I'm back! I know it's been so long, but school does get in the way. Just think of this as a Thanksgiving Day present. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. :)
As Alice should have remembered, Wonderland has always been a terribly unpredictable place. Anything stemming from the wonders of a child's imagination must be so, and logic and reason can be nothing but strangely absent and possibly forgotten all together. After all, logic and reason are as foreign to a child as imagination is foreign to an adult. Since Alice, unfortunately for her in this particular circumstance, was closer to an adult than a child, she had attempted to use reason and logic to explain her current situation in the rabbit hole.
If one fell into a rabbit hole, the next logical step would be to fall. Alice had rather been expecting it, especially since it had happened on her previous trip. Yet, this time something was very different. Instead of falling, Alice found herself suspended in complete darkness. She was neither moving upward nor downward, simply suspended in such dense darkness that she could not even see her hand in front of her face. It was a most uncomfortable feeling, and Alice wondered how long she was to go on like this.
"Well," she said to no one, "this is a terribly uncomfortable position. I do hope I begin moving soon. It simply won't do to be stuck in a rabbit hole all afternoon."
The darkness was Alice's only response, and she resigned herself to a long wait. The minutes continued to tick by, and finally, the thought occurred to Alice that maybe she could be moving forwards or backwards. If one could not move up or down, who is to stay that one could not move forward or backward? After a few moments of thought, she decided she must have been going backwards this whole time because she could feel no wind on her face. As soon as Alice came to her conclusion, the rabbit hole was flooded with light.
Alice, momentarily shocked, let out a little yelp in surprise before her eyes adjusted to the new brightness. She was now whizzing through the rabbit hole, passing by all manner of things. There were teacups and clocks, furniture, chessboards and lemon tarts, books, bunny rabbits, a number of playing cards, and a number of other things one might find in their grandmother's attic. There were also dozens of colors swirling around her: greens, purples, blues, oranges, reds, and pinks. It was enough to make Alice's head spin, and she snapped her eyes shut to keep from getting sick.
On and on she went past all manner of things until finally she was thrust upward out into blinding sunlight. Alice hesitated for a moment before opening her eyes to a brightly colored garden. She had never seen such bright flowers before, but not only were there flowers. There were fruit trees with apples, pears, peaches, lemons, and oranges. Rows of strawberries lined the left side of her vision, and to the right rows and rows of vividly purple grapes stretched on for what looked like miles. Behind her were the largest watermelons she had ever seen, and beyond that looked like miles and miles of never-ending forests of brilliant green.
Alice had never experienced anything quite like this before, and she felt the familiar tug of curiosity against her skirt as she finally stood. She didn't know what to examine first. It was rather unsettling for a moment, and then, Alice decided it would be best to get a nice look at the fruit trees. She was beginning to feel a little hungry (it was past dinnertime), and fruit did not seem like a terribly bad choice for a snack.
Hesitating for only a moment, Alice walked closer to the nearest tree. She was surprised to find, since she hadn't noticed before, that this tree held more than one type of fruit. There were apples, oranges, and pears all peacefully co-existing together. She turned to the left to see the same thing, except this time it was lemons, peaches, and bananas.
"How odd!" Alice said. "How is that possible?"
Mulling the thought over, Alice inspected every tree near her. Each tree held a variety of different fruits almost like one big rainbow in the form of a tree. She even found to her great surprise a gumdrop tree. Every color was represented, and each gumdrop was wrapped in different color wax paper.
This was all very strange to Alice. It was almost like she did not remember Wonderland from all those years ago. If she had been a child, she would have felt blissfully at home, but the tiny, curious little child seemed to be strangely absent. Instead, Alice could only marvel at the sights before her with all of the bewilderment, doubt, and contempt of an adult. It was different and mysterious, but she could not bring herself to feel the thrill of adventure, that wonderful sensation of stepping into the unknown. It was as if that part of her were missing completely. Alice could only stare.
"Oh my!" she exclaimed. "I've never seen anything so unusual before. Gumdrops don't grow on trees."
"We don't?" a squeaky voice said somewhere above her. "Where do we grow then?"
"I don't know," replied another squeaky voice. "Should we move then?"
"Of course not," said another with a bit more authority than the other two. "We've been here long enough. Let her grow somewhere else!"
