Careful with the tea

Part 6

A few days passed. When I wasn't sitting among the books with my new friends, we had our talks with Owl. She seemed to be interested in everything regarding my home, though I was surely not the first one she heard such stories from.

Later I realised, that she's actually interested in me. And what I think about the world.

We made really good friends with Owl. I almost seemed contented, accepting my situation.

But when I returned to my room at the end of the day, I had to confess something was missing. Someone...

I saw Hatter seldom. When he sometimes came to Owl, bringing food or supporting a new refugee, they two talked a lot. But he looked me very rarely. He was polite, but remarkably keeping a distance.

Once he escorted me to the refugees, watched me sitting down among them, listened us having great laughs about an ancient joke, then he left without a word.

I didn't see him for two days, and some strange, indescribable feeling grew inside of me, that made me bad tempered and morose.

I had no idea, what's wrong with me, until Owl asked me at lunch.

„Do you miss him, don't you?"

„What?" I looked at her with a lack of comprehension, being lost in my thoughts. I was actually thinking about his hats, the one I tried on...

„Hatter... You miss him, right?"

„What? Why should I miss him at all? He keeps on avoiding me... Even when he's here, never talking to me... Never looking at me..."

Owl smiled. I was offended.

„What's so funny?" I asked rudely from her.

„Hatter told me the same thing about you. That you keep the three steps distance, and never speak to him, and you mind only the refugees..."

I had no idea what to answer to that. I hated the whole situation.

Owl nodded.

„So it is true then."

„What is true? What happened?" I jumped up from the table screaming, then stood by her chair. „What is happening to me now?"

„I am sorry, Kate, that you have to get it from me. Sit down, it won't be easy."

She waited patiently, until I put myself down, the slowly started to talk.

She explained, there's an organisation behind the attacks. I've heard it before from Hatter, so no surprise it was. But the rest. As Owl said, their purpose was to kidnap more people for this world. For the Queen of Hearts, to be precise. The Queen had a Casino built, where emotions are collected by machines from the poor kidnapped ones.

„They call you Oysters, because it's so precious, that you carry inside. The Queen drinks positive emotions as potions. You can buy these drinks at the Tea House, at least if the prices are high enough. Hatter gives this money to us, and we can help your kind from these sources."

I was horrified by what she told me. Making drugs out of people? And what about those, whom there's nothing left to take from?

I walked along the room with fury.

Owl tried to calm me down.

„We are the Resistance. We do our best to save as many of you as we can. The soonest we set you free, the more chance you have to find your way back home. But if you're already lost long ago, you stuck here... forever..."

I started to see more clearly now about how I got here. But there was still one thing to worry about.

„Hatter was really mad somehow, for we'd drunk his guarded drinks. But I really meant no harm, it wasn't on purpose. I told him that too... That's why he's angry with me so much..." I sat down a chair right beside her.

She took my face in her hands.

„Hatter is not angry with you. And he's not mad, because you drank his tea and he drank from it too. He's going crazy because what you drank."

I was afraid to ask, my voice trembled with fear. It might have been poison indeed?

„What was it, Owl?"

„An emotion..." she answered silently, carefully speaking out each and every word. „True..."

„... Love!" I finished the sentence instead of her. „Oh my God...!"

I was deeply sure about it, as I knew: it took control over me, supposingly on the first days already.

I rushed out of the dining room, and Owl shouted after me in vain. I run through each room and hall of the library, wherever I could step in. Finally I collapsed in a distant tiny room. It was a long time ago, when somebody put his feet in here.

Everything was covered with dust, the books and the comfortable armchairs too.

There could've been nothing worse to do than this. In the deep silence and loneliness of this room the memory of Hatter crushed me down with such a strength, that made my hands shake.

The wound he treated was aching. I felt his hands on my waist, just like when he caught me before fainting. My fingers remembered his black hair, as I touched him...

„Enough!" I screamed with despair. This has not happened at all. I cannot get mad just now because of some stupid drugs. How can I get back home with an unharmed brain?

I had to correct myself. No worries needed about a sound mind, but about an unbroken heart.

A heart that suggested to run to him, tell him how I feel, and make him tell if he feels the same way too. My mind of course tried to hold me back.

If we both tasted that tea, why he keeps away from me? Why he treats me like an infectious patient?

Isn't it obvious? He has no feelings for me. Because it was enough of me after one single day.

I cut my nails into my hand, hoping the pain will distract my thoughts, then I made my decision.

The best solution is work therapy – if I help enough for Owl and the Resistance, so much that I can hardly fall sleep at the end of the day, the stupid feeling will pass.

It will pass once and for all, I pushed myself. There are only a few days left to spend. I'll probably never see him again.

This thought squeezed my heart. I returned, and called at Owl for a new job to do.