"H ow do we dig into his past?" I glance skyward, wondering if he's watching me from somewhere. I am not sure he is back in the asylum. He sounds as if he's around me. I don't know why.
"Why don't you think for yourself for a change?" the Pillar says.
I think it over for a moment. What do I know about the Cheshire? "The Cheshire likes games. His games are meticulously planned. He is fond of making them about grins and cats, his favorite subjects. He is also fond of hinting at his past—wait. Is that it? You said that Cheshire County and the cheese factory inspired Lewis to write about him."
"It's a very small town. Lovely sane people. Lazy as well. They haven't cherished Lewis Carroll's memory enough, so they stayed a small town. I wouldn't expect answers from them," the Pillar says, "I like your thinking, though, Alice. But you're like most sane people, looking in a faraway place when the answer is right under your feet." The way he says "feet" makes me stop in my place. Why am I so sure he is nearby? I know now. All the sounds surrounding him are the same sounds around me. The cars, the sound of the man selling waffles, the girls squeaking out of the Alice Shop.
"Literally, Alice," he says. "Look under your feet."
I look at my white sneakers and wonder what he means. Am I supposed to see a mark on the pavement now? I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case.
Finally, something crazy happens. A book falls from the sky, right in front of me. It's Alice's Adventures Under Ground .
Without glancing skyward again, I kneel and pick it up, making sure the copy is intact. Then I crane my neck and look up. The Pillar is standing on the roof of Tom Quad, one of the four quadrangles in Christ Church. He is standing in a spot right next to the Tom Tower. I prefer not to ask how he got there. "That's not a gentle way to treat a book that was never out in print," I tell him on the phone and wave hi to him with the book.
He pretends he doesn't know me and feeds pigeons from his gloved hands. "Did you know that the Carroll family doesn't make a dime out of its sales?" He ignores me but talks to me on the phone. Neat. "Can you believe that? It's the second most sold book in history, after the Bible." I didn't know that. "I guess Lewis couldn't compete with God, although they are both big on nonsense." The pigeons flutter away from the roof, and I stand up with the book in my hands. No one around me even questions a book that has fallen from the sky. Only a couple of girls shoot me irritated glances and keep on walking. I have no idea why they did that. Are people that busy in the sane world?
I flip through the book like crazy. "So, what page should I be reading to learn about the Cheshire's past?" I jam the phone between my cheek and shoulder. "Is it the part when I talk to him about the grin?"
"You said 'I' when you mentioned talking to the Cheshire. That's progress to me," he says. "There is only one person who might know about the Cheshire's past. She was mentioned in the book. You just need to free your mind, and the rest will follow." He whistles to the flying pigeons to come back. "Think of the first time you met the Cheshire in the book, Alice. Think."
"He was on the tree, and I was lost," I say confidently. "He kept appearing and disappearing again."
"It's a great metaphor for your current situation, but no, that's not when you first met the Cheshire. You met the Cheshire at…"
"The Duchess's house." The words spring out of my mouth. "The Duchess!"
"Yes. In fact, the Duchess owned the Cheshire Cat at this point."
"I get it. If we find the Duchess… Who better than her knows about the Cheshire's past, and hopefully, his weaknesses?" I crane my neck and look at him. "Do you know how we can find her?"
Instead of looking back at me, the Pillar raises his cane in one hand, the hookah in the other. He stares down at the pedestrians on St. Aldates Street, and then shouts at the world from the top of his lungs, "God has ordered me to build an ark and get you on it, people!" He is acting dead seriously. "If you don't get on it with me before the Wonderland Monsters arrive, you will all die. This will be your apocalypse!"
I try not to laugh, while a couple of homeless people faintly clap their hands next to me. "Yeah, the apocalypse. I remember it," a toothless man says, then goes asking someone for change. Other than this, no one even pays attention to the Noah-posing man on the roof.
The Pillar lowers his instruments and looks down at me with that smug grin on his face. "Don't you love the carelessness of the sane world? I mean, I could be wrapped up in dynamite, and no amount of warning will make them do something about it." His whole face is shimmering with delight. Then in the blink of an eye, he changes to dead serious again. "Are you ready to meet the Duchess?"