Monday, March 5, 2012

Down The Rabbit Hole Again

Alice was beginning to get very tired after having returned from her grand journey down the Rabbit-Hole. Oh how she longed for just one more adventure...


Having nothing much to do that afternoon, she immersed herself in the bath, tea cup in hand, to ponder "What is the use" of "returning home without the friendship of blue caterpillars who smoke hookahs, babies who turn into pigs, cats whose grins remain after their heads have faded away, and a Mad Hatter who speaks to Time?"


Alice was considering, in her own mind (as well as she could, for the boredom of non-rabbit-hole life had made her feel very sleepy and stupid), 


whether the pleasure of making a steampunk chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and choosing the correct links, when suddenly...


a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her. 


"How very remarkable!" thought Alice. 


"Oh dear! Oh dear! What shall I do?" asked Alice of her self. 


When she thought it over, it occurred to her how funny that she ought to have wondered this again, but at the time it all seemed quite natural to tell her bestie that she was headed out for yet another adventure! Shhhh.... don't tell. I'll be back soon...

Though she wasn't so certain.


But, just then, when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, everything fell out and toppled over Alice's head and she forgot herself!


Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind fleeting images of cards flying hither and thither.


Burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down another large rabbit-hole under the hedge behind the castle over yonder. 


For a brief moment Alice experienced a flashback of those flying playing cards, but she never once considered how in the world she was going to deal with her PSTD if she followed the Rabbit down the hole again. 


The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. 


Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder how she would make sense of what she discovered sitting on the table for second time?" 


But she knew the routine, for she had read her story a thousand times over since she first followed that white rabbit.


"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of boredom! How interesting I'll be when I get back home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about how I became so interesting, even if my image goes completely backwards when I return."


Alice thought of abandoning her old journey, but it was too late now. 


Down, down, down. "Do cups eat pups? Do pups eat cups?" for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She was falling for the same adventure yet again, as she put it.


She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with DInah to a mushroom patch, and was saying to her, very earnestly, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever see a pup eat a cup?" 


when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over. 

OUCH!
 I don't remember that hurting last time! 


"Oh my ears and whiskers, how different everything looks!"


Alice stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped out the door, and her eyes immediately met those of a large caterpillar, that was sitting on the top, with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her AGAIN! 


Until, that is, the caterpillar noticed her new shoes! 


"This time I brought my luggage," Alice added, as though the caterpillar had said actually complimented such exquisite craftsmanship she referred to as her footwear. This was an encouraging opening for their last conversation hadn't been as such. Alice, rather confidently, replied, "I know, you can hardly believe your eyes, sir, for I have changed several times over since we last met." 

"Why yes," the Caterpillar said complimentarily, as he eyed her luggage with much suspicion. 


Alice thought about how the Caterpillar hadn't been in a very pleasant state of mind the last time they spoke, which for some funny reason caused her to imagine reading her storybook in her bathtub at home rather than actually being here living out another adventure.


Alice reminded herself that she was a little larger now, not so easily offended, and could wait patiently to speak until the Caterpillar climbed down from the mushroom. "See here," she pointed as she pushed her book up to the tree. This map shows us exactly which way I ought to go from here. Alice smiled. 


Remembering at that precise moment that there was a table set out under a tree in front of a house, with the March Hare and the Hatter having tea at it: she decided to hurry along in an encouraging pace.


No time to say "Tea, please". You're late, you're late, you're late. 


Don't just do something, stand there...Uh...no no! Go get my gloves! You're late!


But for what? I've already saved Wonderland.



No comments: