, yes, Alice was seeing correctly, they were marching in two rows of three. They all had red capes on and they all had frowns on their faces. They finally got to Alice and the witch and one of the monkeys stepped out of the rows and grinned at the witch, showing an impressive display of razor sharp teeth. The monkey turned around and all the other monkeys got on their hands and knees and bowed before the witch. "Your majesty," the monkey said, "what are your orders?" "Go fetch this girl's aunt and bring her to Oz." "Yes, ma'am" The other monkeys got up and began marching towards Alice's aunt. "NO!!!!!!!" Alice screamed "Silence!" screamed the witch, "or I will turn you into a toad, you will see your so beloved aunt again.eventually" said the witch and then she disappeared. Alice began to cry. She started crying and crying and walking and walking. Noticing that as she kept walking that there were yellow paths all over the place. I will have to follow one of these paths later to see where they lead. But for now she just kept walking until she noticed somebody in the distance, was it? Yes, it was, it was Dorothy! Dorothy didn't look like she did in the pictures of the book, she looked, well, meaner. Then Alice thought to herself, she didn't want anyone to see her in the condition she was in (crying) so Alice looked down on the ground pretending not to notice anything and just passed Dorothy. But Alice felt Dorothy's eyes burning into her until Alice was out of sight. Alice kept on walking and began to grow hungry; knowing she had some tarts in her pockets she began to look for a place to eat. As she kept on walking, she found a surprisingly pleasant place with green trees and green grass there was no other place around this area like itself. When she was just about to approach this place she had second thoughts, this place looks too pleasant, she thought, maybe it's a trap of some sort. But, I'll give it a try what else could I loose? My aunts gone and I have nothing of value on me. And it does look pleasant. So she headed towards the place and sat on a tree stump (which was purple, by the way, another thing she found odd). She pushed herself up on the stump and started eating. After she was done she started thinking, thinking about her adventure in Wonderland. She also noticed that since her adventure, this was the first time she ever thought about it; she thought about all the people (well, sort of people) she met especially the Cheshire cat, and that stupid grin of its. Just then, the stump began to shrink, and shrink, and shrink; until it shaped itself into a humongous grin. "Oh, no!" Alice said out loud. Thinking of what this grin meant. Then appeared an eye, then another one, Alice knowing that pretty soon the whole cat would appear. And sure enough it did. "What in the blazes are you doing here?" "You are dreaming, dreaming of me and so here I am." Said the cat in it's eye to eye grin. "I'm not dreaming" Alice replied, "I'm wide-awake" "Hmmmmmm, well, that seems particular, doesn't it? Tell me something little girl, were you in deep thought?" "Well, -" "There you have it!" "There I have what!?" Alice replied getting rather frustrated. "You were in deep thought and you thought me up! Another days work" "You are not making any sense. But now that you're here, how is Wonderland? I've missed it so very much" "Now you are not making any sense," replied the cat "how would I know how Wonderland is if I am here and not there? The correct correction is how was Wonderland?" "Ugg," Alice said becoming more frustrated "fine then, how was Wonderland" "Mad" replied the cat "nothing new, the mad hatter and the march hare are still having tea, the queen still assigning people to be beheaded, mad here mad there mad everywhere, why would miss a place like itself, are you mad like myself and everybody else?" "No, of course I'm not mad" "You have to be. For two reasons: One, all visitors of Wonderland are mad, Two, you took a mad person (myself) out of Wonderland, and Three, you don't look sane." Alice decided not to take that last statement to heart because the cat was mad and it didn't know what it was saying. So, instead, she said, "that was three reasons you dumb cat." "I am not dumb," replied the cat "far from it, have you ever seen a cat talk before? I am just mad. You can relate to that." Alice sighed and began to walk away. "Wait!" shrieked the cat "Before you-" Just then, Alice saw the cat hiss. Alice whipped around and, again, saw Dorothy, this time with Toto the dog. Again Dorothy just gave Alice a stare. What is with her Alice thought it is not very proper nor polite to just stare at me. Then Dorothy and her dog just walked away. The cat just got done hissing Alice found this very particular because she never saw the cat with any other facial expression other than a grin. Then, Alice remembered she was just about to leave. "Before you go," said the cat now grinning again, "could you stop dreaming so I can go back to where I came, I want to go back sitting on that tree I was sitting on, it was a nice tree, one of the best I ever sat on.I think." The cat said now deep in thought. "But I'm not dreaming!" Alice said waking the cat from his thoughts.
