THE FUTURE: OXFORD STREETS
“D id you just say Mr. Tick and Mrs. Tock?” Tom drives the truck now. “Are you saying you’re not the current Alice and the Pillar?”
“It depends on how you look at it,” the Pillar says. “But if you’re asking if we were sent from the past, then the answer is yes.”
“Oh, my.” Tom panics, turning the wheel. “This isn’t right.”
I can understand that as a Wonderlander, Tom knows about the Tick and Tock couple. But why is he panicking? “What’s wrong, Turtle?”
“Nothing.” He shakes his head. “Not now. Let’s see if there is a way to save your life first.”
“I want to know what’s going on!” I demand, but then my head aches again.
“Calm down.” The Pillar wipes a trail of blood from my nose. “Or this is going to get worse.”
I stare at the blood, my heart weakening. I think I can’t hear it beat properly.
“There is only one way out of this,” the Pillar says. “A Lullaby pill.” He shifts his stare toward Tom.
“Why are you looking at me?”
“You’re the director of the Radcliffe Asylum,” I say, catching on. “You must know how to get a Lullaby pill.”
“Was the director, about fourteen years ago,” Tom says. “I’ve been trapped in the Oxford Asylum for the last five years for trying to lead the revolution.”
As he mentions it, I glimpse the graffiti on the walls. All hail the Mock Turtle. All hail the revolution.
“This really bothers me,” I mumble. “How is it that Tom Truckle leads the revolution in the future?” Now I am talking to the Pillar. “Why not me?”
“Calm down, Alice,” the Pillar says. “Or I can’t think of a way to get you the pill.”
“Why not me?” I insist. “Aren’t I the Real Alice?”
“I can explain…” Tom begins.
“Shut up!” the Pillar says. “First we have to save your life, then we look for answers, Alice. Look in my eyes and tell me you understand what I just said.”
The Pillar is assertive, wanting to help me. I find myself nodding. Even the nodding hurts when I do it. What’s going to happen to me?
“That’s a start.” The Pillar sighs and stares back at Tom. “Do you happen to know how long she has before she dies?”
“Once the bleeding begins, it takes a time traveler the same time he needs to eat a thousand marshmallows to die completely,” Tom says.
“What does that even mean?” I retort.
“It’s what the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Wonderlastic Time Travels says,” Tom explains. “I myself can eat ten marshmallows in a minute. Given that, I suppose it takes about — ”
“Zip it, Turtle,” the Pillar interjects. “Here is what’s going to happen. See that motorcycle at the curb?”
“Yes?”
“Pull over there. I’ll take it and find the pill.”
“You’re not going to leave me here, Pillar?” I ask him as Tom pulls over.
“I’ll be back,” he says.
“Schwarzenegger used to say that. Now he is dead,” Tom comments.
Neither of us even pay attention to him. The Pillar lowers his head and whispers in my ear, “Stay alive. You can do it.”
He descends the truck and starts the motorcycle, disappearing into the streets.
Gathering what’s left of my energy, I turn back to Tom. “I think now it’s time to tell me more.”