Down the Rabbit Hole Chapter 49 – The Jabberwock – All Through the Night

A/N- The song for the title was released by Cyndi Lauper in 1983.

The time that Trixie had spent helping Alice get ready for her evening gave her the space she required to calm down just a little, the tidying up that Dino did while talking Marcus's ear off also helped in that regard. The one occasion she had walked through the living room to fetch a drink from the kitchen had her witness Dino frantically straightening up the day to day mess on the coffee and end tables. Putting away the magazines and other clutter that had been thrown on them and organizing the items that should normally be there, like ashtrays, remotes and coasters. It was as though he was desperate to make up with her and be forgiven by her for his mistake by performing these small tasks.

Alice and Marcus witnessed the beginnings of their reconciliation as they headed out for the evening, Dino was holding Trixie gently in his arms as he whispered his apologies again and again. Alice breathing a sigh of relief that they could quickly get passed this argument as she sat down in the passenger side of Marcus's Rodeo. Her date closing the door he had opened for her before walking around to the other side of the vehicle to get in. Leaning over the center console, he gives her an affectionate kiss before turning the ignition and backing out of his parking space, taking her hand after putting the SUV into drive. "I know we're going a little sooner then we had planed," Marcus seemed a little unsure of his upcoming suggest, "So I was wondering if you would like to see a movie before we eat?"

Alice toyed with him a little by acting as though she really needed to think about this before giving her reply, "Hmm, I don't know, alone in a dark room with you," she giggled through her last words, "We might get in trouble."

He laughs a little before replying, "I promise, I'll be a gentleman," he laughs again at her skeptical look, "I swear I'll keep my hands to myself."

"Well, not all to yourself," she adds giving the hand she was holding a light squeeze to emphasis her desires. His smile to her actions was infectious as he brought her hand up to his lips to kiss the back of it.

The good thing about living in the Highlands area of town was that you were only a short drive to anything you could possibly need. Privately owned shops, movie theaters, grocery stores, malls and fine dinning were all at your fingertips. So, it didn't take them long after leaving the apartment before they were walking hand in hand into the strip malls theater lobby to see what would be playing that evening. The four newest releases were the ones they were naturally discussing, Tank Girl had seemed a little too low budget for Marcus's tastes, while Tommy Boy wasn't in Alice's taste, the style of comedy wasn't much to be desired in her opinion. Major Payne, which was the one Marcus wanted to see would start in ten minutes, and Dolores Claiborne, which was Alice's choice, wouldn't start for another hour. "Heads or tails," Marcus asks as he pulls a quarter out of his pocket and positions it upon his hand.

"Tails," she replies giving him the OK to flip the coin.

Catching it and flipping it onto the back of his opposing hand, he peeks under the covering hand with a look of defeat, "Dolores it is." He slides the coin, which was clearly showing heads, off the back of his hand unseen and places it back into his pocket before stepping up to the counter to buy their tickets. Putting his purchase into his wallet he takes her hand, "Dino told me about this little place down the street, " he opens the lobby door for her once more, "Said it would be right up your alley."

"That sounds cool."

He was happy that even though there were a few hiccups in his plan, the date was going smoothly, "Cool." He looks at her as they walk back to his SUV and thinks, damn I would give her the world on a silver plate if I could, and he would think that he was the luckiest man on earth to get to do so.

"There you are," Rave whispers as he takes the seat to Kev's left, "We've been looking for you."

The seat to his right was now being occupied by Plank, who nodded upwards as he greeted him, "What's up."

He lets out a heavy sigh, not even attempting to hide his frustration, "So how did you find me," he hadn't expected to have any interruptions on a Sunday at the public library.

"Your mother told us where to find you," Plank answered then points to the computer screen, "What are you doing?"

"A web search," he replied flatly as he scrolled down the page looking at the articles displayed.

Plank had a puzzled look on his face, knew that he had heard that word before and was reminded where when Rave clarified, "He's talking about the internet." Oh yeah, now he remembers, the school was currently in the process of getting that installed in their library and had been giving them instructions on how to use it properly. But it didn't seem like something that he would be using all that often and computers were a subject that he had very little interest in, so he was only halfway paying attention to the presentation at the time.

