Status: Active.

Wasteland

Not Just a Story

I sat impatiently in the lobby of Pembleton Hospital biting my fingernails and wishing my hair was black. And not a natural black, but a charcoal black that only comes after one has dyed their hair multiple times. Yes, that is what I wanted. Intense, charcoal black hair. 

Hearing footsteps I snapped my head up and stopped biting my nails when I saw a nurse come into the waiting area. I leaned forward in anticipation, hoping it was my name she called so I wouldn't have to wait any longer.

No luck. "Shirley Smith," she said through pursed lips and the middle aged woman rose from the chair next to me. "Come this way, you can see your mother now..."

"That's the problem with this place," I muttered, wondering why this couldn't be a normal hospital where you could visit a patient in their room. Instead, Pembleton had special visiting rooms with uncomfortable chairs and viewing windows the doctors could peer into. And you couldn't go back to visit until you were called. 

My impatient mind was going insane. You would think that, because I came here once a week, that I would have top priority, or at least a shorter wait time. I checked my cell phone and sighed. It had been forty- five minutes since I had signed in.

"Madalyn Hamil...." the nurse didn't have time to even finish saying my name by the time I had jumped up and ran to her. She looked at me down her witch like nose and sniffed, making me feel short although I stood a good 5' 7". "Madalyn Hamilton I presume." 

"Yeah, what's it to you?" I asked, trying to be as civil as possible. She was a different nurse from last week, although that didn't surprise me, they were always hiring new staff, each one more nasty than the last.

"You're here to see," she said, ignoring my comment and checking her clipboard, "to see Alice Liddell."

"Yeah, she's my aunt," I told her proudly.

"I see," she sniffed again, making me start to loath this nurse who thought she was so much better than me. "Well, then, please, come this way."

Aunty Alice looked terrible. Then again, I couldn't ever remember a time when she hadn't. Her sunken eyes had lost their once vibrant blue color and her hair had grayed and thinned. She was as skinny as a pole and her fingernails were a sickening yellow, all signs that her health was declining faster than she was aging. Even still, I could see past her faded beauty to the gorgeous and vivacious girl she had once been. 

"Aunty, will you tell me another story?" I asked as I brushed through her knotted hair wondering why the nurses hadn't taken care of it. There was no way they had brushed it since I had done it last week. I furrowed my brow in worry, and tried again to get her to talk. "Are they taking good care of you here, Aunty?" 

"You said a story!" she cried, her voice wavering and making me jump. She hadn't talked the last two visits, so I was pleasantly surprised when I heard her little voice say,"I want to tell a story."

"Yes, yes, then tell a story, Aunty." I said, smiling sadly. Apparently she hadn't always been crazy. She hadn't always been trapped inside these hospital walls waiting to die.

Apparently she had been like me. Only, I was told I was more angry and intense. I just think people don't take time to understand me. 

People had never taken the time to understand Alice either. 

"Which story are you going to share today Aunty? The one about the late rabbit? Or the red queen? Or the mad hatter?"

She gave me a look of sadness, a look that made me almost believe her mind was still lucid. "Those are not stories. Those are truth." 

"Aunty," I put the brush down and clasped her clammy hand. "Those are stories you've made up in your head. Those aren't real, you've told them to me as stories before."

"Come close child," she said, pulling me close with a strength I wasn't aware she had.

"Y-Yes?" I stammered, suddenly noticing how clear her once foggy eyes had become. She no longer looked crazy, in fact, she looked completely sane as she said, "There is no hope for me in this prison, but you have to get help for those still trapped!"

"Prison? Trapped? Aunty, what in the world..." But she cut me off by throwing a small hand on my mouth. 

"Shhh....don't be so loud. The guards in the white jackets, they'll figure it out. They know! They've always known!" she hissed urgently.

"Auntie, those are doctors and..." But again, I was stopped.

"Madalyn, do not remain blind. You know my 'stories,' you must help."

"Your stories of Wonderland?" I whispered, "What do I do?" I asked only to play along and calm her, although my eyes looked up and caught a doctor watching us through the window, the expression on his face not one of concern for his insane patient, but it was an expression of...hatred. 

"Yes, those stories. You need to follow them and save the lost," she told me, her vague instructions sounding more and more like a riddle.

Watching as two more doctors came to stand and watch, I asked her hastily, "How would I get to Wonderland?"

"You need to find the rabbit hole silly girl, the rabbit hole at the edge of the field by, oh just ask your mother!" she hiccuped and I realized I need to get out of there. The more doctors that lined up outside the more they began to look like prison guards. The more they looked like they wanted to lock me up too.

"Auntie, I'm going to go now," I said, absently giving her a hug before I quickly grabbed my purse. "I'll be back next week, ok?"

"No you won't child, you'll be in wonderland," she said sinking back into her crazy, glassy eyed state. "You'll be in wonderland..."

I closed the door and cut off her rambling. The dozen or so doctors that surrounded me all crossed their arms and glared at me as though they could read my mind. The biggest one came forward and leaned very close to my face. 

"What did Ms. Liddell say about," he paused and spat out the word like it was venom. "Wonderland."

It's just a story, it's just a bunch of crazy stories, I kept repeating to myself, but some part of me told me to protect it. Some part of me, that strange part that was similar to Alice, connected to Alice, one with Alice, told me that Wonderland was everything.

"Wonderland?" I asked innocently, hoping they couldn't hear the fear behind my voice. " What's wonderland?" I repeated as they all closed in around me. "Never heard of it before in my life." I lied.

And then I ran.
♠ ♠ ♠
Ello!
I'm Addy, the voice of Madalyn and half of this brilliant co write!
Thanks for reading, let me know what I did wrong or right or what I could fix.
Readers, you mean the world to me
Luvs, Addy