A/N; Whew! Another chapter finished----and finally, this one has some length to it! I'll come straight out and tell you now, just so no one's disappointed….Hatter has still yet to make an actual appearance. I promise I'm not stringing you along on purpose….and I also make the solemn promise that Chapter 5 will be chock full of so much Hattery goodness, it'll more than make up for these four staves without him ( or it'll die trying, yargh! ). As many of you have most perceptively noticed, I've been trying to incorporate some lesser known events of both the Disney adaptation and the original novel, things that tend to be forgotten in most AIW interpretations ( the Caucus race, the sea of tears, etc. )----after this chapter though, that's probably going to change. Keep up the reviews, you're all doing great! Enjoy chapter 4!
Disclaimer; I own nothing. Alice in Wonderland the novel belongs ( belonged? ) to Lewis Carroll, and the film belongs to Tim Burton.
Dreams of a Memory
Chapter 4
Alice opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She spun around and around, her hair blown straight back from her head, her nightgown whipped so sharply it pained her as it slapped her legs. Tumbling, tumbling, down, down, down.
This is it, thought Alice, her heart hammering madly in her chest. This must be it. I have to wake up now, I have to, I have to….
"Wake up," she mouthed silently, squeezing her eyes shut against the wind and the dizzying sway of the turning world. The ground was rushing up at her with terrible speed, the treetops growing steadily larger and larger, closer and closer….
Please wake up Alice…..please wake up….
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
The voice.
Alice's eyes shot open, just in time to see a flash of all-consuming green come rushing at her face. One word that the voice had spoken seared across her mind brighter than all the others, burning as if it were written in hot coals. It burned so deep, she actually forgot for a split second that she was falling out of the sky, and turned inward to gaze at it incredulously.
"Jabberwock?" she gasped, her voice all but inaudible, a breath lost on the wind.
Then, her vision was filled with green.
THWISH!
As quickly as the green had appeared, it was gone. She felt something brush by her body, so fast it was almost instantaneous, and she could scarcely be sure she'd felt anything at all….but then, before she could think, it struck her again. Green, green, flashes of green, brushes of green everywhere! She was falling through them, they were all around her.
THWISH! THWISH! TWISH!
They were leaves. She was falling through the canopy of the trees, striking leaf after leaf after leaf, each one slowing her descent in miniscule increments as she smacked and slipped past them. How long could she fall before she inevitably hit and killed herself against a branch?
But, miraculously, the death-dealing blow never came. In a few gasping seconds, the leaves were gone, and she was falling once again through clear air, the ground visible and flying towards her. She only just had time to fleetingly glimpse that she appeared to be falling toward a round, foreign red shape before she shut her eyes tight, preparing for the flattening, careening impact that would most certainly be the end of her…..and then….
THWUMP!
Alice felt her body press hard, deep, and fast into something shockingly thick and rubbery; there was a burst of reddish orange dust that coated her completely, puffed in a great cloud all around her….then, in the blink of an eye, she felt nothing, and her limbs were flailing through thin air again. Blinking and sputtering, she opened her eyes and saw that she was now sailing upward, the ground and its enormous blades of grass sinking away from her. She reached the peak of her ascent, seemed to hang suspended in mid air for an unbearably long fraction of a second, and then gravity again began pulling her down, down.
Thwump!
She yelped sharply as she struck the rubbery surface a second time, a bit more softly, and was enveloped in a second burst of the strange orange dust….she then flew upward again, but more slowly and to a far lesser height….and after the third bounce, she flew not straight into the air, but off and away to the side in a shallow little arc. With a final tumbling thump, she found herself rolling to a stop, unharmed, in the lush green grass.
For one perfectly silent moment, she lay there on her side, her eyes wide and staring, her breath rushing in and out. Her heart was pounding to beat the band.
High above, birds were chattering to each other. The canopy seemed miles away….the trunks of the trees surrounding her were thicker than the thickest redwoods she'd seen in her picture books as a girl. The blades of grass towered above her; an ant the size of her fist went scuttling past her. She paused to look at it for a moment, and it noticed her…it halted its many steps long enough to tip its hat---for it was indeed wearing a hat---to her before hurrying on.
Still terribly dazed, but gradually beginning to regain herself, Alice slowly sat up.
