Adventures in Wonderland

Chapter 3

A Garden in Underland

I've entered a fantastical world. In front of me is a large garden. Its brown and tangled, the statues of it is broken and overgrown. The mossy fountain is silent as it sits it the middle of the garden. Some shabby, thin birds walk on stalk legs near the empty fountain. Enormous dragonflies, horseflies, and gnats do fierce battle in the sky above me. The most disturbing thing though is the tall flowers that have gaunt, haunted human faces. I hear a bellowing sound as a green pig dashes past me. I stare after it in amazement until I can no longer see it. "Wow. This place is so amazing.  I wonder where I am."

"I told you she's the right Lily," says the white rabbit from earlier with hope in his voice. I turn back around to see a dodo bird with eye glasses and a walking stick, the white rabbit, a young female dormouse in breeches and two round twin boys. "I am not convinced," The dormouse says stubbornly. The white rabbit throws up his hands, "How is that for gratitude? I've been up there for weeks trailing one after the next! And I was almost eaten by other animals! Can you imagine? They go about entirely unclothed and they do their... Their... Shukm in public. I had to avert my eyes." He rants with disgust.

I giggle at how strange it is for the rabbit to think its strange for animals to not wear clothes. I get the feeling I'm being watched so I look up to see the giant human faced flowers studying me. "She doesn't look anything like herself," One of them say. "That's because she's the wrong Lily," The dormouse says furiously. I get the feeling that the flowers and dormouse don't like me. Then one of the boys pipes in, "And if she was, she might be." The other on buts in, "But if she isn't she ain't." I'm not really sure that made sense to me but whatever. "But if she were so, she would be," The first one says. "But she ain't. Nohow," The second one argues again.

Now I'm really confused, bit for some reason I feel like I'm not the wrong one. And this doesn't feel like its just a dream. "Wait a minute..." They all turn to me. "What are you talking about? And how can I be the 'wrong one' when I'm the only one here? Where am I anyway? And who are you, if I may ask?" I know that's a lot of questions, but I have more of those than I do answers. One of the boys comes up and shakes my hand and begins to talk extremely fast, "I'm Tweedledee, he's Tweedledum." Then the other one - Tweedledum - comes up and shakes my hand as well. "Contrariwise. I'm Tweedledum, he's Tweedledee." I smile at them after they introduce themselves, "Its nice to meet the both of you."

Then the dodo bird finally speaks up since I got here, "We should consult Absolem." As the flowers are still looking at me with judgment in their eyes they agree with the dodo, "Exactly. Absolem will know who she is." Tweedledee puts his arm out to me, "I'll escort you." But before I can ever reach for his arm Tweedledum pulls me away from him, "Its not being your turn." They start arguing, "It be so." Then they start pulling me between them.

"Leave off!"

"Let go!"

"Woah. I've never been this popular before. Are they always like this?" I giggle. The rabbit chuckles, "Family trait." He sighs before turning to the Tweedles, "You can both escort her." Dee takes one of my arms and Dum takes the other and then we're headed off. The human faced flowers gossip as we lass them and I frown at them, "It can't be her. She looks nothing like herself."

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As we walk to wherever we're going I can't help but let my curiosity get the better of me, "So, who's this Absolem?" The rabbit glances at me, "He's wise. He's absolute."

"He's Absolem." The Tweedles say in unison. They all seem to have great respect for this Absolem person. Hopefully he can give me some answers.

We soon enter a forest of tall mushrooms surrounded by mist. As we get closer to a larger mushroom I can make out a silhouette, "Who are you?" It asks me. I'm suddenly aware that the mist is coming from a hookah that sits next to the silhouette. The rabbit pushes me closer to it and further into the mist. Now I can see it a blue caterpillar on top of the mushroom. Well I definitely didn't know caterpillars could smoke. I'm not completely sure who this is so I take a guess.

"Absolem?" The caterpillar puffs on the hookah, "You're not Absolem. I'm Absolem. Stupid girl. The question is... Who are YOU?" He takes a another puff from the hookah and blows a smoke ring in my face. I cough, choking on the nasty smoke. I wave away the smoke with my hand before answering his question.