[ COACH ] Hope
[ SONG | ARTIST ] Winter Wonderland | Pentatonix
[ WATTPAD WORD COUNT ] 1,246 words
Parallel roads that seem to lead nowhere. A huge, old tree, with its leaves withered at the sweet farewell of the blossoming spring and to the welcoming of the sorrowful winter. Smokes in the form of ballerinas dancing through the dark space, with no definite shape and no definite texture. Voices from within can be heard, which of that sing carols in an unfamiliar tongue. A blue bird peering down with some wisdom in its eyes. Aghast, fidgeting Alice looks at the scenery whilst rubbing her skin for some warmth.
The Caterpillar perching in a boulder looked at the little girl, with a smile in his pale lips. “Welcome to Winter Wonderland. You look like you’re new here, little girl,” His voice echoes, even though the place isn’t an enclosed one.
Alice nods gently. “I am, and I think I am lost — I’ve never seen this place before!”
The Caterpillar lets out a laugh. “No. You’ve always been in this place, little one. You belong in here. No need to ask me for directions because you know the whole place by your heart!”
“By my heart?”
“And by your soul, too!” The Caterpillar affirms.
It still isn’t clear to her which road she should take, but it doesn’t really matter anyway. She thanks the Caterpillar and decides to take the road to the right. She lets her feet take her to a place, anywhere, as long as she can find her way back to her home.
The snow is glistening in the lane, and Alice marvels of what a beautiful sight it is. She starts to dance under the snow, tasting the snowflakes in her tongue, making snow angels, and building a snowman. It is her first time to do these things because there is no winter back at home, but in a strange way, it is as if she had always done these kind of things. Like, as if, the snow is a friend of hers even though they haven’t spoken to each other yet.
Alice finds herself growing weary and just lies on the ground to watch the snow fall in an endless manner. Just then, a little boy appears above her. She rouses, feeling a little bit anxious at the presence of another person.
“Hi, Alice,” the little boy speaks of her name with such glee.
She looks confused. “How did you…”
“Let’s build a snowman!” he says.
Alice points at the snowman standing in the middle of the meadow. “I already have,”
He nods. “I see. Alice, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
The little boy looks very odd to Alice. She wonders if all the boys are the same, if all the boys are as weird as him. She thought that when she returns home, she’d figure it out by befriending her brother’s friends who often visited their house and went inside her room to give her some cookies, which she never accepted just because they were ‘boys’.
She still feels uneasy, but she decides to answer anyway. “I want to get married.” Alice knows he was going to laugh at this, because whenever adults would hear about this dream of hers, they’d laugh at her like as if she was making a joke. She wasn’t. She really wants to get married, the moment she’d seen her parents’ joyful faces on their wedding photographs.
But the young boy does not laugh.
But Alice is still skeptical.
He smiles. “Then, let’s get married. Let’s get Mr. Parson Brown marry us,” he gestures towards the snowman whom he has named as Parson Brown.
Alice shakes her head. “But my mother told me that you only marry the person you love.”
His smile grows even wider. “Why, I love you, Alice. In this Winter Wonderland, everybody loves everybody. This is your new home now, Alice. This is where you belong. This is where you’ll grow up, this is where your dreams will come true. There aren’t any black holes or mad hatters in here, Alice. Just snow, and campfires, and snow angels, and snowmen, and Christmas carols…”
“How did you know?” she asks.
“Because I own this place, Alice. Your home back there, it’s no longer your home. It happens. Like how the spring ends, and the fall comes and go, and how the winter silently creeps in. In this Winter Wonderland, everything’s now constant.”
She looks around. “I’m dead, am I?”
Alice remembers the last time she’d been before stepping into this place. She has been lying on her bed, feeling very sick. Her mother cried a lot, and her father was very quiet. She closed her eyes back there, wanting to fall asleep, and the pain just subsided. She remembers how her mother talked about she won’t let her die, although Alice never really knew what death truly meant. She just knew it was something like leaving an important place and knowing that you won’t be able to go back. She always have thought it was a sad thing, but when she looks around Winter Wonderland and the joy it brings to her in a short period of time, she wonders which of life and death is truly the saddest one.
“You’re still alive, Alice. You’re alive in here,” he says. “Come, let’s eat. Today’s my birthday.”
She smiles. “Really? Happy birthday… Uhh, what should I call you?”
He takes her hand and holds it tight. “My name’s Jesus.”
“Happy birthday, Jesus,” Alice says, feeling comfortable now.
***
Like a delicate snow that melts once it touches the ground, Alice eventually succumbed to her sickness. All her life she has been feeling pain, all her life she was bedridden. She often thought of seeing the snow and feeling the coolness of it, and when her mother noticed her daughter’s fascination with Winter, she promised that she’d take Alice to see the snow as long as she’d lived.
But, like a snow in the summer’s heat, she never belonged there, in their arms.
Mrs. Sandoval takes a look at her daughter for the last time. She hopes her daughter is now in a wonderful place, doing all the things she didn’t get to do when she was still breathing. She remembers how her whole life she has been looking for her way, having a difficulty which road to take. She remembers how Alice reminded her of the little girl she has been once, of the little girl always seeking for an adventure. Now, she isn’t that little Alice anymore, although all her life she’s still chasing the white rabbit that would eventually push her down into the black hole of sadness. If not for her dear Alice, she’d surely fall into the trap.
She wonders how she and her family would be able to celebrate their Christmas. She laughs at how a bitter gift it is for them.
She touches Alice’s cheek, with salty tears falling from her watery eyes. If Alice isn’t dead, she knows Alice would drown in her sea of tears, but Alice didn’t. Although she no longer breathes, she knows Alice does not drown. Alice is somewhere safe, building snowmen and tasting the snowflakes like how she always told them about her dream.
After all, Alice is smiling that she almost looked like alive. Or maybe she in’t dead at all, maybe she just visited this place and went back to the place where she truly belong.
Maybe Alice’s in her own wonderland, I’m not sure. But the thing I am certain of is that surely it isn’t here on Earth, her mother thought.
