T he Pillar snatches the phone and reads it. He looks perplexed.
“Are you saying you don’t know where this Snail Mound is?” I say.
“I don’t,” the Pillar says. He isn’t comfortable with the fact either. “But you’re missing the fact that whatever that Snail Mound is, it’s supposed to be in Wonderland. How are you supposed to get to Wonderland?”
“Through the Tom Tower, maybe?” I suggest. “The Einstein Blackboard, traveling back in time?”
“Those aren’t doorways to Wonderland,” the Pillar explains. “Those are only temporary glimpses into it. You can’t use them to stay prolonged periods in Wonderland. To find something specific, you need to learn how to really go to Wonderland. Which, in the meantime, is impossible.”
“You never told me about that. Why is it impossible?”
“The only way to go to Wonderland is to find six keys, leading to six doors, leading to Wonderland.” The Pillar pouts as if he didn’t want to bring this up now. All I can think about is that the key Lewis gave me is one of those keys. “Six Impossible Keys. Lewis used to call them Six Impossible Things. But it’s way too soon to talk about that. This message doesn’t make sense. It’s another game without many clues.”
“Okay,” I say. “I will message him and ask him to clarify.” I begin typing my message to him.
Once I begin, the phone beeps:
No need to reply to my messages. I was just sipping my tea.
The message sends shivers to my spine. I raise my head and look up at the surrounding buildings. How is it possible the Hatter sees me?
I stand up and keep looking at the roofs of the buildings. I am looking for a man with a top hat and goggles, like the children described. But I can’t see such a man.
I feel like a rocket about to launch, spitting out fire. “What do you want from me?” I scream at the sky, spreading my hands sideways.
“What’s wrong, Alice?” the Pillar says.
The walking pedestrians avoid my path, thinking I am insane.
“Show yourself if you dare!” I raise my voice higher, crane my neck higher.
“Beware of what you wish for,” the Pillar says sarcastically. “I requested he show himself while I was in Phuket, Thailand. The next day a tsunami hit us.”
I dismiss the Pillar’s annoyance. “How the heck am I supposed to get to Wonderland?” As I scream, I can feel a slight trembling in my body. It seems to me I am not only mad at this Hatter, but I am still shocked by my previous incident with my sisters.
“You know how to get to Wonderland?” a kid who was watching the Pillar earlier asks me.
“She’s insane, kiddo.” The Pillar pats him. “Here, pull my finger.”
The kid does.
The Pillar farts.
The kid runs away.
All of this happens in the back of my scene while I am panting in anger and frustration.
A phone beeps again. This time it’s my personal phone. I pick it up. It’s the Hatter’s anonymous number. There is no need for him to use his phone again. We’re playing with open cards now. He is trying to drive me crazy, and I am trying to see how deep into the rabbit hole I can go.
I read the message:
Find the March Hare. He knows how to get there. And yeah, Wonderland is real—if you’re insane enough to get there.