Before the hatter was mad, and Grace was more than a word..
Alice sat beneath the tree in her back garden, reading a book her mother had given her. Even at sixteen, she still couldn't understand why anyone would want to read a book without pictures. As a child, her imagination was farther than wild. She came home one day, when she was only nine, running from the meadow and into the house, exclaiming about her adventures in a Wondrous land, where rabbits wore waistcoats and told time, and cats could smile. But her mother, a simple woman, told her it was all a dream.
But Alice knew better. It hadn't been a dream, it was far too real. And as the years went by, she couldn't help but think she wanted to go back. She searched and searched throughout the rest of her childhood, but she never found the rabbit again. So there she stayed, in London, coming inside at tea time and meeting eligible suitors who she had no interest. For Alice did not want to marry out of obligation, she wanted adventure and surprise and true love that was pure and unforced.
"Mother please, I do not wish to marry Arthur. I'd rather be alone than marry without love." pleaded Alice, who sat on the foot of her own bed, opposite her mother.
"True love is only in those fairy tale's you read. You will learn to love Arthur as I learned to love your father." said her mother sternly.
"You cannot learn love. It's a feeling, it is too powerful to be faked."
"Alice I have heard enough. There is to be no more arguing." Her mother looked upon her with cold blue eyes as she stood, smoothing down her skirt. "I put up with your foolish nonsense when you were a child, but your head can not remain in the clouds. Fairy tale's are stories, nothing more. The sooner you've gotten that into your head the better." And with one last cool look thrust upon her daughter, she left the room, closing the bedroom door behind her.
Alice flung herself onto her mattress, hugging her pillow to her body for comfort as it soaked with her tears. Why couldn't she have gone back to Wonderland? And make more friends and adventures...
Her life was over as far as she could think. She would be wed to Arthur, who's ginger hair was thinner than an elderly mans and large nose was sure to poke her eye out when he tried to kiss her on their wedding day.
She stood from her bed and walked up to her mirror. The long reflective glass showed her body from head to toe. She smoothed her blue dress with her fingertips and brought her hands up to toy with the ends of her blond hair. Her large blue eyes, a copy of her mothers though they held none of her ice, stared back at her with sadness. Alice could have never cared less about looks, but that did not matter, her pale skin was graced with perfection, her face with beauty and her form was slender with womanly curves. She blinked at her reflection and watched as a tear slid down her cheek. And then it was gone. Her reflection, gone.
She took a startled step back as the glass riveted before her eyes and before she knew it, she was looking at a lush green forest. Twilight was gracing the sky and in the shadows between the trees she caught sight of two cat eyes glowing green at her through the darkness. A pearly white smile with pointed teeth appeared beneath it, and one of the eyes winked at her. She didn't dare blink her eyes, for fear that it would all disappear, as she stepped closer to press a hand to the cool glass.
But the cool touch never came.
Her small hand went through and she could see it poking out from the other end. Her eyes found the ones in the shadows, the smile grew encouraging, and Alice took a breath and stepped through. She gasped when her shoes met dirt, feeling it move and crunch beneath her feet. She wondered briefly if this was all a dream, but shook the thought. She didn't want to know.
"You're back." said the smile, grinning ever wider.
"Am I where I think I am?" she asked.
"That depends, where do you think you are?"
"Wonderland."
The smile simply grinned, neither confirming or denying, before a small nose appeared, and then whiskers and then there was a cat, hovering in mid air and floating toward her.
"Cheshire." she smiled happily.
"Alice." said the cat, floating round her head. "To what do we owe the pleasure?" he asked.
"The looking glass, in my bedroom. I think it must be magic."
"A looking glass? Magic? I think you've gone mad." he grinned again, so un-cat like.
"I'm just as sane as you are." said Alice.
"Well that's not saying much. I believe I told you once, we're all mad here." And with that, he continued floating down the forest trail Alice hadn't realized she was standing in.
"Where are you going?" Alice called after him.
"I must go meet the March Hare, we have.. business. But by all means, come along." he responded, before floating off further. So together, Alice and the Cheshire cat, walked along the winding path through the forest. Soon, the skies around them turned from orange to black, and the moon was a large white crescent. When the two reached the March Hare's house, it's roof perfectly crooked and cobblestone walkway a glowing orange in the darkness, they needn't have knocked on the door, for it was already open. Alice took note of how it was far too wide and far too short, she had to bend her back forwards just to step inside.
The March Hare sat in his home, at a large table with many chairs. Tea pots and pastries were scattered along the tablecloth, as the March Hare threw a stick of butter into his empty tea cup, before filling it with hot tea.
"That's a curious thing to do." said Alice.
"It's very rude to interrupt." replied the Hare, his long brown ear kinking madly as he said this.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't think you were talking."
"Perhaps not to you, but myself and I were having quite the conversation in my head and now I have no thought as to where we were." He told her as he poured the contents of his cup onto the chair beside him, creating a greasy, murky brown pool on the seat.
"Not that this is not riveting but I came to ask you a question." said the cat, rolling his green eyes. "Has he come to see you yet?"
"Who?" asked the Hare.
"The hatter." replied the cat.
"You've just missed him. But perhaps if you wait a while longer you won't miss him again." said the Hare, dipping a pastry is the puddle of buttery tea.
"Is he mad?" asked Alice curiously.
"Not yet." said the cat.
"But I thought everyone from Wonderland was mad." said Alice questioningly.
"Ah, but this hatter is as from here as he is from there." said the cat, pointing a paw at Alice.
"What happened of the hatter I met once here before?" asked Alice.
"Here, hatters come and go, as many of them are mad, and most mad people will find themselves here. Which is how you find yourself here." responded the cat, grinning once more.
"You mean to tell me that there is a hatter here in Wonderland, who isn't mad, but should be?"
"I meant to tell you what I have told you, nothing more or less." said the cat, licking a paw striped of dazzling blue and gray.
"I think part of me forgot what a curious place this was." said Alice.
"And what of the other part?" asked the Hare.
"I suppose that is the part that is mad."
So, what do ya think? This will be a Jefferson/Alice story... I thought that might be fun.
Tell me what you thought..