Day: Alice and the Mad Tryst (Green Roses)_Days of Blood and Roses: A Magical Girl Thriller

> The Japanese say you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends and your family. The third face, you never show anyone: it is the truest reflection of who you are.

> —Japanese Proverb (attributed)

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“Alice and the Mad Tryst”

By Linda Kouri

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Part II: Ozma

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Meanwhile, Lewis Carroll stood looking at the three girls on the little thrones whispering amongst themselves, and he thought he caught snatches of their words that he assumed were directed at himself. Which wasn’t lost on Princess Ozma, either, who looked over at them and said, “Dorothy, Betsy, Trot, do you recognize this man?” All three princesses nodded their heads, and the blonde Dorothy stood up from her throne and leaned over the armrest of Ozma’s big throne and whispered into her ear, making the esteemed princess smile and eye Lewis Carroll and say, “Oh, really? He seems quite normal for someone who wrote those two Alice books, though.”

“You’ve heard of me, your Highness?” Lewis Carroll said after the blonde Dorothy sat back down.

“Indeed, I have,” Princess Ozma said, “but only through your reputation amongst my friends here,” and she indicated the blonde Dorothy, the auburn Betty, and the brunette Trot, each of whom smiled and waved at him like flustered school girls. “Yet it was not until I read your two books about your rebellious ‘Alice’ that I realized how gifted you are.”

“Thank you, your Highness,” he said and smiled at making Princess Ozma smile and the other girls giggle. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

“But your name makes me wonder,” Princess Ozma said, “if that is your real name or a nickname.”

“It’s my pseudonym, actually,” Lewis Carroll said. “My real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, but that’s a bit of a mouthful, so I tend to go by Lewis Carroll whenever I meet new people.”

“Dorothy and the others have also read those books,” the princess said. “Even Glinda has a copy of them in her library.”

“Yes, I noticed when she invited L. Frank Baum and me to her library,” Lewis Carroll said. “When I asked about them, she said she kept them for reference purposes.”

“Oh, my!” Princess Ozma said. “If Glinda the Good Witch keeps your books handy, then your fame knows no bounds.”

“Thank you, you Highness,” he said.

“I’ve received word from Glinda about your arrival,” Princess Ozma continued. “So what is the reason for your visit today, Mr. Carroll?”

“Ah, that,” he said, coughing into his fist and clearing his throat. “It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll try to be brief. I came to the residence of Mr. L. Frank Baum, the Royal Historian of Oz, to help me look for Jinjur here, so she could sew my head back on, but he referred me to Glinda the Good Witch, instead. So he and I traveled south to the land of the Quadlings for her help, and she got my head reattached to my body, but that’s only half of the reason why I’m here.”

“What’s the other half?” the princess said.

“I explained to Glinda,” Lewis Carroll continued, “that an evil man named Mr. Prospero has taken over Wonderland and had me beheaded at the behest of a girl named Alice, but she’s not the ‘Alice’ I’ve written about in my books, nor is she the one you’ve read about. Oh no. She was a different Alice, a spiteful Alice that resented me for . . . thinking softly on her, as Mr. Prospero puts it.”

Princess Ozma paused for a moment, then said, “Does Glinda know about this Mr. Prospero?”

Lewis Carroll smiled at this, thankful for Princess Ozma’s tact of moving the conversation onto safer subjects, and said, “She did. After informing Glinda the Good Witch of my troubles, I talked it over with her and L. Frank Baum and laid out every option I could think of. In the end, Glinda was wary of involving her army in a foreign conflict to take back Wonderland from such an enemy, and I don’t blame her. She said that Mr. Prospero is a notorious monster of a man that she had tussled with once before and had no desire to fight with such a man again.”

“Ah, yes,” Princess Ozma said, manifesting the very letter in her hand that attracted the gazes of the three other princesses. “She sent a letter to me asking that Jinjur here be reinstated as General Jinjur and allowed to train with her army for the fight. I got it right here,” and she showed it to the man.

“Yes,” he said. “That’s the one she sent, but . . .” And Lewis Carroll wanted to say what was on his mind, yet he quivered at raising the ire of the esteemed princess with any of his own criticisms.

“But what?” Princess Ozma said.

But the man gulped down his qualms and said, “Please, excuse my impertinence, your Highness, but I fear that Wonderland doesn’t have much time left.”

“Why do you think that?” she said.

“Because after my beheading,” he said, “I descended to an underground place where I found another man named Mr. Foster being held against his will. I asked Glinda the Good Witch if she could take me there, but she again referred me to your Royal Highness, for she tells me that you can take me anywhere I wish to be with the help of a certain belt.”

“Indeed, it is so,” Princess Ozma said, standing up from her marble throne, and left Glinda’s letter leaning against the armrest. She then manifested a Magic Belt around her waist with a snap of her fingers and stepped off the pedestal to meet the man, face to face. “With this belt, I can send you anywhere you want to go, but will you be safe when you get there?”

“I’m no pushover, your Highness,” Lewis Carroll said and manifested a sword in his hand for Ozma to see for herself, making the three other princesses start from their little thrones and causing the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger to stand up from their pillows and growl.

So Princess Ozma turned back and raised her hand, saying, “Do not worry yourselves. I sense no ill intentions from this man.” Then, once the three other princesses and the beats settled back in their places, she turned back to Lewis Carroll and said, “Is that the Vorpal Sword?”

“Indeed, it is,” he said, letting her inspect the weapon a little longer before dissipating it from his hand. “I must admit I haven’t used it in a few years, but I’m still handy with it in a fight.”

“One man with one sword does not make an army,” Princess Ozma said, “nor does one sally into enemy territory win a war. I cannot in good conscience send you out to your death.”

At this, Lewis Carroll opened his mouth to protest, wanting to say that he’ll take every precaution to stay safe under the circumstances, but he stayed his tongue. For the life of him, the man couldn’t fault Princess Ozma’s common sense and glanced at Jinjur beside him, urging her to say something.

At this, Jinjur took up her part and said, “With all due respect, your Highness, I volunteer to accompany Mr. Carroll wherever he needs to go.”

