Chester Cheshire grinwild's Arc

Chapter 15 of 15

Chester set his cup down. Above the table, one of the floating doors rattled on its cloud. The checkered one, purple and pink behind a gold frame, with a fat brass knob. It had not rattled before. He tilted his head. One eye saw a door. The other saw a guest. The door cracked open. A hat poked through first, blue as deep sky, spotted with stars, a teapot balanced on its crown pouring an endless brown ribbon down the brim. The hat tipped. The hat fell. It bounced once on the cobbles and rolled. After it came the man, green hair, watches dangling from his coat, a teacup in each hand. He landed on his back, sat up, and looked offended at the air. "A tea party," he said, "without meee?" The lisp made the last word stretch. Harrietta lowered her pencil. Tigr stopped bouncing. The man stood, brushed his coat, and marched straight past Chester to the rose hedge by the table. He pulled a watch from his pocket. He listened to it. He scowled. He shoved it deep into the leaves and pinned a small paper to it. The paper read platypus. He did this with another, and another, muttering as he went. "Thtill ticking. Rude. Platypuses, all of you." Chester watched, delighted. A hatter who hated time. Perfect for a party that had none. Then Chester looked back at the door. It was still open. Behind the hatter, through the gap, Chester could see what the man had walked out of. A neat manor wrapped in hedges. Pink flowers on the sills. The hedges were trimmed into careful shapes and studded with clock faces ringed by blue and purple roses. A row of cheerful daisies by the path were singing. Singing. In tune. Chester knew that place. He had not made that place. That was the other Wonderland. The first one. Alice's. Chester moved. He scattered into stripes and reformed in the air by the cloud, both hands on the checkered door. He slammed it shut. He pictured locks and locks came. A bolt across the middle. A padlock on the knob. A chain. Another chain. A hasp with a brass pin. He kept counting and stopped counting at twenty. He shoved the whole door, locks and all, down through the cloud and into the dark below the square, and let the cloud close over the top of it like a lid. He dropped back into his chair. His breath was quick. Down the table the hatter was labeling a fourth watch. Chester raised his cup and smiled at him with every tooth. "Welcome," he said. "You will fit." He did not look up at the sky again. One door was gone. The hatter was his. The other Wonderland could keep its singing flowers.