"So, what are you looking up," Plank asks but got his answer before Kev could give it to him, as he and Rave's attention was now on the computer monitor. The screen was full of articles about the Rockwell family, most notably the current scandal that was making headlines in newspapers and on television. The links read as follows, Rev. Jeffery Rockwell and aides are arrested on charges of mail and wire fraud, Rev. Rockwell's ministry collapses after news of his illegal activities come to light during his divorce. Rev. Rockwell could face up to forty-five years in federal prison, "Jesus Christ," Plank exclaims.

"I didn't know it was that bad," Rave adds.

"Yeah, it's a fucking mess," Kev acknowledges their shock, "And it's making finding anything about Edd difficult."

"Dude, this is becoming borderline obsessive, you need to stop" Rave felt guilty for admonishing him and not encouraging him. After all they would all love to see Edd again, but as they have said before, right now Edd doesn't seem to want to be found and their attempts to look for him were futile.

"You guys decided to stop looking, I never agreed to it," he didn't take his eyes off the screen as he scrolled down further, trying to contain his frustration with them, finally arriving at the articles talking about Eddward Rockwell.

Plank notices that they were stories from half a year ago that were talking about is supposed kidnapping and possible runaway. "You see, there is nothing new," he wasn't wanting to be cruel, but the boy needed to understand that there was nothing they could do. "Kev, look, we're not telling you to give up hope that he's still alive, we just need you to face the reality that we might never see him again."

"You don't know that," he finally looks away and straight at Plank with determination in his eyes.

"No, we don't," Rave adds drawing Kev's attention to him, "But you're going to drive yourself crazy if you keep this up."

It was Plank's turn to try and talk some sense into him, "And even if you did find him, what are you going to do Kev? Are your parents going to be ok with harboring a runaway?"

"They might be," he looked unsure even as he spoke the words, "Because what his parents were going to do to him was abuse."

"I agree with you dude," Plank puts a hand on his shoulder, "But the courts wont. Once they find out he's there, they will take him away and give him right back to his mother, since she is his legal guardian."

"But," he tried to come up with an argument, but Plank cut him off.

"Their religious belief that homosexuality is immoral, and a sin, is protected by the constitution," Plank looked disgusted with the idea but determined to get his point across. "And let's not forget that the place they were probably going to send him was definitely labeled a treatment center. So, there isn't a court in this country that would do anything about it, because right now, it isn't a crime to get your child the treatment you think they need." He leans back in his seat and crosses his arms, his features softening, "The best thing we think you can do for him now, is to trust that he is alright and give him the time and space he needs to get control of his life by completely severing those ties he has to his parents."

Kev thought this through for a minute, his hands dropping from the keyboard and mouse as he really had to agree with them now that he has heard their whole argument. Being a minor, Edd was bound legally to the whims of his parents, only by coming of age would they no longer have the leverage they have now over him. "You're right," he reaches up and closes the Yahoo search and stands, pushing in his chair before walking away from the desk, a sinking feeling filling his stomach as he still yearned to help him in some small way.

The bell on the wooden framed glass door rings as Marcus and Alice enter the small family owned shop called New Moon Rising. An ornate metal sign hanging above the wooden bookshelf against the far wall from the door caught Alice's eye, which read Spells Cast Here. The raven-haired woman behind the counter to their left greeted them with a smile as they entered, "Blessed be our meeting, please take your time looking around and feel free to ask any question that you may have." Her long locks of hair were neatly pulled back into a ponytail, flowing down to the middle of her back, swaying with the movement of her body as she turned to return a jar of herbs to the shelf behind her.

"Look at these," Marcus leads the way to the table in the center of the room to look through the jewelry, quickly spotting a metal talisman laying upon the felt fabric of the display case. Picking it up, he let the leather strap hang loosely from his hand as he presents it to her, "What do you think," the pentagram etched upon the metal had runes between and within the five points of the star.

"It's pretty," Alice remarked as she admired the craftmanship of the silver but couldn't help noticing the price written on the tiny tag affixed to it, she considered it a bit daunting for just a necklace.

