CHAPTER FIFTEEN: TIME AND TIDE

A man dressed in a yellow slicker and sou’wester was straining to pull a rowboat onto the beach. A man sitting in the rowboat was encouraging him with manly shouting but otherwise not helping. The man in the rowboat wore a business suit and tie along with his glasses and short hair. When the rowboat scraped up onto the dry sand, the man leaped from it and marched energetically up the beach, leaving the man in the yellow slicker to pull the rowboat above the high water line. The man in the suit glanced around, then checked the time: he looked at his wristwatch, his pocket watch, and a pinky ring watch. When he was done, he nodded at the man who gave the boat one last tug for good measure.

“It be time, and you can lay to that,” the man in the slicker and sou’wester said in a gravelly voice.

The Walrus introduced everybody all around. The man in the business suit was Time, and the man in the mariner’s getup was Tide.

“These two children need a ride to Snark Island,” the Carpenter said.

“We’re not children,” Alice told him angrily.

“Certainly not,” the Walrus said, and gave the Carpenter a hard look.

Tide gave Alice a smile featuring a single gold tooth among the rest of his square tombstone teeth. “I’ve taken to you like pitch, young lady and gentleman,” he said. “That I have. A ride don’t seem too much to ask.”

“As a matter of fact,” Time said in his brisk precise manner, “that is why we’re here.”

“How did you know to come just now?” Albert asked.

“It was time for you to be here,” Time said as if the fact should have been obvious. “It couldn’t happen any other way.”

Albert remembered what Old Vorpel had said about the Dreamtime. Apparently it was a common philosophy here.

“Right you are, mate,” Tide said. “And now it be time to shove off. We sail with the tide of your destiny.”

Albert and Alice exchanged glances. Albert didn’t know what she was thinking, but he was thinking that the adventure had all been pretty much fun and games up till now. Though he didn’t know how he’d gotten here, he’d had fun meeting some of the same characters the original Alice had met on her trip through the Looking-Glass. But actually fighting a creature like a jabberwock so he could have the honor of stealing something from a creature like a snark—a boojum, yet—knotted him up inside and made him sweat.

Time walked back to the rowboat and got in. Immediately, Tide leaned into the rowboat and pushed it across the sand to the water.

“You’d better go,” the Walrus said. “Time and Tide wait for no man.”

“Nor woman,” the Carpenter added.

Alice ran for the boat, with Albert right behind. Their pants got soaked as they helped Tide push the boat into the cold water. In a moment, they climbed into the boat and found places to sit. Albert looked around and was surprised not to see any oars. “How do you make it go?” he asked.

“Har, mate, that be a good one,” Tide cried. “The tide’ll take us, by thunder.”

And sure enough, the rowboat began to glide through the glassy green water at a good clip without any help from the people in it.

Albert began to feel dizzy, then sick to his stomach. He could not tell whether it was caused by fear of what was to come or by the rocking motion of the boat—maybe both. He closed his eyes hoping that would make it better, and it did for a moment. He opened his eyes and concentrated on trying to see the island they were approaching. The fog was heavy now, and for a while the island was invisible. Then a vague shape darkened and became larger.

Albert looked over at Alice. She appeared as grim as he felt, and like him, not inclined to speak. Water dripped from the cuffs of her pants, making small puddles at her feet.

Obviously, each of them had private thoughts about going to Snark Island. For a while Albert thought about how cold his wet pants were. Then he thought about home and what he was going through to get back to a place that had irritated him so. If he lived through this, he would even be glad to see Lily—for a while, anyway. Chances were good that she would irritate his last nerve soon enough. For some reason the thought of Lily giving him a hard time made him smile. Maybe because nothing she could do would be as tough as fighting a jabberwock.

Tide sat in the stern of the rowboat with his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed to be asleep. Time sat in the bow, checking his various clocks often, then nodding at what they told him.

Soon Albert heard the loud bubbling of the volcano, and saw the red glow of the lava as it wended its way in a twisted course down the side of the volcano to the sea where it hissed like a valley full of snakes. As they got closer, Albert began to pick out the rocky hills of the island. Not long after that the rowboat slid up onto the beach.

“Step lively now, mates,” Tide ordered.

Albert and Alice jumped into the cold water and sloshed to the dry sand farther up. He wanted to fall upon the dry land and hug it, but he controlled himself. “Will you wait for us?” Albert asked as he turned back to the rowboat. He was surprised to see that the beached boat was now empty. Both men were gone, but there were now oars in the oarlocks. Albert was somewhat encouraged that these guys thought it likely enough he and Alice would survive that they had left them a means to escape the island.

“Time and Tide don’t wait,” Alice pointed out.

Albert just nodded. As afraid as he was, he bravely marched with Alice up the sandy beach and into the big rocks beyond.