There in front of her, standing fifteen feet high and twice as big around, was the natural trampoline that had saved her life---it was a tremendous mushroom, the cap as red as strawberries and marked all over with orange speckles, the stem fat and milky white. All around the mushroom, a cloud of its orange spore dust hung floating in the air, illuminated by the thin beams of sunlight peering through the trees. Blinking once, Alice looked down at her hands and made a face. She was coated from head to toe in the same dust; it clung to her nightgown, her fingers, her feet….she blinked and it fell from her eyelashes. Her hair must have been quite the sight.
"Although," she sighed, dusting her hands and sending a great plume of spores up into her face, "I suppose I ought to count myself lu….lu….lu….ccckkCHOO!" she threw her head back and sneezed violently before she could finish the word, an explosion of dust billowing up all around her.
Alice sniffed and rubbed her nose, coughing once or twice. She grimaced and clucked her tongue, sucking her teeth…some of the beastly stuff had even gotten inside her mouth.
"Tastes like….buttered toast?" she remarked curiously to herself.
Well, there have been stranger things today…..
A moment later, when the ground had finally stopped spinning beneath her, Alice ventured to climb to her feet. The grass was so tall that she could scarcely see anything beyond it….she certainly had no idea which direction to go in.
"Though I wonder if it matters?" she muttered, looking back and forth. Every path and opening through the grass looked the same. Shrugging, she set off walking toward the first hollow she turned to, just to the right of the great red mushroom.
How far from the White Queen's castle had they been when the Jubjub bird attacked, and she had fallen? And the moment she remembered the castle and the Jubjub, her thoughts turned to her friend the Cardinal.
"Oh, but the poor, dear thing!" she cried sadly. "I do hope he got away. Even if he isn't real, he was rather lovely…..I should be very upset if he were dead. Perhaps he saw where I fell and followed me? If I could only look through the forest…."
But just at that moment, Alice realized with a startling surprise that she could see the forest….or at any rate, she could see more of it than she had been able to a moment ago. In fact, she could see clear over the top of the grass.
How lucky! she thought. I must have only fallen into a particularly tall patch….perhaps it gets even shorter further on.
As she took a few steps further, Alice saw that the grass did indeed continue to thin and grow shorter….in fact, after another five paces she could see quite clearly round her in every direction, and the blades reached no further than her knees. Delighted, she stopped and turned in a circle to reassess her position and decide where to go. The moment she looked behind her, however, her brow knit with confusion.
The mushroom, she thought, gazing strangely at it….Wasn't it much bigger than that?
Puzzled, she took a few steps back toward it. Yes….she was positive it had been larger only a moment ago….it had towered above her, and now her head nearly reached the cap! Then, as she stared at it, Alice realized that it was getting smaller still as she looked at it. There was no mistaking it…..she could see straight over the top of the cap now, clear to the other side! And it was shrinking further still, and faster….now it was no bigger than a picnic table!
"What in the world?" Alice wondered aloud….when all of a sudden, she felt a sharp pull on the sleeves of her nightgown. "Ouch! What was….?" she looked down, and her eyes grew wide. The hem of her white, billowy, nightdress, which seconds ago had reached all the way down to her ankles, now fell scarcely past her knees. The sleeves were shorter as well, nearly up to her elbows, and more than a pinch too tight….they squeezed her arms and constricted her shoulders. The whole thing was growing shorter and snugger by the instant.
The mushroom, the grass, the gown…..they weren't shrinking at all. She was growing!
Alice was shooting up like a weed, faster and faster with each passing moment. Before she knew what was happening, her nightgown was so tight she could scarcely breathe in it. The grass only tickled at her ankles, and the mushroom she had bounced off of sat squat and round at her feet, no bigger than a dinner plate.
What shall I do? she thought, panic beginning to seize her. If I grow any bigger, I'll be suffocated!
But even as the thought crossed her mind, the nightgown stopped tightening and the world ceased it's shrinking. She looked about her cautiously. Yes….she had stopped growing, just in time. But the nightgown was so uncomfortably small she could hardly move in it…the skirt rose halfway up her thigh, and the seams were stretched near to bursting.
"Oh, dear," Alice murmured, turning in a circle and inspecting herself all over. "This is inconvenient. However will I bend over? Maybe I should…."
