Behind Sanity

Chapter Twenty-Five

                                                                  Behind Sanity 

                                                            Chapter Twenty-Five 

                                                                             1 

                Water swirled around her ears as a raging current pulled her along.  The liquid invaded her mouth and nose, trying to get to her lungs.  It threw her around carelessly, pushing at her from all sides like an angry mob.  She was forced to awaken now.  There could be no other choice. 

                 Pulling herself above the water’s surface with several battling strokes, Alice looked around at the scenery as she sucked in new breath.  She had been in a bathtub, slowly drifting away from life purposely, the lack of air almost exhilarating.  Now, she was being tossed around in a raging river beneath a storm-grey sky?  Not only this, the water that reached her mouth had the flavor of salt.  In fact, it tasted precisely like tears.

                 She looked around as she was pulled along, taking in all the air she could, somehow desiring it now.  Luckily, there was land nearby and she was not completely lost to the sea.  The waves pushed her toward it, and finally her hand grasped a vine that was hanging low in the dark water.  Pulling herself up with all the strength she had, she dumped herself onto the shore, soaked and gasping for breath.

                 She lay there, staring up at the sky, trying desperately to catch her breath.  What had happened?  She was back in Wonderland!  She had tried to kill herself, not bring herself back here!  How had this happened?  But she hadn’t had to think on it much, deciding quickly that it was because of the elixir.

                 “I think it’s alive,” came a voice in her water-filled ears.

                 “Perhaps we should try poking it with a stick?” asked another voice.

                 Alice raised her eyes to see several strange-looking creatures standing over her, their outlines dark against the grey sky.  Caught by the surprise, she shrieked and jumped up quickly, grasping for the knife that was usually with her, but sadly it was not.  She looked down at herself slowly at a realization she should have expected.

                 “Naked again!” she said to herself. “This must stop!”

                Alice attempted to shield herself with hands and arms.

                “By George!  Where is your fur?” asked a Rat that was as tall as Alice’s shoulders sitting up on its hind legs.

                The drenched rodent that appeared to have mange sat up and examined her, wiggling its nose closer to her bare skin until she’d had quite enough of his inspection.  She slapped his slick nose with the back of her hand, making him shrink away in discomfort.

              “Or your feathers?” asked a gigantic Eagle that towered over her.  He had sinister yellow eyes.

                 “I have none of that!” she exclaimed, not wanting to talk about it.  Or talk to them about it.  She had things to do.  She had a cat to skin.

                 “How strange…” observed a Dodo whose eyes were glazed with cataracts.

                 “Then, what kind of animal are you?” asked a Duck whose bill was split in several places.