JMJ

Chapter Three

Touching Grass

Matthias ducked.

Esther screamed, but Matthias was hardly singed. The aim had been so bad, or the aim had just changed. Though why at the wall, could only be because Dr. Matter felt like he was yelling at it and so blamed it for his trouble.

No one had time to look out the hole he had made, though it was a sizable one, as Matter had the X-ray gun up again and ready for action with his mulish teeth grinding. All that Matthias knew was that the time to move was now. As fast as he could think it, he shoved the swivel chair of the desk into the old mule.

With a scratchy horrible whinnying hee-haw of a screech, Matter flung back into the cupboards in a tumble of anthropomorphic limbs and whip-like tail. The ray-gun fired upwards into the ceiling. Rubble fell with it all.

Matthias had Esther by the arm faster than he knew how. Clutching his hat to his head as though it was worth saving, he nearly kicked the Hatter ahead of him as he was already moving to inspect the hole in the wall. The little man tumbled forward in front of them in time for the couple to leap out after.

It was only after the leap that Matthias remembered the wise if not humdrum maxim: "Look before you leap", but it was far too late for that. Besides, it flashed through his mind that he would actually rather go splat down a million floors than be shot like a sitting duck by Matter.

Empty air tingled through body and tickled the mind but he still had no time to look down.

Thump, bump, tumble, moan.

It had not been very far or very hard as they had landed in a pile of dirt.

Matthias stiffened in alarm and sniffed the dark matter in front of him suddenly struck by the fear of animal manure possibly Matter's own. It smelled like nothing but sweet earth, and in fact there nothing but earth all around them, except the mouth-like cavity up ahead.

Well, they had gone down fairly far to get to the doctor's office, after all, so it should not have been surprising that they were underground.

A snarl that almost sounded like a shriek from a prehistoric movie raptor kept the motion going. Matthias had never heard a mule, but he had heard that mules sound stranger than donkeys, so he could not be sure if it was the sound of a real mule or just some horrendous sound of a monster that Matter had transformed into. Was it strange that he had to wonder if Esther had, since they could only experience what they already knew in Wonderland, but whatever the reason, a movie sound had to come from somewhere and if an elephant or a lion, why not an enraged mule too?

Off they shot before they could be shot. Hatter was far ahead, moving with that speed made infamous from his escape from the Queen of Hearts' trial. Out into the blinding light they erupted out of the tunnel with the sound of the ray blasting behind them. Matthias was not sure if this hole had been made by the first shot or not, but it sure blasted more blindingly than daylight as he pulled Esther round the corner of the hole.

Stumbling beyond they landed in the overbearing scent and the fluffy grass cuttings of a freshly mowed lawn.

Then all was calm except their breaths. The only roar was the distant and playful one of a waterfall, the presence of which explained why they could have come out above ground so quickly. Sweetly singing birds echoed along a graceful breeze and slowly nodding heads of clover and violets had somehow managed to escape the lawnmower's rampage just as Matthias and Esther had escape the doctor's amputations.

Or had they just yet? The serenity seemed deceitful.

Slowly, Matthias lifted himself into a squat and looked around. Esther was already kneeling and chewing her lip. She looked up at Matthias afraid he might have heard something.

He stood up.

Esther stood up too.

He turned and noticed a large pipe jabbed into a rising hill that likely led back up to the bank. He motioned her towards it. There was no water running through it now so it was a safe enough place to sit, and a great barrier too if need be. There was really no place else to think of hiding except in the river itself without running up the hill.

"Wait here," he said.

"But—" Esther tried.

"Just a minute. No use us giving him more of a target," said Matthias.

Esther made a face and sat down on the pipe's edge with a disapproving huff. Matthias ignored it. She was staying. That was all he cared about.

"Where's the Hatter?" asked Esther.

Matthias was too focused on his task to answer that either. To be honest at the moment, he would have preferred if the Mad Hatter never showed up again.

Quickly and quietly, like a little mouse about to peak into what might be the den of a snake, he scurried round to the cavernous opening and then paused with a jerking motion. He looked behind at Esther then took two more steps in order to peer inside, but all he saw was blackness.

Had the whole clinic fallen on Matter's head? Had there been a cave-in to block the hole that Matter had made to his wall?

Matthias paused listening. Nothing at all came to him that sounded the least bit dangerous.

"Hmph," he said and turned round back to Esther and the pipe. "Guess we've touched grass after all."

Esther pouted thoughtfully. "If Wonderland has that sort of grass…"

Matthias shrugged. "Force of habit."

"I know," said Esther and she smiled weakly. "You always had that habit."

Matthias beamed.

"As well as the habit of quick thinking in bad situations," Esther admitted, and she looked down guiltily. "I'm sorry."

"What for? Going into the clinic? Water under the…" Matthias paused. "Wading room."

Then he sat down beside her at the edge of the pipe.