Alice, startled, quickly jerked her head up to stare at the gumdrops in the tree. None of them were moving, and she questioned whether she had even heard those voices at all. Hesitating, she finally decided to speak.
"I beg your pardon," Alice began, "but did one of you speak just now?"
"I beg your pardon," one of the yellow gumdrops said with a mocking tone. "I beg your pardon? Not the brightest fruit is she?"
"No," said a red one. "I dare-say she's not."
"Yes," said the lone purple one toward the bottom of the tree. "She doesn't look like a very appetizing one either. She's a very funny color."
"What?" Alice cried for she was also dressed in purple. "We're the same color! How could I possibly look any different from you?"
If Alice had stopped for a moment, she would have realized just how silly it was to argue with a piece of candy. Of course they would look different. Alice, however, did not like to be insulted (that had not changed much since she was a little girl) and tried to think of various angles to use so the argument would end in her favor. The candy seemed to be doing the same thing.
"Well, dear," the purple one began, "it's not just your color. You're shaped rather oddly, too. "
The purple gumdrop said this in a way to suggest that Alice was shaped rather oddly compared to the perfect shape of the candy. Alice did not take kindly to this at all, but before she could respond, one of the bright blue gumdrops spoke.
"How did you get here?" the candy asked. "I've never seen you before."
"Well, I fell down the rabbit hole," Alice began before pausing for thought, "if you could actually call it falling. It was more like walking backwards…except I wasn't walking. I'm not really sure what was happening actually. You see, I was just sitting there in darkness for such a long time, and then I suddenly started moving, but everything was so bright…and I was moving so fast I had to shut my eyes. Then, when I opened my eyes, I was here."
"She must be mad," one of the green gumdrops said to an orange one. "She's talking nonsense now."
"But I'm not!" said Alice. "The White Rabbit pushed me into the rabbit hole!"
Alice had forgotten about the White Rabbit until that exact moment. Now she wondered where he had disappeared. It was terribly rude to just leave her there in the garden all alone. Maybe he was still in the rabbit hole suspended in darkness, or maybe he had found his way out more quickly than she. He, obviously, traveled by rabbit holes more often.
"Stark-raving mad!" the purple gumdrop called out gleefully. "I knew the moment I saw her!"
"I'm not mad!" Alice said a bit more forcefully. "I didn't mean to disturb you, but I was rather hungry and then I…."
"Rather hungry!" the gumdrops cried. "Rather hungry?"
"Well, I wasn't going to eat you." Alice said.
This, as Alice would soon find out, was not the appropriate thing to say. Instantly, chaos erupted in the garden. The gumdrops began shouting, and then all the other trees began doing the same. The next thing Alice knew all manner of things were being thrown in her direction. Peanuts and pecans began whizzing past her head, and she was almost hit twice by a large coconut. The grapes were lashing out at her with their vines, and the watermelons rolled viciously toward her.
"I didn't mean any harm!" Alice cried.
It was too late, and Alice decided it was best to just leave the garden. Dodging what looked like a piece of a thorn bush, Alice dashed toward the brilliantly colored forest hoping to find refuge there. This was a terrible mess, and she thought suddenly of being back in England seated in the parlor for afternoon tea. It was a lovely thought until the image of William Fortsworth appeared before her carrying a cup of tea and shackles, a sinister grin on his handsome face. The idea of this made Alice run even faster, as if he would magically appear in the garden to join in the chaos. Faced with him or an angry garden, Alice would rather choose the garden.
Alice ran for what felt like a very long time. Deeper and deeper into the forest she went until she finally came to a fork in the dirt path. In the center of the split, there was one long pole with four signs attached to it. Two pointed to the left, and two pointed to the right. Two of the signs seemed like complete gibberish to Alice, but she recognized the names on the other two. The one pointing to the left said Mad Hatter, and the one pointing to the right said March Hare. The brief memory of a dysfunctional tea party flashed before Alice's eyes, and she wished to go straight. Going straight, however, would mean leaving the path. With a sigh, Alice decided to go right towards the March Hare. It was only June, after all, and there might not be a tea party today.
Feeling more confident, Alice started down the path.
Thank you so much to everyone that reviewed last time! It really made my day. :) Once again, reviews are welcomed!