“I cannot let you do that, Jinjur,” she said.

“Why not?” Jinjur said.

“Because you’re not ready yet,” Princess Ozma said and manifested Glinda’s letter from her throne into her hand and tapped on it with her finger before Jinjur’s eyes. “As per Glinda’s directions in this letter, you are to train with her head bodyguard and raise your own army of volunteers with Glinda’s help. That way, when the time comes, you will be prepared for the fight.”

“But, your Highness,” Lewis Carroll said, “what about Mr. Foster? What about the inhabitants of Wonderland? Surely they can’t wait till then?”

“There’s virtue in strength in numbers, Mr. Carroll,” Princess Ozma said, then spoke to one of the palace guards standing at the door to the throne room: “Guard, go to the palace entrance and have Wantowin Battles come here for a demonstration.”

“Which one of us, your Highness?” both guards said, in unison.

“The one who came in with our visitors,” she said.

“Will do, your Highness,” said the guard that had escorted Lewis Carroll and Jinjur into the great hall beyond the throne room and ran at the top of his speed in search of the so-called Wantowin Battles. After a few minutes’ time, the winded guard came back through the double doors with a tall man wearing a long handlebar mustache on his face and a green military uniform on his lanky body, complete with frogging over his shoulders, green trousers and tall boots over his spindly legs, and a tall top hat atop his head. In addition, he came in shoulder-carrying a long rifle that was taller than he was, till he halted before Princess Ozma and saluted her and cradled his gun on his forearm.

“You called, your Highness?” Wantowin Battles said.

“I did,” Princess Ozma said and waved her hand at Lewis Carroll and Jinjur. “I want you to demonstrate your abilities for our visitors here.”

“Will do, your Highness,” the soldier said, then turned on his heel, turning about-face, and stomped his foot and raised his hand and snapped his finger, splitting into a row of doppelgängers of himself from one side of the throne room to the other and forming the first rank. Then all the doppelgängers of himself in that wall-to-wall row raised their hands and snapped their fingers and then took one step forward as one, splitting into another row of doppelgängers and forming a second rank. With both ranks formed, the second rank kneeled, while the first rank remained standing, and both ranks aimed their guns towards the door as one, then began dissipating into thin air, till one man remained. This one-man army repositioned his gun over her shoulder, holding the butt of his gun in his hand, and turned about-face with another stomp of his foot, as Lewis Carroll and Jinjur gaped and stared. The man smiled at Princesses Dorothy, Betsy, and Trot applauding his brilliant display and bowed to their highnesses, then stroked his long handlebar mustache in his hand and eyed Jinjur, saying, “It’s nice to meet you again, General Jinjur.”

“Oh my God,” Jinjur said, cupping her hands with her mouth, and stared with wide eyes at this one-man army. “You’re that Soldier with the Green Whiskers!”

“Aye, yes,” Wantowin Battles said, “and I could’ve routed you and your army of girls without my powder and shot on hand, had I remembered where I put my bayonet.”

Jinjur just laughed and said, “Remind me to never get on your bad side, Mr. Battles.”

“Ha! Don’t worry yourself, General,” he said. “I may be a one-man army, but I’m otherwise as gentle as a summer rainfall.” Then Wantowin Battles turned to Princess Ozma and said, “Is that all, your Highness?”

“Not yet,” Princess Ozma said and dissipated Glinda’s letter from her hand, then manifested four handkerchiefs and gave one to Wantowin Battles and two to Lewis Carroll. “You are to accompany Mr. Carroll to an underground place where Mr. Foster is imprisoned. Look after Mr. Carroll and Mr. Foster while you’re there.”

“Will do, your Highness,” Wantowin Battles said.

“Keep those handkerchiefs with you,” she said to Lewis Carroll and Wantowin Battles, “so that I’ll know where you are when you get there. Mr. Carroll,” she added, “when you find Mr. Foster, give him the other handkerchief I gave you, so that I’ll know where he is, as well. Once all three of you are together, all you have to do is wave your handkerchiefs for me to know you’re safe, and I’ll send you three back here with this belt,” and she tapped the belt around her waist.

“Will do, your Highness,” said Lewis Carroll and Wantowin Battles at the same time.

“Now stand a few paces away from me,” she told the two men.

The two men obliged and stood a few paces from Princess Ozma, where Lewis Carroll felt the presence of the unseen ‘Alice’ and her companions somewhere on his left. So he turned his eyes towards the very spot where he thought ‘Alice’ and her companions were standing, but made sure not to say anything in front of Princess Ozma.

“Is something the matter, Mr. Carroll?” she said.

“No, your Highness,” he said.

With that, Princess Ozma said, “Now wave your handkerchiefs, and I’ll send you where you need to go.” And as both men waved their handkerchiefs, they disappeared out of the throne room and out of the rest of the pages of this story—

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Till the esteemed princess turned her attention to Jinjur and said, “This one's for you,” and she handed the fourth and last handkerchief to her. “Before I let you go, I advise you to adopt another name when you enter the fight.”

Jinjur took it, wondering about the need to keep secrets, and said, “Why so, you Highness?”

“From what Glinda said in her letter,” she said, “I cannot allow the fight out there to spill into the land of Oz. The collateral is too great, so we must take precautions.”

“I see,” Jinjur said and tried to come up with a good alias for herself, thinking of a decent name out of the frabjous collection of whimsical epithets fluttering through her head, but failed to think of any. “What name do you suggest, your Highness?”

So Princess Ozma turned to the three princesses seated on their little thrones next to her pedestal between the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger and said, “Any suggestions?”

“Well,” said the brunette Trot, “the daughter of one of my California neighbors is named Ashley Graham. Jinjur could use that name, so she won’t have to use her real name.”

“But that’s someone else’s real name,” Princess Ozma said. “Things might go sideways for Ashley Graham if the enemy catches wind of it through Jinjur’s alias.”

“Then why not make a composite name from different people?” the blonde Dorothy said. “That way, their true identities will be obscured even after Jinjur’s alias gets found out.”

“Good thinking, Dorothy,” Princess Ozma said. “Try and come up with a good name for Jinjur, something plain that won’t raise any eyebrows when Jinjur’s on the battlefield.”

