Death of the Mad Hatter (24 page)

C
HAPTER
F
ORTY-
T
WO

(
Ryley: Present Time)

Alice Mae
stood outside my bedroom window. She wore an elaborate purple dress with red trim. The ruffles that lined the bottom of her dress were a deep green, so dark they appeared almost black. She wore black and white striped leggings and bright blue boots. In her hand was a basket tied with a faded pink ribbon. She had her hair pinned back. In her other hand was a lime umbrella with purple and white polka dots.

I
was wearing gray sweat pants and an old shirt that had been washed so many times it was nearly see-through. We couldn’t have looked more like polar opposites.

“
You’ll be made as an Otherworlder within a clock’s ticktock wearing a fashion statement like that,” she said, giving me the once over.

“
We’re going to Wonderland now?” I asked, glancing at the watch my dad had given me. Ten to eight. “What about school? We’ll be late, and you hate that.”

S
he smiled that smile of hers—the one that could stop my heart from beating. She set the basket down on the ground, leaned the umbrella against the side of the house, and rested her hands on the windowsill, making her look oh, so innocent.

“Time
moves differently in Wonderland. It slows in the morning and speeds up at night, but at different rates daily, of course. No day’s length is ever the same,” she said. “Anyhoo, we have plenty of time to get there and back before the school bell rings.”

Was her
innocent nature a lie? Had she tricked my dad? Had she tricked M.H? If so, why did she still befriend Mr. Ruth? She certainly didn’t get along well with her aunts, who were friends with Hearts.

“
We need to talk,” I said. “Would you like to come in?”

“
I said time moves differently in Wonderland, not that it stops completely,” she said. “We have enough time for you to change and leave. A heart to heart can be done in that realm, not this one.”

I leaned on the windowsill. Our hands barely brushed but the touch was enough to send an electrical shock through me. From the look in her eye
s, I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling the sensation. My dad
had
to be wrong about Alice Mae. I didn’t doubt that the Liddell family was allied with Hearts, but Alice Mae looked at me like her world revolved around me. She couldn’t betray me. Right?

“
Wonderland can wait—a few minutes at least,” I said. “I’m not going to ask you how you know my dad anymore.”

Her polished smile faltered
. “Your curiosity has vanished?”

I shook my head.
“The candies you gave me on our date worked quite effectively with my dad. He had a very interesting story to tell.”

Instantly, a frown tattooed her face. Her eyes
shoved metaphorical daggers through me. She dug in her basket and pulled out the racecar. I didn’t know what she saw in the toy, but I suspected it was ensorcelled to my dad’s car.

“
What
lies
did Robby utter?”

“
They weren’t lies.”

“
Just because you believe lies, doesn’t make them truths.”

“
What I
want to believe
is that you’re
not
setting me up, like you set up my dad.”

Instead of denying
it, she turned and walked away from my bedroom window. I nearly broke my neck climbing out of the window and chasing after her. I grabbed her shoulders and twisted her around to face me. I was expecting her to spit on me, slap me across the face, or lecture me about some nonsense I didn’t understand. But instead, what I saw was a girl fighting back tears. One slid down her cheek.

“
You shouldn’t want to come to Wonderland, Ryley. It’s dangerous. I’m dangerous. If you had half of a brain, you’d stay far, far away from me.”

“
So you think I’m a cretin?” I asked, relaxing my grip. “Well, I am. It’s absurd to like you when my gut instinct tells me to run away. But here I am, holding you still so I don’t have to chase after you. If you are so dangerous, then why are you running away from me?”

“
Change of heart?”

That was it!
I dropped my grip. If she was going to run, I was done chasing her. But, if my theory was right, then she’d stay. This was a game to her and if I could tell anything from that smirk of hers, she didn’t want it to be over.

“
What went horribly wrong when you delivered for my dad?”

“
You’ll hate me if you know the truth.”

“
Hate is just one of the many feelings I have for you.”

