Asleep

An Alice in Wonderland story

Sing me to sleep

Sing me to sleep

I'm tired and I

I want to go to bed

Alice was only twelve years old when she first went to Wonderland. The beautifully mad place that she had learned to love so dearly. The place that had cats who grinned as wide as the moon, where rabbits wore vests and worried about being late. Where caterpillars smoked and asked you "Who R U" spelled out in the bright puffy smoke. Where Queens would have your head for the most ridiculous of reasons. And where hatters were mad enough to survive it all.

Sing me to sleep

Sing me to sleep

And then leave me alone

All of Alice's family tried to tell her it was only a dream. A hallucination from an overactive childhood mind and a very bad bump on the head from falling down a rabbit hole. But Alice knew it was all real. She knew deep in her heart that there were flowers that could sing. That there were doorknobs that could speak and there was a special drink to make you shrink and a cookie that made you grow. She knew everything was real.

But her family never let her search out the magical place again. And as Alice grew up and became a young woman, she seemed to spend more and more time gazing off into space in search of her Wonderland.

Don't try to wake me in the morning

'Cause I will be gone

Don't feel bad for me

I want you to know

Deep in the cell of my heart

I will feel so glad to go

As the years dragged on Alice's health began to fail. She was only nineteen and yet she seemed to have the health of an elderly woman on her deathbed. Her family hired the best doctors they could, but none could determine the cause of her declining health. They tried everything but nothing seemed to lighten her ever darkening mood. Soon the doctors told her mother and father that the best they could do was make her comfortable.

Sing me to sleep

Sing me to sleep

I don't want to wake up

On my own anymore

Alice was eventually allowed to explore the grounds where she had first fell down that rabbit hole. Her parents had hoped that it would make her happier to be back in that grassy field. But it only made the young girl worse. The rabbit hole had been filled up years ago, when she was still a child and the tree that she used to climb was cut down for firewood.

Don't feel bad for me

I want you to know

Deep in the cell of my heart

I really want to go

Near her twentieth birthday, all Alice ever did was lay in her bed. Tossing every once in a while so that the tears she shed would not have to exist only on one side of her pillow. Her sister Lorina used to sit with her by her bedside, holding her hand and reading her stories. Eventually it just got too sad for the older sister. Alice had stopped eating and spent mostly all of her days sleeping.

There is another world

There is another world

Well, there must be

Well, there must be

Her doctors returned one last time to see if anything could be done. But everyone knew that there was nothing left to do for the girl.

Well, there must be

Well, there must be

Well…

The day of Alice's funeral was a rainy and cold one. One that wouldn't exist in her Wonderland. The family was gathered in the church and was able to say goodbye to their beautiful girl one last time. How frail she looked in her coffin. How old and sunken in she looked. How unfair it all was. Her mother and father were the first to seen her in the silk lined case.

Bye bye

Next was Lorina and her aunt and uncle with her cousins and family friends.

Bye bye

And last was Alice looking as beautiful as ever. Saying goodbye to her loved ones as she moved on to her beloved Wonderland that she had so longed for. As she left the church, her fingers laced around that of her precious Hatter's. The two walked silently until they reached the rabbit hole that would lead them to Wonderland. And Alice's grave.

Bye

End.