Chapter Four
As soon as Hatter fell asleep that night, Alice got out her laptop and sat at the kitchen table. She Googled his symptoms and got lots of hits, but nothing that matched his situation exactly. Or else the symptoms matched, but the same tests that were used for one person had turned up nothing in Hatter. It was extremely frustrating. Still, she made some notes, followed up on some leads and abandoned others.
Then, just to see, she typed in 'Wonderland Sickness', not really expecting anything to come up. And nothing did. There were plenty of results for Wonderland, though, and Alice didn't bother with those. There were an inordinate number of movies and articles and television specials based on the Lewis Carroll novels and she wasn't interested in any of those. She didn't even bother trying to search Hatter's name, because the results would be mostly the same.
As the hour grew later and later, Alice started Googling random things just to see. She put her own name in the search field and a lot of pages came up. There were a lot more Alice Hamiltons out there than she would've thought. A link came up for the dojo, and another from an older NYU directory.
When Alice got to page four of the results, one link jumped out from all the others. It was for a Wonderland forum, and she normally would've have dismissed it as another movie fan site, but in the little summary was something that stopped her cold. Alice of Legend.
Alice clicked on the link and was taken to a page that simply said Wonderland Forum and had a link to sign in and another to register. She hesitated, then clicked to register. These things were usually free, and this one proved to be as well. She went through the whole set up – creating a username, a password, and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions of the forum. Alice used her name – AliceH – for the username. Probably the whole thing would turn out to be nothing more than another fan site, but something told her it wasn't. And when she finally had access to the forum, she saw that she was right.
There were only a few people online at this hour, but they all had Wonderland names. Turtle. Dog. Sparrow. The topic links were as varied as on any other forum, but right away a little screen popped up and asked if she wanted to chat. Yes. She did.
SPARROW: Are you *The* Alice?
ALICEH: Yes. Are you really from Wonderland?
SPARROW: OMG! I can't believe you're really here!
TURTLE: Wow! Hey, Alice, welcome to the forum!
ALICEH: Thanks.
SPARROW: Is Hatter with you? I heard he left Wonderland.
ALICEH: Yes. We're engaged, actually.
SPARROW: OMG!
TURTLE: Congrats! That's awesome!
ALICEH: He's actually the reason I'm here. He's in trouble.
DOG: Not surprising. What's he done?
SPARROW: Don't be like that, Dog. He's a hero.
ALICEH: He's really sick. The docs don't know why.
DOG: Sick how?
ALICEH: Pains. Like in his back and joints. And…
SPARROW: You can tell us, it's ok.
ALICEH: I think he's going mad.
TURTLE: He's got Homesickness.
SPARROW: He can't have!
ALICEH: Wait! What's Homesickness?
DOG: You really don't know?
SPARROW: It means he's been away from Wonderland too long.
TURTLE: Didn't he get his inoculation before he left?
ALICEH: Inoculation?
DOG: Anyone who comes to the Oyster world needs one.
SPARROW: It's the only way we can be away from Wonderland magic.
ALICEH: He didn't say anything about any inoculation.
DOG: If he didn't have one, it's because they didn't tell him.
ALICEH: What?
DOG: Someone wanted him to get Homesickness.
SPARROW: But the King…
TURTLE: Everyone knows he hates Hatter.
SPARROW: But he wouldn't!
ALICEH: Wait! Are you saying Jack did something to Hatter?
SPARROW: You have to get Hatter back to Wonderland, Alice.
TURTLE: The sooner the better.
ALICEH: But I can't. The Glass is closed.
DOG: You need to use a rabbit hole.
ALICEH: What?
TURTLE: Can you log on tomorrow night? We'll have to ask Mole.
SPARROW: Mole knows all about the rabbit holes.
ALICEH: What time?
TURTLE: 11:30pm, EST.
ALICEH: Thank you! Thank you so much!
SPARROW: Hang in there, Alice! We'll help you get sorted out.
When Alice logged out of the forum she felt immeasurably better. Why hadn't she done this sooner? She was so stupid! She hadn't thought there would be other Wonderlanders living in her world, much less that they'd be online. And now she knew what was wrong with Hatter. Her mother was right – it was something from his world. She couldn't wait to tell Hatter in the morning.
