Home Strange Home
"I told you. This is clearly the wrong Alice. Honestly Hatter can't you do anything right?"
"Be quiet Mallymkun or you're going back in the tea pot. This is our Alice, I just know it."
She slowly raised her throbbing head off the table and blinked a few times as everything slowly came into focus, the colours were blurred and everything was under a light amber haze of the sun set.
A tall slim man stood on the table; he wore an oversized blazer, made of the deepest purple blazer. His jeans were tight with long black and white stripes making his legs look ever skinnier, and his bright red baseball boots stood out against the grimy white table cloth.
He sat down, cross legged and looked at her.
"Are you quiet all right my beauty?"
His eyes were a hypnotic shade of violet, but one was covered by his long blue and black fringe, on his lap there was an acid green top hat with a pair of brass goggles, that were covered in cogs and bolts and bits of old clock.
"Who are you? How do you know my name?" She stammered, trying to hide the fear in her voice
"I knew she wasn't the right Alice, she doesn't ever remember you Hatter" Piped up the dormouse, that's funny thought Alice, whoever heard of a talking dormouse?
"Hatter…oh I understand now"
The pair looked at Alice in anticipation, the mouse scurried up to the top of the hat and playing with a small sword that looked more like a needle.
"I'm dreaming again" the young girl said coming to a conclusion
"Ha! I told you, I told you, I blooming well told you!" jeered the mouse, dancing around on the hat, but her celebration was cut short by Hatter tipping her into a large powder blue tea pot.
"I warned you, any more cheek towards my Alice and it was into the tea pot with you."
A flood of déjà vu washed over the girl, a faint memory in the back of her mind, she couldn't place it but it was there.
"So you don't remember me then?" said Hatter, his voice quiet and full of sadness.
"I…I'm afraid not, no"
"Not even the tiniest glimmer of a memory? Because a tiny seed of thought could one day been a fruitful memory of you feed it enough"
She looked around at her surroundings, and slowly seemed to remember. Like someone flicked a switch in her head, everything came flooding back to her.
The pink and blue mushrooms that towered above them felt like home, the long table that was covered in miss matched crockery felt like she had been eating at it for years. The long green vines that dangled about her head made her feel safe…this was her Wonderland.
"Oh my…Hatter!" She exclaimed as he jumped up onto the table and hugged him tightly, he laughed quietly and murmured into her white blonde curls
"Welcome back, my dearest Alice, things have changed so much since I last saw you. You've become quite a beautiful young lady."
"Why thank you but I get the feeling you brought me here for more that flirting, why did you need me?"
Hatters smile disappeared and his eyes became a dark, stormy blue. He turned away slightly
"Our lovely Red Queen is back"
"Who's the Red Queen?"
He looked around shiftily, as if he was scared. He took her arm and began to lead her away
"We can't talk about this out here, come inside"
He led her into a small, tumble down house in-between a cluster of large mushrooms, the house was warmly lit and as Alice walked in her mind filled with similar sights and smells; the rolls of fabric against the wall that Hatter used to wrap her up in when she went to sleep, the cushions scattered across the floor where they used to sit and drink tea and sing songs. The smell of tea leaves and sugar filled her nostrils and she felt safe, safer than she ever felt at home in London.
"Red has heard of your return, she's not happy about it. She knows you're going to destroy her"
"I'm not destroying anything…anyone, at all"
