Chapther four: Not being Alice
"She does look like her."
"But she couldn't be."
"She should look older."
"But she doesn't."
"But she does look like Alice."
"But she may not be."
"Stop it!" Alex yelled. "Stop arguing about whether I'm Alice or not. I can tell you, that I am Alex."
And then the group, the rabbit, a mouse, two bald twins and a dodo bird, smiled. "Alice."
"No, Alex.. " she corrected, but they just kept smiling.
"We'll take you to The Hatter right away." the rabbit said, took her hand, and jumped off, dragging her with him.
"Hey, I wanted to escort her." She heard one of the twins say.
"No, it was my turn." The other one said.
At some point she managed to escape from her welcoming-committee, if you could call them that, because they were not that welcoming. So now, Alex was kind of just wondering around on her own. This was a very strange dream, because it had to be a dream. Or perhaps she had fallen and hit her head… hard. She walked down a dark alley of strange trees, which shined turquoise. Then she felt someone - or something, which was most possibly down here – follow her. She turned around, but there was nothing. She looked around, shrugged it of, and kept walking, but that feeling wouldn't leave her. She turned around once again, saw nothing, looked straight forward, and was surprised, when she actually SAW something. A cat. With turquoise streaks. And a huge grin. "Let me guess… " she began. "Chessur, the Chesire Cat."
"Alice… " the cat said. Alex shook her head at him.
"No… no, I'm not Alice. I'm Alex, but no one down here seems to understand the difference."
"So.. you're not Alice?" the cat said. "But you know that I am Chessur, the Chesire Cat." Chessur smiled.
"I'm pretty sure you're all talking about my mother, Alice Potts. She used to tell me and my brother stories about a place called Wonderland, but characters a lot like the people I've seen down here."
"Wonderland, " Chessur said. "She's still calling it that. You see, Alex, this… is Underland. Anyone can make that mistake. Your mother called it Wonderland the first time she was here."
"The first time?" Alex asked. "You mean she was down… here… more than once?"
"I can take you the the Hare and the Hatter, but I can't take you any further. " Chessur said, disappearing. Alex looked for him, but he was nowhere to be found. What was that about taking her the the Hare and the Hatter. But then she heard him.
"Are you coming?"
And Alexandra Potts followed Chessur, the Chesire Cat to the Hare and the Hatter.