The Girl from the Other Side

Tiffney Brooks

February 14th 2013

Once upon a time, it was a normal summer's day; I was enjoying myself in my prized rose garden. I was drinking a tall glass of lemonade, surrounded by the beauty of the kingdom that I had created. My kingdom was the most important thing that I had, if I didn't have that, then my world just wouldn't be quite right. I had been Queen of this Kingdom for such a long time that everything was as peaceful as it could possibly be.

Everything was normal as usual until one of my servants ran into the garden in great haste, huffing and puffing he tried to speak, "Take your time!" I told him, there was no big rush, unless something horrible had happened. "Someone new has entered the kingdom!" He cried, his face showed fear, he looked terrified, but I wasn't quite sure why. "What's wrong with that?" I asked him standing up and outstretching my arms to show him that everyone was welcomed into the kingdom…well almost everyone. "It's a girl!" He stated, still trying to catch his breath.

After I heard that I could barely contain my excitement! I loved when people from the other side visited me, they were such fun! They all told such amazing stories of their adventures on the other side as well as the stories about their families and friends. I was ready to meet the rumoured girl right away, but I decided that it would be best if she made it to my palace on her own and I could then welcome her, even though I had wanted to send some servants to bring her to me safely.

I was about to have a room prepared for the new girl when my servant said that she had received help from the mad hatter. That couldn't have been good, the mad hatter was always playing lowly tricks on people and ruining everything. He was a menace that was destroying my kingdom and to him, it was all a game. He used to be a kind boy that was always so nice to everyone. Then one day everything changed and he started playing tricks on my subjects, the tricks began to grow mean, and soon there were people that were getting lost in the forest and were never seen again. It was entirely Hatter's fault, he told them that there were treasures beyond their wildest imagination in the forest and all they had to do was venture into the forest retrieve it. Little did these people know that the forest was a dangerous place full of horrible creatures and few of them ever returned.

Scared for Alice's life I demanded for her rescue, there was no way that a visitor in my kingdom was going to be manipulated by the Hatter under my watch! A new visitor in my Kingdom is like a new best friend, I don't know a single person that would let their friends be manipulated by anyone, that's horrible. So I sent for her rescue.

After I sent for the girl's rescue I also sent for someone to watch over her and tell me what she was doing, I wanted to make sure she was safe of course. I had already sent the Cheshire cat to do something else in Wonderland for me, so I called him back and asked him to keep an eye on the girl, make sure she was okay and to come back and tell me what was happening to her. Before I even called him back he had already told me that she had eaten some of the sorcerer's food that made her small! No one could ever believe how scared for the poor girl I was, being small in such a strange big world, there were so many things that could go wrong! After hearing this I sent out a few more servants to bring her back to my palace so she was safe.

Not long after I sent Cheshire out he came back again to me as I sat in my throne awaiting the arrival of my new guest. "The girl's name is Alice." He told me, I was so excited, though the name sounded slightly familiar, like I had heard the name before…Perhaps someone in the Kingdom had heard of her future arrival and were talking about her to their friends, everyone else must be excited for the arrival of someone from the other side as well!

I decided that I would get some fresh air as I waited for more news from Cheshire of Alice. I walked into the garden and out into the town. I heard many people talking about Alice and what they had heard of her. Some said that she was a young girl of only a few years, others said that she was a menace, here to destroy the kingdom. But I knew that she was only her by accident, she must have seen the white rabbit, curious of its intentions and while following she must have fallen down the rabbit's hole. What one person said really struck me though, I could hear them from so far away, they seemed to be preaching, standing on a bench, telling everyone what Alice had been doing. I listened to what they were saying and heard many strange things; maybe Cheshire wasn't actually telling me everything that he discovered about Alice. "Small as a mouse she is! Met up with the Hatter who made her big, big as a house I say!" they cried, telling everyone within an earshot what they knew of the girl. "How do you know?" I heard someone else yell from a distance, they didn't seem to believe what the person was saying. "I saw it with me own eyes!" they said dramatically, grabbing the attention of anyone who would listen. "This couldn't be…" I thought to myself, "I wasn't told anything about the Hatter…"