So the three princesses whispered amongst themselves, throwing around various given names and surnames from their hometowns in the states of Kansas and Oklahoma and California, till they reached a consensus.

“Anne’s a good first name,” Trot said.

“Granger is really common where I come from,” the auburn Betsy Bobbin added. “I know lots of families have that surname.”

“Then Anne Granger it is,” Princess Ozma said and turned back to Jinjur. “Does that name sound good?”

Jinjur gave it some thought and liked it, for it was better than any of the ones she could come up with, so she said, “Yes. That one will do, your Highness.”

“Good,” Princess Ozma said. “From henceforth, you shall be known as General Jinjur to us and as Anne Granger to everyone you meet when you enter the fight. And while you’re there on the battlefield, don’t reveal your true name, unless it’s to an important ally that you can trust.”

“Will do, your Highness,” General Jinjur said and curtsied. “I’ll be off then,” and she walked a few paces away from the princess and waved her handkerchief and disappeared out of the throne room for Glinda’s palace in the Northern border of the land of the Quadlings for her training.

After that, Princess Ozma looked in the direction where Lewis Carroll glanced at earlier and said, “It seems we have three uninvited guests this afternoon,” and she raised her hand and snapped her fingers—

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And brought ‘Alice’ and the Red and White Queens out into the open before everyone in the throne room, making Princesses Dorothy, Betsy, and Trot start from their little thrones and causing the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger to leap from their giant pillows and land with feline grace on the gleaming emerald shimmer of the throne room floor. With the Lion and the Tiger approaching from either side and growling at them, ‘Alice’ and the Queens backed away on shaky steps, then dashed towards the doors of the throne room.

Yet the two palace guards by the double doors drew their sabers, one yelling, “Stop right there!”

And the other one saying, “How did you get here?”

The three intruders halted their advance, yet the Red and White Queens held their ground and manifested knives in their hands, taking up fighting stances should anything happen.

“Stay behind us, ‘Alice,’” the Akami said.

“We’ll protect you,” Shiromi said.

Yet just before the guards or the Red and White Queens were about to fight, just before the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger were about to pounce, just before Dorothy or Betsy or Trot or all three were about to scream, and just before the throne room was about to turn into the scene of a gruesome incident, Princess Ozma beat them all to the punch with a booming command like the voice of an angry goddess:

“STOP!”

And all of their heads, human and Munchkin and beast alike, turned in Ozma’s direction. The three princesses refrained from screaming, the two massive beasts refrained from pouncing, the two palace guards replaced their sabers in their sheathes, and ‘Alice’ and the Red and White Queens paused. Yet in that pause, lasting longer for ‘Alice’ than for her red and white counterparts, she grabbed onto their forearms holding their knives and said, “‘Edith,’ ‘Lorina,’ please stop.”

“But we’re surrounded,” the White Queen said.

“She’s right, ‘Edith,’” the Red Queen said and dissipated her knife from her hand.

Yet the White Queen kept a shaky grasp onto hers, so Princess Ozma said to her, “I know you’re scared right now, but none of us mean you any harm. You have my word.”

“Come on, ‘Edith,’” ‘Alice’ said. “Put it away.”

The White Queen sighed and dissipated her weapon, but then glared at Princess Ozma and said, “I still don’t trust you, but if ‘Alice’ says so, then I guess it’s okay.”

“Just don’t try anything,” the Red Queen told her white counterpart. “We’re already on thin ice.”

“I have never seen anyone enter this room without my knowing before,” Princess Ozma said. “Guards, watch over our three visitors in the great hall, while I convene with my friends over this matter. Once we have reached a decision, take them back inside the throne room, so my friends and I can hear them out, and we will take it from there.”

“Will do, your Highness,” they both said as one.

So the three intruders raised their hands, showing their palms empty of anything dangerous, and surrendered to the custody of the two guards, who locked strong manacles on their wrists and led them back through the double doors—

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Into the great hall in front of a wary crowd of other visitors that had also sought an audience with Princess Ozma that afternoon, and the guards closed the double doors behind them. Thus manacled and watched over, ‘Alice’ and her companions were led to an unoccupied sofa in one of the reception parlors and waited under the lugubrious dead-eyed stare of an elk’s head amidst the great hubbub of voices whispering about the sudden noises in the throne room. As they waited, they heard many whispers about them being under the employ of the Nome King (whoever that was) as spies or even as assassins sent to murder their beloved Princess Ozma.

Under these hostile rumors, the elk’s head said, “Looks like we have a bunch of enemy combatants here today!”

Which startled ‘Alice’ and her friends from their places on the sofa and gave the two guards a good and hearty laugh at their expense, so one guard said, “Don’t worry about the Gump.”

“He’s harmless,” the other guard added.

“I may be harmless,” the Gump said from his place above the mantlepiece of the fireplace parlor, “but I was once the monarch of the forest where I come from, till I got shot and dismembered and stuffed into the very Gump you see now. By the way,” he added, looking over at the manacles on the wrists of ‘Alice’ and her friends on the sofa, “what happened inside the throne room? I haven’t heard a commotion like that since Glinda’s army captured General Jinjur.”

“Oh, it was nothing too bad, Mr. Gump,” Shiromi said.

“She just found us snooping about,” Akami added.

“And caused a ruckus, too,” one guard said.

“But you seem like sensible girls,” the other guard added, “since you surrendered without much parley.”

“This Princess Ozma,” ‘Alice’ said. “Is she a good ruler?”

“Indeed, she is,” the Gump said from the mantlepiece. “After General Jinjur and her army surrendered to Glinda and her army, Ozma established herself in the Emerald City as the ruler of Oz and had Jinjur’s army return their stolen booty of gems before disbanding them back to their homes. She even allowed Jinjur to return home on the promise of good behavior, I’ve heard, and it seems that our wonderful Princess trusts her former enemy enough to have an audience with her earlier this afternoon. Such is the mercy of our Princess!”

“I see,” ‘Alice’ said. “She’s fair in her decisions.”

“Well,” the White Queen said, “at least we won’t get executed for now, so that’s a plus, I guess.”

