"who are you?" The voice repeated. I looked in all directions and spotted puffs of smoke coming from a mushroom about five feet away. I walk towards it and find a large caterpillar smoking a pipe. "Who. Are. You?" The caterpillar asks, and with each word a puff of smoke blows into my face. "I'm Alice. Liddell." The caterpillar eyes me up and down. "You don't look like Alice." I tilt my head in confusion. "Well, I am." The caterpillar shakes it's head. "No. Can't be. Alice is definitely taller." I cross my arms and huff. "I shrank. There was a bottle and a cake and this tiny door. It's complicated, but I really am Alice!"
"You sound absolutely mad."
"I am certainly not!"
"Says the girl who claims she's shrunk herself." The caterpillar says in a lazy tone.
"Well you're a talking caterpillar, so you must be mad too!"
"And you're talking to a caterpillar. Therefore, you are mad." Annoyed, I storm away. That stupid caterpillar doesn't know a thing about me, I'm not mad, he's mad. I think to myself. "Wait! Miss! Wait!" The caterpillar calls out to me. I roll my eyes and walk back to the caterpillar. "What?"
"If you want to unshrink yourself. Eat the mushroom."
"The mushroom? Why would I eat a mushroom?"
"One side makes you grow, the other, makes you shrink."
"Which side is which?"
"I don't know. You'll have to try it for yourself." I pick off a piece from each side of the mushroom. I eat the left and grow as tall as the trees. I eat the right and shrink to the caterpillar's size. Left is big, right is small. I take a tiny bite of both sides and grow to my original height. I go to thank the caterpillar but he's gone. Alone again, I continue my walk through the garden.
**************************
I make my way through a maze and find huge gorgeous flowers surrounding me on all sides. "What kind of flower are you?" A rose asks me. Her face is heart shaped with soft features, her petals make up her hair and her stem is her body, which is curvy like an hourglass. Her leaves form her hands, both of which reach out to touch my hair.
"Oh- I'm not-"
"Her petals are oddly shaped." A lily comments. She looks similar to the rose but her features are much rounder.
"Oh but her colors are beautiful!" A sunflower says excitedly. The sunflower, appears much like the others but more angular. The rest of the flowers are like this as well, varying in size and shape in the same way all women are. "I want to look like that!" A daisy says all the other flowers shout out similar comments and they all start grabbing for me.
"No! Stop it! Ouch! Let me go!" They tug at my arms, rip my dress, and pull my hair. "I'm not a flower!" They drop me with looks of disgust.
"Get out!" The rose screeches.
"Out! Out! Out!" The rest of them yell as they shove me towards the gate.
"And don't come back!" A daffodil says smacking me to the ground. I stand and dust myself off angrily. I walk as far away from the flowers as I can possibly get. Never have I been treated so rudely. I find my way out of the garden and into the woods. Signs point in all directions saying things like 'weast', 'neast', 'over there', and 'wrong way right'. I wander down a random path and come across a sign that says 'tea party'.