"Ian," they could hear the shop owner calling into the backroom from the door next to the shelves of books.

"I know just where this belongs," Marcus holds the necklace so that it rested against her bosom, admiring how the silver pendent looked against her skin.

She didn't know how to respond, she had to admit that she wanted it, but she didn't want him to feel like he had to spend that much money on something like this so soon in their relationship, "I don't know."

"It's fine," he replied to her uncertainty as he removed the necklace from her skin to lean down and kiss her cheek, "I want you to have it." With his gift to her decided, he takes her hand to continue to look around at the other items the store had to offer. Quickly making their way over to the books to see if there was anything interesting for Marcus to read.

While they were perusing the selection of wiccan, pagan and other assortment of books, they couldn't help but over hear the conversation the shop owner was having with a young man, "You got all that, right?"

"Yes mom," the boy said in a mildly annoyed voice, the kind that most children have when being sent on an errand they weren't particularly keen on doing. Looking over Alice sees a tall and lanky brunette with hair down to his shoulders who was one or maybe two years older then her. The plastic framed glasses, splotches of acne on his forehead and cheeks, X-Files t-shirt and goatee upon his chin gave him the airs of being a total dork.

"Ok, here's the money," she hands him a few neatly folded bills, "Don't forget your jacket and tell Marie that lunch is on its way."

The boy leans back to look back into the storage room to his left, "Did you hear that Marie? Lunch is on its way."

"I did, thank you Ian," a familiar voice could be heard from the backroom and Alice's heart skips a beat. The boy steps aside to allow her and the box she was carrying through, Alice looks away as Marie spins around, "You might want to hurry, you shouldn't keep AJ waiting." What on earth was she doing in Summerville? And of all the places for her to get a job at it had to be this store and she just had to be scheduled today.

The fates most certainly have a sense of humor Alice thought as she stole another glance at her old friend, watching her as she placed the box down behind the counter to start stocking the shelves. "Oh right," the boy looked as though he had just remembered something, "Can AJ come over?"

"I don't know, you still have work to do," she apparently didn't want to say no to him but knew that work would immediately stop if his friend came back with him.

"What do you think of this one babe," Marcus asks, drawing her attention away from them and towards a book titled Spells for Every Occasion.

It was the book in his other hand which interested her more, "What do we have here," she softly teases as she pulls the copy of the Kamasutra he was holding out of his hand.

"Well you know," he spoke low as his cheeks turned red, "That's for later." He uses his now free hand to pull her in close, a playful smile upon his lips as he leans in to kiss her, "Think of it as our desert menu."

She giggles softly and kisses him again, "I like the way you think."

"I'm glad you approve," looking over at the counter, as the boy rushing past had drawn his attention, he sees the time on the clock close to the register and realizes that they needed to start heading back.

As they step up to the counter Alice's nerves were on edge since Marie was still behind the counter stocking the herb jars. "Were you able to find everything," the owner asks as they place their selection down for her to ring up. Marie looks over her shoulder at them and Alice turns away to avoid eye contact.

"Yes, thank you," Marcus replied positively, "You have a beautiful store, doesn't she babe." Alice didn't respond verbally but instead gave her response with a few enthusiastic nods of her head.

"Thank you," she smiles as she types in the price for the last item, "That'll be one-fifty-nine-ninety-five," she reaches under the counter and pulls out a plastic bag as Marcus retrieves his wallet. Handing her his credit card, she places it in the manual imprint device then puts a piece of carbon paper over it before pulling the hand to-and-fro, capturing the cards information. After filling out the paper with the required payment information she slides it over to him with a pen for him to sign, then hits the credit tender button on the register to finalize the transaction and hand him his receipt. "Have a wonderful day," she hands over the plastic bag with a smile.

"Thank you, same to you," Marcus took the bag and Alice's hand.

"Please come again," Marie adds as they step out of the door and onto the sidewalk.

"They were a lovely couple," Miss Sumner remarked as she turns to Marie to help her finish her task.

"Yes, they were," she agreed, from the split second she had seen her face she couldn't help but feel like she has seen that girl somewhere before. But there was no use fretting about such things now, since she was certain it would eventually come to her.