The Red Queen glared at the White Queen’s remark, so ‘Alice’ said, “What about Mr. Carroll?”

“We’ve heard of him,” the guard said, “through our children reading his two books about this impetuous heroine, Alice, though most of us think she’s too rambunctious in her ways.”

“And some of our daughters have used her name,” the other guard said, “to start questioning the authority of our beloved Princess, as if she were part of a secret cabal in some far-fetched conspiracy with the Nome King, and—”

His fellow guardsman nudged his shoulder, shaking his head at him, and eyed ‘Alice’ and said, “Anyway, you were ‘Alice’ back in the throne room. Is that your real name?”

“Or are you adopting it?” the other guard said.

The girl just sat there, looking down on the gleaming emerald shimmer of the floor beneath her feet, wondering how she should answer their questions.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“I’m adopting it for now,” ‘Alice’ said, “because I don’t know what my real name is.”

The two guards just stared at her, their eyes raised and their foreheads wrinkled, till Princess Ozma’s voice came through the double doors of the throne room, saying, “Guards, bring our visitors inside, so we may hear them out.”

And so, amidst more rumors about ever-plotting Nome kings and ever-sneaking wicked witches and ever-prowling lions and tigers and bears (oh, my!) on the borders and backwoods of their little world of Oz, the guards opened the double doors once again, and ’Alice’ and her companions—

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Passed the threshold into the presence of the four Lolita-princesses of Oz sitting upon their thrones, with Princess Ozma sitting on the big marble throne atop the circular pedestal and the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger on either side of her sitting on giant pillows. Everyone, from the four princesses of Oz to the two giant beasts were smiling at the three trespassers as if they were their friends and allies.

After the guards closed the double doors behind them, standing guard before the doors like before, ‘Alice’ and her companions waited for someone to speak.

First, the Cowardly Lion said, “I was a coward who was always looking for his courage in the wrong places, but I found it protecting Princess Ozma and the other princesses from you three. Thank you, truly, for I now know what true courage is: it’s taking action even in the presence of fear and, by heaven, you three almost gave me a heart attack!”

Then the Hungry Tiger, swishing his tail around and fluttering the red ribbon tied at the end of it, and added, “And I was a glutton who was always looking for some unfortunate person to eat and feeling guilty for having such an appetite, but you three have taught me to suppress it. Thank you, truly, for I now know what true moderation is: it’s to eat only when it’s breakfast, or lunch, or dinner and, by heaven, it’s not even tea time yet!”

“The girls and I were at an impasse with what to do about you,” Princess Ozma said, then waved at the two massive beasts on either side of her, “but based on the insights of these two, we have decided to hear you out. It takes courage to stand up to your betters and even more courage to admit defeat and surrender, which is not an easy thing to do. So here we are. What are your names, by the way?”

First, the Red Queen said and curtsied, “My name is ‘Lorina,’ the Red Queen of the world of the Looking-Glass—”

“—and I’m ‘Edith,’” the White Queen said and curtsied, “the White Queen of the world of the Looking-Glass—”

“—and I’m ‘Alice,’” ‘Alice’ said and curtsied, “the future Queen of Hearts and the true ruler of Wonderland. At least, that’s what Lewis Carroll said to me before he left Wonderland for the land of Oz. We’ve already heard what Carroll said to you in this room, but before he left Wonderland for Oz, he also told me that I was to meet someone in the future who will give me a new name, a name taken from her own mother, he said.”

At this piece of intel, Princess Ozma manifested the letter Glinda had sent her and read through the contents, then looked at ‘Alice’ again before perusing the letter again, then looked at ‘Alice’ again and said, “Glinda didn’t mention anything about someone getting renamed after someone else’s mother in this letter, but she did mention something else that intrigues me. In this letter, Glinda mentioned in her meeting with Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum that she had found a blank volume in one of her library bookshelves and asked them if they knew who it belonged to. When they said they didn’t know, Glinda had this book sent to me along with this letter,” and she manifested that same volume in her other hand and showed it to ‘Alice’ and her friends. “Its title on the cover says, Into the Secret Room, by Linda Kouri, and its pages are all blank. Do any of you know anything about this book?”

The Red and White Queens shook their heads, but ‘Alice’ stepped up to Ozma’s throne, reaching out her hand, and said, “Can you hand me that book?”

So Princess Ozma handed it to her, saying, “Do you know anything about it?”

“Not the book itself,” ‘Alice’ said, opening the volume and flipping through the blank pages, and lingered on the title and the name of the by-line on the cover and closed her eyes like Sleeping Beauty about to fall into an enchanted sleep. And she didn’t know why she did it, but she also ran her finger along the spine of the volume Princess Ozma had given her, till the image of a bespectacled Gibson girl flashing through her mind before fading away, and all was stillness in her mind.

All the while, Princess Ozma, Princess Dorothy, Princess Betsy, and Princess Trot all leaned forwards in their thrones at the sight of ‘Alice’ going into a trance-like state, so ’Alice’s companions touched her shoulders.

“‘Alice,’ you’re scaring me,” the White Queen said. “‘Alice!’”

“‘Alice,’ wake up,” the Red Queen said. “‘Alice,’ wake up,” and she snapped her fingers before her face. “‘ALICE!’”

Yet not only did their words fail to rouse ‘Alice’ from her trance, but seemed to deepen her hypnosis, till her body floated off the ground and leveled itself before them, and the Red and White Queens tugged on her sky-blue Sunday dress to keep her from floating away. In this trance, ‘Alice’ repeated the lines from an unseen dream, saying, “‘Is that my name?’”

The Red and White Queens traded glances, then the Red Queen said, repeating more lines without knowing it, “‘Of course, it is, but how . . .’” And she shook Alice's body, but to no avail, so she she looked back at Princess Ozma on her big throne and repeated more lines, saying, “‘Why can't [she] wake up?’”

Yet before Ozma spoke, ‘Alice’ only smiled in her sleep and said, “‘Are you here to rescue me?’”

“‘I am, but . . .’” the Red Queen said.

