His sitting room was better, or should Alice refer to it as a raging colorful messy space? All the walls were white, but the furniture- the furniture was definitely her Hatter's. No, not her Hatter, THE Hatter, she mentally corrected herself. The bright colors and tea sets with all different sorts of hats littered about the room.
The sight made Alice smile, and Tarrant caught sight of it. His stomach filled with bread-and-butter flies, but they soon disappeared when his eyes laid upon the large book in her arms.
"Alice." Tarrant lightly touched its cover. "What is this?"
"Oh," Alice held it in her lap as she sat on a bright teal couch. "It's my photo album. I happened to bring it with me, so I can show you my adventures."
"This is lovely." his hand grazed the cover title: Memories.
When she opened the book, Tarrant was amazed to see the photographs.
"These aren't illustrations. Alice, what are these beautiful things? I realize this is an album of sorts, but I have never seen art like this!"
The pictures had no color, but they entranced Tarrant anyway.
"Of course you haven't, you silly!" Alice giggled. "This is a photo album. It holds pictures I took in my travels that I have wanted to show you for some time now."
Aruba seemed to give Tarrant the best ideas. A picture of exotic birds in flight particularly enticed him.
"That gives me an idea for a beautiful hat!" Tarrant crowed, and Alice giggled like she used to when she was a little girl.
When he turned the page, eager for more inspiring art that Alice had brought, he noticed she shifted a little uneasily, especially when his eyes caught sight of the little girl in the picture.
4
She was small and blonde, with wide doe- eyes that looked on the brink of crying. She was sitting at a small tea table, an imaginary tea party as it were. There was a stuffed animal in her lap that looked eerily like Chessur. As Tarrant's gaze focused in, he noticed that Chess wasn't the only Underland citizen in the picture. A porcelain doll with similar eyes and wavy white hair wore a winter white dress on the girl's left, a velveteen hare in a ragged waistcoat and crazed looking button eyes on her right. A white stuffed mouse was on the tabletop, propped up with a large hatpin, and at the head of the small table, Tarrant saw himself.
The hat looked just like his, but smaller. The doll had large green button eyes, with an orange ring around the right one. It had white skin, and was complete with bright orange hair and a sewn gap tooth smile. It's ascot was big and fluffy, and he noticed it was following his fashion exactly, down to the spools of thread draped across his chest.
"Who is that, Alice?" he lisped perfectly as he tapped the photo with his finger.
"That's my niece,... Mirana," Alice hesitated. "I got to name her, so I chose the name of our queen."
Tarrant felt hope at the word 'our' meaning she'd stay, that she followed his queen, THEIR queen-
"Hatter," Alice murmured.
"I'm fine."
"Mirana is curious, like I am." Alice continued explaining once his eyes focused again.
"She has seen Underland in her dreams. She is especially fond of you and Chessur. I made the two of you, and she insisted she sew the button eyes on, as well as your hat. The doll maker had trouble finding the right shade of white, though. She's quite insistent on having details correct."
"Alice, are you staying here?" Tarrant abruptly asked, the panic starting to come back to him. "Of course you aren't, you have a lovely home there, and you're probably not even here, just another hallucination. I'm really going mad you know. Around the bend, bonkers, off my head."
"Hatter!"
"I'm fine," Tarrant wheezed the lie, and Alice realized that she was to blame for his bouts of madness, that she had seriously damaged him.
"Hatter, I'm really here. And I'm staying here. Mirana has a mother. I am not needed there, and I can tell you need me more than ever."
Alice placed her hand on his cheek, and he leaned into it, like a cat.
"Alice," Tarrant leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Call me Tarrant. It would make me so very happy."
"Alright, Tarrant then."
Tarrant's eyes brightened in color, the grey slowly fading away.
"Tarrant, where shall I sleep tonight?"
"Please don't leave me," he pleaded, "I won't forgive myself if I wake up in the
5
Morning and you aren't there."
Rain started pouring, and they turned their attention to the window. Even when it was rainy, it was beautiful and cheerful in Mamoreal. Alice noticed the time, and decided to change the subject.
"It's almost time for supper," Alice stood up and led Tarrant to the door, "Let's go see Mirana."