Softly, Esther laughed. "But you're still not going to trust me for a while."

Matthias shrugged and kicked up some loose grass clippings. "I'll forget before long. You know that."

Esther nodded, but her face went thoughtful.

"Matthias…" she said.

"Huh?" He rubbed the back of his neck, sore from all the stumbling.

"Did that mean anything about there still being something in your head?" asked Esther firmly. "I mean, if it was just that—that—well, donkey thing I wouldn't've thought as much, but the Mad Hatter said that…"

Her voice trailed off of its own accord before Matthias could hold up a hand to stop her. She needed to say no more; it was not shyness that stopped her more than charity. She knew that Matthias understood.

He squirmed inwardly but sighed wearily outwardly as he scowled at the sparkling water of the falls.

"Matthias?" Esther pressed as she pressed a hand on his knee.

"I… I donno."

He could have lied. He had thought of lying, but there was no use fighting the inevitable. Neither one them knew much.

"I'm not in any pain or anything and I'm sure I remember everything now if that helps," Matthias insisted as he turned earnestly to her. "Is there something wrong about me?"

Gazing at Matthias' face, Esther's dark greenish-hazel eyes studied him a moment, bouncing in that searching way.

"I don't think so," she said, "but I'm just afraid that it means something."

"It probably does," shrugged Matthias carelessly even though he did not feel so careless about it. "It probably means we haven't shaken the scientists entirely one way or another. I think for now we should just take it as—"

"A reminder that we shouldn't forget why we're here?" offered Esther suddenly.

"Something like that," Matthias admitted.

"Does that mean Wonderlandians can speak of what's happening in the ball even if we don't know it?"

Matthias looked around suddenly and sure enough beyond the falls there was just a snippet of it. Ugly, looming, almost as if it was peaking at them from behind a hedge with a nasty cheeky grin. He huffed back at it.

"How will we get back to it?" Esther asked.

"I'm pretty sure I said it already that there wouldn't be any reason to go to the ball until we have a real plan. It would be better to go to where the scientists are, I think."

"How do we do that?" huffed Esther now.

"We don't seem to have gotten any closer to answering that, have we?"

"I wish there was something more I knew from before I went in. I shouldn't've jumped into this so quickly, but—"

"Right," said Matthias, and he paused. "Okay, but you're sure there's nothing about this you haven't told me? How did you get involved in this, Esther? How did you even know what happened at all?"

"I was there with you, Matthias," said Esther then.

"No you weren't!" Matthias insisted as he feared more false memories.

"Not at your capture," Esther insisted back.

Matthias stood up in spite of himself and began to pace and to kick up more grass clipping and even tried to kick up the head of a daisy. The daisy ducked just as surely as it had ducked from the mower. Maybe a sitting duck wasn't so helpless as long as that duck had enough space to make it a deep enough one. He shook his head.

"But you told me your suspicions about the place across the street, remember?"

Matthias sighed. Yes, he did. Only now that she had mentioned it.

"When you disappeared, of course I thought it must have had something to do with all that. The place was abandoned and everything. Or at least… it looked like it was. Now I'm not so sure."

"But you didn't do all this by yourself," Matthias said more accusingly than he should have. "At least you better not have."

"Of course not," said Esther.

"Isn't there someone on the other end of this?"

"Your brother."

"My brother… doesn't know anything about computers… not that way anyway."

"My sister."

"A family reunion, eh?" Matthias laughed humorlessly. "We're just two peas in a pod, aren't we? No police. No real experts on all this."

"I hacked," said Esther. "They stood guard."

"Yes, I'm sure you did," said Matthias. "It's what you're good at."

"Your friend Alex."

"I figured as much, but he's not so good at hacking either."

"But he is good at research."

"Sounds like a little geek club," Matthias grumbled. "Uh! No offense."

Esther laughed and stood up with him.

"What's so funny?" Matthias demanded, but he was allowing her quite freely to stop his pacing as she stepped in front of him.

She grabbed his arms and gazed at him with a smile he simply could not refuse. "Matthias."

"What?"

"I love you," she kissed him.

Admittedly, this was the only thing that could be done with nothing more practical to do. He kissed her back regardless of his ill feelings, and it was a bit of a balm even if not a cure. He kissed her again quite deeply the second time and held her on either side of her head so that her messy shag bob ruffled everywhere like the mane of a shaggy dog. Then he pressed his head into hers in such an old-fashioned, medieval manner that he found himself sneering to balance it out.

"This isn't helping," he lied.

"Yes, it is," Esther said back.

So he kissed her again. It felt so remote here that he hardly expected to be interrupted, though they really weren't far from civilization, if Wonderland could be called that. Esther did deserve it having had no time to reclaim him since he remembered who she was. They sat down on the grass this time into the heel of the hill.

"We should…" he said with some reluctance, "probably see if my dear old man left something worthwhile for us at the bank."

"I don't want to."