“‘Listen to me, “Alice,”’” the White Queen said. “’You need to wake up now! [Mr. Prospero] could be here at any time, so [we] need you to wake up. Otherwise—’”

“’I can't wake up,’” she said.

And from her big throne, Princess Ozma said, “’Why?’”

“’That man,’” ‘Alice’ said, “’took away the most important thing I hold dear.’”

“’What's that?’” Princess Ozma said.

“’My name,’” she said.

“’But your name's “Alice,”’” the princess said. “‘“Alice,” don't you know who you are?’”

But ‘Alice’ shook her head in her sleep and placed her hand up to something before her while sleep-floating before everyone in the throne room, as if there was a mirror before her and said, “’Remember me as you see me now, for the next time you see me, I'll be a different person.’”

“‘What do you mean?’” the Red Queen said.

“‘[We] don't understand,’” the White Queen added.

“‘Remember me,’” ‘Alice’ said, saying those very words as if she was dissipating from some unseen world within her trance-like state, saying them as if they marked her epitaph after passing on into the Great Beyond, where long-dead memories lay forgotten in ‘Alice’s Pool of Tears that she now shed from her eyes. And this Pool of Tears glistened down the sides of ‘Alice’s face like a pair rivulets from her face and pooled on the floor of the throne room, as her words and her voice and her spirit drifted away into the void of forgotten memories and dead dreams, forgotten to all except the Red and White Queens and the Princesses Ozma and Dorothy and Betsy and Trot and the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger and the two palace guards and God himself, the Keeper of dreams from now till the end of all dreams . . .

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Meanwhile, the four princesses of Oz and the two giant beasts and the two Queens of the Looking-Glass world gathered around the sleeping ‘Alice,’ now inscribed in a sparkling halo of her tears around her head on the floor. The Red and White Queens were crouching on the floor, shaking ‘Alice’ by her shoulders and telling her to open her eyes, yet the girl remained unresponsive, as if she was in a comatose state. That’s when Princess Ozma ordered the two palace guards to stay at their posts by the double doors, till further notice, and they both said they would and saluted her, then stomped their feet.

Then Princess Ozma crouched beside the frantic Queens, all three girls now looking over ‘Alice’s prone body, and said, “Do you know what’s going on?”

“We don’t, your Highness,” the Red Queen said.

So both Queen shook ‘Alice’ by her shoulders again, yet when the girl stayed still in her trance-like state, the frantic White Queen said, “Ugh, why won’t she wake up?”

“When she was talking earlier,” Princess Ozma said, “did you notice anything strange about what she was saying?”

Both Queens stopped what they were doing and stared at her, then shook their heads, and the Red Queen asked, “Did you notice anything, your Highness?”

“I did,” Princess Ozma said.

“Was it her hand?” the Red Queen said.

Princess Ozma nodded and said, “When she raised her hand, it seemed like ‘Alice’ was placing her hand up against something.”

“Wait,” Princess Dorothy said, “the way she did it, it was like she was holding her hand flat against something.”

“Like a wall?” Princess Betsy said.

“Or a portrait?” Princess Trot added.

“I don’t think it’s those,” Princess Ozma said, looking down to the floor where ‘Alice’ lay unresponsive, then remembered the way ‘Alice’ had closed her eyes and handled the book she had given her. “I wonder,” she said to herself and acted on instinct, reaching over and grabbing the book that had fallen to the floor, and closed her eyes and ran her finger down the spine of the book the way ‘Alice’ had done and began to daydream—

(as another girl in another bed with a mild headache in the morning, opening her eyes and expecting to see ‘Alice’ in her arms beside her, but she was no longer beneath the sheets with her. She sat up and felt a stabbing pain in her chest, so she put her hand to someone else’s bosom but felt no indication of blood pooling there. She only felt her heartbeats racing from the sudden burst of pain, a pain that was deeper than a mere stab through the heart, a stab of a deeper kind that reaches into the depth of the soul.

When the pain settled, she unclenched her eyes and found herself in the nude, exposed to the chill morning air, even as Princess Ozma was still in the throne room, and found hickeys down the parting of someone else’s breasts and down someone else’s stomach and further down . . . The Princess blushed at the sight and reached for the nightstand and grabbed someone else’s glasses and put them on, then turned the sheets aside and saw drops of blood there in the center of the bed. Her mind then drifted onto the sensuous turmoil of last night's doings with an older Alice, a different Alice whose touch made her skin crawl from the residual touches and rubbings and bitings of the previous night, but ‘Alice’ herself was nowhere in Ozma’s waking daydream.

“‘“Alice?”’” Princess Ozma called out, repeating more lines without knowing. “‘“Alice,” where are you?’”

“‘Are you sure that's my name?’” someone said, and when she turned to the source of the sound, Princess Ozma found that very ‘Alice’ inside of someone else’s body-length mirror.

“‘Of course it is,’” she said, getting up and walking to the mirror leaning against the wall in her mind, “‘but how are you even inside [the] mirror? And why did you—’”

“‘You don't understand,’” ‘Alice’ said, shaking her head. “‘I’m not her. I'm not Alice. I'm not the girl you slept with.’”

“‘Then,’” Amelia said, blushing again at the sensuous turmoil of last night’s fling with another girl named Alice, “‘who are you? What's your name?’”

“‘I wish I knew,’” the girl said.

“‘What do you mean by that?’” Princess Ozma said and reached out and put her fingers on the surface of the reflection, where she recognized the docile ’Alice’ who was now inside the throne room. “‘Surely, you must have a name.’”

The girl called ‘Alice’ shook her head again and said, “‘I wish I knew,’” and began dissipating from the mirror.

“‘“Alice!”’” Princess Ozma began tapping at the mirror, but the pain in her chest flared up again, making her grit her teeth against it, till it subsided once again. “‘“Alice,” come back!’”

The girl was gone, and in place of that girl was the face of a young woman she had not seen before, a woman of around 15 or 16 years of age, whose image got her thinking about the book Glinda had sent her along with the letter, the same book that Princess Ozma had handed to ‘Alice’ in the throne room during her audience with the three visitors, and she knew that ‘Alice’ was still inside the throne room.

