Hitting the ceiling hard he was startled. He wasn't at all like Alice had been, curious and looking all over at the objects around. All he did was close his eyes tighter and try to land on his feet but it was of no avail. Why had he been so entranced with the walking toy? Had it not been for the magic he'd be safe in his bed looking at all the magic he needed. Surely these people wanted to help! Why, a fairy he could trust. They looked so motherly, except Tinkerbell who looked like that twenty-year-old cousin who snuck you into clubs when you were like twelve. The Cheshire cat looked like the crazy uncle that lived in a mental institution. How trustworthy was that?
Not at all quickly Chuckie found his way to the door. With each new door he grew more frustrated, timidly opening the knobs, half hoping that a new door would give him half a second more time away from the evil that surely lay beneath all those layers of wood and metal. Why he even turned those knobs he wasn't sure. At last he came to the final door. Studying it, he did not grab the door's knobnose. After a few minutes the door cried out from relief.
"Why," he cleared his throat. "You are much more polite than that girl the first time around. Ridiculous young lady she was, that Alice. Why, she's the one who thought us up!" Nostalgia took over the door in a bit of wistfulness as he was but a door to the most magical realm in all of Alicedom, only watching, watching, never jumping, flying free.
"Excuse me," said Chuckie. "But Mr. Door, what lies ahead in my way?"
"Your way, boy? We'll have none of that! It's all the queen's way you see. And," the door continued in a different tone. "You shall see for yourself." He opened his mouth wider than Chuckie had ever supposed a door's mouth would. Far drier than Alice had left it, he saw a dodo singing melodiously as sea creatures all danced joyously.
"They are happy, you see," the door said, his voice funny because of his still widely opened mouth, "because they are finally dry. Not that they were any less happy when they weren't." Beyond the seashore was a sea of candy that Alice hadn't explored her first time around and a forest where he could see nothing but trees and colored smoke but heard much business like butterflies and flowers and momeraths. A bread butterfly fluttered its way in through the door's mouth and onto Chuckie's hand.
"You could knock!" the door cried impatiently at the little creature.
"How do I get inside?" Chuckie asked quietly, hoping the door wasn't too angry.
"Luckily for you," said the door, "that stupid cat left the me unlocked. He didn't want all those tears around you see, as he does hate to see the dodo at work. What work I don't know, but… Well then, off with you! I don't like company!" Chuckie expected the statement to be a lie. The door twisted his own nose and Chuckie and the bread butterfly came inside.