My eyes were still shut tight when I heard Tasha’s voice cutting through my hazy thoughts. For a moment I wondered if I’d somehow lost consciousness and was just coming to. I was sprawled on my back but had no recollection of how I ended up that way or where I was.
Tasha must’ve been thinking the same thing. “Where are we?” she said. Her voice was cracked and her throat sounded dry. She wasn’t next to me, but pretty close by.
I felt something cold and gritty against the back of my legs, arms, and neck. It was a rough texture pressing against my skin.
I knew we weren’t in Wonderland anymore. The dinner party was over before it even really began. No more dances with Dominic. No more magic.
I opened my eyes. I stared up at an empty black swing swaying back and forth above my face. Beyond that I could see a ceiling of stars, blanketed across the August night sky.
I tilted my head. I saw the shiny metal slide. Next to it was the cement tunnel Topher used as his hideaway when Nathan, Boyd, and Skeeter chased him from school.
We’re at the playground. But how? Did Adrianna send us here? Are we being punished?
I rolled over in the sand and crawled out from beneath the swing set. I brushed off the back of my blue party dress. I kicked off my white high heels and scooped them up with my hands.
The playground felt eerie. It was bathed in patches of moonlight and darkness. It didn’t seem right to be there after sundown—like something bad could happen to us at any second. I tried to ignore the tickle of fear tumbling through my veins.
“I think we crash-landed,” I said. My body ached from head to toe.
Tasha was lying on her side a few feet away. Her face was turned toward the harbor. I could see the shoreline in the distance. The moon was reflected on the surface of the slow, rolling waves. Like the playground, the beach was deserted. Not a soul in sight.
I went to Tasha and knelt beside her. I touched her arm. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“I hurt,” she said. “And I think I ate sand.”
Tasha turned over and sat up. Her hair was a windblown mess. I reached out and smoothed it down and back into place. The front of her dress had a tear in it. A piece of the peach chiffon material was missing. “Do I look as awful as I feel?” she asked.
“You’re as gorgeous as ever,” I lied.
Tasha reached for me, grabbing my hand. “Did you see her?” she asked. There was a glimmer of panic in her eyes. “Juliet? Was she real?”
“I don’t know,” I answered. “Is any of this? I mean, did all of that just really happen?”
Another voice cut across the playground, coming to us from somewhere in the distance. The sharp urgency in the words chilled me. “You can’t talk about it.”
Tasha hurried to her feet. She stood in front of me as if it were her instinct to protect me. “Who’s there?” she called out.
A pink-haired, tattooed figure in fishnet tights, a plaid skirt, tank top, and black combat boots stepped out from the shadows and into the pit of sand.
“Bettina,” I heard myself say.
“Don’t look so surprised, love child,” she said to me. “I told you…I have a gift.”
Tasha rolled her eyes and let out a small laugh. “The only gift you have is not being caught yet for conning people,” she said. “Leave us alone, Bettina. We’re in the middle of something here.”
“You can drop the tough-girl act,” Bettina told her. “I’ve known you since you were in diapers, Tasha Gordon. You’re no bad girl. No matter how hard you try.”
“And you are?” Tasha threw back at her.
“Don’t worry,” Bettina said to us. “Your secrets are safe with me.”
“We don’t have any secrets,” I said, still standing behind Tasha.
“Yes, we do,” Tasha countered. She folded her arms across her chest and gave Bettina a look. “Talk,” she insisted. “Tell us what you know.”
Bettina shook her head. “That’s just the thing,” she said. “You can’t tell anybody about what you experienced tonight. You both know better. Adrianna was very clear.”
“How do you know what happened?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Tasha added. “You weren’t there.”
Bettina tapped an index finger against her temple. “I saw everything.”
“You’re bluffing,” Tasha said, shaking her head.
Bettina held up a ring of keys in her hand, dangling them. A silver one caught a glint of moonlight. My eyes shifted to Bettina’s black nail polish and back to the keys. “Am I?” she asked.
“What are those?” I asked Tasha.
“The keys to my stepfather’s pickup truck.”
“That doesn’t prove anything, Bettina,” I said. “You could’ve stolen the truck from where Tasha parked it.”
“No, Destiny,” Tasha said. “She couldn’t have. Because the keys were in my pocket when we walked into Wonderland.”
“Maybe now it’s all becoming clear,” Bettina said. “Why am I here. Who sent me. My purpose. I have information for you. For all three of you.”
“We don’t want any,” I said.
“Yes, you do,” she answered. “So stop looking at me like you want to shoot me, love child. I’m just—”
“The messenger,” Tasha completed.
Bettina locked eyes with her. “Exactly.”
I moved closer to Tasha. “Where’s Topher?” I asked.
In response, he poked his head out of an open end of the tunnel. “I’m in here,” he said.
“Of course you are,” Bettina said, sounding slightly annoyed. “You can come out now, scaredy-cat.”
“Don’t call him that,” Tasha warned. “He gets enough grief from your brother.”
“Let’s leave Boyd out of this,” Bettina said.
Topher emerged from his hiding spot and stood next to Tasha. “Good idea,” he agreed.
“Wait,” I said, “Bettina, you’re related to one of those Neanderthals who chase Topher every day?”
She shot me a look. “He’s my brother. What do you want me to do about it?”
“Um…counseling. Medication. Anger management classes,” I suggested. “Juvenile hall.”
“Look, he doesn’t listen to anyone. Not even me. He does his own thing. Topher knows I’m cool with him being gay,” she explained.
