Alice- This is the real reason they call me Hatter. The ugly story of how David Carrington died and didn't stir till a pretty girl in a very wet dress walked in me office.
TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTE BAT
I'd seen them before, the band of raggity boys, sneaking around the building where me Uncle lived. Followed them sometimes, snuck up on them and listened to them talk. I knew their password was Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat. How I Wonder What You're At. One said the first part and another answered the second verse. I don't think they even knew the rest of it. None of them went to school, wasn't sure any of them could even read.
Of course all I had to read now were me Uncle's books. Nothing interesting except that little volume of poetry hidden behind the others. Musta beeen a gift from some girl called Anna. Someone wrote, with love from Anna inside the front cover. Saw him take it out one night when he thought I was sleeping. He just ran his fingers over the cover and sighed. Put it back without opening it. I read it the next day. Just poems, a few pages were worn and creased, but nothing special.
Uncle went to work in the mornings and was gone till late at night. And then he was cross as crabs. Not much patience for a silent little boy. I left for school when he left and walked around the block and back again.
There were no other people living in our building, it was falling to bits like everything else. I'd been thru all the apartments, me hand unlocked them all. I'd seen the raggity boys try, even the older one with cold grey eyes. He didn't come out much, and the others deferred to him instantly. Not someone to cross. He was always playing with a long sliver of a knife. The others called him March.
They stole what food they could find, always one step ahead of the Suits who seemed to be the Queen's enforcers. She wasn't a real Queen anyway. Our Queen died a thousand years ago, lost in the fires.
I liked to listen to them talk at night, when they told stories. Some talked about their families, some repeated stories of things they heard. It's how I learned about life here on the ship. One night I'd stayed too long, got in a hurry and made a noise.
March had me by the shirt collar in a second. He held me up like a puppy, looking me over. The others crowded around to poke and stare.
"Well." March said."What a nice surprise." He had a funny accent. Nothing I'd ever heard.
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat." I said twisting around to look at him.
He leaned his head to the side and grinned slowly. "How I Wonder What You're At. "So. You wanna join my crew? A little rich kid like you?" He looked around at the others and they laughed obediently.
I nodded. Better than living with me Uncle. I followed them all day anyway and they'd never caught me. Till now.
"Well." He dropped me and I slipped to me knees. "What'd you bring to pay your way in?" The others crowded around, there hadn't been much for dinner.
He patted me pockets and found nothing. Laughed shortly. "No free rides, kid. Get lost." He pushed me down and walked off.
"I can get it!" Shouted after him. "Can open the lock." He stopped and looked back.
"What lock?"
Thought a second and pointed to a random building. "In there."
He looked at the building, back at me. Finally grinned and nodded.
"Lead the way, kid." They followed me to the building and I looked around. Hadn't been in here before. Went up the stairs a couple flights. Some of the doors had been forced open, but lots weren't.
Stopped at the first door by the stairs and looked back at them. It was mostly dark, but I could see them easily. March had a small light shining toward the floor.
"Go on kid." March whispered. "And if you can't, well we can get something for your clothes, even something for your skinny little ass. Plenty people pay for those big brown eyes." He chuckled softly.
Looked at him. Looked at them all, one by one. Turned and slapped me palm against the plate. The door slid open with a snick.
They hollered and pushed me aside, running in grabbing what they could. I watched them from outside, amazed at the greed. I'd thought they were hungry, but none of them even looked for food.
"Hey!" Shouts and lights and Suits. They scattered leaving me standing there. A Suit grabbed me arm and jerked me up.
"Here's one! Rotten little thief! The Queen knows what to do with you!" He laughed and shook me like a rat. There were two more Suits and they laughed too.
"I didn't take nothing!" Tried to jerk me arm free. One of them backhanded me in the mouth while shining the light in the apartment I'd opened.
"Looks pretty looted to me." He stepped inside. Waved the others in and they filled their pockets, careful not to let go of me.
They drug me back to the Palace and gave me over to more Suits who locked me in a cell with some others.
"Hey!" I beat on the bars. "Let me out!"
