Present: Near the Ferris Wheel, London
T he Cheshire watched the Pillar fight the devilish plants all around him. It was like watching David fight Goliath, if Goliath had tens of tentacle arms slithering at him.
It surprised the Cheshire how the Pillar was a master of his hose, even better than Indiana Jones.
The Pillar whipped at the plants with his hose left and right, enough to stay alive, but not enough to avoid their cuts.
His suit had been torn and tattered, blood dripping out everywhere. His face--and already suffering from his skin disease--had been adorned with lines of the same blood. However, his hat was still intact. The Pillar’s hat never fell off, just like in the movies.
The Pillar had also stopped asking the Cheshire for help. His priority was to protect the children in the car from the tentacle plants of Wonderland.
Cold-hearted and calculating, the Cheshire stroked his plastic chin with his thumb, assessing the situation. What in Wonderland's madness was going on?
He didn’t even bother to help the children.
Their father had already died under the weight of the car, and their mother was trapped, trying to free herself before the car exploded.
But no, the children kept reading Alice in Wonderland.
One of the plants drummed the flipped car like a dinosaur from Jurassic Park and flipped it over again. The mother screamed, hitting her head against the window and fainting.
The children, however, flipped, dropped the book, but waited until the car settled again. They soon picked up the book to keep reading, as if their lives depended on it.
The Pillar turned and whipped his hose at the plants, trying to get hold of the snake-like creature.
“Let me be,” the huge plant grunted. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the one who’s going to kill each and every one of your species today,” the Pillar said with a firmness the Cheshire had never experienced before. The blood didn’t bother him, not even the pain, and probably not even death. “Let the children read.”
A shimmering light began to fill the car as the children continued reading.
“Whooo aaaahre yooooh?” the choking plants asked. Even though the sentence was an exclusive phrase of the Pillar’s.
Which confused the Cheshire.
These plants had always existed in Wonderland. They should have recognized the Pillar, owner of Mushroom Garden, and seller of Mushrooms. How come the plants didn’t know him?
“He is Carter Pillar!” the Cheshire yelled, intentionally wanting the plant to hear him. “How come you don’t know him?”
“No, he isn’t!” the plant whined as the Pillar squeezed the hose harder and watched the giant thing plump to the ground.
“You didn’t want her to tell me who you are!” the Cheshire dared the Pillar who had already turned his back to him to fight the other tentacles.
“Stay out of it, Cheshy,” the Pillar said.
The children in the car began to elevate inside. It seemed like the light was a ghost that protected them and now turned into a huge hand that pulled them out of the car. They sat as if upon a transparent flying carpet, reading in midair.
This drove the plants crazier.
In fact, the children’s reading escalated. They sounded as if there were thousands of them.
The Plants began to retreat.
“Thank you…” a child said to the Pillar.
The Pillar nodded back with a heartily smile but said nothing. He still whipped, then nodded in the Cheshire’s direction.
The Pillar didn’t want the children to pronounce his real name, the Cheshire guessed.
“Who is he?” the Cheshire asked the children. “Tell me.”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” one of the children, the little girl, told him then continued reading and ignored him.
Now the light filled the streets. A coning shimmer as if from an alien species, surrounding the children.
“You’ll have to leave,” the Pillar told the children. “I can’t keep the plants occupied longer.”
“We will,” a child said. “Thank you for all you’ve done for us.”
The Cheshire was losing his mind. “Did you children just thank Pilla da Killa? Do you even know who he is?”
One of the children, a boy this time, turned his head to the Cheshire, “We know who he is, but we think you don’t know who you are.”