"Oh, yes, that seems to be the problem, doesn't it?" and then the cat disappeared until all that was left was his grin, and then that disappeared too. "Ugh," Alice said, "out of all the people in Wonderland I have to see that annoying little cat. "I heard that," said the ears that suddenly appeared, just floating in the air. "and for your information lil' miss, it seems that other things and beings and creatures of all sorts from Wonderland are in this dreaded place. I don't like this place at all, no I don't, why am I here? Why are you here? How I miss my tree, there are no good trees here. And as it turns out I'm not the only mat cat here, there is a lion here, that terrible lion, have you met him yet?" "No I have not" "Well, that might be better off, I might be mad, yes....yes, but at least I have a heart, yes, yes a ruthless lion with no heart!" "Silly cat, it's the tin-man that has no heart." Laughed Alice "A tin-man!? Who has ever heard of a man made of tin? I don't think I am the one being silly, now that I recall though, the lion got a touch nervous when darkness fell. But who wouldn't be? This dreaded place, I miss my tree, it was a good tree." "How long have you been here, Cheshire Cat?" "Why ask silly questions little girl?" And with that, the cat was gone. Alice stood there now, not knowing where she was, not knowing where she is, not knowing where she is going, nor where she should go, she stood there stuck, stuck in her mind on what is real and what was a dream. It was at times like this Alice's mind tends to play tricks. Tricks she never could explain, tricks she never bothered to. Confusion raced in her head, the world outside began to spin, shrieks and laughs came from every direction. She fell. Blackness came over her. "Wake up now Alice, it's over" whispered a voice. "Who is this?" Alice asked, not sure if where the voice came from nor whose it belonged to. But the voice was gone. All that was there was her, and a land that was new to her. "I wish I paid more attention to that storybook," whispered Alice to herself "maybe if I did I would at least have a little sense on where I'm going." "Well, you could follow the yellow brick road!" said a voice behind her. Alice turned around and behind her stood a man, yet only half a man. A man as tall as Alice's waist whose skin was yellow, a man who had green hair an eyes, and a voice as if he had just inhaled helium. "Oh, hello." Said Alice, "you gave me quite a scare." The mans face turned into a surprised one. "Do not be scared! I am Gwinn, I am just a small man, but you should stay on the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, darkness is coming soon and you certainly do not want to be anywhere but here, for right here, the beloved yellow brick road is safe in this unsafe Land of Oz.' He paused for a moment as if he was rethinking his thoughts. 'Yet it does seem like rain tonight, and rain is not good at all! It puts me in a damp mood, but do you know what puts me in a good mood?" He paused expecting Alice to know the answer. 'Do you?" Alice shook her head "Well, no," "Tea!" Gwinn said with exhilaration "Tea always puts me in the best of moods. Please! Please come join me for tea. Oh! And better than that, spend the night, I assure you that it is better than sleeping outside in the rain." Alice's face lit up, it was the first comforting thing anyone has said to her since she arrived in Oz. "It would be a pleasure, thank you." They started to walk down the path of the yellow brick road, everywhere they went there where twists and turns on the path that made no sense at all to Alice. It seemed to make a lot more sense to her if the path was just straight, but the twisted path seemed to slow down time. Taking a longer path always seemed to have this effect, Alice enjoyed it, it allowed her to think. She thought now about what Gwinn's house was going to look like. He was a very small man and she didn't think that he needed a very big house. She began to paint a picture in her head on what his house might look like. She pictured a little herb garden, and a yard with short-cut green grass. It was a small house indeed, the cream-yellow door a little smaller than her; there were flower boxes below the two windows on either sides of the door. From outside all Alice could picture of the upstairs were two circular windows. There was a fire burning in Alice's picture, green smoke rose from the chimney and into the night sky. Alice had by now lost sense of direction, she forgot even that she was walking, and she seemed not to notice that a house, very similar to the one she painted in her mind was standing right in front of her. "Alice," Gwinn said as if he said it multiple times before. Alice looked at him, "are you coming in?" "Oh, yes" she said "sorry." She ducked her head and came inside.