“It
doesn’t matter if I tell you or not.” Her blue eyes turned to ice. Risqué and perilous thoughts crossed them. “You want to go to Wonderland. You
want to see it. Your curiosity has gotten the best of you.”

“
That was part of your diabolical plan, was it not? To lure me there on the queen’s behalf? I’m not an idiot, Alice Mae. I know that’s what the queen wants. Besides, it’s high time I met the woman who murdered my uncle and banished my dad. And there is a book in Hearts’ library that I need.”

That caught her by surprise.
“A book?”

“Sweets for the Rabbit
Hole Voyager.
My dad sacrificed his life for me. I’m going to see to it that he gets his life back,
”
I said. “But before I set foot in a rabbit hole, you are going to tell me what happened between you and my dad.”

She signed,
“Several years ago,” she said, counting on her fingers. “on my
u
mpteenth
visit to Wonderland, M.H. asked me to make my first delivery to a frog that guarded Robby Edgar’s house…”

C
HAPTER
F
ORTY-
T
HREE

(
Alice Mae: Umpteenth Visit to Wonderland… and back)

…
Wonderland wasn’t so different from the Otherworld. The Otherworld was just a dull, flat, boring version of Wonderland. The wondrous world was filled with possibilities just like this one. That was the single thought that crossed my mind as I knocked on an ordinary door that belonged to an even more ordinary house, in a cookie cutter development, in a town with a forgettable name. The only extraordinary thing about the gray painted house was the ceramic frog guarding the front door. It was the very frog that guarded the
Waiting Room
door
.

Following M.H
’s instructions, I placed twenty one sugar tarts in the frog’s mouth. Closing my eyes, I counted to ten and then opened them. The candy had vanished. I grinned. It worked just like M.H. said it would. He said that sometimes wondrous magic was shy in this realm and needed privacy to work.

In another week
, I’d return to this very ordinary house with the ordinary door, in an unremarkable town and place another handful of extraordinary candies in the frog’s mouth. That was the plan M.H. had set in place.

We should have had a Plan B.

I knocked on the door ten times, mimicking a tune that Omar the cockatoo had taught me. That being the only notification I was to give and then scamper away before anyone spotted me. But, I hadn’t expected the door to open so fast. My delivery had been anticipated.

It was the boy—the son of the rightful king to the Red Court! Ryley gave me
the same look that he’d given the queen when she asked him his name. He had the same eyes as his father—dark brown.

“
It’s not the pizza delivery boy, Dad,” Ryley called out.

He stood there with a disappointed and hungry look. His father walked up behind him.
Robby sucked the end of a cigar. Pools of smoke twirled from his mouth. The tobacco roll fell out after he got a good look at me and his mouth dropped open. “Go inside, son.”

“
You’re the niece of the Maude sisters, aren’t you?” Robby asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “The M.H. is a
fool
! He should have known better than to trust, much less train, a Liddell!”

I asked, timidly,
“You know my family?”

“
Liddells notoriously side with Hearts. A family of spies,” he said. “I thought M.H. was training a
boy!
”

“
I go by
Al
in Wonderland,” I said, hoping to score points.

“
So that’s why M.H. was convinced you were the right choice, because you are a girl with a boy’s name. He thought you were the child the
Bleeding Hearts Prophecy
mentioned.”

“
Hearts was positive that my niece was the one who’d stop her reign, until she heard of the name of your son. A boy with a girl’s name…” Zola Maude said, creeping from the shadows provided by the ordinary bushes in the front yard. “Imagine my shame when I find my only niece betraying the family name. Delivering candies to a known traitor, the Banished Prince of Spades! You should be ashamed of yourself, Alice Mae!”

I
’d never been so scared in my life. “I’m sorry!”

“
If you
ever
misbehave again, I’ll see that the Joker and you have a play date,” Zola Maude threatened. Her teeth sharpened like a snake’s. It sent shivers down my spine.

Robby’
s eyes darkened to match the night sky. “How did you find me, Zola Maude?”