"Mary Ann! There you are! What do you think you're doing out here?" a voice suddenly cried out nearby, interrupting her. Jumping slightly, Alice whirled around to see who it had come from.
There, hurrying towards her through the trees, with animpatient scowl on its furry face, was a white rabbit as tall as her waist. He was bounding along on all fours through the grass, but as he drew near to her he rose onto his hind legs, brushing himself off and straightening his waistcoat.
Alice blinked. His waistcoat?
"Mary Ann, what have you gotten all over yourself?" the rabbit demanded with a small flare of disgust, eyeing her from head to toe. He produced a little handkerchief from his breast pocket and held it over his whiskery nose.
Alice looked down at herself, blushing darkly at the sad state of her dress, and tried unsuccessfully to brush some of the staining orange dust from her arms.
"I…I….the Cardinal, and….I was falling, and the mushroom---"
The white rabbit shook his head exasperatedly, pulling a golden pocket watch from his waistcoat and checking the time. He cringed in horror and quickly stuffed it away again.
"Well, it doesn't matter now! I've a dastardly important date at Her Majesty's palace at three o'clock, and if I'm late it shall be your head, my dear."
Again with my head, Alice thought grudgingly. Can these creatures think of nothing else? But wait….."Her Majesty's palace?" Could he mean the White Queen's castle? Yes, he must! Perhaps I'm not so far from it after all, then!
"Now, quickly," the rabbit ordered, "…run home this moment and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan. Mallymkun and Thackery will be there to meet me any moment. And clean yourself up, for goodness sake….Bill will be round to inspect the chimney this afternoon, and I won't have you receiving him in such a state! Go, lazy lout,off with you!"
Not knowing what else to do, and finding herself terribly flustered, Alice obediently hurried off in the direction that the white rabbit had pointed. Her cheeks flushed red as she stumbled through the shrubbery, her long hair catching on the twiggy branches and the strained sides of her nightgown threatening to split right open with every step.
"I say," she remarked to herself with no small amazement, "I do believe he's mistaken me for his housemaid! How surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am. But I'd better take him his fan and gloves….that is, if I can find them. Running errands for rabbits in waistcoats….whatever will I be doing next?…….but then….he did say Thackery, didn't he? Perhaps that's the same fellow the Dodo was talking about."
After another moment of walking, Alice found herself tripping out of the underbrush onto a clean, well kept garden path that led out onto a road on her right, and just beyond it on her left there sat the most charming little house she had ever seen, all white shutters and bright blue trim. As she came up to it through the garden, she saw there was a large brass knocker on the front door, and engraved on it were the words W. Rabbit, Nivens McTwisp. Turning the quaint little brass knob, Alice cautiously opened the door and stuck her head inside.
"Hello?" she called, stepping in and looking about her. There was no answer, so she let herself in and shut the door behind her, careful to track as little of the orange mushroom dust as she could on the clean floor. She was standing in a little parlor filled with armchairs and lamp tables, and there was a staircase immediately on the left.
"I suppose I'd better hurry upstairs and find his things," she reasoned, "…just in case I should run into the real Mary Ann."
Upstairs, there were only three rooms stuck together with a little hallway; one was a washroom, the other a tiny ladies' bedroom with a bureau and lace comforter ( Mary Ann's quarters, undoubtedly ) and the third a master bedroom with a canopied four-poster.
"That has to be Mr. McTwisp's chamber." Just as she was about to go inside, however, a great cloud of mushroom dust fell from her shoulder and discolored a lovely jar of white tea roses sitting on a side table, and she stopped. Perhaps it would be better to wash and change first, lest she should dirty any more of the rabbit's things…or worse, ruin the fan and gloves she was meant to take him and upset him further. So, carefully looking about to make sure there was no one there, Alice let herself into Mary Ann's bedroom and shut the door.
By an extreme stroke of luck, Mary Ann must have had her clothes for the following day already laid out, for spread over the bed was a dark, midnight blue dress with a great blooming skirt and cream-colored pinafore apron, along with underclothes and a long pair of striped stockings.
