~{Madly In Love~Mad Hatter}~

1~Beginnings

   Business was boring. Any kid would agree, even some adults. For eight-year-old Evelynn Jennings, it couldn't be any more true. Evelynn was a light-skinned, light brown-haired girl from Virginia, U.S. Her father, Benedict, was a businessman, her mother died during childbirth. Evie (for pronunciation, Eh-vee not Ee-vee) and her father were visiting England for a month. Her Aunt Clarrissa lived in London, which just so happened to be where Benedict was to do business with another man, Charles Kingsleigh. Evie was sitting next to her father who was talking about boring things with Mr. Kingsleigh.

   Her father took note of her obvious boredom and spoke up. "Evelynn, dear, I'm sure Mr. Kingsleigh wouldn't mind if you went and explored the gardens, would you?" Charles smiled. "Better idea, my nine-year-old daughter is in her room if you would like to play with her, she'd be happy to have you! It's just down the hallway, second to last door on the right."

   Evie slowly and quietly walked down the hall. She found the room and peeked around the corner. A little girl was sitting at a small table with stuffies in the chairs. She had a pretend tea set and was pouring the pretend tea into the tiny teacups. She had on the most ridiculous outfit, a feather boa, high heels that were way too big, a pink tutu, and a crazy-looking hat.

   The little girl froze when she heard a noise. She looked up to see a figure standing in the doorway. "You can come in, you know!" The girl giggled. Evie shyly walked in. "Hi! I'm Alice. Alice Kingsleigh! What's your name?" Her eyes glistened with a certain look of curiosity and a touch of madness as her smile beamed. She seemed friendly enough. Evie slightly smiled but continued to look anywhere else but at Alice. "I-I'm Evelynn. E-Evelynn Jennings. You can call me Evie!" She was getting more comfortable around Alice now.

   "Um, Alice what were you doing before I walked in?" Evie queried. "Having a tea party of course! We're celebrating my un-birthday!" "What is your 'un-birthday'?" She asked, confused. "It's your not birthday! You only have one birthday but you have 364 UN-birthdays! 365 if it's a leap year." Evie giggled. "Where did you come up with that?" She was intrigued. She and Alice sat on the bed. "Well, I've been having these dreams. They're always the same. I fall down a hole into this magical, um, Wonderland! And there are a lot of funny people there, like twins that don't know their own names, a disappearing cat that can smile, a mean queen who screams 'OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!', and a mad hatter who is OBSESSED with tea. I was just pretending to be him and serve tea!"

   Evie stared in amazement. "Wow! I'd want to go there!" Alice shook her head. "Maybe we could try to find the white rabbit together sometime? My father always tells me that he thinks of six impossible things before breakfast!" Evie raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's completely bonkers, mad even!" Alice smirked. "My father also tells me that I'm crazy, bonkers, off my rocker, mad. But I'll tell you a secret...all the best people are!" The girls burst out laughing. "Alice, I want to be friends!" "Well of course silly! We're gonna be friends till the end!" Evie's smile faded. "Oh, but I have to go back to America after Father is done with his business. I don't know if we'll be able to see each other again after that."

   Alice frowned but then smiled again. " Well, then we'll just have to spend as much time together as possible before you have to leave. I promise I'll show you Wonderland sometime!" Evie put a serious look on her face. "Promise?" "I promise!"