So Princess Ozma braced herself, squinting her eyes, and pinched her own cheek . . .)

—till she awoke with a gasp and blinked her eyes, feeling the ache of her pinched cheek, and found herself standing a few paces away from ‘Alice’ on the floor. She turned to everyone still gathered around the sleeping ‘Alice,’ from her three princess friends and the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger to the Red and White Queens, all of them looking at Princess Ozma as if she had lost her mind, while the two palace guards still manned their stations at the double doors.

Princess Ozma said, “Did she respond to everything I said?”

All of them nodded that she did, with the Red Queen adding, “She even responded to your gestures.”

With that, Princess Ozma lost no time in rushing over to the sleeping ‘Alice’ on the floor and laid the side of her head over the girl's mouth and felt her breathing against her ear. So she raised one of the girl’s eyelids and saw the whites of her eyes glowing with a seal over them and said, “She is under an enchanted sleep spell.”

“But you did the same thing she did,” the Red Queen said. “How come you're awake, and she’s not?”

“Because I am a half-fairy,” Princess Ozma said. “I can dispel magic, but ‘Alice’ cannot.”

“Will she ever wake up?” the White Queen added.

“There is a way,” she said, and before either of the Queens asked her what that was, Princess Ozma gulped down her qualms and acted the part of the gallant prince and bent over Sleeping Beauty’s face and planted a kiss on her lips, then another, and then another—

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Till ‘Alice’ woke up moments later, her lips moist and her face hot from kissing another girl besides the Red and White Queens. Princess Ozma was staring down at her from a kneeling position on the floor, breathing hard with her face as red as hers, so ‘Alice’ looked away and avoided the stares of the Queens and the glares of Ozma’s three princess friends and the growls of the two beasts. For all of her ignorance in such matters, even at her tender age, ‘Alice’ suspected something about the kiss Princess Ozma had shared with her. So she propped herself up on her elbows and saw a shame-faced Ozma without her regal mien and bearing, seeing a more vulnerable side of her.

“Was that your first kiss?” ‘Alice’ said.

And Ozma’s reaction confirmed it: the esteemed princess of Oz blushed even more and avoided ‘Alice’s gaze before getting up to her feet and turning away from her friends, facing her throne atop the pedestal. And her three princess friends came to her side, asking her what was the matter, yet the esteemed princess stayed silent for a moment longer.

“Your Highness?” ‘Alice’ said, wondering if she had offended Ozma somehow, but her fears were unfounded.

For Princess Ozma turned and smiled back at her, saying, “Not my first, but it is indeed the first I have shared with another girl. By the way,” she added, “did you see that woman in your trance?”

And she nodded, saying, “Is she the one I’ll meet?”

“Yes,” Princess Ozma said, then pointed at the fallen volume by ‘Alice’s side. “Take that book with you.”

She picked it up, saying, “You won’t keep it?”

“No,” Princess Ozma said. “You need it more than I do. Keep that book with you, till you find the woman you saw in your trance. You may not know her name yet, but you will recognize her face, as she wears glasses and does her hair up.”

“You saw her, too?” ‘Alice’ said.

The Princess nodded and said, “But I must warn you before I take you to her. I was under the same trance as you, but instead of becoming you in the mirror, I was that very woman you will meet. And I saw her memories of the previous night, in which there was another girl who looks just like you and even shares your name. That woman slept with this other Alice, thinking she was you, and she woke up calling for you.”

“Where did she go?” ‘Alice’ said.

“I do not know,” the Princess said. “Maybe the woman gave you a new name to distinguish you from this other Alice,” and she walked over to ‘Alice’ and hugged her like a sister, and ‘Alice’ felt her cheeks burn. “But I do worry about you, ‘Alice.’ I do not know what will happen to you after I send you, so be on your guard.”

“Will do, your Highness,” ‘Alice’ said.

“And make sure you give that book to her,” she added.

And ‘Alice’ flipped through the pages and said, “But the pages are all blank.”

“She has yet to write it,” the Princess said.

“Then what’ll I say?” ‘Alice’ said. “How will she believe me if she hasn’t done anything yet?”

“You will know when you meet her,” Princess Ozma said, “for these are future events about you, ‘Alice,’ and I suspect that woman will have a hand in fixing its course with that book,” and she pointed to the volume clutched in ‘Alice’s hand. “But whatever that course may be, do not lose sight of who you are, for that other Alice is lost. You must find that other Alice and set her free, just as that woman will set you free.”

“But how?” ‘Alice’ said.

“I cannot tell you,” she said, “for I do not know the inner workings of your heart,” and Princess Ozma manifested another handkerchief in her hand and gave it to her. “Wave this, and I’ll send you where you need to go.”

“Wait,” ‘Alice’ said, looking at the resigned looks of the Red and White Queens, “what about them?”

The White Queen said, “I wish we could stay with you—”

“—be we can’t,” the Red Queen added.

“But why?” ‘Alice’ said.

“We haven’t been completely honest with you, ‘Alice,’” the Red Queen said, “but we both come from the future—”

“—your future,” the White Queen added.

So the Red and White Queens both hugged ‘Alice,’ wrapping their arms around her shoulders and saying that they will meet her again in the future. They said that they’ve already seen what had happened to ‘Alice’ with their own eyes, yet they wouldn’t say exactly what: they only said that they were (and will be) with her in her darkest moments and beyond.

After that, the Red Queen said, “Everyone has three faces, ‘Alice.’ The first face, you show to the world—”

“—and the second face, you show to your closest friends and your family,” the White Queen added, “but the third face, you never show to anyone—”

“—for it is the truest reflection of who you are,” the Red Queen said, “whenever you look in the mirror.”

“You mean the other Alice,” she said, “is me?”

Both Queens nodded and kissed ‘Alice’ on her forehead, then on her eyes, and then on her lips. Then the White Queen said, “Alice is as much a part of you—”

“—as we are,” the Red Queen added.

“So love her as we love you,” both Queens said.

