Her Past

"I'll start from the very beginning. My mother, Alice, met my father about a year after her adventures in Wonderland. That's how she always described them when she told me about them. But I'm getting ahead of myself. They were married about 2 years later and my mother gave birth to me about a year after their marriage. My mother would travel around, looking for new places to trade with and my father traveled with her and they worked together. Then when I was born, they would take me along with them. I grew up all around the world and learned about a variety of cultures. Our lives were never boring when I was growing up. My mother always told me stories when I was growing up. I always asked her to tell me the same ones. I would ask her to tell me about her adventures in Wonderland. She told me all about everyone she had met and all the things that she had done. And she absolutely swore that her stories were entirely true. I never doubted the fact that they were true for a second. I was fascinated by these stories and wanted nothing more than to see Wonderland for myself. It sounded like such an amazing place. I begged her to take me to Wonderland but she never would. She did show me the tree whose roots the rabbit hole was among. I tried to get her to let me go down it but again she wouldn't let me. But she told me that if I was ever in danger I was to go to that tree and go down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland. At the time I thought she was just saying it but I later realized that she meant it. That happened right after my 14 birthday. About a month later she was to leave on a boat to go set up a new trade route. My father and I weren't going with her which was odd since we had always gone as a family. It was almost like she knew what was going to happen. My father then told me that her ship had been caught in a storm and that it had sunk. I was devastated. I spent all my time in my room looking through pictures, at her drawings that she had done of different places we went, reading her notes, and reading her adventures in Wonderland because she had written them down for me right before she left so that I could read them anytime I wanted to while she was gone. I would rarely leave my room and I barely ate or spoke with anyone. This went on for 2 months before my dad finally drug me out of my room. He had to travel for work and I had to go with him. It wasn't the same at all without my mother there. When we would travel as a family we would play games on the ships and when we got to our destination we would explore and learn as much as we could. With the tragedy of my mother's death still hanging over us we didn't play games on the ship or explore our destination. I would sit off by myself on the deck of the ship all day. I would stare out over the water or write or draw or read. I didn't really talk and I didn't explore the boat. I didn't act like myself. My father knew how hard my mother's death was on me. I was extremely close to my parents but I was even closer to my mother. When she died it felt like part of me had died with her. I would randomly break down in tears while we were on that boat. When we got to our destination I would go with my father because he made me but I would rarely go anywhere else. Then when we got back I wouldn't even talk to my friends. It took about 8 months for me to get back to mostly normal. I still wasn't completely back to my normal self but I was close. My father and I continued to travel for his work and I went back to exploring the boat, getting to know the crew on the boat, learning about the places we went, and everything else I had always done. Then a few months before my 17th birthday my father told me a terrible secret. He told me that my mother's boat hadn't actually sunk. There were people that wanted my parents dead. They wanted them dead because
of the job my parents did. These people wanted complete control and my parents were the biggest risk to that. My dad never told me what actually happened to my mother though. He told me that we would have to be very careful from then on. It worked for awhile but then about 2 months after my 17th birthday the people came for my father and me. My father told me to run and I did. I got away before they got to us. I tried to get my father to come with me but he wouldn't. And they got him. I figured that this would fall under what my mom meant when she said if I was ever in danger to go to Wonderland so I ran towards where the tree was that had the rabbit hole. It was storming and I could barely see where I was going. I wasn't even sure if I was going the right way. I fell a couple times and by the time I found the tree my dress had mud all on it and I was soaked clear through. I finally found it though and went down into the hole. I did everything my mother had told me she had to do and the Cheshire Cat found me not long after I walked through the door. He brought me to the castle where the Hatter opened the door and took me to you," Alison finished.
"I'm so sorry that you've had to go through all of that," the White Queen said. "You came to the right place. You're more than welcome here after what your mother did for us. Keeping her daughter safe is the least we could do. Hatter, would you mind showing her to one of the guest rooms? I think she'll find the pink one to her liking."
"Of course," Hatter said standing up. "Follow me."
"Thank you," Alison said to the Queen. "I m very grateful of what you're doing." The Queen gave her a smile then went back to the courtyard to join her court. Alison followed Hatter to the pink guest room.
"Here we are," he said opening the door. Alison walked into a huge room that was done all in pale pink and white.
"This room is amazing," Alison said in a quiet voice. She looked around at the big room. It held a canopy bed that was made of white metal and had a pale pink comforter on it with white lace curtains. There was also a desk, dresser, and nightstand that were made of the same white metal. There was also a big closet.
"I'll have some clothes brought to your room," Hatter said.
"Oh thank you. You are all amazing here."
"Do you need anything else?"
"No. You've all done plenty. Thanks again." Alison said, giving Hatter a smile.
"I'll leave you then," Hatter said as he turned to leave.
"Wait. Could you stay here for a little bit please? You could maybe tell me about Wonderland. Like what's happened since my mother was here."
"Of course I could." There was also a white padded chair so Hatter pulled it near the bed and Alison sat on the bed. "Well Wonderland has been pretty uneventful since your mother left. In fact, there's really nothing worth telling," Hatter said with a smile. "Why don't you tell me about you and your life," he suggested.
"Well you know the outline of it."
"Well how about you tell me about some of the places you went with your family and some of the stuff you did when you were growing up."
