"C ome here," the White Queen says, now that we're done with the Alice issue. "Give me a hug." I let her hug me. I feel the same way I did when Constance hugged me. I feel the warmth, a surge of easiness as if returning home. "The Pillar wants you to think you're the Real Alice," she whispers in my ear so he can't hear. "He has plans of his own for Wonderland. Use him, but don't trust him." She pushes me away gently and holds me by the arms. "But I will help you save the girl."
"A chessboard-tiled floor," says the Pillar, breaking the whispering. I bet he is curious about what Fabiola told me. "I didn't know the nuns were into chess."
"It's not for chess," the White Queen says, winking at me. "I'll show you. Why don't you step on it, Alice?"
I comply right away, then stop before taking my first step. I remember I can't step on black tiles. My legs step on the white ones spontaneously, making my walking look awkward. But I finish the walk and end up on the other side.
The White Queen claps elegantly, barely making her hands touch. She looks at me as if I am an infant who just learned to walk. "The good at heart only walk on white," she explains, and now I know why I couldn't step on black in my cell.
"Oh," the Pillar says, taking a step away.
"Don't you want to try it, Pillar?" the White Queen teases him.
"I don't feel like playing hopscotch today," he says, pretending to be checking the artistic designs all around.
"So how do we catch the Cheshire?" I ask.
"Before you catch him, I need to tell you about the seven girls in the photographs," the White Queen says. "The Pillar sent them to my phone anonymously an hour ago." The Pillar never wastes time.
"Any ideas?" the Pillar asks her.
"Actually, yes," the White Queen says. "The theory you sent me is brilliant."
"It's my theory," I say.
"Don't be picky, Alice. We're a team now." He turns back to Fabiola. "But it's flawed. Constance wasn't born in one of the towns with a church that has a grinning cat statue in it."
"That's true," Fabiola says. "But it doesn't mean she isn't a perfect fit to the puzzle."
"I don't follow," I say.
"Most of the girls Lewis Carroll took pictures of have a significance in the events that happened in Wonderland," she explains. "One of those pictures the Cheshire requested is of a girl named Alice Westmacott." She pulls out her phone and shows the photo to me. I have seen it before. This Alice isn't me. It's just another seven-year-old girl in a sepia photograph. "The name Alice was very common in Carroll's time," she continues. "This one is precisely the key to solving the puzzle of the seven girls."
"How is that so?" the Pillar asks.
"Alice Westmacott's real full name is Alice Constance Richard Westmacott."
"Okay?" I tilt my head, sensing a resolution coming my way.
"Alice Constance like a two-part name," Fabiola says. "Some people liked to call their kids with such names."
"So she could have been called Alice by some and Constance by others," the Pillar says, nodding.
"Is that why Constance told me her mom wanted to call her Alice?" I ask. "Was she giving me a hint?"
"I'm not sure how much she knows about this," Fabiola says.
"This is mind-boggling," the Pillar says. "The present-day Constance didn't live a hundred and fifty years ago."
"That's true. But bear with me," Fabiola says. "The modern-day Constance's name is Constance Albert Westmacott."
"She is a descendant of the Westmacott's." The puzzle starts to unfold for me. "But still, she wasn't born in a town with a Cheshire in a church."
"That's where you both missed it," Fabiola says. "Sir Richard Westmacott was a well-known British sculptor in the time of Lewis Carroll. They knew each other well. His is commemorated by a blue plaque in his place of death in London."
"A sculptor?" I am trying to follow the complicated puzzle.
"Please don't tell me he is the one who carved all those grinning cats all over England?" The Pillar caught on faster than I did.
"Yes, he did," Fabiola says. "I know this because I talked many times with Lewis when he was obsessed with locking the doors to Wonderland in the past. He told me that each Wonderland Monster needed a special charm or magic to be locked away. He worked with Richard to trap the Cheshire."
"Let me get this straight." I am waving my hand over my head and walking around as I speak. "In order to trap the Cheshire, Lewis Carroll asked his sculptor friend, Richard Westmacott, to design those grinning cat statues. Each statue is in a town where at least one of the girls the Cheshire killed came from, right?"
"So far, yes." Fabiola nods.
"And Constance counts as one of the seven girls since she is a descendant of the man who sculpted those statues." I really hope I am making sense. "Now, the Cheshire is killing the girls because they're descendants of those girls in the photographs. I suppose there is a reason for it other than the carvings in their towns."
"So why is the Cheshire killing them?" the Pillar asks.
"I don't know," the White Queen says. "In all cases, they are the key to his freedom from whatever Lewis bestowed on him. All I know is where you can find the Cheshire at this time of year."
"And why haven't you said that from the beginning?" The Pillar rolls his eyes.
"In Belgium," Fabiola says. "A town called Ypres."
"Why would he be there now?" I ask.
"There is a festival called Kattenstoet. The weirdest festival of all," Fabiola says.
"Are you talking about the Cat-Throwing Festival?" The Pillar rubs his chin.
Fabiola nods.
"Cat throwing?" Again, I am having a hard time accepting things I hear.
"That's a long story," the Pillar cuts in. "We know what we came here for, and we better go now."
"Wait," the White Queen says. "I haven't yet told you why he attends the festival. I haven't told you why he has a grudge against humanity."
Suddenly, we hear voices outside. I hear someone thud on the floor, and a nun screaming briefly.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"Don't tell me it's the…" The Pillar exchanges a look with Fabiola.
"You didn't let them follow you here, did you?" Fabiola is suddenly furious.
"Who is it?" I can't stand not knowing.
"Who else? The Reds," Fabiola says. "You have to escape."