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CHAPTER 2: THE GIRL WHO DARED TO DREAM
"Don't you see what this means?" the girl squealed with delight, young and vibrant and full of life, blonde and perfect, a porcelain doll with ideas a constant flow from her imaginative young mind.
He smiled at her, all too pleased with how she now clung to his arm. "What does it mean?" he asked her, because he knew that's what she wanted.
"It means," she paused, for effect. "We can be anyone we want, do anything we like! Our dreams can become reality, its perfect! Now tell me," she demanded. "What is it that you long to do?" her big ice blue eyes stared up at him innocently.
He smiled sheepishly, knowing that she was still too young to quite understand what exactly he was thinking he longed to do just now. He cleared his throat and hoped that the warmth he felt in his cheeks wasn't too noticeable. "I would very much like to open a hat shop I think," he said blandly, almost mechanically, embarrassed by his own racing mind and unable to think of a better answer.
"A hat shop?" the girl questioned, but he could see that she was considering his idea seriously. "It's perfect for you Maddy! Simply splendid!" she let go of his arm and twirled before him. "And what about you?" she asked of the four figures who were still staring at the new sights around them warily.
"I…" the wide-eyed march hare gulped visibly. "I want Maddy to open a hat shop! And for all of us to live in a little house! We'll all love each other and have cake every day!" one moment she was hopping about, the next she was squirming, holding herself tight, and finally she had attached herself to the Cheshire cat, who had been standing languidly by, a lazy smile on his lips which slowly grew into a wicked grin as the march hare nuzzled up against him, unaware of whom she had attached herself to.
"Well that sounds lovely, may I share a room with Harry here?" asked the crude cat, now taking the girl in his arms and squeezing her closer.
She squawked, and immediately began trying to free herself by squirming and wriggling and smacking the cat, which only made him laugh.
"We want to stay with Maddy too!" cried the twin tweedles, each grabbing one of the mad hatter's arms.
"What about you Alice?" the Cheshire cat asked of the girl who was still contemplating, at some point he had let the hare go, but the grin had yet to leave his lips.
"I think this is splendid! All we need is to find a place to begin this dream…" she looked around, and there, just behind them, was a rundown building with the looks of abandonment apparent in the sad sag of the roof, the rotten porch steps and the topsy-turvy chimney. "It's positively perfect, do you see?" she said while pointing.
The party of six stared at the building, all filled with thoughts of what it would eventually become. They moved forward in unison, approaching their future.
…
This town was used to new arrivals and were very helpful to the willing party of six, all from the tale of Alice in Wonderland, one seamstress allowed the hatter to clean her shop for a small selection of materials and eventually hired him to mend costumers clothing and the like, a café hired the two pretty girls known as Alice and Bunny to be waitresses and clean his kitchen, the Tweedle-twins were hired by the town magician and traveled with him to close villages to perform his tricks and learn his trade, and the one known as the Cheshire cat – though the only thing that the towns folk could see that resembled a cat were his ears and the tail that swished behind him – found employment just outside of town on a local farm, doing whatever was asked of him.
Even with all of them working for pay, they were barely able to make ends meet, repairing the house was out of the question, and their dreams seemed far out of reach. But something about working together and living the way they wanted, even if they weren't living their dream, made them all happy and treasure what they did have. They had each other, and they became that much more important to each other.
They were all content, until Alice popped a question one evening. All of them were gathered about the fire place, roasting sausages over the fire.
"You all realize that winter is just around the corner don't you?" they all looked at her blankly; seasons were a new thing for them. "What are we going to do to make more money? We need to fix the house, unless we plan on freezing our first year here."
None were quick to reply.
"You and I could work more shifts at the restaurant, the bar on the weekends too," Bunny said tentatively.
Alice smiled, "Good idea, what about the rest of you?" she looked around at the others, noticing that they were all staring at their sausages very intently.
"The old woman says that the cold weather stiffens her fingers, I suppose she will hire me on full time, it won't be much more but it will be some," Hatter broke the growing silence.
The twins looked at Hatter, then at Alice and Bunny, then at each other.
"Mage offered to apprentice us," Tweedy whispered.
"We won't get paid at first," Didi looked at Alice. "But soon we will be able to take on our own patients and clients."
"In the long run it will be more profitable," Tweedy finished.
"Good show my boys! Go for it I say!" the Hatter smiled widely at both the young boys.
Chesh stared off into the fire, lost in his own thoughts, recalling what the other farm hands had said about the town over. Something about hunting criminals down for a profit and how one man had been hired, for an unheard of price, someone to bring him a man who had shamed his daughter or some such tale. He couldn't remember the exact sums or what the jobs entailed completely, but he remembered it was far beyond what he was making as a hand. He tore his gaze away from the orange flames and looked to Alice who waited expectantly, knowing he wouldn't let the family down.