"Well my parents and I lived in the town my mother had grown up in. That's why she was able to show me where the rabbit hole was and that's why I was able to run to it. I would play with my cousins when I was growing up and we were home. I had three cousins. They were the children of my Aunt Margaret. She had two boys and one girl. Their names were Jacob, Matthew, and Sarah. Sarah was a total girly girl. I wasn't a total girly girl but when I would play with Sarah it did let me practice my manners and such. At least that's what my mom always said," Alison said with a laugh. "I did like playing with Sarah though. I liked playing with all three of my cousins. When I would play with Jacob and Matthew I would always come home dirty. I'd have dirt and grass stains on my dress and there would be twigs and leaves in my hair. And if I would have my hair up when I started playing with them it normally wound up down. My mother and father were never mad when I
came home with dirt on my clothes. They always just laughed. My mother said she hadn't been a girly girl when she was growing up. She gave me freedom when I was growing up. I was always mature for my age. I was going off on my own and exploring the boats and the places we went to on my own by the time I was 6. I did get into a couple fights when I was growing up though. One time when I was 13 I was exploring the boat when these 2 boys came up to me. They looked to be about 14 or 15 and they backed me into a dark corner. One of the boys touched my face and started to push me down onto the floor. He had brown hair. I kicked my foot out, hooked it around the back of his knees, and pulled. He fell to the ground. I straightened up and then his friend was on me. His friend had blonde hair. I punched the blonde in the face and by then the one with brown hair was standing up again. He grabbed my wrists and pulled my arms behind my back. He then leaned down
and whispered in my ear. He said, "Don't fight. It'll only hurt you more." I was able to yank one hand out of his grip so I punched him in the face. He fell to the ground in pain since I connected with his nose. The blonde was coming towards me so I turned and kicked him in the stomach. He fell to the ground and I put my foot on his throat. The one with brown hair was still on the floor in agony. I pushed on the blonde's throat with my foot. I told both of them to never come near me again and if I heard of them doing anything to anyone else then I would personally find them and make this seem like nothing. I walked away and found my parents. When they saw the blood on my dress and the spots where it was torn they asked what had
happened. I told them and my father wanted to find them but I told him that I had taken care of it and I wouldn't let him find them. The next day my dad was able to joke around about it and he started calling me his 'little fighter.' My mom wasn't too happy about the fact that I had gotten into a fight but she dealt with it. It also wasn't my first fight. It was in fact my third. The first one had been when I was 8. A little boy that was my age had been teasing me and making fun of me. He finally annoyed me enough that I punched him in the stomach. He doubled over in pain and then I brought my knee up and kneed him in the nose. Blood started gushing from his nose. It got all on my dress and it covered his clothes. He fell to the ground in pain because when my knee had connected with his nose I heard the sound of bone breaking. His friend went running to the boy's mom. The boy's mom saw what had happened and she had the boy's friend go get his own mom. The friend's mom came and helped get the boy home so that a doctor could come see him and the boy's mom grabbed my arm and forcefully took me back to my house. She yanked my arm as we walked and her grip was extremely tight on my arm and her nails were digging into my flesh. I tried to yank my arm away a few times but she just tightened her grip even more each time. I knew that she wanted me to feel pain and I wanted to yelp from pain since her nails were digging into my flesh and I knew they were close to drawing blood but I didn't show that I felt any pain. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction. Even as a little girl I knew how to take care of myself. But the boy's mom took me back to my house and yelled at my mother for 'letting her daughter turn out to be such a bad girl.' My mom kept her voice at a normal level but when she talked it was even scarier because it was icy and cold. She told the boy's mom that her son deserved what he had gotten because he had been teasing me, throwing stuff at me, and he had started pushing me down every time he saw me. The boy's mother didn't believe my mother but the boy never messed with me again. He was too afraid to even come near me. Sometimes when he saw me I'd act like I was going to come towards him and he would yelp and either run away or hide behind the people he was with. It made my friends and I laugh. The second fight I got into was when I was 11. This one was with a boy too. All of my fights were. In this one the boy actually fought back. This boy was like 2 years older than me and I was walking through the woods one day. I came to a clearing and he was in the clearing. I had never seen anyone there before so I was shocked to see him. He looked like he wasn't the best kid so I started to back back into the woods. He came towards me so I turned and ran. He ran after me and since he was older than me and taller than me he eventually caught up to me even though I was fast. When he caught up to me he grabbed my wrist and spun me around. I yelped and fell to the ground. He roughly pulled me up off of the ground. I knew screaming was pointless since no one would be able to hear me and I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me scream. I didn't know what he was going to do to me until he grabbed my skirt in his hand and started to pull it up. I slapped him across the face as hard as I could and left a bright red hand print. His head snapped back and he put his hand to where I had slapped him. He turned back to face me and slapped me back. I was stunned. He roughly grabbed me and shoved me to the ground. I figured out what he was going to do to me. He was going to force me. I couldn't get my hands away. He started to roughly kiss him and his breath smelled of whiskey. I didn't know how he was able to get enough to get drunk but he had. I had to think quickly so I started to kiss him back in the hope that he would let go of my wrists if he thought he would have no issues with me. It worked and he let go of my wrists and started to use both hands to pull my skirt up. I took one hand and dug my nails into the back of his neck. I kept digging them in until I started to draw blood. He screamed in pain and quickly got off of me and stood up. I stood up and kicked him in the stomach. I turned to run but he grabbed my dress and pulled me back to him. He slapped me again and wrapped his hand around my arm extremely hard. I wanted to scream in pain but I didn't. He just kept tightening his grip. I was able to bring my knee up though and hit him where it counts. He let go and I took of running as fast as I could. He didn't catch me this time. I got a bruise from where he had had a tight grip on my arm. I was able to hide it though my wearing dress with long sleeves which was good because otherwise I couldn't imagine the questions people would have asked."