Such an odd uniform, for a maid! I do hate to take it without permission, but….I certainly can't go about half dressed and staining everything orange, now, can I? Directly after the thought crossed her mind, Alice chided herself for being so silly as to worry about offending the inhabitants of her own dream. How childish I'm being! Nevertheless, she carefully gathered up the clothes and let herself through an adjoining door into the little washroom. As she passed it by, she noticed that among other trinkets there was a little oval-shaped picture frame sitting atop the bureau, and in it was a small portrait of a dour-looking, stern faced girl with bright red hair pulled in a bun behind her head.
Then that must be Mary Ann, thought Alice, and just as she thought so she looked into the looking-glass above the bureau and caught a glimpse of her reflection for the first time since she'd fallen into this mad dream. She was a sight….her face all blotched and discolored with the mushroom powder, and her blonde hair so thick with the stuff it was painted as orange as a carrot.
"So that's how he took me for his maid," she muttered. "Suppose I can't blame him….I certainly don't look like myself. And at least that means he won't be making a silly pet name for me."
In the washroom she found a basin full of clean water, a little green bar of soap and a nice pile of fluffy pink towels. In fifteen minutes, she had washed away as much of the spore dust as she could, toweled her hair until it hung in damp, curling waves over her shoulders, and slipped into Mary Ann's dress and stockings. Luckily, she had grown to almost the perfect size for them….the skirt was a bit short, hanging only a few inches below the knee, but it was indeed a vast improvement from her ruined nightdress.
And now, she thought, venturing back into the white rabbit's bedroom, to find those gloves.
Luckily for Alice, she had not far to look---glancing once about the small chamber, she saw sitting near the window a little side table, and on top of it a folded fan and a little red box, and in the box were three pairs of folded white kid gloves. Eagerly she snatched them up, and was just ready to go and hurry back downstairs---Mr. McTwisp was likely in an outrage over her taking so long to fetch his things---when suddenly something else on the little side table caught her eye, something that she was sure hadn't been there the first time she looked. Turning back, she saw that it was a little white, square cake sitting neatly on a saucer, and across the top in blue icing were written the words Eat Me.
"'Eat me,'" she read aloud to herself, staring inquisitively at the cake. "How very direct!"
All at once, as if prompted by the sight of the strange morsel, Alice felt a sharp pang of hunger pinching at her stomach.
That's peculiar….I don't remember ever feeling hungry in a dream before.
Without thinking, she reached out to pick up the cake, and was just about to put it to her lips when she abruptly halted. It would be terribly bad manners to eat something that didn't belong to her, wouldn't it?…..not to mention, it seemed like rather poor judgment to eat something she had simply found sitting on a dressing table in the bedroom of the house of a rabbit….
She stood there deliberating for a moment longer before looking up, blinking, and all but slapping herself on the forehead for her own silliness.
"Goodness gracious, Alice!"she snapped at herself. "How quickly you manage to forget that it's only a dream! What does it matter if you eat this or that? It isn't a real cake, anyhow."
Defiantly, as if determined to prove her own level headedness to herself, Alice stuffed half the little cake in her mouth at one go, gulping down the sugary mouthful and then quickly swallowing the rest. She then brushed the crumbs from her hand, nodded once, and turned to take the gloves and fan to the White Rabbit.
The instant she was about to pass through the door, however, she stopped.
Alice stared at the wooden frame of the little door, blinking in disbelief. The gloves and fan slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor unnoticed. Her lips parted incredulously.
"You must be joking," she muttered beneath her breath to no one. She blinked again, but no matter how many times she did, the sight before her eyes remained the same.
The doorway was smaller than it had been when she came into the room. Before, she hadn't even had to stoop to walk through it……and now, the lintel was well below her chin, and falling lower all the time.
"I've had just about enough of this nonsense!" she cried suddenly aloud, surprising herself with her own anger. "Wake up! WAKE UP, this instant!!"
Yet scold herself as she might, she did not wake up….and she was growing taller and taller by the second. Now her head nearly touched the ceiling of the rabbit's bedroom. She stooped down onto her knees, but it was no use….no sooner had she crouched down than her shoulders were brushing the rafters. She quickly sat down and leaned back, but she was growing so rapidly now that her arms were pressed against the walls on either side, the squeeze becoming tighter and tighter. She shut her eyes and squirmed uncomfortably as her elbow pushed against the window, and with a burst of pressure….CRACK! She could only watch helplessly as the glass shattered and fell to the ground outside, her whole arm slipping through the window and growing so large that it filled the frame, her hand and forearm dangling outside, low enough for her to feel the grass beneath her fingertips. Her head was crowded against the ceiling now, her neck bent most unnaturally downward….one of her legs had long since disappeared through the doorway and was trailing at an awkward angle down the staircase, and the other leg was scrunched up so tightly that her knee dug into her chest and hindered her breathing, while her toes were helplessly stuck in the mouth of the fireplace at the other end of the room. All of the White Rabbit's furniture had been pushed aside and broken, and bits of his bedposts poked painfully into her ribs.
