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Bridget had just finished refilling her glass with some particularly good wine when she heard Franky’s voice coming from the direction of the living room.
“Hey Gidge, what is Alice Beyond the Waterfall?”
Oh shit. Bridget set the glass on the kitchen counter and found herself practically sprinting around the corner and into the living room to find her girlfriend sitting on the far end of the couch, her back leaning against the armrest. Her brows were gently knit together, a look of mild confusion on her face. Bridget’s heart dropped when she realized that Franky was staring at the screen of her laptop intently, her eyes moving along words that Bridget had never intended anyone to see. Why did I have to leave that open?!
Bridget stopped briefly at the opposite end of the couch as Franky looked up from the screen, her eyebrows now climbing up her forehead as she returned to her discovery, reading aloud some of the words that Bridget knew all too well.
“She spied a flash of white behind the falling water. ‘The White Rabbit?’ She thought to herself, ‘What would he be doing here?’ Alice moved along the pond’s edge, finding a hidden path leading behind the wall of cascading water.”
The lanky brunette locked eyes with the shorter blonde woman, placing the laptop on the coffee table before settling back into the couch.
“Did you write that?” The slightly incredulous look on Franky’s face didn’t make Bridget feel any better.
Bridget felt her face heat up and knew her cheeks were sporting a particularly vivid shade of pink. She sighed as she weighed her options. There’s no use denying it now that she’s seen it… She averted her gaze as she mumbled out her answer.
“It’s just kind of a pet project I’ve been working on…” Letting the sentence trail off she risked a glance at Franky, who was still staring at her with a look of slight bewilderment.
“Alice. As in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? As in Through the Looking-Glass? So… Alice Behind the Waterfall… is like a sequel? That you wrote?” Franky’s lips were starting to quirk upwards into one of her famous grins as she started to realize what she had found. Bridget sighed again, finally resigned to just get it all out. She sank onto the opposite end of the couch from Franky and turned to face her, folding her legs underneath her bum.
“It was just an idea I’ve had running around in my head for a while that I couldn’t get rid of. And then I ran across this website where people can upload stories they’ve written about their favorite characters from literature or television or movies or whatever and I thought ‘Why not?’ so I just started writing it out and it sort of turned into a book…” She paused to suck in a breath. She was rambling. She stopped abruptly, suddenly realizing that she had been gesticulating in the air rather wildly, as she tended to do when she was nervous. Bridget looked over at Franky, surprised to see the brunette gazing back at her with nothing but curiosity and love in her eyes.
“Cool.” Was all she said, green eyes sparkling, lips spread in a small grin. Bridget felt herself relax a little, and suddenly warmed up to the topic.
“I’ve always liked the books. As a kid I would pretend the backyard was Wonderland and try to find the Hatter and the Hare so we could have tea. And then when I got older and life… happened… the story took on a whole new meaning. And Alice was just so…” she paused, searching for the right word. Franky found it first.
“Spunky.” Bridget’s blue eyes snapped to Franky’s, a chuckle escaping her as the brunette stuck the tip of her tongue out between her teeth, adding a wink for good measure to make sure the blonde understood the inference.
“Yup.” She replied, her own grin breaking out across her face. Franky’s playful expression faded suddenly, replaced by a more serious one that Bridget hadn’t seen often. But she’d learned that whenever it did appear, Franky was going to reveal something from her past.
“Alice saved me one time.” She said quietly, gazing blankly at her hands in her lap, thoughts turning inward. She went quiet, and Bridget wondered if she would get any more out of the brunette. She shifted on the couch, getting more comfortable; she could wait for forever if it meant that Franky would open up about her childhood. The movement jarred Franky out of her thoughts, and she took a deep breath before blowing out a raspberry.
“One of my teachers must have suspected what was happening at home. One day she pulled me aside gave me both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and said she thought I would find the story… interesting.” Franky grinned up at Bridget briefly, wagging her eyebrows, causing the blonde to break into a grin of her own.
“Boy was she right! I must have read those books a hundred times over the next couple of weeks. I took to carrying Wonderland around with me everywhere so I could read it at any time.” The brunette paused, a thoughtful look crossing her face.
“I think I liked the idea that Alice found herself in a crazy, messed-up, topsy-turvy world that didn’t make any sense, but didn’t let it get to her, you know? She took it in stride, for the most part.” She looked at Bridget with earnest eyes, and the blonde nodded her head quickly, her lips pressed tight into a small, understanding smile. Yes, she certainly could understand how a small girl caught in her own upside-down world, with a mother who abused instead of loved her and a father who had abandoned her, would find solace with the likes of Alice.
“Anyways, one night my mom was really angry. Like, one of the worst moods I’d ever seen her in. She started coming for me as soon as I got in the door. She had a ciggie, but she wasn’t reaching for my stomach like usual. She was aiming straight for my face. I thought she was going to put it out in my eye or something…”
Franky trailed off, letting her guard down, something Bridget rarely got to see. Her face was tight and withdrawn as she replayed the frightening memory in her head, her lips pressed into a thin hard frown. She almost looked fragile, but Bridget knew better than that. This was one of the strongest women she had ever met. So instead of wrapping the brunette in a comforting hug like she so desperately wanted to, Bridget stayed on her end of the couch and focused on the anger she felt for the cruelty the brunette had endured. And overcome.
“So, I whipped Alice out and slapped her hand as hard as I could.” Franky finished with vehemence, one side of her mouth rising in a half-smirk.
“It couldn’t have hurt that much, but it must have surprised her ‘cause she dropped the ciggie and backed off. She wasn’t happy about it, and she made sure I knew that, but she never went for my face again.” The brunette shrugged and avoided looking at her girlfriend. Bridget knew this was the sign that the story was done and Franky would be feeling particularly vulnerable. The blonde paused, mulling over her response before saying it out loud.
“If it’s possible, I think I like Alice even more now. I’m glad she was there for you when you needed her.” Strong. Sure. Not an ounce of pity, because Franky didn’t want it, didn’t need it.
She knew she had said the right thing when Franky broke into a grin, finally bringing her eyes up to meet blue ones across from her. She grabbed the laptop from the coffee table and placed it in Bridget’s lap. She stretched her long legs and tucked her feet under the smaller woman’s bum before settling back into the couch and looking at the blonde expectantly, a small smile playing across her lips. Bridget narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the brunette, barely keeping her own smile off her face. Franky finally gave in, tilting her chin at the laptop and folding her arms across her chest.
“Well go on then! What does Alice find behind the waterfall?” A small encouraging smile was all Bridget needed to steel her nerves and open the laptop. She gave a small sigh of defeat, doing her best to look put-out at Franky’s request, though she knew the grin tugging at the corners of her mouth was a dead giveaway. She settled back into her side of the couch and felt her girlfriend wiggle her toes between her thighs and the couch cushion. A small chuckle escaped her as she looked at the words on the screen and began to read.
“Alice was gazing at the waterfall when something caught her eye. She spied a flash of white behind the falling water…”