I call it the Alice curse. She comes, she goes, she doesn't remember, she hates to leave, and he lets her break his feeble heart over and over again. Stupid woman turns my life on its head every time.
"Alicia," my father cooed at me, coaxing me from my hiding place under the table. He was a frightening man, his face as pale as that of a corpse, his hair a wild orange mass beneath his giant top hat, and his eyes a burning bright green that turned orange with the tenor of his voice and accent when he was angry. All the same, he was still my father and I giggled when his crazy head appeared as he pulled up the table cloth and peered at me upside down.
"Yes Dad-Hatter!" I grinned, setting aside my tea, paper and paint brushes.
"I want you to meet someone."
In Underland, that wasn't generally a good thing. Even though the Red Queen had fallen, and the White Queen maintained a quirky kind of peace, there was still madness and trouble in our blood. All of us. New people scared me to death. Even my father's inviting, excited smile couldn't reassure me. He held out his forever-gloved hand and I took it, leaving my tea-painting behind.
It was the first time I had really met my mother. I guess being born was our first meeting, but one of the rebels of the old Red Court dragged her away. Now she was back and my father couldn't have been happier.
"Alicia, I'd like you to meet Alice."
"How do you do." She said, politely curtseying and holding out her hand. I remained hidden behind my father's leg.
"She has... such unusual eyes." She commented to my father.
"And your hair." He said dreamily. I thought about my eye and failed to hear them speaking. I have one brilliant green eye like my father's and one brown eye like my mother's. I could see it now. Her dark brown eyes contrasting with her pale skin and blond hair. It was my eye. She was my mother.
As they talked I eased out of my hiding space to stand by my father, holding his hand. Alice knelt down and I braced myself for anything to happen next.
"Your father tells me, you're my daughter." She began.
"Are you his wife?" I asked, because that was how he so often referred to her. She glanced up to him before replying to me,
"I don't know. I can't remember."
"Why not?"
"That's what happens when you leave Underland." My father said solemnly. I could feel the madness darken his very presence.
"But you came back." I tried to coax him out of his melancholy.
"Yes." He smiled and picked me up, placing me upon his shoulders. "At least for a while."
I watched them share an intense gaze and he held out his hand to her.
"A good time for some tea, I should think." He decided.
I hate tea.