"Clicking her heels of her shoes three times and chanting, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home" Dorothy suddenly found herself lying in her bed. It was all a dream, there was never a place called Oz and she was just having a dream all along. But thinking quietly to her self, she thought that she kind of liked it that way; that it was all just a dream and not reality. And after her thoughts were done, she got out of bed and started to do her morning chores." "And that, my sweet Alice, is the story of The Wizard of Oz. Now that it has came to my mind, that story sounded a lot like the story you have told me about on more than one occasion. You went to a faraway, magical place just like Dorothy, and, again just like Dorothy, it was all just a nights dream." "It was not a dream!" Screamed Alice "This place I went to, which is called Wonderland, my dearest aunt, was real, and I hope to go there again someday." "Sure you do Alice, it sounded like a nice place" Alice's aunt said in a very noticeable mocking tone of voice. "Now, let us settle this dispute some time else, because now, little miss, it is time for bed." Alice's aunt kissed Alice on the forehead and tucked her into bed. Alice's aunt got up, got up and went to shut off the light but before she did so she turned to Alice and said still with a hint of mocking ness in here voice "And Alice, this Wonder Land, ill believe it when I see it. Good night." And she shut off the light. Alice sighed rolled over and fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
When Alice woke up the next morning and to her surprise did not smell the smell of bacon and eggs, and in fact did not smell the smell of breakfast at all. And even more to her surprise when she called for her aunt there was no response. She ran downstairs knowing that something was wrong; but she did not know how wrong it was. Looking out her kitchen window she saw a whole different world outside, and right in the middle of that world was her aunt staring into space (if there was such a thing in this very different world), she soon found herself doing the same thing. But then she asked herself why was she so surprised? "Weirder things have happened to me." Alice thought going outside to join her aunt. "Alice?" Her aunt asked still stunned by the sudden overnight change "You Know how I said that I did not believe you when you said Wonderland was real?" "Yes but-" "Well, I believe you now" her aunt said. "Bu-" "But what Alice!?" "But this isn't Wonderland!" said Alice frustratingly. "Oh" her aunt said looking even more shocked than she was before. Just then they heard a deep laugh coming from behind them; and turning around to see whom it was they saw nothing, not even their house, which was nowhere to be found. Panic started. Her aunt began screaming and running around all over the place, and only stopped when Alice finally talked some sense into her.
"Okay," Alice said, "the first thing we have to do is find out where we are." "O yea, how are we supposed to do that!? Our house is gone so we don't have a map, there's no one around us so we can't ask-although I'm not too sure where that laugh came from-and most of all, this place does not look at all like home!" Her aunt was right, this place did not look like home, it did not look like any place in the world that she knew of and that laugh was too weird, it sent shrivels down her spine. Alice kept thinking of the words Dorothy said when her mother read her the story book "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Alice knew that they were not going to make any progress just standing there so she told her aunt that she was going on a walk to see what there was around. The place they were in was just a big open area with nothing but the ground (which was yellow, by the way, Alice thought that was very particular). Alice decided to start heading straight
"What better of a way to start?" Alice asked herself. So Alice started walking and to her reassuring surprise there were living things in this God forsaken place; over her head flew birds, very colorful birds. All of them flew together and each of them their own color; but every once and a while she saw just a black ugly bird, a bat. Alice hated bats they were so ugly and mean and nasty. "Ugh," she said "bats!" and shivered. Then she saw something absolutely horrid, ten or fifteen of these bats just swooped down and began killing all of the really colorful birds. Seeing this Alice felt a hatred (even more now) towards these God-awful creatures. She yelled up to the bats (although feeling pretty silly because she knew bats couldn't understand humans) but nevertheless, "Go away, bats! I hope you all die every single one of you!" she screamed in fury. And as if her wish came true they all fell to the ground, and died, All but one, which started spinning around in the sky in an unnatural way. It just kept spinning and spinning and spinning until it looked like just a black ball. Then the black ball kept getting bigger and bigger until it took up the shape of a human.well, sort of human. It had a green face, a long black hat and clothes, and warts all over her face. "WHO are you?!" this thing asked in her in it's loud squeaky voice. "I am Alice," replied Alice "would you mind telling me who you are?" "I, am the Wicked Witch of the West, and this," raising her hands and gliding them in a circular motion around her "is the Land of Oz" "You mean like the book The Wizard of Oz?" Alice asked in amazement. "Oh that silly storybook is rubbish, nothing ever happened like that; here, let me straighten that little mind of yours that horrid child