A man in the corner laughed. "You'll get out tomorrow son. And you'll wish you were never born." The others laughed and came crawling out of the darkness to press me against the bars. The first man stepped into the light from the corridor and I gasped. He was missing an eye and a hand. His hair was dirty and greasy, skin stretched tight across his bones.
"Wot…" took a deep breath. "What happens tomorrow?"
He laughed showing several black stubs of broken teeth. "Tomorrow, son?" He grabbed me right hand with his remaining hand. "Tomorrow, the Queen's gonna take your hand." He dropped me hand and the laughed again. The others too. I swallowed hard.
"But I didn't steal anything!"
"Suit bring you in?" Cocked his head at me. I nodded. "Then somebody stole something and you're paying." Shook his head and went back to his corner. "Not too far from dawn now. You better try and sleep son."
I huddled by the bars, staying in the light and wished for me hat to hold. Then I was glad I'd left it at home. One of these gits woulda taken it for sure.
They took us all at once and made us get in a line. I was second. They marched us up the stairs, up and up to a great hall. A man in a black robe and funny hat waited at the door with a clipboard.
He looked us over and looked at his clipboard. "You've got too many. Only five names on the list." Looked us over. "Who's not on the list?" No one said anything.
"You better figure it out and not keep the Queen waiting." He tapped the paper. The Suits looked at him and shrugged. He sighed and looked at the clipboard again. Looked at us and said "Step forward when I call your name."
No one called me name so I was the one everyone stared at.
"Why isn't he on the list?" He tapped his clipboard. The Suits just shrugged. "He was in the cell with the thieves."
"Fine!" He snapped glancing thru the doors.
"What's your name kid." He dug a pencil out of a pocket hidden in the robes.
Shook me head. Maybe they couldn't cut off me head without me name.
One of the Suits backhanded me and I fell against the wall, blood in me mouth.
We could hear a woman calling querulously from the big room. The guy in the robe jumped and quickly scribbled something on the paper. Looked at me and hissed. "When they call Jim Smith, you step forward kid. That's your name today."
The voice called again and the Suits pushed us into the room, arranged us in a row in front of the redheaded woman sitting in a red chair and told us to kneel. The others knelt down and I looked at them in surprise.
"But she's not a Queen!" I protested. "She's not a real Queen!" A Suit grabbed me hair and forced me down. The others had gasped and every eye was on the fake Queen.
"I've seen the Queen, and she's beautiful!" Spit at her. Someone knocked me in the side of the head. When I woke up, me hand right was gone. The stub was wrapped in some dirty gauze and I was lying in the grass outside the palace.
Stared in shock and disbelief. There was no blood, I thought there'd be blood. Finally made it to me feet and stumbled home.
Uncle was waiting, looking frantic. His mouth opened in shock when he saw me and he closed his eyes. I tried to say something, tell him it wasn't me fault. I didn't steal nothing, but just started sobbing.
"David!" He knelt in front of me and hugged me to his chest. "Oh, David!" Held me till I stopped crying and then pulled the gauze off.
"Let's have a look, yeah?" He turned me wrist over and looked at it, even getting his big glass out to examine it. I glanced down and was sick on the floor.
He picked me up and carried me to the table. "It's ok. Don't look anymore." He turned on the bright lights in the surgery and washed me up some, washed me stub a lot.
"David, listen to me." He looked me in the eye. "I can give you another hand, but you must never, ever tell anyone. Change your name and hide. Never get near the Queen." He looked around, pulling stuff out of drawers. "The ships AE is still connected here. Technology in the rest of the ship is in the same shape as the city." Shook his head. "They destroyed what they didn't understand, and broke the rest."
He laid me down on the stasis table and started pressing buttons.
"No! No, I don't wanna sleep another thousand years!" Tried to sit up.
"Shhh." He pressed me back down. "I'm only going to put you to sleep for the surgery. This stasis unit has other functions. Reconstruction is one of them." He hooked more and more wires and tubes and things to me, finally put laid me wrist in a tray of cold gel.
"Lay still now and when you wake up, everything will be ok." He fit something over me face. I tried to talk, but couldn't move.
He nodded at me and pulled sides out of the table, folding them up to make a top over the bed. He went to the computer and I could hear the keys clicking. I drifted off before he finished.
