Oh Alice!

Prologue

Prologue

"Don't wander too far, Honey." Leslie Brooks shouted to the blue bundle racing off through the trees. "Your daughter." She laughed to the tall figure wrapping his arms around her waist, giggling as he kissed her neck.

"Yeah I know but she's your daughter too, Honey." David Brooks gave her a small hug and walked back to stoke the fire. "You know she's going to go too far, get distracted and lost again right? Just like last time."

He was right, Leslie thought. Last year she was 4 miles from camp. She was 6 at the time, out picking flowers. She loves to pick flowers, Leslie thought as she dropped the flowers her daughter had picked yesterday in the fire.

~

Alice Brooks shoved her latest pick of wild Daisies and Lavender into her small round willow wicker basket. She wandered down the old game trail a little further to the next patch of flowers. Alice was a small girl, only 7 years old, with pale blonde hair and big blue eyes. She looked so unlike like her parents, who both had brown hair and green eyes, that many would ask if she was adopted. She didn't ever understand the question when she was asked though, she thought adults were boring and weird. Alice was reaching for the last flower when a white blur racing by caught her eye. She jumped up and looked around, searching for the blur. She heard whispering coming from behind the bush to her right.

"Hello? I can hear you. Are you OK?" Alice whispered as she crept closer to the bush, her curiosity winning out like usual. A large white rabbit jumped out from the bush, standing tall. He was as tall at Alice, looking rather scared for a rabbit, his ears and nose twitching rapidly. Alice looked around confused. "Are you the one talking?" She looked behind her, realizing she could no longer see her families camp.

"Of course, I'm the one talking! Do you see anyone else here?!" The rabbit yelled at her, scaring her and making her jump back. She tripped over a stick and fell, ripping her blue skirt and scratching her leg, a few drops of blood falling onto a flower. "Now look at you, stupid girl! You fell down!" He produced a small pocket watch from around his neck that Alice hadn't noticed before, it had a yellow crescent moon with 3 small blue stars in the middle. "Oh, look what you made me do! I'm late, stupid girl!" He started to tap his foot impatiently.

"I am not stupid! I have a name! Its Alice! How would you feel if I called you stupid rabbit?" Alice snapped, putting her hands on her hips angrily.

"I'm not stupid! I'm Anderson! And I'm late!" He gave one last impatient tap of his foot and raced off past a tree and down the game trail. Alice gave one quick look back and took off after him.

~

It was nearly dark when Leslie realized the time, and that Alice wasn't back. "I'm going to go look for her. She should be back by now, Dave." She grabbed the flashlight off the picnic table, giving it a couple of test clicks to make sure it worked. It was only May, so it was still cold once the sun went down, but that wasn't Leslie's concern, nor the animals that lived on the mountain. What trouble her daughter might have gotten into was what scared her most.

"I'll stay here in case she comes back while you're gone. I'll honk twice if she does, OK?" David patted his pocket where the car keys were. "She's close Honey. Don't worry."

"OK fine. But if I'm not back in an hour honk once." Leslie flicked the flashlight on and set off the game trail Alice had set down hours ago. She flicked over all the empty flower beds. Alice had definitely been through here. Maybe I'm just over reacting, she thought.

About a mile down the trail where was a flower, just one wild daisy left in a lone patch. Others had obviously been picked from the spot, so why was this one left? Don't panic, Leslie took a deep breath, she is just around here probably sleeping. Leslie looked closer at the flower, screaming; there were 3 small, rust red droplets on the flower. Frantically, she started searching the area, freezing when she saw Alice's basket further down the trail, flowers strewn all over. Leslie screamed Alice's name, praying her little girl was safe.

~

After 2 days of the entire town of Cleardale searching the whole mountain side twice, Alice was found curled up at the base of a pine tree 10 miles from her family's camp. Her parents were distraught the whole time she was missing. Some in the town thought they were bad parents for letting her wander off alone, but those who actually knew Alice knew she had a tendency of wandering too far and getting distracted. Whatever their thoughts, everyone was just happy she was safe. After a thorough check up at the hospital and answering a few questions from the police, the Brooks all went home.

"Mommy I made new friends!" Alice nearly shout from the back seat once they got out of the hospital parking lot.

"You what? Who is your new friend, Alice?" David asked, Alice was always making new imaginary friends.

"He's a rabbit! His name is Anderson! And I met a little black and white mouse! She was so cute! Her name was Morrisa, but we called her Morry!"

"A girl mouse named Morry? That's cool, Honey!" David chimed in as they turned into their drive way. He shot Leslie a look knowing this wasn't going to end well if they didn't tread lightly, but she seemed to be ignoring him.

"And there was a funny boy and a mean lady! The boy made hats! He made me a blue one! And the lady yelled at me a lot and made me paint the white roses red!" Alice crossed her arms and made a pouting face.

"Why was she yelling at you?" Leslie asked as she unloaded Alice from the car and headed up the steps.

"I told her that her head was too big! It was this huge!" Alice stretched her arms out as far as she could to emphasize how big it was.

"Alice honey you have to treat others how you want to be treated! Are you hungry?" David asked, trying to change the subject.

"No, Daddy. I'm tired." Alice yawned and rubbed her eyes. "I just wanna go to bed."

"OK Alice. Let's get you to bed honey." David scooped Alice up into his arms and gave Leslie a concerned look. She just shook her head and turned her attention to the dishes in the sink.

The only room that wasn't yellow and white was Alice's room, everything was blue, white and black. She had a small blue bed on one wall and a small black desk in the corner, shelves on the wall holding all sorts of stuffed animals, dried and pressed flowers. The carpet was white with a huge round fuzzy blue rug. The walls were black on the bottom and blended to blue then white at the top. There were white Christmas lights hanging around the room and glow-in-the-dark stick on stars on the white ceiling. Through a set of black painted French doors was a covered porch where Alice usually slept during warm summer nights.

"Good night, my sweet angel." David whispered as he laid her down on the bed and covered her with her blue floral blankets. He kissed her head and walked out of the room, closing the door slowly behind him.

"You know what this means, David." Leslie whispered from the hall entrance. He sighed and followed his wife down the stairs. Alice had no idea what her new friends meant. One day she will understand, he thought as he glanced back at Alice's blue door with flowers and cute cartoon rabbits and mice painted on it. One day.