Wasteland

“A half a cup for the hare, a full cup for my dear uncle the Mad Hatter,” I exclaimed once I came across the garden of tea cups. Two foot tall tea cups, one foot tall, 1/3 centimeter tall tea cups, and any other size imaginable. Now to find one the proper size. Something that could fit in the hand of a normal sized person down here in Wonderland.

I took another bite of my bit of mushroom and was almost surprised when the tea cups became larger than they had appeared a second ago. I looked down at my hand and quickly shoved the bit of mushroom I had in my hand back in my pocket. I pulled out another small bit of mushroom and shoved it into my mouth. I quickly shot up and became slightly taller than I had been before I had decided to let my hunger overrule me.

“I shouldn't carry these pieces of mushrooms around with me,” I reasoned aloud. “Because, when I am hungry, I tend to snack. And it does do no good when I reach for the closest thing to food and pull out a bit of mushroom. I am getting quite sick of shrinking and growing so rapidly.”

An owl cooed at me quietly from the shadows. I had not realized that it was nearing night so fast. With a jolt, I quickly grabbed two tea cups that appeared to be the ideal size and ran towards a meadow nearby. I had never seen this meadow before, but even after five years I still had not learned the many part of Wonderland. This world was always changing. Although I was young when I had fallen down the hole, I did remember that the world above us did stay consistent. And people above tended to age as well.

I forgot about cutting the hare's tea cup into halves (one for each day of the week, according to him) and lost myself in the land that I could see around me. The grass was tall and luscious around me. Birds were chirping and racing each other across the sky. And the sky had suddenly turned blue overhead. But, as I continued through the field, the grass became darker, and there were clearings that were burned to ashes. The sky became stormy, but I did not notice until I became aware of the thunder and lightning.

However, I kept walking forward. Even as the rain began to fall. It did not bother me at first, but the rain quickly got heavier. My clothes were weighed down, and I was soaked to the bone. It wasn't long before I was shivering and turning back the way that I came.

But it continued to rain harder, even as I ran back the way that I came.

“I can't beat the rain!” I huffed. I could see my breath as the temperature began to drop. “It's too fast for me. It's like a cold, you can catch it, but it's hard to get rid of.” Spending so much time with the hare and the Mad Hatter had caused me to speak me to speak my mind. They were not afraid to say exactly what was playing through their heads.

Don't be afraid of words. Because they can kill, but they can also heal. Just as tea can. Isn't that right? The Mad Hatter's words played through my head, and I yearned to be in my uncle's arms, safe and sound. Tears mixed with the rain on my cheeks as I began to panic. I turned every which way, but the rain only became heavier.

Birds with rusting buckets for beaks were flying above me. They would capture the rain in their beaks and drop the water that they held onto my head. And there were hundreds of them. I couldn't stay ahead of them. Nor could I stay behind them, because there were always more. The dirt became muddy beneath me, and it became like running through a swamp. I swatted the grass away, but it left cuts across my palms and on my arms. I began to trip over my feet, trying to get through the marshy land. My shoes filled with water, and my socks became like sponges. It would have been nice to have a coat, but it probably would have done no good.

But, all of a sudden, it just stopped. The sky became clear without warning. Clouds shrank far too fast to be normal, and the sun rose quickly back into the sky. I was so shocked that I did not pay attention to what was beneath my feet. If it had not honked the horn that it had as a beak, I would have stepped on a small duckling trailing after its mother.

I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes to clear my vision and quickly realized that I had dropped the tea cups in my panic. I knew for certain that the Mad Hatter would forgive me quickly, but I wasn't certain that the hare would be as nice about it. I would have to make another trip the next day to find another teacup.

I looked around and quickly realized where I was. The pond nearby meant that I would have to go down the trail to the left and take a couple of circles back to the treehouse that we had made our own. I quickly made my way back to our house. But I stopped in my tracks once I reached the clearing in front of our house.

Talking to the Mad Hatter was a human girl.