"There isn't much the farmer needs me for in winter, so after the harvest he's letting me go," Chesh said and caught a disappointed look from Bunny. "But, some of the hands were telling me of work in the town over, Dusk Wood I believe, I'll go there after the harvest and find employment."
Alice's face dropped and everyone else looked at him with fear, he didn't quite understand.
"You're leaving?" Bunny asked, tears gathering in her eyes.
"Only for a while, I have to come back and help with the repairs don't I? I'll only be gone long enough to make some money, and then I'll come back," he grinned at the prospect that they would actually miss him; it was a good feeling, being needed. The smiles that the twins and Hatter beamed at him were rays of sun on his face, and it warmed him from the inside out.
…
The day was chill and gray and every so often the clouds would open up and let sheets of cold water rain down onto the already soaked earth, creating a moist feel to the air. There wasn't much that could be done in on a day like this, trails would be hard to scent, so Chesh had been given a day of rest and sat at home near the fire on the ratty old couch, a warm mug of cider steaming between his roughened hands. He didn't enjoy rainy days much, maybe every once in a while, but this fall had turned into a rather wet one and he wasn't particularly enjoying it. Listening to the drip and the resounding ping of a leaky roof leaking into the assortment of pots and pans Alice and Bunny had set about in hopes of not needing to replace the flooring made the night of no sleep seem longer than it actually was. Everything about this damp season had sadly turned Chesh's mood sour, but this moment of silence and the warmth of both the fire and the mug was soothing to his dampened spirits.
He hadn't realized he had fallen asleep until a soft touch from a warm hand caressed him away from his dreamless snooze. Bunny was leaning over him, looking at his face with concern and holding a gentle hand to his forehead. But Chesh could hardly concentrate on her face; didn't she know that she shouldn't bend over in the raunchy waitress uniform she was made to wear? Her generous bosoms were on tempting display before his eyes, and he was having a hard time of not relenting to such temptation. He managed to pry his gaze away from the beautiful things and instead tried to force himself to focus on the concerned features of her face.
"You don't feel too warm, are you ok Chesh?" she asked, removing her sweet fingers from his forehead, unaware of the blush creeping up Chesh's neck.
Before he was capable of speaking Chesh took several gulps of his cider, hoping to clear his throat of its thickness. "I'm fine," but he sounded anything but fine, he sounded gruff in his own ears.
"Are you lying to me?" Bunny finally stood up straight, and Chesh gave a sigh of relief, he would have to visit the restaurant to make sure she wasn't being treated rudely.
"No," he chuckled, sounding almost himself. "I'm fine Bunny, just tired," he gave her a half-hearted grin.
"Well," she broke into a smile of her own. "At any rate, I'm so glad you're home! I would've said so last night, only you went straight to bed and you looked so grim I was too scared to say anything, but now you seem better!" she said this as she scampered across the room and picked up a rather large pot and began dragging it toward the fire, her chatter was like music to his ears, it had only been a few weeks since his departure, but those weeks away had given him quite enough time to realize just how much his dear friends meant to him. He smiled at her efforts to lift the pot onto the fireplace hanger, got up and moved to help her.
"Allow me, little housewife," he teased her and picked up the pot with ease as she blushed a strawberry pink. "It's good to be home, speaking of which," he turned to her. "Why are you here so early in the afternoon?"
"To take care of you, of course!" she exclaimed happily and stood on tip-toes to retrieve a spoon hanging from a peg on the wall. "Alice said I should come home and make sure you eat something, because you see, I noticed that you are far too skinny to be eating enough, and if I know you, you get so caught up in whatever it is that you're doing that you forget eating is something important to do! And, of course, I was telling Alice all this just this morning, and she said if I was so worried I should just come home and see to it that you eat. So here I am!" Chesh couldn't help smiling at her; everything she had said was true, and it was just like her to worry about something as mundane as eating enough.
"Well," Chesh began as he turned back to the couch. "You're very right about the fact that I probably wouldn't have eaten anything this afternoon." He sat down presently and retrieved his mug of cider from the floor where he had set it. "I would've completely forgotten and simply slept until you all came home, most likely," he took a sip from his mug and found it pleasantly warm, the perfect temperature.
Bunny was currently bending over, poking at the fire with the iron poker, and stirring the soup with the spoon in the other hand, and from Cheshire's location, he had a fine view of her pink polka-dotted undergarments. "What am I going to do with you?" she sighed.
"I could ask you the same question," Chesh chuckled.
Bunny spun on her heal to face him, the spoon heedlessly dripping onto the floor, "Why?" she asked.