I ran back to the safety of my palace, anxious to call upon Cheshire, surely he would tell me the truth. When I reached the privacy of my room I quickly called upon Cheshire. "You called?" he asked me, as he floated around my head. "Had Alice been with the Hatter? Is she safe?" I blurted out, desperately wanting to know the answers, questions filling my head about the girl. "…Has the Hatter changed her view on the Kingdom…?" I asked slightly scared, I didn't want the girl to be afraid of my Kingdom, it was a wonderland, a place of dreams, a utopia of wonders and marvels circling around you, anything could happen here, it was the one place where your dreams could come true, anything could happen. "Of this I do not know. I know she is safe, I know she is well, though I know not anything of the Hatter." Cheshire rhymed off a large grin growing on his face, I could tell he was lying, I just knew it! My poor dear Alice was in trouble! The Hatter was going to brain wash her, tell her wonderland is a horrible place and I will do anything to keep it scaring people away. "Off with you!" I yelled at the trickster cat, who slowly disappeared into nothing back off to keep an eye on Alice.

After Cheshire left I quickly ran to the highest balcony in the whole palace and looked into the forest of Wonderland. I knew that I wouldn't be able to see Alice, but I just had to make sure there was nothing amiss in the forest around. I then remembered back to the speaker in the town, "…Made her big, big as a house I say!" I remembered him say, "If she's that big I must be able to see her!" I whispered to myself, I scanned the forest looking for a large girl, I quickly spotted something distinctly different walking through the trees. It was a girl! It must be Alice! There was no way it could be anyone else. The poor girl looked lost in the grand forest, there was no way that my servants looking for her could bring her back to my palace, let alone catch her attention at that size! "You can do it Alice; I'll be waiting for you here!" I said to myself, I knew she wouldn't know that she could hear me, but it was reassuring to even say it to myself.

After the long day that was had it was growing late into the day and the sun started to set making the sky and all of Wonderland a dark place, the only time when the Kingdom could possibly be scary. I took a bath filled with bubbles to try and calm myself down then retired for the night to my room. Not long later I heard on my door a small knock. "Your Highness?" I heard a small voice call from the other side of the door. Usually I would call for them to enter and they usually had a glass of water to place by my bedside and shut out the lights for the night, but since I was so terribly worried I didn't feel I had time for that tonight. "Off with you!" I told them, I then heard the scurry of feet retreating from the door.

I woke up the next morning to find the Cheshire cat floating around my room waiting for me to wake up. I sat up startled and quickly fixed myself, still sitting in my bed. "She's starting to rebel." Cheshire said his grin failing to fade, he seemed amused by the things that Alice was doing. She was becoming a pain; I really just wish that she would stop all of this and stumble into the palace grounds so that she would be safe again. "Taking advice from the Hatter I saw." He mentioned as he faded away into nothingness again. He really did seem to be enjoying the events that were taking place.

I called upon the maids to help get me ready for the day and made my way into the throne room where I sat down to wait. Some of the guards came to tell me that they heard Alice was nearby. Trying to extinguish my overflowing excitement I decided to play a game of croquet and walked out into the courtyard where the board was set up ready to play with my opponent across already holding his mallet.

As the game progressed I spoke about the girl to my opponent, he mentioned that he had heard plenty about the girl. That he heard she was a menace to the kingdom, did everything she could to work her way to overthrow the kingdom, spent time plotting a takeover with the Hatter, and many other things. I couldn't believe something like that though, it just couldn't be true! From what I had heard, she seemed like such a sweet girl, could she really do all these things? As we play I noticed something out of place in the garden, there seemed to be something moving in one of my beloved rose bushes.

As I proceeded to creep towards the bush, it continued to move, I demanded one of my servants to come and remove the being that was making the bush move as it was. Someone quickly came and pulled out a small brown rabbit from the bush, it was nothing to be worried over. I had the rabbit taken to the forest outside the kingdom and continued the game.

When the game came close to a finish I noticed a girl wandering around the garden, she was someone I hadn't seen before, could she be Alice? "You there, who are you?" I called out to the wandering girl. She turned to face me, surprised; she timidly walked closer to me. "Are you the girl they call Alice?" I asked her warmly, I didn't want to scare the girl, but she seem almost terrified of me! "I've been waiting for you visit me." I told her with a welcoming smile upon my face. She started to speak "Yes, I am indeed Alice, and you are the Red Queen, correct?" Alice said boldly, she seemed to be a very confident girl.