Tears welled up in her eyes, for ‘Alice’ wanted them to come with her, yet just as she became reacquainted with them in Wonderland after three years, so too must she part from them in the land of Oz after a topsy-turvy afternoon. After exchanging embraces and kisses for the last time, ‘Alice’ separated herself from the Queens and Ozma and the rest and waved goodbye. She took one more look at her newfound friends, then waved her handkerchief and disappeared—

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From the scene as the Red and White Queens started crying after her departure. So Princess Ozma and the three other princesses came to their side and hugged them, saying that it’s going to be okay, that they’ll see ‘Alice’ again soon enough, that they need not despair at seeing their beloved ‘Alice’ go. Even the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger came up to the two criers and purred at them as if they were two parent cats comforting their kittens, and the Hungry Tiger went one step further by licking the faces of these two Queens, till the Lion shook his head at him to discourage his striped friend from developing an appetite for eating young girls with salty tears.

So Princess Ozma manifested two handkerchiefs in her hands and gave them to the Red and White Queens, saying, “It is not much, but dry yourselves with these.”

So the two Queens took one each and wiped their eyes, then cried some more and wiped their eyes again. They repeated these cathartic actions, till they had cried themselves out of their sorrows and wiped them away.

The Red Queen said, “You’re too kind, your Highness—”

“—and we’re sorry for causing a ruckus earlier,” the White Queen added, “and for my speaking ill of your Highness.”

“All is forgiven,” Princess Ozma said, then raised her hand to both of their chests, letting it hover just above the beating warmth of their bosoms, as tears began to well up in her eyes. Something heavy rested in the chests of both Queens, something that made her own heart quake at the contours of its hideous nature pulsing through them in untold secrets. “I sense in both of you a heavy burden. What is the matter?”

“We come from ‘Alice’s future,” the Red Queen said, “in which ‘Alice’ had given both of us our names.”

“‘Lorina,’” the Princess said, “and ‘Edith?’”

“No,” the White Queen said. “Those are the names of our past selves—”

“—when ‘Edith’ and I were ‘Alice’s cousins from the Liddell Baronetcy,” the Red Queen added. “‘Edith’ and ‘Alice’ and I are in limbo right now, for we three have passed on from our past selves into what you see before you. We’re shadows of the past—”

“—and reflections of the future,” the White Queen said.

“‘Alice’s future,” the Red Queen added.

At their words and their downcast looks, Princess Ozma said to the two palace guards to leave the throne room and stand guard on the other side of the double doors.

They said, “Will do, your Highness,” and did so.

Afterwards, Princess Ozma went back to her big throne atop the circular pedestal and sat down, mulling her visitors’ words of the past and future through her head. All the while, her three princess friends sat back on their little thrones, and the two beasts sat back on their giant pillows besides the thrones, while Princess Ozma thought of her next question.

“What happened in the past?” she said.

So the White Queen started, saying, “All of this happened in the first decades of this century. After ’Alice’s mother died of mysterious causes in 1902, our own mother took her in, and we became her stepsisters—“

“—till ‘Alice’ got abducted in 1913 when she was 16,” the Red Queen continued. “I was 18 at the time, and ‘Edith’ had just turned 14 on the month ‘Alice’ was abducted from our house. All the papers at the time showed a mutilated corpse that was thought to be ‘Alice’s remains, but neither of us believed them even when the rest of our family did—”

“—nor did we believe that Mr. Foster was the man who abducted and murdered poor ’Alice,’” the White Queen added. “‘Lorina’ and ‘Alice’ and I had known Mr. Foster as a good man who would never hurt any of us, but we were wary of his friend, Mr. Prospero, who gave us the creeps whenever he looked at us.”

“We thought Mr. Prospero was responsible for taking ‘Alice,’” the Red Queen said, “but ‘Edith’ and I couldn’t convince our family of our suspicions, and for the rest of our lives, we’ve lived as pariahs from our family for believing Mr. Foster to be innocent even after he was executed. We even visited the witch Linda Kouri for a seance session to contact Mr. Foster’s ghost, and his ghost confirmed our suspicions, telling us that Mr. Propsero was the real culprit behind ‘Alice’s abduction and murder. Yet even when we knew Mr. Foster was executed for crimes he never committed, we couldn’t prove it in any law court—”

“—while the real bastard walked scot-free,” the White Queen added, “under a different name.”

It took a moment for Princess Ozma to realize that she was gaping, so she covered her mouth and thought about their words, rolling the details of Glinda’s letter through her head all the while, and said, “What about the future?”

So the Red Queen started, saying, “In ‘Alice’s future, we became her imaginary friends, and she gave us new names. She named me Akami the Red Queen—”

“—and ‘Alice’ named me Shiromi the White Queen,” the White Queen said, “yet ‘Alice’ herself went by a different name, a name none of us can say with our own mouths, because something horrible had happened to her.”

“What happened?” Princess Ozma said.

Both Queens remained silent for a time, trading wary looks with each other, both on the edge of revealing something they felt was better left unsaid.

Yet Princess Ozma knew the detriment of keeping such secrets to oneself for long, as the contours of the hideous nature of it squirmed its way through Princess Ozma’s stomach and into her chest, where it lingered there like a vise clamping down on her quickening heartbeats. So she gulped down her qualms and said, “Whatever you say in this room will stay in this room. You have nothing to fear from us by revealing it, whatever it is. It becomes easier to bear if you share the pain amongst friends than to keep it bottled up between just the two of you.”

For a time, the Queens stayed silent.

“Please,” Princess Ozma said. “I cannot send you out of here in good conscience, if you have left something important unsaid.”

So the Red and White Queens related the events leading up to that ungodly night, in which ‘Alice’ suffered an atrocity that would shake the nerves of their listeners. They told them of that terrible father caressing and pinching and kissing ‘Alice’ night after night, which turned into groping and fondling and worse night after night. Because of these accumulated atrocities, they said, ‘Alice’ had begun to lose her sense of self and had started pretending she was ‘Alice’ from the Alice books of Lewis Carroll just to get away from herself and her situation. As such, they said, they gave ‘Alice’ knives to protect herself from her father, which then backfired after her father found them and had them confiscated. After that, when those events culminated in that last night of horror, both Queens related the sickening moments when ‘Alice’s father dragged her, kicking and screaming, into his bedroom and onto his bed and committed an atrocity that resulted in ‘Alice’ killing her father. Combined with this atrocity, ‘Alice’s act of self defense had cracked her mind and erased her name and exiled her spirit to Wonderland, where the Queens found ‘Alice’ this afternoon.