Dorothy is still in Oz, I am not dead neither is the wicked witch of the east, and. well, I'll let you find out the rest on your own because your going to be here for a while." And then, she gave the most horrid, ear-piercing laugh Alice has ever heard in her whole entire life. Just then Alice saw about five or six monkeys coming up over the hill all looking very human and standing on twos. Also, they looked like they were marching, yes, Alice was seeing correctly, they were marching in two rows of three. They all had red capes on and they all had frowns on their faces. They finally got to Alice and the witch and one of the monkeys stepped out of the rows and grinned at the witch, showing an impressive display of razor sharp teeth. The monkey turned around and all the other monkeys got on their hands and knees and bowed before the witch. "Your majesty," the monkey said, "what are your orders?" "Go fetch this girl's aunt and bring her to Oz." "Yes, ma'am" The other monkeys got up and began marching towards Alice's aunt. "NO!!!!!!!" Alice screamed "Silence!" screamed the witch, "or I will turn you into a toad, you will see your so beloved aunt again.eventually" said the witch and then she disappeared. Alice began to cry. She started crying and crying and walking and walking. Noticing that as she kept walking that there were yellow paths all over the place. I will have to follow one of these paths later to see where they lead. But for now she just kept walking until she noticed somebody in the distance, was it? Yes, it was, it was Dorothy! Dorothy didn't look like she did in the pictures of the book, she looked, well, meaner. Then Alice thought to herself, she didn't want anyone to see her in the condition she was in (crying) so Alice looked down on the ground pretending not to notice anything and just passed Dorothy. But Alice felt Dorothy's eyes burning into her until Alice was out of sight. Alice kept on walking and began to grow hungry; knowing she had some tarts in her pockets she began to look for a place to eat. As she kept on walking, she found a surprisingly pleasant place with green trees and green grass there was no other place around this area like itself. When she was just about to approach this place she had second thoughts, this place looks too pleasant, she thought, maybe it's a trap of some sort. But, I'll give it a try what else could I loose? My aunts gone and I have nothing of value on me. And it does look pleasant. So she headed towards the place and sat on a tree stump (which was purple, by the way, another thing she found odd). She pushed herself up on the stump and started eating. After she was done she started thinking, thinking about her adventure in Wonderland. She also noticed that since her adventure, this was the first time she ever thought about it; she thought about all the people (well, sort of people) she met especially the Cheshire cat, and that stupid grin of its. Just then, the stump began to shrink, and shrink, and shrink; until it shaped itself into a humongous grin. "Oh, no!" Alice said out loud. Thinking of what this grin meant. Then appeared an eye, then another one, Alice knowing that pretty soon the whole cat would appear. And sure enough it did. "What in the blazes are you doing here?" "You are dreaming, dreaming of me and so here I am." Said the cat in it's eye to eye grin. "I'm not dreaming" Alice replied, "I'm wide-awake" "Hmmmmmm, well, that seems particular, doesn't it? Tell me something little girl, were you in deep thought?" "Well, -" "There you have it!" "There I have what!?" Alice replied getting rather frustrated. "You were in deep thought and you thought me up! Another days work" "You are not making any sense. But now that you're here, how is Wonderland? I've missed it so very much" "Now you are not making any sense," replied the cat "how would I know how Wonderland is if I am here and not there? The correct correction is how was Wonderland?" "Ugg," Alice said becoming more frustrated "fine then, how was Wonderland" "Mad" replied the cat "nothing new, the mad hatter and the march hare are still having tea, the queen still assigning people to be beheaded, mad here mad there mad everywhere, why would miss a place like itself, are you mad like myself and everybody else?" "No, of course I'm not mad" "You have to be. For two reasons: One, all visitors of Wonderland are mad, Two, you took a mad person (myself) out of Wonderland, and Three, you don't look sane." Alice decided not to take that last statement to heart because the cat was mad and it didn't know what it was saying. So, instead, she said, "that was three reasons you dumb cat." "I am not dumb," replied the cat "far from it, have you ever seen a cat talk before? I am just mad. You can relate to that." Alice sighed and began to walk away. "Wait!" shrieked the cat "Before you-" Just then, Alice saw the cat hiss. Alice whipped around and, again, saw Dorothy, this time with Toto the dog. Again Dorothy just gave Alice a stare. What is with her Alice thought it is not very proper nor polite to just stare at me. Then Dorothy and her dog just walked away. The cat just got done hissing Alice found this very particular because she never saw the cat with any other facial expression other than a grin. Then, Alice remembered she was just about to leave. "Before you go," said the cat now grinning again, "could you stop dreaming so I can go back to where I came, I want to go back sitting on that tree I was sitting on, it was a nice tree, one of the best I ever sat on.I think." The cat said now deep in thought. "But I'm not dreaming!" Alice said waking the cat from his thoughts.
