Alice Liddell's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Alice walked across the field toward the door because it was the only thing that looked like an exit. She had already tried holes, tunnels, and asking for directions. None of them had worked. The door stood by itself in the grass, no walls on either side, no roof above it. She could see right through to the other side of the field. It made no sense, but that hardly mattered anymore. The handle turned before she touched it. She stopped. A key jutted from the lock, heart-shaped and gleaming. It was already in the unlocked position. Someone had been here first, or the door had unlocked itself, which seemed exactly the sort of thing that would happen. Alice reached for the key to test it, but it wouldn't budge. Locked in place despite unlocking the door. She let go and stepped back to examine the whole structure. The door itself looked like a mushroom. The top curved into a red cap dotted with yellow and white spots. The frame beneath was pale and ridged like a stem. It was the sort of thing someone would call whimsical if they weren't stuck here trying to get home. Behind the door, maybe twenty paces away, sat a pool edged with smooth stones. Water rippled in it even though there was no wind. Alice had cried enough already without looking at whatever that was. She pulled the door open. On the other side was the same field, the same grass, the same pool. She walked around the door without closing it. The key was still there, still heart-shaped, still stuck. The pool caught her eye again. The water looked too clear for an outdoor pool, and when she got closer she saw why. It wasn't rainwater. It tasted like salt when she touched her finger to her lips. Her own tears from when she'd been enormous, collected here like evidence. Alice turned back to the door and walked through it from the other side. Still the same field. Still no way home. But now she knew that Wonderland kept things, that it remembered. That changed what a door might mean.