MAD
By: Etern
Disclaimer: I do not own Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, a curiously mad book, I tell you.
A/N: Wrote at 4 am based on a car mat I saw on Ebay of the Cheshire Cat with the words "We're all mad here" written next to him. For some reason that inspired me, thus this was born. Note to self: never get on Ebay at 4am again. weird thoughts happen, I tell you. I'm a little bit mad XD
It is said that the truly insane do not know that they are. They do not know that anything is wrong with them. They go through life thinking that they are like everyone else, oblivious to their behaviors, their words, everything they do making perfect sense to them, even if it does not to others.
So when the Cheshire cat, all grins and crooked stripes, says to her "We are all mad here," she can not believe it. She can not believe it because here, in Wonderland, she knows that she isn't mad. She knows that she is the sanest one there.
She knows, but she does not think.
And so to the Cheshire cat, still leering at her with that wayward grin, she responds with a laugh, and a shake of her head. Silly, silly Alice, never thinking, only shaking her head.
"I am not mad," she replies, and the open smile widens, widens until it is all she can see as the stripes that make up the cat disappear, one by one, like wishes, like souls, like sanity. Alice just keeps on smiling her own smile, laughing at the possibility.
Her, mad? Such a thing simply can not be, here in Wonderland. Not here, in this place that is all imaginary, all paradise. So then why is the Cheshire cat's smile chilling? So then why can she not remember how she had ended up here in this mad, mad world in the first place?
The Cheshire cat, or at least the smile that remained, gave her no answers. Just repeats again, what she does not understand.
"We are all mad here…"
We are all mad here, because you're mad. We are all mad here, because we're from you. From your madness.
Let the cat's smile widen, let the tea party commence. She does not understand a thing, because she doesn't know. She doesn't see. In her madness, no one can blame her here. The cat is still grinning, the tea is still burning hot, even after she is long gone. Even as she moves on, unable to open her eyes.
Poor Alice.
It's such a mad world.
We're all mad here…
How about you?