ENJOY//
Chapter 1 – The Dreams
It used to be some sort of weird dream I kept having as
a child, of a place full of wonder. The sky was of a great teal colour, and the
ground contrasted that with its different greens and yellow brick paths,
unfortunately it wasn’t alike to the Wizard of Oz yellow brick road but it was
close enough. As far as dreams go, they either go really well and you can’t
remember them when you wake up, or they’re the most horrific images your mind
could probably ever create or my mind at least. You see I’m one of those kids
that your parents told to stay away from in school because I was ‘strange’ and
that’s probably the nicest way they’ve put it.
The dreams that my mind created were of the same place,
but the images of the colourful side to my dream land started to disintegrate
slowly, and more and more often when I had the dreams, I barely got a glimpse
of the beautiful land I once used to draw, and convince myself that was real.
It was more blurred out and not as clear as they used to be, and I could never
make out what was there.
The first time I had this dream I was at least 4-5, it
was a lovely dream to begin with but I knew from the start that it was a
strange dream, and it more likely would transform into a nightmare. It always
began with me falling; I was used to that… falling, it seemed like it was a
place that I’ve been to before, almost as though it wasn’t a dream… it was a
memory.
It seemed like it took forever to get to the bottom of
this whole I always seemed to be falling down, as though it was the only
entrance but surely there must have been another? It was like a giant rabbit
hole, only bigger, in fact it was bigger on the inside but smaller on the
outside, it was always hidden in different places of this field I used to play
on. Oh I should probably explain more about who I am and where I used to live
before I decide to tell you about my strange visions and for you to judge that
I’m sort of ‘mentally ill’ girl, I was certified sane, eventually.
My name is Alice Liddell, I used to live in Oxford, near
the Thames river in a large house with my father, Arthur who was a dean at
Oxford University, my mother she wouldn’t want me to post her name on here, so
we’ll call her ‘Mrs Liddell’ and my sweet older sister Lizzie, also not
forgetting my cat Dinah. My mother was a strict woman, but she never gave up on
us, no matter how frustrated she was when me and Lizzie never listened. Lizzie
was an intelligent girl, not surprising seen as my father worked in Oxford University,
she was a lot more intelligent than me as I had more of an imagination than
attention span. Our father never taught us lessons, but we did get taught by
our Nanny Sharpe, learning French and music. This was all before the fire, but
that’s another story. My family was a pretty happy family, whether we had a lot
or not. But as soon as these dreams began things started to change.
Carrying on with my description of this ‘wonder-land’
the rabbit hole that without a doubt I always fell down, was almost painted in
black and white blocks of colour, almost like a dogtooth pattern. There were
other things falling with me, like parts of furniture and large clocks, all
types of clocks, stop clocks, grandfather clocks… you get the picture. And
everything was falling fast, I was falling fast, but everything was going so
slow, almost as though it was a really deep hole, or a never ending one at
that. It was terrifying at first, but got more and more boring the fact that it
never ended! After a couple of hours, it at least felt 4-5 hours till my feet
hit solid ground. As most dreams go its pretty much what you want to see in the
dream but in a different aspect, in my version everything was bright colours,
and lots of flowers, and lots of places to go, but it still felt dark, and
things were still hidden whether I knew it or not. I told my Nanny Sharpe about
these ‘night’ dreams, and as soon as she knew for some strange reason I started
to have daydreams of it, she also tried taking my mind of it and tried to teach
me to play piano, but like I said earlier my attention span is of that like a
goldfish. Nanny Sharpe started worrying as most nanny’s do, she began to tell
my mother these daydreams I was having, and I’m sure my mother must of thought
Nanny Sharpe was mad. The good thing about Nanny Sharpe is that she was never
strict on forcing me to do things I didn’t want to do, such as the piano, I did
try but my imagination caused me to rather concentrate on my art of
‘wonder-land’ than learn the piano. I always hung around with Nanny Sharpe,
even though she moved to London and began a ‘whore-house’ as my father put it,
later on in my life I practically called that place home.
After a few of these ‘idiotic idea’s’ my mother used to
put it, I decided to try not to sleep, I got very ill and it was probably the
stupidest idea I’ve ever had, because it didn’t stop the daydreams. It began
every day, and throughout the day no matter what I tried to do to keep my mind
off it, I always slipped back into that ‘induced coma’ sort of thing where I
didn’t talk or respond to anyone, but lay on my bed and thought of
‘wonder-land’. There were different areas of wonderland I always visited, alike
to my cat Dinah there was another cat that used to help me find my way whilst
adventuring around. He liked to be called the ‘Cheshire Cat’ I don’t understand
why his owners never gave him a name, all I know is he was bright purple, and
he smiled a lot… he also can turn invisible, which was definitely a strange
thing to see. I enjoyed having him as a companion, as my cat Dinah never showed
up in my dream, I found it difficult to get used to having a different cat as
Dinah has been in my family for years, and she’s never died? Strange cat.
Cheshire guided me to my first tea party, where I met the infamous Mad Hatter,
and March Hare, they spoke in riddles and rhymes and most of the time I never really
listened, but enjoyed the tea. At some points The Hatter went silent, and its
strange for him as he never shut up, but without him knowing I watched him like
a hawk, and he did a lot of staring at me. With his bright yellow eyes, and his
green hair, it seemed as though we were attracted to each other in a way, but
it seemed mysterious like he could look into my future and see the meaning of
my dreams.
They spoke of this woman called The Red Queen, and I
suppose she was Queen of the Land, but I didn’t even know this was a land I
thought it was just my imagination creating places in my head, everything
seemed so familiar. The Red Queen was named ‘higher rank’ as the March Hare
spoke, and for some reason her name sent shivers down my spine like she just walked
over my grave. I also met the famous Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum who spoke also
in rhymes and riddles; it began to give me a headache really. The bright
colours, wide spaces and all these riddles that didn’t even make sense, it
became to much for me, and for some reason my visions and dreams stopped of
this peculiar land.
The last thing that was said to me was from the Cheshire
cat, he spoke in a cryptic way, but not in riddles, in a way that made me
listen, made me want to listen. His voice was husky, and almost calming in some
ways, but yet very growly for a cat. ‘Only a few find the way; some don’t
recognize it when they do; some don’t ever want to, memories provide important
pieces of the past Alice, come back and visit when you’re better’ he said this
as I woke up, I had no vision of what was happening but I could still hear his
voice. It was the first time I ever woke up from a daydream, and afterwards I
never dreamt at all, it was just nothingness.
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