“
It was rather easy. It may behoove you to get better at staying ‘lost.’ Perhaps, if you town-hopped more, it might be more difficult to track you. Just a suggestion,” she said, mockingly and held up a racecar. It was identical to the one Robby had in his garage!

“
I’ll keep that in mind,” Robby said, picking up the cigar. When he was bent over, he whispered to the frog. “Send word to the Mad Hatter that he’s been made.”

There were times
when magic needed to be coaxed. There were times magic needed to be taught. But, there were times that magic was just magic—unexplainable and marvelous. The ceramic cracked as the frog came alive. Within seconds the frog was hopping away. Zola Maude let go of me to chase it. I knew at the bottom of my heart that she was going to kill the amphibian.

Robby
must have come to the same conclusion because he flicked his cigar at Zola Maude. It landed in her hair, igniting it.

C
HAPTER
F
ORTY-
F
OUR

(
Ryley: Present Time)

“
… Zola Maude’s hair burned until there was nothing left,” Alice Mae said, recalling the first and only delivery she’d made for my dad. “I’d seen many unspeakable things, in this realm and in Wonderland. Watching my aunt burn wasn’t one of them.” 

I didn
’t know what to say or do. I’d thought that Alice Mae was this evil creature with a pretty face, who I just so happened to fall in love with. My dad made Alice Mae out to be this scandalous creature when it had only been a series of misfortunate events.

“
What did Zola Maude mean when she said that you and the Joker would have a play date?” I asked, hoping that my imagination had gotten the best of me.

Alice Mae
’s bottom lip trembled. “The Joker is a sadistic child, trapped in an adult’s body. I’d rather not talk about our play dates.”

“
But it’s where you learned your magical tricks, isn’t it? It was punishment for disobeying your aunts, wasn’t it?”

Her eyes turned so
icy blue, they looked almost white. “I’ve been taking lessons from the Joker for years, and have been smuggling his toys for even longer.”

She
’d been tortured via his toys. Toys! Used for torture! I couldn’t imagine how horrible that had to have been for her. I went to hug her, to take her worries away like I would for my mom when she was troubled. Instead of melting into my embrace, Alice Mae pushed me away.

I whispered her name like it was a plea for her to forgive herself.
“It wasn’t your fault that you were caught.”

“
I’m no innocent either.” Tears glossed over her enchanting blue eyes. “So, are we going to Wonderland or not?”

“
Does the queen know I’m coming?”

“
I’ve
told Hearts nothing about your Comings and Goings.”

From the plaid pants to the dress shoes and over jacket that used to be my dad’s, I looked preposterous. But, Alice Mae insisted that I would blend in perfectly. So there we were, standing beside the apple tree in her front yard.

“
You really shouldn’t squeeze Mr. Ruth so tight,” Alice Mae said, looking at the stuffed rabbit in my hands.

I loosened my grip
. Alice Mae dug inside the basket she carried.
She
handed me a single cupcake that had the words
Eat Me
written on it with purple frosting.

“
If you’re feeling small, then eat this,” she said.

She flipped open the other side of the basket. Inside was
the smallest glass pop bottle I’d ever seen. It was no bigger than my little finger.
Written on the glass were the words:
Drink Me.

“
Drink this if you’re feeling a bit too big,” she said, and then looked back at the house that might as well have been a prison. “My aunts should still be dead to the world for another couple hours, but we should still hurry. Chez gets restless, and I’m never sure where he’s going to pop up.”

She
instructed me to keep my eyes closed. Just as I shut them, she pushed me. I stumbled and intended to catch myself against the tree. I immediately opened my eyes. All the colors of the yard dripped like wet paint. I grabbed the tree, but the bark came off in gooey chunks. I tried to pick up my feet, but it felt like I was trapped in quicksand. It sucked me down until my body was submerged in the dirt. And then, gravity failed. I was no longer stuck to Earth. Instead of floating like one would in outer space, I experienced a free-fall. A gut-check of epic proportions hit me as I tried to remember how to breathe. Up wasn’t down, but down was up… and off to the side in a slightly twisted manner.

I
was falling down (or up?) a rabbit hole.