When she had contorted herself in every possible way she could think of and made not the slightest progress, Alice heaved a great sigh of frustration.
Now I can do no more, whatever happens! What will become of me?
Then, just when she was certain she could hear the beams of the ceiling beginning to bow, and the boards of the floor beneath her starting to creak…..she stopped growing. A few icicles of plaster dust fell from above, and the walls gave one last complaining groan, and then all was still. Alice opened her eyes and peered around, entirely unable to move her head. She was most uncomfortable.
"Hmph. Serves me right for being a thief..."
Although, she admitted grudgingly to herself, at least Mary Ann's clothes grew with me. I wonder if people are always changing size in this world? If they are, I suppose it only stands to reason that their clothes must change size as well.
Though small comfort it was to still have the pretty blue dress intact, Alice was nevertheless most unhappy, as there seemed to be no sort of chance of her of ever getting the white rabbit his gloves, or of finding her way to the White Queen's castle…..
"His gloves and the castle? I'd consider myself quite blessed if I could ever get out of this room again, let alone---"
"Mary Ann! Mary Ann! Fetch me my gloves this instant!"
It was the white rabbit! His voice was coming up through the window. If she leaned just so to her right, she might catch a glimpse of him standing outside in the yard. Before she could alert him to her predicament, however, there came two new voices to join his, voices whose owners she could neither see nor identify. The first sounded wild and unkempt, more of a Scottish trumpet blast than a voice….besides which, it was jabbering nothing but nonsensical words to itself.
"Mary Ann, Mary Ann…catch the snikwhip, drorge the band…."
"Forget your stinking gloves, McTwisp, we've got to get to the palace!" The second of the new voices was terrifically small and high pitched, yet filled with a great vigor and sharpness.
"I shan't go if I'm not properly dressed! How long does it take to find a pair of gloves? Mary Ann!"
"Oh, go and fetch them yourself then, if they're so important! Shall I do it for you?"
"No, no, it's no good, I've tried. The front door's stuck."
Front door? Alice wiggled the toes of her left foot and felt a smooth, round little bump that must have been the doorknob.
"Arrum! Arrum! Arrum!" the wild voice began to whoop.
"Be quiet, Thackery…..Mallymkun, why did you bring him along??"
"The March Hare's as much a right to come as anyone….more of a right than you, he's been worried sick about Tarrant."
"An arrum in the window, now Ranty would have liked that! Stuck right there in the shutters, won't nobody look?"
Alice heard the white rabbit groan softly.
"Worried about him….how could anyone tell what the lunatic's thinking? And what does he keep going on about an ar……ar…..OH!" halfway through his sentence, McTwisp began to stutter fearfully, then broke into a dramatic gasp almost as if he were about to faint. "An arm!" he cried, and Alice thought she heard the pattering of furry feet. "A great, monstrous arm! A monster, a monster in my house!"
"Out of my way!" the high little voice, which must have belonged to the one the white rabbit called Mallymkun, cried. "I'll see to the brute!"
There was the sound of scuffling, and much gasping and moaning from the rabbit and his friend Thackery, and then Alice suddenly felt a sharp prick in the end of her finger.
"Ouch!" she cried, wincing and swatting her hand reflexively.
"Look out!" McTwisp cried. "The monster's attacking!"
"I'm not a monster!" called Alice through the window.
There was a short silence.
"Oh no?" retorted the high voice. "Just what are you, then?"
"I'm a…..well, I'm a girl," Alice answered, feeling a bit silly making such an obvious statement. "I've only….I've only just grown a bit too much, is all."
"Grown a bit too much for the much of your muchness, milady!" shouted Thackery.
"A girl, eh? Well if you're a girl, you're the most monstrous one I've ever seen!"
"Oh dear, oh dear, my poor house, my poor Mary Ann!" the white rabbit was moaning. "She must have been crushed to pieces inside! Where did the beast come from? However will we get it out?"
"Pull it through the chimney!" supplied Thackery.
"No, no, that won't do at all, the chimney is filthy. I'm having Bill round to clean it this afternoon."
"Well, we can't wait all day for him," Mallymkun said sternly. "Her Majesty clearly said that our meeting was at three o'clock, not a bit before or after. That's the only time of day anyone can get anything out of poor Tarrant anymore, and you know he needs to attend as well."
"But my house---!"
"Oh, fine, McTwisp!" the high voice cried exasperatedly. "If we can't stick it out, and we can't pull it out, then we'll just have to smoke it out."
"Smoke the monster out!" Thackery parroted.
"Smoke the monster out?" McTwisp gasped, horrified. "You'll ruin my curtains!"
"Thackery, got a match on you?" Mallymkun asked, ignoring the white rabbit's protests.
"Now….just you see here, Dormouse---"
"It's smoke, or nothing at all! We've less than an hour to get to the castle, and I won't miss the meeting for your silly house and your foppish gloves! We've got to be ready for Alice when she gets there, McTwisp, now either find me a match or forget the wretched house!"
Alice's ears perked sharply at the mention of her name. Her heart leaping into her mouth, she quickly began to wave with the arm hanging out of the window.
"Wait!" she shouted. "Wait! Please don't burn it down…..I'm Alice! I'm here, I'm inside the house!"
Stunned silence.
More stunned silence.
Mallymkun was the first the speak, her voice----for Alice was quite sure by now that she was a she----so soft it was little more than a squeak.
"That voice….I think I---yes, could it be? Alice??"
"Yes!" she cried. "Yes, yes, it's me! My name is Alice!"
"Rubbish!" the white rabbit shouted. "If you're Alice, what are you doing in my house, and why is your arm so enormous?"
"You mistook me for your housekeeper in the woods! I came in to fetch your gloves and I ate a cake marked Eat Me, and before I could stop it I'd grown to fill the whole room. Oh, please don't burn it down!"
"Prove it, then. If you're Alice, come outside and show us!"
"But I can't, don't you see? I'm stuck!"
"Then use the fan, silly!"
Alice narrowed her eyes. "The fan? But what good will that---"
"Just use it!"
Puzzled, but curious, and desperately wanting to get out of her tight situation, Alice quickly began looking round her for any sign of the little white fan. If she wiggled just so, she was able to free her left hand from betwixt her side and the wall, and held her tongue in her lips, straining with the effort as she felt beneath herself for the things she had dropped near the doorway. Meanwhile, the creatures were chattering wildly amongst themselves outside.
"But how could she be here? I thought Chess was supposed to bring her to the castle, the Oraculum said so!"
"Chess piece one, two up, four left! Piece two, nine left! Piece three, six up, three backwards, double somersault…."
"The Oraculum only said that Chess would be the one to find her. She said she was in the woods. How could you possibly mistake her for Mary Ann?"
"Well she looked like Mary Ann! Her hair was all orange, and I couldn't make out her face, she was all covered in----"
"Got it!" Alice cried, at last finding the tiny object in her fingers. Her voice silenced the creatures, and though she couldn't see them, she was certain they were each staring up at the window.
"Go on, then, use it! But mind you don't go too far."
Holding the fan the only way she could manage, Alice craned her wrist round, pinching the delicate little shape between her thumb and forefinger, and gently began waving it up and down, up and down---she of course felt no breeze, but obediently kept at it all the same. At first, it seemed as if nothing at all were happening----then, quite suddenly, she realized that the kink in her neck was gone, and she was able to hold her head straight up without grazing the ceiling. The next second, her shoulders didn't touch either wall of the room, and the second after that she was able to pull her foot from the chimney. The harder she fanned, the faster she shrank, Mary Ann's miraculous dress following swiftly along. It wasn't long at all before she found herself sitting on the floor in the middle of the white rabbit's ruined bedroom, not a hair taller or shorter than she had been when she entered. Overjoyed, she leapt to her feet and rushed to the window, looking out over the grassy lawn. Standing there below her was the white rabbit, looking very frazzled, with his pocket watch dangling loose from its chain; a second rabbit----tawny, mangy and wild-eyed, in a disheveled blue-gray suit, but grinning madly---and a tiny little white creature that, when she squinted, Alice saw was a mouse in a frilled pink tunic with a miniscule sword hanging at her hip. As soon as she stuck her head out the window, all three of the animals gasped and began turning about excitedly.