After they finished, Princess Ozma and her princess friends were all crying with their hands clapped over their gaping mouths. And the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger growled at the inhumanity of it all, as if they were about to pounce on an imaginary version of that godless excuse of a father who had dared to impose himself like that, yet they channeled their feelings into those of warmth and protection over their sniffling guests, approaching the Red and White Queens and nuzzling their noses against their crying faces like parents comforting their kittens.

And in the next few minutes of crying, they had cried themselves out of their sorrows and calmed down.

“Oh my God,” Princess Ozma said, catching her breath. “I am so sorry for both of you. I should not have made you two recount all of that.”

“It’s okay, your Highness,” the Red Queen said.

“At least we’ve got it off our chests,” the White Queen added.

“Do you want to stay here?” Princess Ozma said. “For a little while before you go?”

Yet the White Queen said, “We’d love to—”

“—but we can’t,” the Red Queen added. “We’ve got somewhere else to go and someone else to find.”

“Who is it you have to find?” Princess Ozma said.

“A girl named ‘Kendra,’” the White Queen said.

“We found ‘Alice’ walking with this ‘Kendra’ through a bed of giant flower buds this morning,” the Red Queen added, “but ‘Alice’ doesn’t remember her.”

Princess Ozma paused on this new development, wondering about the import of another girl into this already-tangled web, then said, “What happened to ‘Kendra?’”

And so, the Queens related what they had witnessed in the forms of the Lory and the Eaglet flying overhead above the giant flower bed, telling their listeners how ‘Alice’ was looking inside one of the giant buds, till copies of ‘Alice’ had emerged out of all of the buds, separating ‘Alice’ from ‘Kendra’ and taking ‘Kendra’ captive.

“Where did they take her?” the Princess said.

“We don’t know,” the Red Queen said.

“But did you get a good look at her?” the Princess said.

“We did,” the White Queen said, “enough to recognize her if we see her again.”

“Then that is where we start,” the Princess said. “Just think of that girl and wave your handkerchiefs, and I will send both of you to wherever she is,” she added and got up from her throne again and approached the Queens. She got up close to them and saw into the windows of their eyes, where she spied teenaged versions of the Queens holding hands with a train of others (most of them women and one male musketeer) across the space-time continuum of crossing through a mirror.

“Are you traveling with others?” she said.

Both Queens nodded that they were.

“Looking for this ‘Kendra?’” she said.

They nodded again, but the Red Queen added, “And two others.”

“Two others?” she said.

So the White Queen said, “One is named Mara—”

“—and the other is named ————,” the Red Queen said.

“That name,” Princess Ozma said. “Why can I not hear it even when you say it?”

“She hasn’t been renamed yet,” the White Queen said.

“You mean,” the Princess said, “‘Alice?’”

Both Queens nodded.

“Oh my God,” the Princess said. “Then I will send you and your traveling companions to where ‘Kendra’ is, first,” and she moved several paces away from her departing guests. “And make sure to keep those items with you, so I can see where you are in my magic picture.”

Both Queens said, “Will do, your Highness,” and they raised their handkerchiefs above their heads and waved them, taking them away from the throne room to their destination.

After that, Princess Ozma slumped into her big marble throne and breathed out a sigh, then buried her face in her hands.

Princess Dorothy said, “Are you all right, Ozma?”

“This has been a heavy afternoon,” Princess Ozma said into her hands before looking up at her friends, dropping her regal airs in the company of her closest friends. “Honestly, I’m exhausted. I don’t think I can see any more visitors for today.”

“Indeed,” the Cowardly Lion said and shook his massive mane, shaking away the jitters of keeping his fears at bay. “I was getting jittery after a while.”

“And I’m getting hungry again,” the Hungry Tiger said.

“Then I’ll have Jellia Jamb prepare tea and snacks for us in the garden,” Princess Ozma said and got up from her throne and looked back at her three princess friends and the two beasts. “Wanna come?”

“Gladly,” Princess Dorothy said.

“Absolutely,” Princess Betsy added.

“Most definitely,” Princess Trot added.

While the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger salivated and purred in the affirmative in deep guttural tones, both of them wanting to stress-eat their qualms away.

So her three princess friends and her two animal friends accompanied Princess Ozma out of the throne room and into the great hall, where she donned her regal airs once more and announced that visitations have ended for today. And amidst a whole series of sighs and deflated expectations from her other guests, the Princess added that she will have her attendants escort them all to their suites in the upper floors of the Royal Palace, while she and her friends take a short afternoon repast outside the Royal Palace in the rose garden. After that, she sent someone for Jellia Jamb, so she could prepare tea and snacks for herself and her friends in the garden.

With that done, the Princess led the way through the great hall, as everyone bowed to her and her entourage in departing salutations, and entered one of the corridors leading outside towards the rose gardens.

Where Dorothy walked up behind her and said, “Um, Ozma . . .”

“What is it, Dorothy?” Princess Ozma said.

“When you kissed ‘Alice,’” Dorothy whispered, meeting Ozma’s eyes before looking away, “was she really your first?”

Ozma gaped at her question, feeling her cheeks burn at the insinuation that she had fallen for another girl that was not Dorothy, so she took a hold of Dorothy’s arm and leaned into her as they walked, letting her best friend smell her perfume and her own scent beneath it. She then whispered into her ear like a lover and said, “Come to my bedroom tonight, Dorothy, and I’ll give you all the kisses you want.”

Her friend blushed, looking away from her gaze, then smiled and whispered, “I look forward to it, your Highness.”

“What are you two talking about?” Betsy said.

“Are you planning anything?” Trot added.

Ozma and Dorothy looked over their shoulders at their other friends and smiled, putting their fingers to their lips.

“It’s a secret,” Ozma said.

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つづく

Day: Alice and the Mad Tryst (Green Roses)

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