Death of the Mad Hatter (29 page)

C
HAPTER
F
IFTY-
F
OUR

(
Ryley: Present Time)

Alice Mae didn
’t come to school the next day or the day after that, but there was a note taped to my locker. Another love-letter from Alice Mae, no doubt.

I was wrong.

It was a page that looked like it was torn from a very old book. It was a faded recipe. The more closely I inspected it, the more the ingredient list appeared to change. It was an optical illusion. One second it appeared to be a recipe for chocolates and then the next it was for sweet tarts. The candy recipe changed every few seconds. I just hoped that my dad could decipher it.

Scribbled in Alice Mae’s hand
writing was a note:
Hearts wasn’t the only one who had a copy of his novel. One other man, the author, kept the original. Since I was his apprentice, I knew where he kept all his candy recipes, the poisonous ones and the yummy ones.

Good bye, R
.

She’d kissed the letter. I traced the faint, blue lipstick.
The halls were empty. Well, actually they were filled with students, but it was short one blonde.

I was
finally rid of that girl—the wench who stole my heart and stomped on it. There was an emptiness in my heart when I realized she’d taken my advice and left this world. I may care for the girl, but that wasn’t a good enough reason to be together. Right?

At least I could put Wonderland behind me
, until I went home. The frogs that my friends and I had released in the school appeared to have regrouped. They were hopping around my house. My mom was chasing them around with a broom.

“
Ryley, thank goodness you’re home,” she said, sweeping the varmints outside. “They’re everywhere! I swear they are coming up through the floor!”

I ran up the steps but tripped over the ceramic
frog. Theodore appeared the same, except for its smirk. I looked back at the house to make sure my mom was inside. Water blasted the window of the door. She ditched the broom for the sink sprayer.

“
Theodore, did you do this?”

The ceramic
frog didn’t move. It just kept on smiling.

“
Was this Alice Mae’s doing?”

Again, no answer.
I was half tempted to tell Theodore that I was going to smash its ceramic body by dropping it off of the porch when I recalled what my mom said.

…t
hey are coming up through the floor!

I dropped my backpack
on the kitchen table, squishing a few frogs in the process. I raced to my room. It was an amphibian nightmare. They were everywhere: On my television, bed, and on my dresser. Yet, I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from, until I looked under the bed.

A rabbit hole.

I could still hear my mom screaming at the things from the kitchen. I knew I was going to regret it, but I grabbed my baseball bat, held onto my ball cap, and pushed myself into the hole.

The
Waiting Room
was empty of any green hopping creatures. The vines still clung to the walls. The checkered floor still disorientated me, but I was prepared this time.

“
Hello?” I called out.

There was a creak behind me. Raising my bat, I turned to face it. A scared looking rabbit looked up at me—the
One-Eyed Hare, Mr. Ruth.

“
Sending an army of frogs to my house—was that a strategic move in the game Alice Mae is playing with me?” I demanded, keeping the bat held high.

“
The frogs and frogs alike have hated Al since the first M.H. was beheaded. They are merely celebrating because Al is ‘entertaining’ the queen, second Mad Hatter,” Mr. Ruth said, glancing at my hat. “I truly didn’t think it’d go this far, but the prophecy about her was true. I saw the second hand dance back and forth, like time is no longer a linear force—”

“
What did she do?”

“
She made a deal with the queen,” Mr. Ruth said, timidly. He walked back and forth. “Guilt coats her soul. It has since she got her best friend killed. No one blames her more than she does. She made me promise to keep my good eye on you, never let you out of my sight until it’s safe. So, I cannot let you into Wonderland. It’s for your safety. You will die if you step through the mouse door.”

I dropped the bat.
“And what happens to her if I don’t cross into Wonderland?”

“
You must understand that I believe the prophecies to be true. The HATed fool will die twice before the MADness stops. Ryley, that card was split in half and given to you and M.H. The prediction about Al has commenced as well. She will Weep in the Otherworld or live Wondrously. She thinks that living Wondrously means that she will be forgiven in death—a death given to her by Wonderland’s queen.”

I swung my bat down on the mermaid table. Mr. Ruth took off running while the glass shattered. He hid behind the vines and watched me cautiously.

“
Tell me about the deal she made!”

The rabbit swallowed a lump in his throat.
“Hearts wouldn’t have to fret about her reign ending if she could ensure that you’d never come back to Wonderland… and if she met death.”

“
She’s going to die for me?”

“
To ensure your safety, which I promised her I’d do. You cannot enter Wonderland, or you’ll prove the prophecy right.”

I
fell to my knees. Glass ground into my skin. “I wish I’d never met her.”

Mr. Ruth gasped. He hopped from out of the vines. He moved quickly but with precision, missing every piece of glass on the floor, until he was standing directly in front of me.

“
She’s made many mistakes, Mad Hatter. But she’s doing this because she loves you. For Al, meeting you saved her from the bitterness residing in her soul.”

I gripped the bat tight in my hand. Could I do it? Could I walk away
? Could I live with myself year-in and year-out? Did I even know what love meant, if I could bear to walk away and let her die?