"No reason," he cleared his throat and then chuckled at the face she made.
"Well I said it because this just isn't going to work Chesh!" she looked rather flustered, and she felt that way, she felt even more so when the look Chesh gave her was one of a very confused sort. "You aren't eating enough! I could hardly get you to eat enough before and now with you gallivanting off on your new job you're just going to wither away into nothing because you won't eat! You have to eat!" she stomped her foot, she meant it, but she was receiving little response from the stoic cat-boy and that made her think that he certainly wasn't taking her very seriously. She sighed, "I'm not getting to you at all am I?" and she resigned herself back to the duty of stirring the soup.
Chesh smiled benignly and then proceeded to drain the rest of his cider, "If it will ease your worrying, Bunny, I will try my best to eat more regularly."
"Oh thank you! Yes!" he response was more than what he had expected, she flung the spoon and pounced onto Chesh, wrapping her arms about his neck and planting a noisy kiss on his cheek. "Isn't today wonderful?" she exclaimed and bounded away from the blushing cat to the large window.
Chesh took a deep breath and his skin took on a more normal shade, "Nice isn't the word I would use," he grumbled.
"Oh?" Bunny glanced back at him, then turned her gaze back to the window. "I think it's lovely," she sighed.
"How do you figure that?" Chesh asked, not too interested in the matter at all.
"Well I find that when the clouds are gray and somber as they are today, and threes are so full of fall colors they look that much brighter," she looked dreamy as she gazed out the window, but Chesh hadn't understood at all what she had meant.
"What?" he asked incredulously.
Bunny turned to him and motioned for him to join her, and he did, though reluctant to leave his newly warmed cushion. "Just look," she pointed at the twin maple trees in their small expanse of yard. "Don't their colors look really rich?" she asked, and Chesh couldn't deny that they were very vibrant. "When the sun is out, they don't seem nearly as bright, it's the contrast of the somber tones of gray and the warmer tones of the reds and oranges that make them seem so much brighter."
Never had Cheshire heard something so complex come out of Bunny's mouth and it made him wonder what other thoughts like that were held captive in that mysterious mind of hers. A certain form of intrigue took hold of him, a want to know more about this friend he had thought he had known so well. But then she was smiling as always and her eyes were shining just as they always had, he watched her retreat, scooping up the spoon from the floor and returning to stirring the soup. He pulled himself away from the strange thoughts that were running through his head, he shouldn't be surprised by what she had said, and he returned to his spot on the couch.
…
He sat staring out the window in his shop, bored with the outfit he had been working on, it was simple, nothing too fanciful about it, creating it was like being a machine: constantly copying the same style over and over. He was bored, out of spirits and in need of a good cup of tea. So, with little care, he left his work bench and headed down the stairs to the first floor.
As soon as he opened the door all the fragrances of the bakery wafted to his nose, inviting him in and instantly awaking his hunger. How Bunny managed to make such amazing pastries, cakes, cupcakes, breads, crepes, pies, and anything else she decided to try out was beyond Maddy's reckoning, but he was very grateful for it. And in addition to Bunny's skill with baking and cooking, Chesh had proved his worth in the culinary arts by brewing the best coffee, tea and just about any other beverage there was.
Maddy made his way to the bar and took a seat on one the stools, and leaned on the counter, his pensive mood dissipating almost instantly as Alice approached. She sat down next to him, still laughing at the costumer she had just been chatting with.
"You just beat the rush Maddy, people will be filing in like crazy in about ten minutes. So," she nudged him with her shoulder. "What can I get you?"
Maddy smiled and threw his arm over her shoulders and pulled her close for a side hug, "Tell Chesh to surprise me with his latest spin in the tea department, and tell Bunny I'm ready for lunch."
Alice laughed, "Alright, I'll be right back."
Maddy watched her walk into the kitchen, her dress showing a generous amount of thigh, her heels making her seem taller, and the blousy apron hiding her small chest. She was beautiful, anyone could see that. Why she was so particular about what she wore was beyond Maddy, but he had no qualms about it, he would make her anything she liked.
Alice exited the kitchen, Chesh close behind her, her smiling and him somber as was his custom since they had entered this world, without his trademark smile Maddy felt he hardly knew him. But Alice's shining face blew his thoughts of the cat-boy out the door, and his own face broke into a smile of his own, his cheeks warming.
"Isn't Bun-buns just a doll?" she exclaimed as she set a plate with a delicious looking sandwich on it before the hatter. "She had it ready and waiting, saying she had heard stairs creaking and knew you were on your way down. She astounds me," Alice smiled at Maddy as she seated herself beside him.
There was a sudden clank of china and Maddy looked up to find Cheshire with a teapot tipped sideways and a stream of dark liquid pooling into the teacup that he supposed was responsible for the clank as it was set into its saucer.
