The White Rabbit

Chapter Seven: A Mad Tea Party

Chapter 7: A Mad Tea-Party

Rubbing her eyes with her dirty hands, Mary tried to remember how the sun warmed her skin in the summer. She ran her clammy fingers down her arms in hopes of recreating the feeling. She imagined herself on a grassy knoll, barefoot, with her toes digging into the cold, living green grass. Her thoughts were interrupted with the sound of heaving and vomit sloshing in the hay, as her mind was dragged back into reality. Catherine was sitting in the cage to her right, slowly beginning to lightly laugh at the insect crawling over her fingers. Mary thought to ask if she had any more of the mushrooms she had watched her eat ever-so-gingerly.

Her stomach rumbled at the thought, but just as Mary had opened her mouth to ask, the creaky door at the top of the staircase bounced off the wall, as if opened by the winds of a hurricane. It was the Rabbit. He playfully hopped down the stairs to entertain his guests with his whimsy. His eerie grin made Mary's blood run cold and although the grin was not returned to him, he didn't seem to care. Today was a celebration and he was celebrating, with or without them.

"Oh meeee, oh myyyyy," he sang in an opera-like performance, "Alice my dear, I have a surprise..."  His merry gait caught up with him and he waltzed around the room with an invisible partner. Clasping his hands together as he approached her cage, he whispered, "...for you."

The Rabbit took three steps backward in the filthy hay and felt blindly above his head, finally finding the chain for the light overhead. With a flick of the wrist, the dankness of the room was revealed as it was bathed in light.

The breath caught in her throat as she backed up in her cage. Catherine had begun digging through the mucky hay in her cage, looking for the animal that had just hopped in and disappeared.

"Tsk tsk dear Alice. Looks like the cards are not in your favor today..." he said, getting irritated, "SHUT UP!" he screamed in the direction of Catherine's cage. Her squeals ceased as she grasped tightly to a guest only she could see and stared at him furiously.

"I will return in a moment. I expect you all to have your smiles on. If not, I will make smiles. Permanent smiles. On your faces. Won't that be lovely? Be right back!" He said with a quickness and he was gone into the shadows once more. Mary's ears followed his excited leaps up the stairs and realized she did not hear the door creak shut. Maybe this was her chance to escape, she thought, as she pulled herself to her knees and got close to the front of the cage.

"It's there!" Catherine shouted at Mary, pointing directly at her.

"What's there?" she crawled closer to Catherine's cage to inspect.

"The caterpillar is! Kill him!" she yelled victorious as her hand met Mary's face as hard as Catherine could muster through the cage bars. Mary backed away from Catherine, holding her red-stained cheek as the Rabbit creaked slowly down the stairs, carrying what seemed to be a silver platter like the one her mother used to serve tea to special house guests.

The dishes clinked together with each step the Rabbit took toward them. On each plate lie two crumpets, one stacked atop the other, and neatly fit onto each plate lie a small tea cup filled with tea. He individually handed them out, first to the postman, then to Mary, then finally Catherine. Mary looked down at her plate and sat the cup of tea on the ground. Mary watched the others eat their meals with a starving passion and felt like something might be wrong. Mary looked up at him, her stomach told her to eat and drink, but her intuition stated otherwise. Something was strange. Any other time he brought food down to them before, he wasn't this adamant about them eating, let alone cared to stay and make sure they did as they were told. Eventually she caved in and forced a bite of the crumpet down, soaking it in the bitter tea. Her stomach grumbled in approval and she could feel the knots tying themselves into her middle as she picked the limp crumpet off the plate and took another tiny bite. Her mouth watered and she found herself finishing everything on her plate with the exception of her tea, which she sipped lightly, until finished.