“
I hate Alice Mae, but I love her more,” I said. “Did my dad think the impossible was possible?”

Mr. Ruth
shifted nervously. “I don’t like where this conversation is going.”

“
Until my dad lost track of reality, he was working as a physics depart—”

“
Your father loved your mother, he still does. From afar, which is what you now have to learn to do,” Mr. Ruth said. “Hearts might not kill Alice Mae right away. Besides, I can’t let you enter Wonderland. I made a promise to Al. It might as well have been her dying wish.”

“
No, you promised her that you’d never take your good eye off me until it was safe,” I said. “She didn’t specify whose safety.”

C
HAPTER
F
IFTY-
F
IVE

(
Ryley: Present Time in Wonderland)

“
She once danced until her feet bled,” the Joker said, standing on a wooden platform. “Now that she’s all grown up, she’ll dance until her body can no longer carry her to center stage.”

The boards were uneven and splintered.
Lights strung all around the stage. Lanterns floated in the air.
It looked like a little girl threw a tea party and invited all her stuffed animals. However, these creatures were animated. They chatted pleasantly with one another, like this wasn’t a ballet that ended only when a girl collapsed. The Maude sisters were there—nibbling on saltwater taffy! Adjacent to the stage was Hearts, perched on her throne. She smiled a pleasant little smile. I hated when people said nothing and just smiled. It hid their true feelings.

I kept to the protection of the white magnolia tree
even though it was a moonless night
. Mr. Ruth kept to my side, doing precisely what he promised Alice Mae.

“
Start the ceremony,” Hearts said, seemingly bored already.

Half past midnight
, Alice Mae took to the stage. Her light blue shoes flickered when her toe came into contact with the stage. It appeared as if she’d captured a thousand fireflies and trapped them in her grandmother’s glass slippers. The taut, golden ballerina outfit accentuated her willowy figure. Her gait was so light she seemed to float on stage. On her head was a purple hat that my dad had worn on his wedding day—a hat belonging to her late friend. It was a hat that belonged to a hated fool.

She tipped her hat to the crowd.
“Tonight, I dance for my late friend, the infamous M.H.”

There were no claps. No one shouted with glee. They gave her hateful looks. I couldn
’t imagine the strength it took to walk in her shoes. If I hadn’t been watching for it, I’d never have seen the tear slip from her eye as she stood in a pose. It rolled down her perfect porcelain face, leaving only a faint line to show that she’d shed a tear for her loved ones. Weeks had lapsed since she once danced in a classroom, when no one watched but me. Now, her audience consisted of people who didn’t know, weren’t aware of her strength.

T
he music resonated. It began slow and wispy. Yet, it quickly turned retro, complimenting Alice Mae’s particular taste in music. She danced as if a puppeteer was moving her. She was so graceful. I’d never seen anyone more beautiful—or haunting. This dance she choreographed was a dance of her life. The beauty. The shame. Every Wrong she ever made, and the few rights—this dance represented her undying nature to fight when it would have been easier to give up.

I couldn
’t believe that she could twist and turn her dance lessons with the Joker and make them into a thing of haunting splendor. He sat at the edge of the stage, chucking smoke bombs at Alice Mae. They exploded as she moved. Still, she didn’t flinch. I wondered how many times the man tormented her while she twirled in circles around him.

Our gaze
s met when she completed a jump.
Her light blue eyes were dazzling, even though they were icy. She never stumbled, even though I could see that she wasn’t happy to see me.
She glanced at Mr. Ruth and shook her head in disappointment.

The music blasted, drowning out the rest of the world. The spotlight showed only one girl in the world. The entire world could have taken five, and I wouldn
’t have noticed because I couldn’t take my eyes off of Alice Mae.

Mr. Ruth tugged on my pants. He pointed to Alice Mae
’s shoes. They were no longer all light blue. Red stained them.

Pushing away from the tree,
I walked through the crowd with my baseball bat still in hand. Alice Mae became more and more panicked the closer I came. She even tossed the hat off to me, which I promptly put on my head. When I was blocked from the queen’s sight by an elephant, she whispered for me to leave.

“
I didn’t realize you would be having a speaking part,” Hearts commented. “Who are you telling to leave? As queen, I claim exclusive rights to tell people when to come and go.”

Alice Mae stopped dancing and stared at me. She threw her hands up in the air.
“Why did you come? You promised you wouldn’t once you had the recipe!”

There was so much I wanted to say. There was so much left unsaid. But, privacy was not going to be given. The creatures
watched us like our conversation was a part of the show.

“
Because, I’ll follow you anywhere, Alice Mae, even down a muddy rabbit hole.”

“
All those hurtful things you said—”

“
If you jotted down all of my ill-thought out comments, you could write a book entitled,
Guide to Getting Punched in the Throat for Boneheads
.”

“
You weren’t supposed to come here!”

“
Yet, I’m here all the same.”

The Joker got one good look at me and alerted the queen. Hearts actually got off her chair and walked across the stage to see for herself.
“My-oh-my, Ryley Edward Edgar, the Heir with the One-Eyed Hare has graced us with his presence.”