"Care for cream?" Chesh asked, his face set into a look of droll tolerance.
Maddy nearly laughed at his expression, but caught a glance from Alice and merely replied: "Yes, please."
Cheshire disappeared behind the bar and then reappeared with a small pitcher of cream which he ladled a dipper into and poured a measured amount of it into the teacup. "Sugar? Or honey?" he asked.
"Sugar," Maddy replied, content to watch this comical display.
Taking the pitcher with him, the cat disappeared once again, returning this time with the sugar bowl from which he spooned two small teaspoons of sugar. He then held the spoon, with much drama, aloft between his pointing finger and thumb, and then he descended upon the cup with a vengeance, stirring with a grave expression upon his face. He brought the spoon to his puckered lips, sipping loudly. "Oh," he said sadly. "Hardly remarkable," he said as he sank behind the bar. A moment later, his hands were searching the bar for the unremarkable cup of tea. Alice picked up the teacup and handed it to the cat's hand, his fingers just gazing hers, sending heat to her ears.
Maddy and Alice heard some clinking then a slosh, and then Chesh was before them again, his wicked smile adorning his lips, shaking a shiny metal contraption. Then he was gone again and grounding, frothing noises could be heard from somewhere behind the counter. Finally there was a clank of china once again and Cheshire rose slowly from behind the counter with the teacup balanced on his pointing finger.
"Here you are, most patient of sirs," he bowed, his nose nearly colliding with the counter, and his arm extended toward the hatter, the cup and saucer still balanced precariously on his outstretched finger.
The hatter accepted the cup, and dramatically placed the cup and saucer onto the table before himself before delicately lifting the cup by its handle and bringing it to his lips. Chesh and Alice waited expectantly for his reaction; Bunny now peaked out of the kitchen doorway also waiting for the verdict. Hatter sipped, smacked his lips then placed the cup back in its saucer placidly.
"Well," he said after a moment's pause. "It certainly isn't unremarkable." His smile was wide, and then he stood and spun in a circle, "What do you call it Cheshire? It has a splendid bite to it!" Hatter exclaimed.
Alice and Bunny sighed and smiled approvingly at the Cheshire cat, who drank in their worship with his shoulders straight and chin held at a proud angle.
"I call it," and his smile became wicked again. "Chia," he paused, and all looked at him in puzzlement. "Spiked," he finished, crossing his arms and sticking out his tongue.
Hatter's shoulders slumped, "Spiked?" he asked sadly. "But it's hardly noon!" Hatter tossed his hat at the cat, in a tantrum. "Now is not the time to be drunk Cheshire you blasted cat!"
Cheshire had ducked the hat and retrieved it, placing it on his head at an angle that hid his right eye and made him look rather attractive, in a mischievous way.
And then the chase began, just as some of the noontime regulars began to trickle in for their lunch that had become their norm since the opening of the café. Chesh dodged the Hatter's reaching for the hat, saying all sorts of childish things such as: give it back, it's mine, you stinking cat give me my hat! Bunny tell him to give it here! But of course the Cheshire cat wasn't the type to listen to orders, he had lived alone far too long for that, and so the Hatter mounted the bar and chased the cat whose smile grew into that of the mad sort that had been most familiar in the story of the past.
While the two comically mad characters ran about the shop, hopping atop tables and creating a raucous that the town had quickly grown to love, Allstar Benet sat down before the out of tune piano and banged out a beat that sent the cat and the hatter a-dancing about, grabbing girls and women and twirling them about. The old piano was soon joined by the sharp sounds of the electric guitar as one of the twins flipped on his amp, and his mike and the other sat down behind his drum set and flipped on the amp for the idle bass which was soon taken up by a dark figure they hadn't had the pleasure of meeting yet. Johnny B. Goode filled the café with a swinging beat and had all the customers shoving the tables against the bar for more dancing room. Alice and Bunny were claimed by the hatter and swinging cat, which still possessed the hat.
A dance off was in the making, Bunny and Chesh, a well matched pair, standing off against the just as well matched Hatter and Alice, the crowd of lunch costumers clapped and laughed and called out raunchy comments at the pairs. They twirled and spun and skip-hopped about, the boys swung the girls and lifted them and spun them and flung them. Then in the midst of Good Golly Miss Molly, Bunny gave a shrill cry.
"Oh good golly!" she spun away from Chesh, leaving him staring after her, breathing hard and confused. "The Honey-butter Bread!" and she retreated to the kitchen.
The hatter proudly swiped the hat from Cheshire's head and placed it on his own, and then he and Alice turned to the crowd and bowed to their cheering hurrahs.