*o*o*o*
"Homesickness?" Hatter repeated. Alice had thought he'd be more excited by what she'd found out, but he just sat there. The sickness was taking its toll on him, physically as well as mentally. He was much too thin, and the shine had gone out of him.
"We have to get you home," Alice said. "They said something about you being away from the magic of Wonderland. You were supposed to get a shot or something before you came here."
"Jack never said anything about that."
"Yes. I know." Alice seethed. She'd been thinking nice things about Jack for helping Hatter get to her world, but clearly he'd had his own agenda. Like always. And this time she'd see that he paid for screwing with Hatter.
"Someone named Mole will be online tonight, and he…she…whatever…will tell me how to use a rabbit hole to get to Wonderland."
Hatter nodded. "I've heard about them. Thought they'd all been filled in."
"Well, hopefully not. It's all we've got."
Alice and Hatter both fell silent. Alice was wondering how far they'd have to go to find the nearest rabbit hole. She was pretty sure they were few and far between here in the city. But she didn't care if she had to take Hatter to Timbuktu, they were going. She missed the old Hatter, the one who was full of life and energy. The one she wanted to marry and be with forever. The one who didn't scare her.
"I guess we wait, then." Hatter looked down at his hands.
"Look, I have to teach a class today," Alice said hesitantly. "Will you be okay?"
"I can take care of myself." Hatter was angry again. He was angry a lot these days.
"I know you can. Okay." Alice got up and grabbed her gym bag. "I'll be back in a couple of hours."
"Yeah."
Alice just sighed and headed out the door. It used to be that she couldn't wait to get home every day. Now she couldn't wait to leave.
*o*o*o*
They'd talked Alice into teaching two classes at the dojo, and so she was later getting home than she'd planned. As she got closer to the apartment building she glanced up – she didn't know why – and if it had been any later in the day she wouldn't have seen him up there.
Hatter was standing on the edge of the roof.
Alice ran up the stairs to her apartment, threw the gym bag on the floor, and raced for the bedroom window, which was wide open. Taking a deep, steadying breath she climbed out on the fire escape and headed up four more floors until she'd reached the ladder to the roof.
Her heart was racing when she reached the top of the ladder. Hatter was across the roof from her, barely visible around one of the vents. She wanted to run to him and pull him away from the edge, but she knew she'd have to be careful and cautious. It took all her control to walk slowly toward him.
"What are you doing, Hatter?" Alice spoke softly. She didn't want to startle him, make him fall.
"The clockwork's not ticking properly," Hatter replied. There was fear in his voice, and pain. "Maybe crumbs. In the butter."
"Please step back from the edge."
"One step," Hatter said. "One step and it all goes away."
Alice felt like she couldn't catch her breath. She was only halfway across the roof. She'd never be able to stop him.
"Not this way, Hatter. We're so close! Don't give up on me."
"You can't get treacle from a treacle well." Hatter sighed. "I'm no good for you."
"Don't you ever say that!" Alice said fiercely. "I love you, Hatter. What do you think would happen to me if you stepped off the edge?"
"You'd be safe."
"I'd be destroyed! And alone. So if you're going, you better take me with you." Alice was almost there. But she'd said the right thing. Hatter didn't want anything to happen to her, and it was enough to make him take a step back.
"Please don't leave me," Alice whispered. And she was close enough now to wrap her arms around him, press herself against his back and hold on tight.
"Do you think Mole can help us?" Hatter asked. His voice trembled.
"I'm willing to find out. Will you come downstairs with me? Please?"
It was another moment or two, but Hatter finally let himself be pulled away from the edge. Alice followed him down the fire escape, her eyes on his back and not on the vast amounts of open space between her and the ground.
"Don't make me climb up here after you again," she said weakly. "Or I'll push you off the roof myself next time."
The old Hatter would have laughed.
AN: Yikes! Hatter's going over the edge, almost literally! Let's hope Mole has some useful information, otherwise Hatter might be headed straight for a rubber room and a hug-me jacket!
I plotted out several ways that Alice could get some help with this problem, but I liked the online Wonderland community the best. I've been part of some really great online communities myself, so that was kind of a nod to all the good friends I've never met face to face!