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Cheshire had been gone for a whole week.
At first, nobody was concerned over not seeing Cheshire for a whole day. It wasn’t uncommon for Cheshire to be hard to find especially with his invisibility. Cheshire, in general, wasn’t a sociable person so people not seeing him for a whole day just meant that he was probably taking some alone time.
The second day raised some suspicion but no panic. It was strange to not see him, but maybe he just needed some more time to himself. There’s nothing wrong with that.
The third day was when it got worrisome. Alice and Cheshire had planned to go on a daddy-daughter date that day. They had planned it weeks in advance and Cheshire wasn’t one to forget to spend time with Alice. She was like his favorite person in the world other than Gabriel.
Alice decided to go visit his tree. Maybe he had overslept. An honest mistake we all make.
But he wasn’t there.
She went to visit Gabriel. He usually knows where Cheshire is. They were practically glued to the hip. “Just like me and Rosa,” Alice had thought.
But he hadn’t seen him since the night before his disappearance.
She went to visit the Hatter-Hare house. They were his neighbors. Maybe they could’ve seen where he went.
Nothing.
The Rabbits were next.
No clue where he was either.
Doorknob, her last chance to find where Cheshire was.
Nothing.
Alice got home, sobbing profusely in her room. Cookie assured her that he couldn’t be far. That they could report to the Queen about his disappearance the next morning as early as possible. Cookie’s words soothed Alice just a tiny bit. The Queen could for sure find him as quick as possible.
The walk from Tulgey Wood to the palace was not promising. The greenery wasn’t looking as colorful as it usually was.
“Maybe it senses how I feel? Cheshire always says how alive nature was here in Wonderland. Maybe they’re greyer than normal as a way of empathizing with me,” Alice thought.
The Queen was, of course, dreadfully worried. But she had decided to send out a small search group and told them to report back to the palace that afternoon.
“I’m sure my guards will find him in no time,” assured the Queen.
Come the afternoon, all hopes were dashed for Alice and Cookie when the Card Guards reported no signs of him.
The next day, the Queen had ordered a much, much larger search party and gave them the exact same orders. But just like the day before, had reported no sign of Cheshire.
By the next day, all of Wonderland was given out orders for a missing persons. And everyone in Wonderland, from the old to the young, were participating in the search. Even the nobles(who were known to dislike Cheshire heavily) were doing their part.
Cookie and Doorknob said that they would contact someone who might know where he was, but never specified who this person was to the kids.
Their faces when they came back were not promising and neither were the reports from Wonderlanders.
Alice had been losing hope of ever finding Cheshire. She wasn’t one to be pessimistic but she couldn’t help it. Alice was crying the entire time during the afternoon report.
She was never going to see her dad again.
The last day of the week, Sunday, was when he was found by Oliver. He said he looked like he had past out in a dirt patch in the garden.
Nothing looked wrong about Cheshire. No injuries were found on him. Maybe he had forgotten to eat and passed out by accident.
Alice and Cookie took him to the bakery, to his room for him to rest. They didn’t think it was appropriate for him to rest in a tree. Gabriel wanted to stay by his side but sadly his parents had forbidden him to do so.
They waited 2 days. The wait was agonizing. All Alice wanted to do was give her dad the biggest hug imaginable. Cookie had made him some type of soup to give to him once he awoke. Gabriel tried to be there as much as possible.
Alice’s friends were hanging out at the bakery, trying to get the girls to cheer up. But all Alice and Cookie could do was to look at Cheshire and wait. And so they decided to do the same.
Cheshire had finally woken. He groaned as he lifted himself to a sitting position. Cookie dashed immediately to the kitchen to reheat some of the soup she had made.
Alice couldn’t help herself. She threw herself unto the bed and gave Cheshire the biggest and tightest hug her little arms could muster, crying tears of joy.
“Oh, Cheshire! I’m so glad you’re ok! You have no idea how worried me and Cookie were!!”
Cheshire responded to this strangely. He would usually hug her back, and tell her how much he had missed her and apologized for worrying them so much.
But this Cheshire didn’t. He moved back from Alice, looking scared and confused.
This broke Alice’s heart into pieces.
The words that came out of his mouth broke her even more.
“Um…..
Do I…
Know
You?”