"It sounds like you were a tough little girl," Hatter said with a laugh.

"You could say that," Alison said with a laugh of her own.

"Did you like traveling with your parents?"

"Oh I loved it. We always had tons of fun and we always learned lots of things. I actually got this on one of our trips." Alison held out her wrist to show a braided leather bracelet that had multicolored beads braided into it. "And this." Alison held out her right hand and on her ring finger on that hand was a small ring that had roses carved into it. "It's made from animal bone."

"They're both very pretty."

"Thank you."

"I think dinner will be served soon. You'll find some clothes in your closet. Would you like me to come back to take you down to the dining room?" Hatter asked.

"Yes please. Just give me about 15 minutes and I should be ready."

"Very well. I'll be back then." Hatter got up and left the room.

Alison went to the closet and gasped when she opened it. It was completely full of clothes and it was a big closet. She pulled out a pale pink dress. It had short sleeves and went to the floor. There were small white pearls along the top of it. She slipped on a pair of white satin slippers that were in the closet and then ran a brush through her hair to get the twigs and leaves out of it. She was ready when the Hatter came back to get her. He knocked on the door and she opened it.

"You look very pretty," Hatter said.

"Thank you," Alison said with a smile. Hatter gave her his arm and she slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. He led her down to the dining room where he pulled out the chair for her at the enormously long table. Her seat was to the left side of the Queen and Hatter's was to the right of the Queen so he was right across from her. The Queen's court was at the table as were quite a few other creatures like the March Hare and the Dormouse.

"Well don't you look lovely," the Queen said to Alison in her soft voice. She gave Alison a little smile.

"Thank you," Alison said returning the smile. "And thank you for the clothes and the room and everything."

"It is my pleasure." They all ate and the Queen introduced Alison and told them that she was the daughter of Alice. Everyone was very interested in her but they asked easy questions. Alison felt wonderful because everyone was extremely nice and friendly. She felt completely at home and she realized why her mother had loved Wonderland. She thought that she might feel more at home than her mother had though.