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“At this, the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off-”
Alice swatted at the cards, trying to get them off her. Despite the fact that not all 52 cards were there, because many had been taken away to be beheaded by the Queen, this was still very difficult. Panic built in her chest as Alice realized that she was shrinking, rapidly approaching the size of the cards themselves. The girl dashed away from the courtroom, cards flying off her as she ran. Alice had no idea where she was going, but she eventually shook all the cards off her and made her way into a forest.
“Well, I’ve never seen such rude cards before!” exclaimed Alice, panting, once she had made it a considerable distance away. Just then, she noticed a familiar bodiless grin amongst the trees. It did nothing but stare at her as the Cheshire Cat’s body slowly became visible. “What will you do now, Alice?” the Cat asked. “Since I made it into the garden, I suppose my next plan should be to return home. Oh, I really do miss Dinah.” After this, Alice hesitated, for the creatures in Wonderland seemed to despise hearing about her cat. However, the Cheshire Cat only grinned wider. “Follow me.” It instructed, leaping down from the branch to walk on the ground beside Alice. “Where are you taking me?” Alice queried, though she followed him nonetheless. “Well, that depends.” the Cat replied. “Of course.” Alice grumbled “Because none of you can give a straight answer here.” The initial excitement had worn off, and she was growing quite tired of Wonderland and its inhabitants.
If the Cheshire Cat noticed this remark, it didn’t show it. Instead, it padded on through the dense forest, not looking to see if Alice was keeping up. Eventually, they arrived at a tunnel in a hill, resembling the rabbit-hole that was Alice’s way in. The Cheshire Cat then disappeared again, leaving Alice with no instructions. Alice sighed.
The girl looked around her before hesitantly walking into the rabbit-hole. She couldn’t see a thing once she was inside, so one can imagine the way her heart dropped as she suddenly lost her footing and fell. It was almost the same as Alice’s entryway into Wonderland. But something was off about the feeling. Instead of going down the rabbit-hole, Alice was going up the rabbit-hole. Objects flew past her as she went up, and up, and up, some nearly hitting her head. Despite the initial shock of Alice finding herself in this situation yet again, the poor girl was so exhausted from all her adventures that she actually fell asleep as she rose.
~
Alice blinked at the brightness, rubbing her eyes. She opened them to find that she had fallen asleep on her sister’s lap. Her sister had continued reading, but Alice interrupted her to eagerly recount her adventures. She told her all about the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts. “That sounds like a wonderful dream, Alice.” said her sister. Alice was about to insist that it wasn’t a dream, but the words died in her throat. Maybe it was a dream. The teachers all said she had an “overactive imagination”, and Alice supposed that was what that meant.
But try as she might, Alice couldn’t bring herself to forget about Wonderland. She drew rabbits in waistcoats on her schoolwork, talked about grins without bodies to her friends, and had to be absolutely certain that food wouldn’t make her shrink or grow before she ate it.
~
A few weeks later, at the same spot where Alice and her sister were sitting before, the girl was reading a book for her lessons. She wasn’t paying attention, and had to read each sentence five times to take it in. As she was drifting off, Alice heard a voice say, “Golly! Late again, I must be on my way!”. Wondering who it could be, as Alice hadn’t heard anyone walk up, and grateful for the distraction, Alice followed the sound of the voice, and saw a familiar white rabbit in a waistcoat sprint into a rabbit-hole and out of sight. “So it wasn’t a dream after all!” she exclaimed to herself. She was about to follow the rabbit, but paused. Did she really want to go back to Wonderland? Sure, it was nice there, but the inhabitants were so frustrating. Not to mention the Queen of Hearts' habit of trying to behead people and Alice’s multiple near-death experiences. As her sister said, Alice had to make the "wise decision”, and stay out of Wonderland. For good.
~End~