Down the Rabbit Hole #JustWriteIt #AltEnding #Wattpad10

Peace and Quiet

Tarrant sat on a bench in a quiet corner of the palace gardens with a book open on his lap. He was reading eagerly everything Alice wrote about the weird life of the people in the Outerland. She talked about places Tarrant had never heard about with strange names like China and Hong Kong. Her trips around the world were very fascinating, but even more intriguing to him was the trip he was taking into Alice's mind through the book. He was so absorbed in the book that he did not take notice of Mallymkun arrival, nor the twins or the hare...

"Alice is back!!" they broke in, all together.

Lifting his eyes from the book, Tarrant was annoyed to see such a gathering around him, interrupting his exploring task. "Yes, yes, the naughty boy is back," he answered absentmindedly and returned to his book.

"Tarrant!" Mallymkun insisted indignantly "Alice, our Alice is back!!!"

"Yes, I know" he answered without taking his eyes from the page.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum looked at each other and shrugged. Mallymkun jumped over the open book, placed her hands on her waist and stared at him defiantly "What is wrong with you, Tarrant? Have you lost your last marble yet or what? She...is...back!" she yelled at him.

Tarrant pushed her to the side of the page, so he could finish the sentence he was reading. "I know; I had said so."

"If you know it, what the hell are you doing here, reading a book?" she asked puzzled.

"Well, I believe that there is nothing more important to me now than reading the book Alice gave me."

"Alice!" they all shouted at once. "You've seen her already, then." affirmed Mallymkun with a certain tone of doubt in her voice. "Did she give you a book?"

"A book from Alice, what does it say?" asked the March Hare, coming closer to have a peak.

"Yes, a book she wrote herself! It's a journal about the time she spent in the Outerland." He explained excitedly adding: "Look, here," Tarrant pointed to a paragraph on the page "it says: Sometimes I doubt Underland is real, am I going mad like Aunt Imogene?"

"Imogene?" repeated Mallymkun, turning her eyes to the page. "That was the name of the girl for whom the king lost his head, wasn't it?"

"No, it was not, it was "Imogen." replied Tweedledum.

"No, Imogene, it was." continue Tweedledee.

"I would say it were Imogene if I was not sure Imogen it was." insisted Tweedledum.

"Of course not, it could only be Imogen, if Imogene was not the right name, what on the contrary it is." said Tweedledee defiantly.

"Let's take her out of the book and have a look." the March Hare broke in, already on the verge of tearing the page from the book.

"Enough!!" yelled the Hatter, slapping the book closed. "All of you, get out of here, now!" he added, pointing his index finger in the opposite direction as his green eyes suddenly changed to an orange shade like blazing fire. He stared at them until they slowly began to move muttering to each other "what is wrong with him?" just to hear his final reply: "Fairfarren all."

As soon as he judged himself alone again, he re-opened the book. Before finishing the first sentence, though, he heard a jocose voice over his head: "Tarrant wants to be left alone with his precious book, how sweet". Tarrant frowned, took a long breath, and looked up to find a huge smile floating in midair in front of him. "Chess," he sighed "what do you want?"

"Me?" answer the cat now fully materialized in front of him. "I do not want anything." The Cheshire cat replied licking his paw. "The question is what do YOU want, Hatter? Alice is baaack." and so he vanished leaving no track behind.