"Ahem." Her mother was nearly choking on her confusion, "Would someone mind filling me in?"
Alice and Hatter came apart reluctantly with an embarrassed chuckle, but Hatter took her hand and held tight.
"I'm sorry Mom, you deserve an explanation. Although I'm not sure you're going to believe this."
"Try me." Carol sat heavily at the dining room table and folded her arms in front of her chest. Alice and Hatter sat in chairs opposite her and began their tale.
They told Carol about Jack and who he really was and why he came to find Alice. They told her about the queen and how horrible she was to her subjects and even to her own son. They told her about finding Charlie and riding flamingos and running from the Jabberwock. They told her about the Hospital of Broken Dreams and the people there who couldn't be cured. When they came to the part about The Carpenter, Alice's father, Alice watched her mother carefully knowing the truth about him would be a terrible shock. Throughout the story Carol sat silently while a myriad of emotions played across her face. When they had finished they sat and waited while Carol processed what she'd heard. Hatter rubbed his thumb over the back of Alice's hand absently.
"This is why you've been so quiet since you woke up? Isn't it?"
"When you told me only an hour had passed I thought I'd gone crazy! I thought I'd made the whole thing up in my head. Actually I still don't understand that part," She turned her body toward Hatter, "Can you explain?"
"Oh that, well the mirror can put you in any time it's just a matter of programming it. I imagine Jack sent you back now so your mother wouldn't be worried."
"You're kidding!? That thing travels in time too?'
Hatter shrugged, "Don't you lot have time travel?"
Carol and Alice shook their heads in dismay.
"Hmm." Hatter commented disinterestedly. "So hang on, you thought you were crazy til you saw me standing here?"
"Yes," Alice said in a small voice, "I thought I'd never see you again." Hatter pulled her out of her own chair and into his lap, he nuzzled into her hair and whispered, "I may be a bit mad but I'm just as real as you are." Alice made an "mmm" sound as she pulled his arms tighter around her and leaned back against his chest.
Carol watched them unsure what to make of their story.
"So what you're telling me is that your father forgot about us and became some sort of drug dealer in another world?"
Alice sighed, that made it sound even worse, but still she nodded, cause it was true.
Hatter felt the need to speak up, "But you know, in the end, he did the right thing, he saved Alice. And the forgetting thing, I don't think that was his fault, I'm pretty sure he was brainwashed. All the other oysters on our world are." Carol reached over and patted Hatters hand, "Thank you for that." she stood up from the table and stretched, "I need to - I think I'm going to bed." She kissed the top of Alice's head and said, "Well, wherever you were, I'm glad you're home now." Alice and Hatter watched Carol walk down the hallway toward her room. "Do you think she'll be okay?" Hatter asked, genuinely concerned. Alice shrugged, "Eventually. She never obsessed about it like I did but I know she always wondered what happened to Daddy too. At least I have the closure of having been there. She just has to take our word for it."
Alice and Hatter sat there until Alice heard Hatter's stomach emit a fierce sounding growl. Hatter tried to ignore it but Alice asked anyway, "When is the last time you ate? Tell me it wasn't Charlies barbecued borogove!"
"Ha! No. I found a pizza in the cold box in Jack's apartment. The directions were pretty easy to follow," Alice stood up, "Let's go find some real food. I'm hungry and I could definitely use the fresh air."
"Ok, do they have places that specialize in borogove here? That stuff was good."
"Uh I don't think so," Alice called from the hallway, "But I'm sure we can find something." Hatter followed her down the hallway, he leaned against her door frame and watched as she peered under her bed and than crossed the room to rummage through the boxes on her dresser. "What are you looking for?"
"My wallet. I can't remember the last time I saw it."
"Jack gave me this, would it help?" Hatter pulled the leather wallet out of his back pocket. Alice joined him in the doorway and took the wallet from his hands. "Why did Jack give you this?"
Hatter shrugged, "It came with the key to his place here. He said he wouldn't be needing it and I guess he figured I might need a place to crash. The address was inside the wallet." Alice opened up the wallet and pulled out four or five platinum credit cards, "So are these, How much you wanna bet they're still good?"
"What are they?" Hatter asked as he fingered the tiny plastic fan she was flourishing in his face.
"You don't have credit cards? Come to think of it, what do they use in Wonderland for currency?" "Tea mostly. Services, foods, goods - that kind of thing. In recent years most people would do anything for a sip of tea. Of course, if you gave it away you couldn't drink it yourself. That's why food and grown things were so rare. People started trading tea for other teas and things like farming or sewing or everything, were abandoned. I suppose Jack is going to have his work cut out for him to get all that started back up again. But we haven't used a metal or paper currency in probably 20 or 30 years." Alice pondered this for a moments, a very specific question occurred to her but she wasn't ready to ask yet. Taking Hatter's hand again she pulled him toward the door, "Let's find out if Jack's plastic still works." She wrote a quick note for her mom, definitely didn't want to worry her again. And then pushed Hatter through the front door.
"Where are we going?" Hatter asked as they marched down the narrow concrete walkway that lined the black street Secretly he was disappointed not to be riding in the rolling vehicle, he could definitely get used to driving one of those.
"I'm going to show you what REAL pizza tastes like."
"Real pizza? What was that stuff I ate at Jacks?"
"Oh that stuff is perfectly fine when you don't have anything else or you have limited time. But it certainly can't compare to Luigi's."
"Who's Luigi?"
"It's just the name of my favorite pizza place."
"Does that mean you've never used it?" Alice asked cautiously, realizing that she actually didn't know how old Hatter was.
Hatter grinned an impish grin, "Why? How old do I look?" Alice punched him playfully in the stomach, "Hey, I've been to Wonderland buddy, I know that appearances can be very deceiving. Didn't you say to Ratty that "Oysters don't live THAT long" How long do YOU live? You could be a hundred years old for all I know!" It was a scary thought really.
"Actually, I am."
"What?!" Alice whirled on him.
"I was a hundred and twenty three last Lunadeela."
"Lunadee - what? Wait, 123? How is that possible?"
"Well the teas aren't the only crazy drugs we have in Wonderland."