Not Alice nor Wonderland

Stubborn and Young

THIS BOOK IS A WORK OF FICTION. NAMES, CHARACTERS, PLACES, AND INCIDENTS ARE THE PRODUCT OF THE AUTHOR'S IMAGINATION OR ARE USED FICTITIOUSLY. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ACTUAL EVENTS, LOCALES, OR PERSONS, LIVING OR DEAD, IS COINCIDENTAL.

DEDICATED TO MR. CARROLL AND HIS WIDE IMAGINATION, AND TO MY FAVORITE CHARACTER: THE CHESHIRE CAT.

~~~~~

CHAPTER ONE

"The end," I told him as I closed my favorite book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, for the umpteenth time. It was close to 10 P.M., and way past Charlie's bedtime. Being the dutiful sister that I am, I had to take on the responsibility of reading stories to him every night.

"But sissy," Charlie started. "Will Alice ever get back to Wonderland?"

I sighed, putting the book back to the shelf. "First of all, Charles, please. Don't. Call. Me. Sissy." I narrowed my eyes at him and he hid half his face under the duvet. "Secondly, there is a sequel to it, called Looking Through the Glass. But it's all the same; with her waking up from a dream. I guess we just have to accept the fact that Mr. Carroll left us with our own imagination to finish his books the way we want it to be. So everyone's happy."

"But I am not happy," he frowned, wrapping his arms around a pillow. "I want another kind of adventure. Something more of weird creatures. Oh, and I don't want to imagine for myself. I think it's better if everything is happening all of a sudden, like a surprise."

Laughing, I ruffled his hair. "Isn't the Bandersnatch or the Jabberwocky strange enough for you already, bro?"

He shook his head. "Sometimes, I wish it would include more hyrbids. Stranger ones, like, mermaids-"

"Mermaids?" I interrupted. "You-- ha ha-- like mermaids? Hahaha!" I had to clutch my stomach into thinking that my 6 year old brother was into those feminine creatures. At the same time, some sick feeling was growing in the my tummy from the thought that my brother could turn out the opposite gender in the future. The blame would be all on me.

"Well, not exactly like that. But it would be cool for once, for humans to turn into something else," he pouted. "And I am not girly for thinking about mermaids!"

"Oh brother. Tsk tsk, there are books like that though, books that aren't meant for people your age."

He raised an eyebrow, implying for me to explain.

"Like Twilight," I spat out, shuddering in the process. "Uh, some people in that story turn into wolves. Did you mean in that way?

"Hmm, I suppose I did," he scratched his head and let out a yawn. Whoops, I totally forgot about his bedtime.

"You can read it in the future when you're older and understand things clearly... but you wouldn't want to read it. Seriously," I grimaced, hoping to persuade him that Twilight is quite an overrated book. Plus, a whole bunch of stories are being patterned after it too with the mainstream ideas of vampires and werewolves. "Why don't we go to bed first for now?"

"Okay," he yawned once more. "Promise me though, I'll get to read a story like that one day."

"Sure thing, bud. I'll tell you a story something like that pathetic series." I fakingly grinned at him.

Oh yeah. I hope he forgets about that in the morning. But kids don't easily forget, do they?