When I woke, I was laying in me bed, wrapped in a blanket. Sat up and looked around, remembered me hand and looked at it. Held them both out in front of me and turned them over and over. Couldn't tell any difference. It looked real.
"Uncle!" Climbed out of bed. "Uncle!" He didn't answer and I figured he'd gone to work. Found me something to eat and got dressed. Looked outside. There was no proper sun here. No proper day or night. Little blinking lights in the ceiling far above were nothing like real stars.
Slept all afternoon and when I woke it was almost dark. Washed me face and started some supper for me and Uncle. Sat there and stared at it hour after hour till it was obvious he wasn't coming.
Waited for two days. Then packed some bits of clothes and looked around. Checked behind the shelves where the little book of poetry was hidden but found nothing else. A slip of paper was sticking out of the book.
I pulled it out and read it.
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan PoeIt was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling - my darling - my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Me mum used to read poetry but nothing so sad as this. I put the paper back and hid the book again. Filled me pack with food and commanded the lights out. One last look and palmed the door. I'd come back and check to see if Uncle was back, but somehow I knew he never would.
Walked down the stairs with me father's hat on me head, pack on me back and looked for March.
When I found them, they circled around me silently, staring at me hand.
March came out of the shadows and reached out and grabbed me hand, knocking off me hat. He pulled and squeezed the hand, frowning. He looked at me and grinned.
Another boy grabbed up me hat and clapped it on his head, prancing around.
"Hey! Give that back! It's me father's hat!" But March still had me hand.
"You talk funny!" They laughed tossing the hat from one to the other. "Where'd you learn to talk!"
"Lemme go!" Jerked me hand free and went after me hat. "Gimmee me hat!" They passed the hat and I couldn't get to it.
"Gimme me hat! Gimme me hat! They shouted laughing circling around me. March leaned against the wall, smiling slightly, knife out to clean his nails.
Grabbed the boy nearest to me and knocked him down. He hit head on the stone and lay still. Grabbed the next one and hit him in the mouth. The others jumped me and we went down in a flurry of elbows and knees, teeth and fists.
Finally March stood. "Enough." He said it quietly, but instantly the boys were off me. I stood, torn and bloody, but not the bloodiest. The first boy who hit his head groaned and sat up.
One of the older boys sitting on a ledge had me hat on and March raised his eyebrow at him. The boy looked at March and nodded. "I want the hat."
March looked at me. "I like you kid. If you can take the hat from BillyBoy, you can keep it." He leaned back against the wall and the knife appeared in his hands again.
BillyBoy grinned at me. He was at least 15, 16. Looked him over and remembered everything me father ever told me about fighting and bullies. "Don't panic, son. Don't let rage take over, think first. Don't look scared. And don't back down. Take a beating if you have to, but don't run. "
"Gimme me father's hat." Warned him one last time. "Or I'll kill you."
He laughed incredulously and jumped off the wall. "If you're a really good little boy, maybe you can earn it back." The others laughed and stepped back out of the way. I didn't get it, not then.
Backed up as he walked towards me. Dove between his legs, sweeping them out from under him and jumped on his chest while he was still seeing stars from hitting his head against the ledge. Had me right hand around his throat and pounded his head into the stone. Me hat fell off on the first bounce. When he was still, I let him go and grabbed me hat. Stood up and stepped back.
The others crowded around BillyBoy when he didn't get up. "March." One of them said. March looked at me then walked over to reach down and touch BillyBoy. He stood and looked down at him. Sighed and picked up a leg and arm and tossed him over the ledge.
Turned to look at me. "What's your name kid?"
Remembered what me Uncle said about a new name. Looked down at me hat.
Hatter. Tell them your name is Hatter.
"Hatter." Looked up at March. "Me name's Hatter."
"Well, Hatter." March grinned. "Welcome to my crew."
AN: Sorry but since I'm not publishing in order, you're gonna have to remember tidbits in Pages and link them up with And Dream Away. Some tidbits that aren't even written yet. LOL. Hope you all figured out who the voice in his head is. He can open any lock because he was one of the original colonists on the ship. Those born on the ship were never programmed into the computer system. Please make my day by R&R.