"Yes, you do," said Matthias stroking her closely.

"He probably left us and won't see us again until we cross the pond. Whatever that means. It's all a wild goose chase."

Matthias shook his head. "We're not going round in circles. We're going somewhere. Alice always makes it to the end no matter the meandering nature of the levels in between."

"You mean like a video game?" Esther wrinkled her nose.

"Like Alice in Wonderland," corrected Matthias.

Esther relented. "Oh, we might as well go."

Matthias laughed. "That's the spirit, Alice."

She adjusted his hat as she said with mock dryness, "Well, what are you waiting for, Mr. Hatter?"

"You're word, Queen Alice."

"Mph, I prefer, Mrs. Hatter."

"Even with how stupid that sounds?" asked Matthias.

"It does in all other cases of the silly franchise except when it comes to you," Esther insisted.

"I thought you liked the year '09," shrugged Matthias.

Esther moaned almost childishly annoyed to be reminded. Matthias stood up bringing Mrs. Haddler with him by the hand like a prince and she the barefoot princess discovered living magically in the wood.

"After this, I don't think I want to think about any Alice in Wonderland for another ten years," muttered Esther as they crawled up the hill in the reddening evening.

"Only ten?" teased Matthias.

"I don't know. Maybe I'd still like to introduce it to a daughter?" grumbled Esther, still teasing too despite how she pretended not to be.

"Our heroic adventure?" laughed Matthias. "You should write it all down in a book."

"Mph."

"I mean it," said Matthias. "Just like your other favorite book and your other favorite hero."

"What's that?"

"Starscream from the Reign of Starscream," teased Matthias.

"Pfft!" Esther snorted.

"C'mon. Samwise Gamgee."

Finally Esther smiled again, and Matthias was satisfied. "Matthias wouldn't've gotten far without Esther, you know."

Self-consciously but not quite mortified Esther sighed.

Just one little peck on the cheek was all Matthias added to that as he gently cupped her chin, but just as he was gently breaking away from her he almost rammed into her with the sudden start caused by a loud voice shouting ridiculously loud from seemingly nowhere.

"MR. AND MRS. HADDLER!"

"Mph!" squeaked Esther.

Matthias straightened himself with a grunt and turned to the hare in question. It was indeed the March Hare or his close identical twin. On his head was the Dormouse peeking out from the toupee of dried grass, two long English hare ears, and a black and yellow bellhop hat. The Dormouse had the same hat in miniature form as well as the mini bellhop uniform as much as the March Hare wore the bellhop uniform. Except that the Dormouse's uniform was black and green.

"May we help you, gentlemen?" demanded Matthias stiffly.

The Bellhop Hare hopped one pace further. The Dormouse doorman, so sleepily that it was almost absently reaching under the Hare's hat, pulled out a telegram.

"Telegram for Mr. and Mrs. Haddler," said the Hare with a gracious bow.

From the gesture, the Dormouse rolled out from under the hat and onto the ground but with the telegram in paw nonetheless. Once he landed he held it up.

"Oh, the grass is soft today," he muttered.

Matthias reached down and took it not without a glance exchanged with Esther.

"You… okay?" asked Esther of the mouse, but the mouse-sized snores emitted so softly and comfortably, that it seemed best to leave him be.

The Hare shrugged. "He'll be okay once the daisies cover him."

"A little rude," Matthias muttered, but he was busy now with the telegram, which was from exactly who he expected it to be from.

"Mattie-boy! I left you the combination to the safe with your party favors. I do apologize for the delay from minding tea to cues, but we'll make up for lost time after the portage. Look for M. Hatter to find my box. Kind regards, your doting father."

Flipping the card around he saw the combination was the same as President Skroob's.

"Nice," said Matthias.

"Then I shall force a non-compulsory tip, Mr. Haddler," the Bellhop said holding out his hand.

Matthias tipped his hat.

The Bellhop smiled satisfied, and Matthias could only shake his head.

"Oh!" said the Bellhop, "And you'll want this."

He reached under his hat again and pulled out a very pretty little antique key.

Esther took it into her hand and studied its impressive detail.

There was no further explanation than that. The Bellhop hopped away quite leaving the slumbering Dormouse in the grass.

"Wait, what about the Dormouse?" Esther called after him, but the Bellhop was long gone.

"I think he'll be fine," shrugged Matthias.

Esther looked down on the little creature doubtfully. "He just looks so exposed here like a hawk might pick him up."

"Then he might just end up in a pawn shop," shrugged Matthias. "He's survived this long. I doubt a nap in this pretty lawn will do him any harm. Come on."

Esther might have fought it more had she not already regretted the clinical disaster they had just escaped from, but for now she scooped him up into her hands as carefully as she could even straightening his hat for him. He did not wake up even if mumbled a little. She hid him under the pipe, so that at least he was out of sight from a predator.

Matthias smirked with hands in his pockets. He loved her all the more.