"Oh, yes, that seems to be the problem, doesn't it?" and then the cat disappeared until all that was left was his grin, and then that disappeared too. "Ugh," Alice said, "out of all the people in Wonderland I have to see that annoying little cat. "I heard that," said the ears that suddenly appeared, just floating in the air. "and for your information lil' miss, it seems that other things and beings and creatures of all sorts from Wonderland are in this dreaded place. I don't like this place at all, no I don't, why am I here? Why are you here? How I miss my tree, there are no good trees here. And as it turns out I'm not the only mat cat here, there is a lion here, that terrible lion, have you met him yet?" "No I have not" "Well, that might be better off, I might be mad, yes....yes, but at least I have a heart, yes, yes a ruthless lion with no heart!" "Silly cat, it's the tin-man that has no heart." Laughed Alice "A tin-man!? Who has ever heard of a man made of tin? I don't think I am the one being silly, now that I recall though, the lion got a touch nervous when darkness fell. But who wouldn't be? This dreaded place, I miss my tree, it was a good tree." "How long have you been here, Cheshire Cat?" "Why ask silly questions little girl?" And with that, the cat was gone. Alice stood there now, not knowing where she was, not knowing where she is, not knowing where she is going, nor where she should go, she stood there stuck, stuck in her mind on what is real and what was a dream. It was at times like this Alice's mind tends to play tricks. Tricks she never could explain, tricks she never bothered to. Confusion raced in her head, the world outside began to spin, shrieks and laughs came from every direction. She fell. Blackness came over her. "Wake up now Alice, it's over" whispered a voice. "Who is this?" Alice asked, not sure if where the voice came from nor whose it belonged to. But the voice was gone. All that was there was her, and a land that was new to her. "I wish I paid more attention to that storybook," whispered Alice to herself "maybe if I did I would at least have a little sense on where I'm going." "Well, you could follow the yellow brick road!" said a voice behind her. Alice turned around and behind her stood a man, yet only half a man. A man as tall as Alice's waist whose skin was yellow, a man who had green hair an eyes, and a voice as if he had just inhaled helium. "Oh, hello." Said Alice, "you gave me quite a scare." The mans face turned into a surprised one. "Do not be scared! I am Gwinn, I am just a small man, but you should stay on the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, darkness is coming soon and you certainly do not want to be anywhere but here, for right here, the beloved yellow brick road is safe in this unsafe Land of Oz.' He paused for a moment as if he was rethinking his thoughts. 'Yet it does seem like rain tonight, and rain is not good at all! It puts me in a damp mood, but do you know what puts me in a good mood?" He paused expecting Alice to know the answer. 'Do you?" Alice shook her head "Well, no," "Tea!" Gwinn said with exhilaration "Tea always puts me in the best of moods. Please! Please come join me for tea. Oh! And better than that, spend the night, I assure you that it is better than sleeping outside in the rain." Alice's face lit up, it was the first comforting thing anyone has said to her since she arrived in Oz. "It would be a pleasure, thank you." They started to walk down the path of the yellow brick road, everywhere they went there where twists and turns on the path that made no sense at all to Alice. It seemed to make a lot more sense to her if the path was just straight, but the twisted path seemed to slow down time. Taking a longer path always seemed to have this effect, Alice enjoyed it, it allowed her to think. She thought now about what Gwinn's house was going to look like. He was a very small man and she didn't think that he needed a very big house. She began to paint a picture in her head on what his house might look like. She pictured a little herb garden, and a yard with short-cut green grass. It was a small house indeed, the cream-yellow door a little smaller than her; there were flower boxes below the two windows on either sides of the door. From outside all Alice could picture of the upstairs were two circular windows. There was a fire burning in Alice's picture, green smoke rose from the chimney and into the night sky. Alice had by now lost sense of direction, she forgot even that she was walking, and she seemed not to notice that a house, very similar to the one she painted in her mind was standing right in front of her. "Alice," Gwinn said as if he said it multiple times before. Alice looked at him, "are you coming in?" "Oh, yes" she said "sorry." She ducked her head and came inside.