"Oh it is Alice, it is!" the mouse, who Alice saw was Mallymkun, cried excitedly, bobbling up and down.
"Alice!" McTwisp called to her. "Oh, dear, can you ever forgive me for not recogni-----OH!" he gasped. "Alice, drop the fan this instant!!"
"What?" Alice's smile faded, her brow knitting curiously. "But why, what's----" then, as she realized what was happening, she jumped back in shock and immediately threw down the fan as if it were a live snake….but it was too late. As she had stood there, she'd been continuing to fan herself without knowing it until she had shrunk down lower than the window sill. Even after she'd dropped the fan, she continued to fall down, down….the walls soared up around her, the window grew so high she couldn't hope to see out of it….indeed, even the floor moldings of the rabbit's bedroom were taller than she was!
"Oh no!" she cried, looking down at her hands. "What if I should go out altogether, like a candle?"
"Alice! Alice!" the voices were calling from nearby. There were thumpering footsteps on the stairs, and in a few moments the rabbits and the mouse came dashing together into the room.
"Oh dear, oh dear!" McTwisp muttered, hopping towards her and scooping her up in his paws without so much as a word of permission. Her head swam a bit as the floor sank swiftly away, and she gripped his sleeve tightly with her hands for fear of falling. "I was afraid of this! You fanned yourself far too much."
"I didn't mean to," Alice pointed out, a bit unnerved by the proximity of the rabbit's enormous face, his great furry nose sniffing and twitching nervously very near to her. He lowered her closer to the floor so that the three of them could see---Alice had stopped shrinking, and the wonderful dress had shrunk down with her, but oh! How dreadful to be so tiny! She was smaller than she had ever been before. Even Mallymkun the mouse---a dormouse, to be particular---was two heads taller than she.
"Poor girl!" Mallymkun clucked sympathetically; then quickly brightening up, "But not to worry, Sir Alice….we'll have you put right in no time, just as soon as we get to the castle! Her Majesty will fix you up right as rain. How glad we all are to see you again….and Tarrant! If this doesn't snap him back to his old self again, nothing will!"
"The palace?" Alice asked, looking hopefully up into the Dormouse's bright, olive green eyes. "Then you'll take me there?"
"A hare?? Where?" Thackery murmured, looking all around and turning himself in circles.
"Take you there!" the white rabbit cried. "Why Alice, of course we will! That's what you're here for, isn't it? The White Queen summoned you?"
"The Dodo bird asked me the same thing," Alice explained, "….but I'm afraid I simply don't know this Queen you're talking about."
The March Hare stopped spinning so abruptly he tottered to the floor, lifting his head to stare at her with his wonky eyes. Both McTwisp and Mallymkun's mouths opened, and they looked once back and forth between she and each other. Alice fidgeted uncomfortably under their gaze.
"I'm sorry," she offered feebly.
The white rabbit gave a small, nervous laugh. "Oh, but….but you're having us on, Alice! Of course you remember Her Majesty, it wasn't more than two years ago----"
"Nivens," the Dormouse whispered, staring at Alice with a sad, slowly dawning light of understanding in her eyes, "I think she's telling the truth. I…..I don't think she remembers at all."
The white rabbit's face fell. "Oh, dear…..oh dear, oh dear. Alice, do you mean to say….you've really forgotten everything all over again?"
The Dormouse put her face in her paws. "Oh, poor Tarrant….."
Alice shook her head helplessly. She felt terrible, and she didn't even understand why…..just what was all this she was supposed to be remembering, and why were these creatures all so distraught over it? And for that matter, who was this Tarrant fellow that everyone kept mentioning?
"Look, I….I'm terribly sorry, but I simply don't know what you're talking about. Perhaps….perhaps you're thinking of another Alice….?"
"Oooooh, no," Mallymkun snapped suddenly, looking up with a sharp gaze. "Not that business again. No, you're our Alice alright…..there's no mistaking it this time. You've just….you've just lost a bit of memory, that's all. That must simply be what that Upperland does to you---it's made you forget again. A nice jog about Underland to freshen your head, and it'll all come back, just like the last time, you'll see!"