I took her hand a brought her to where the game of croquet I was playing was. I took the flamingo mallet from my opponent and held it out to Alice "Would you like to try?" I asked the girl. She looked at me confused, like she had never played the game before, but sure enough she took it and hit the hedgehog ball through the last three hoops to hit the center peg. I stood there amazed for a moment along with everyone else around us that stood there shocked. In all my life in every game I had played I had never been beaten, let alone that easily, this girl must be a master at such a game! "That was incredible Alice!" I cried, still marvelling at the feat. Just then a servant came to tell me that it was time for the trial.

I started to walk toward the courthouse to Knaves trial; the one whole stole my tarts last week. Alice stood behind dumfounded, not knowing what to do now. "Well come on!" I called to her, encouraging her to follow me and watch the Knave's trial. She began to follow behind me like a lost puppy, yet she looked almost afraid of me, like I was a threat and instead of the Knave going on trial, she was going to be on trial. I assured her that it wouldn't take long and afterwards she could tell me of everything that she had done.

As we arrived at the Knave's trial, everyone was already there and patiently awaiting our arrival. I sat in my seat with Alice beside me and the trial began. The Knave of course said that he had not stolen the tarts, but he was the only one that could have done it. The cook was quickly called to the stand; he was asked what the tarts were made of and what his answer was certainly created a large dispute in the courtroom.

In the disaster the cook vanished, none the less everything was calmed and the dispute was gone, Alice was then called to the stand. Surprised at the events I continued to watch, Alice started to grow taller and taller, eventually so large the King called out rule 42. Rule 42 declares that "Anyone more than a mile high must leave" Alice quickly retorted and said that the King just made the rule on the spot; he came back saying that it was the oldest rule in the book. I of course knew that he created the rule just to get rid of her, but I was curious to hear what Alice had to say.

Frustrated, Alice claimed that if it was the oldest rule that it would be number 1. The King quickly stopped talking before deciding on the verdict. The white rabbit brought forth a note that the Knave had supposedly written and claimed he wrote it saying that he ate the tarts. But the Knave quickly mentioned that not only was it not in his writing but that there was no signature at the bottom. Knowing that the Knave had stolen my tarts I said that the paper was indeed written by the Knave and it was proof that he was guilty.

The King and I both decided on the Knaves verdict, that he was guilty of stealing the tarts from me and eating them. We were about to give the verdict to the Knave, and then Alice tried to interfere. She began to defend the Knave with all the absurd information she could muster about the event. I became more frustrated with every remark she made, it came to the point in which I simply wanted her out of the courtroom so we could finish this trial. "Off with you!" I called, trying to silencing her. Quickly after I announced that it was time for Alice to leave the courtroom some of my servants started to take her outside of the courtroom until the trial was over. As she tried to fight off the servants I called for her to stop, but she wouldn't listen.

Maybe, just maybe, everyone that said those things about her was right; maybe she was trying to take over wonderland. She seemed to have the will-power to succeed in it, I was sure that she would be able to convince my subjects that what I was doing with my Kingdom wasn't always in their favour. She could easily twist my words to tell them that I meant something else. With the Hatter's help, I was sure that my Kingdom wouldn't last a long time if she was trying to take it over.

Just as she was about to be captured by the cards she began to disappear, seemingly to dissolve into midair, as if she never existed. I sighed, I knew what was going on, she was returning to the other side back to where she came from, and there was nothing we could do. The whole court was in an uproar as she disappeared, everyone was either confused or arguing. Once she was finally gone everything returned to normal and he verdict was given to the Knave and the King and I returned to our Palace. I stood on the balcony in my room and looked over the Kingdom at the forest where Alice had begun her adventure.

On that day is when I decided, anyone from the other side is presumably no good and needs to be immediately captured. After their capture it will be decided if they were to be continued to be held captive, or if they're allowed to roam freely around the Kingdom until they go back to the other side. This was the result of the girl, the girl that became a menace to the Kingdom, the daring adventures of a small, yet very large, girl named Alice from the other side.

The End.