Present: Takayashi Elementary School, Tokyo, Japan
T he bright-eyed twenty-something teacher organized the class. Due to the lack of Alice in Wonderland English versions, she had to gather groups of four students to read from one book. The reading had to be in English--and in unison.
These were the Hatter's orders since they’d received the phone call from Mother Bird.
"In English, please," she told her students.
The teacher's English wasn't the best either, but they were trying.
"Why can't we read it in Japanese?" a little girl protested. She had her black hair knotted in a blooming pink scarf.
"We must read it in English," the teacher said, calming the rest of the class down. "It has to be in Lewis Carroll's language."
"Who is Lewis Caroll?" a boy with thick-rimmed glasses asked.
"He wrote Alice in Wonderland," the teacher sighed, doubting herself. Why was she actually doing this? All she was told was that making the children read will save the world.
"I thought Alice in Wonderland wrote Alice in Wonderland," the girl said.
"Even if it were Alice, she spoke English as well," the teacher argued politely.
"That's not true," the boy argued back. "The original Alice in Wonderland is a Manga turned into a TV series. I have it back home."
"Can you please do as I said," the teacher begged them. "If you want the mushrooms to stop from growing and bringing down buildings and killing people, we have to read."
"Okay," some of the students murmured.
"We have to synchronize as much as possible with others reading all over the world." She added. “I know it’s nearly impossible but it’s said that the more we keep reading, the magic will occur.”
"Is that why we had to wake up at four in the morning to read this?" the boy asked.
The teacher nodded. "Now pay attention. We'll read each chapter, but every thirty minutes we'll recite those two phrases ten times."
"Which phrases?" the students asked.
"“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there '” The teacher explained.
The girl with the pink scarf snickered.
"Something wrong?" the teacher asked.
"Well, if you don't know why you're reading, any words will sound so lame," she cupped her mouth laughing.
The teacher sighed again. Why were children so smart? Or maybe adults were so dumb. All she had to do is look outside her window at people killing each other for no reason at all. Children didn't do that.
"All right," she said to the class. "And the second phrase we have to repeat is…"
"I know it!" the boy raised his hand, winking at the girl in the pink scarf. “We’re all mad here!”
The teacher felt as if she were struck by lightning, "How did you know that?"
The girl in pink answered on his behalf, "Well look at all this nonsense happening, teacher. That is the only phrase that actually makes sense."