"Well," sighed McTwisp, looking towards his two companions. "At any rate, we must get her to the palace. I'm certain Her Majesty will know what to do."
"Hear hear," the Dormouse cheered, seeming to regain a bit of her spark. "That's the first sense you've made today. Onward to the White Castle!"
"But wait, just a moment!" Alice peeped, but the white rabbit had already slipped her into the breast pocket of his blue waistcoat, and together the animals raced in a fury down the stairs, out of the house, and into the woods, bounding over hill and dale and dodging all sorts of bushes and trees and enormous, twisting flowers of all colors, flowers the like of which Alice had ever seen. The whole world was a colorful blur of greens and blues and crimsons, and here and there bright beams of sunlight pierced the canopy. They had run at top speed through the underbrush for quite some time when they at last came to the road, where they slowed to a walk.
All the while Alice had been tucked away in McTwisp's pocket, never daring to stick more than her head out into the air for fear of slipping out. Now that they were moving at a less frightening pace, she ventured she push herself up on her toes and reach her arms out over the lip of the fabric. Because the white rabbit was walking on all fours, she found herself hanging on her stomach almost parallel with the ground. The March Hare was close at hand on the left, and the Dormouse was just a few paces ahead of McTwisp.
Summoning her courage, Alice raised her voice as loud as she could. "Mallymkun!" she called.
The mouse looked over her shoulder as they walked. "Sir Alice!" she beamed. "You still remember my name?"
Alice's face fell. "No, I'm sorry, I only overheard, but----never mind that. Mallymkun, can I ask you a question?"
"Anything, Sir!"
In truth, Alice's mind was abuzz with questions, and she found it impossible to pick out just one. When she opened her mouth, they all came pouring out of her in a torrent.
"How is it everyone here in----in Underland---" her mouth felt strange forming the word for a second time, "---how do they all know who I am? What does this White Queen want with me, and why is it so important I get to her castle? How did the Cheshire Cat know where to find me? What's an Oraculum? And….and why does everyone act as if I've been here before?"
"Simple. You have been here before."
She shook her head with frustration. "But that's just the trouble----I'm quite certain I haven't. Wouldn't I remember if I'd been to a place like this?"
"You didn't remember the last time, either."
Alice sighed. This was going nowhere. She let her chin rest in her palm as she gazed down at the blur of pebbly road passing by beneath the rabbit's feet.
"It just can't be," she whispered to herself. "How could I ever forget such a mad, curious world? It's impossible."
It's only impossible if you believe it is.
Alice gave a tremendous start.
"Sir Alice? What is it?" the white rabbit asked.
"Bucketses!" the March Hare murmured.
Alice stared downward, wide eyed, her heart throbbing.
"It's….nothing," she muttered quickly, holding a little tighter the edge of his pocket. The voice…..she hadn't heard it for some time, she had nearly forgotten…..
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
The jaws, the claws….
The Jabberwock!
Jabberwock….Jabberwock…..what was that word, and why did it make her think of……of….?
With a sudden spark of thought, Alice looked up.
"Mallymkun!" she called again, her brow knitting in contemplation.
"What now?"
"Mallymkun……..who is Tarrant?"
The Dormouse opened her mouth as if preparing to answer, then stopped dead when Alice spoke the name. As Mallymkun looked up at her in a stunned sort of hesitation, a bright gleam of sadness bled across her face. She turned solemnly back to the road, walking with her head down.
"Wait until we reach the castle, Sir Alice," she said quietly. "And Her Majesty the White Queen will explain everything from the beginning."
Alice gazed down at the Dormouse's back for a moment longer, the questions flitting through her mind like a flock of butterflies.
The White Queen will explain everything…..everything from the beginning.
Alice took a deep breath and looked up. Straight ahead of them, just off in the distance where the rough road turned to smooth white stone and the wild forest ended, she could see it-----a great white gate, shining like a beacon in the mid-afternoon sun, and beyond that, the towering mountain of pearl-white steeples, turrets and walls.
The White Castle. They were almost there.
A/N; Just hold on a little longer, dear readers….we're almost to the really good bits! Thanks for bearing with me so far!