Chapter 4
I heard screaming, but I didn't realize I was screaming until the behatted man said, "Alice, would you be so kind as to cease that awful screaming? It's hurting my ears." At which point I, quite sensibly, shut my mouth, though the bewilderment didn't stop with the shrieking.
"Who are you? Why do you know my name?" I barked rather than asked.
Now the man grew this odd, concerned look, one that I'd been getting rather frequently of late, and one that I was all too tired of. His eyebrows knitted together and the corners of his mouth turned down.
"Why, surely, you haven't forgotten me. I'm-"
But before I got to hear who he was, Nurse Joy and Dr. Winchester ran into the room, looking as frantic and confused as I felt.
"What's wrong, Alice?" Dr. Winchester asked panting. He must have heard the screams.
"Look for yourself, Doctor!" I replied hotly, "This man, he-"
And, as I gestured to my left at the man in the loud purple hat and suit, I soon saw that there was no man, nor hat, nor suit. Only a platter of tea cakes and a steaming cup of chamomile.
"I… I don't understand. There was a tall, pale man here, just before you came in. He talked to me, and knew my name, and wore the most ridiculous purple clothes. See? He brought me tea and cakes, just like I asked Joy for before she left… But now he's just gone…"
The doctor listened to all of this quietly, with his usual constipated/concerned look on, the one that drove me mad. When I'd finished he clasped his hands and walked slowly over to me.
"Alice," he said gently, "There was no man. We would have seen him walk out of the room if he'd been here before us. You haven't had any visitors today, they would have had to have checked in at the front-desk, which no one did. And the cakes? Joy brought you those before checking in on the other patients. The kitchen made them this morning. Alice… I think you've been dreaming."