“You have five seconds to explain what you’re doing here,” Tasha informed her.
“I was sent here,” she replied. “For your own good. There’s things you don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe Adrianna let you into Wonderland?” I asked. “She wouldn’t do that.”
“She and I made a deal.”
“I bet you did,” Tasha said. “What’s in it for you, Bettina?”
“She said I needed to prove myself to her.”
“How?” I said. “By stalking us at the playground?”
“By explaining the rules to the three of you.”
“I thought there were none,” I challenged.
“You know better than that, love child,” she said. “You of all people should know about consequences.”
Tasha was frustrated. “You’re talking in circles, Bettina. Just tell us what you know.”
“Not here,” she said. “It’s not safe.”
“Where then?” Tasha asked.
“The Magic Mansion,” she instructed. “Meet me in fifteen minutes. And don’t be late.”
“Choose another place,” Tasha said. “I had to turn my key in when Sir Frederic the Great had to let me go. We don’t have a way in.”
Bettina looked at me. “Yes, we do.”
I stared at her, confused. “Are you crazy? I don’t have a key.”
Bettina came to me. She reached a hand out toward my throat. I felt her fingers brush against my skin. I looked down. Hanging around my neck on a thin silver chain was a key. Where it came from, I had no idea.
“Liar,” Bettina said, grinning. She held up the key with the palm of her hand. “Adrianna took care of everything. You have the key. Tasha knows the alarm code. Topher knows how to work the lights.”
“I won’t do it,” I said. “My uncles trust me. I just moved here. I won’t jeopardize—”
Bettina looked into my eyes. I could feel her words on my mouth, her breath. “If you want to see Dominic again, you will.”
*
Tasha’s hands were trembling when she slid the key into the ignition of the pickup truck. The three of us were crammed together, shoulder to shoulder, with Topher sitting in the middle. I rolled down the window beside me, desperate for some fresh air.
“I’m still shaking,” Tasha told us. “Ever since we left the dinner party. My body feels strange.”
“I know what you mean,” Topher said. “It’s like a nervous energy.”
We pulled away from the parking spot where we’d found the truck just moments ago, beneath a palm tree near a closed bicycle rental stand painted banana yellow. The wheels on the truck vibrated as Tasha drove slowly down a cobblestoned street.
“What if she’s lying?” I said. “What if Bettina followed us there? She probably has no idea about what really happened to us. She’s making it up.”
“But what if she’s not?” Tasha said. “Think about how we left Wonderland. We didn’t even get to say good-bye.”
“I want to go back,” Topher said. “I want to talk to Adrianna.”
I agreed with him. “So do I.”
“Don’t you think if Adrianna wanted us to be there she’d find a way to make it possible?” Tasha said.
“But why include Bettina?” I asked. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe she’s telling the truth,” Tasha suggested. “Maybe Adrianna really is testing her.”
“Or maybe she’s testing us,” Topher said.
I looked at him, his profile. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think we’re supposed to tell anybody,” he said. “Not just about Wonderland, but about the stuff that happens there.”
“No one would believe us if we did,” Tasha said. “This entire island would think we were psycho.”
I shrugged. “Maybe we are.”
“Don’t say that,” Topher said. “Tonight was the best night of my life.”
“Mine, too,” Tasha added.
“I miss him already,” I confessed.
“You guys look so hot together,” Tasha said. I could hear the smile in her voice. I glanced over at her to see if I was right. Sure enough, she was grinning from ear to ear.
“Pablo is perfect,” Topher said. “It’s like Adrianna snuck inside my mind. She knew exactly the type of person I wanted to meet…to fall in love with.”
“But why us?” I said. “And why now? I mean, why not just wait until school starts next week? I’m sure the three of us would’ve eventually met them somehow.”
Tasha shook her head. “I’ve never seen them before.”
“Me either,” Topher added. “I don’t think they go to our school.”
Tasha parked the truck a block away from the Magic Mansion. “Yeah,” she said. “Maybe they’re from Charleston.”
My hand was on the door handle, ready to open it. “What’s the plan?” I asked. “Are we really going inside?”
Tasha and Topher looked at me. He nodded and she spoke. “Do we even have a choice?”
*
A few minutes later, the three of us were sitting on wooden folding chairs in the front row of the tiny, chilly theater. Bettina faced us, perched on the edge of the stage beneath the stark glow of a pale work light Topher had switched on seconds after we arrived. Her hands were braced on the lip of the stage, as if she were a swimmer about to dive into the water. Her shoulders were bent forward. I watched the slow, steady sway of her left foot as she subconsciously tapped against the apron of the stage with the back of her war-torn boot. She looked like the lead singer of some all-girl rock band who’d been forced by her manager to sit in front of her audience to take mind-numbing post-show questions from the crowd.
I glanced around the dimly lit room, at the sea blue walls, the bold red stage curtains sprinkled with gold and silver shiny stars, the grids of lights hanging above. For a moment, I could almost see my grandparents onstage: my grandfather as the star of the show in his cape and top hat being helped by his obligated assistant, my eye-rolling grandmother in a sequined gown, busy patting the back of her cotton candy hairdo and humming a Connie Francis tune.
What was it like back then—this place? When times were better, was every seat filled? Were people amazed by what they saw onstage? It’s so beautiful in here. What happens if Uncle Fred and Clark lose it? No. The Magic Mansion can’t close. I won’t let it happen.
“What I’m about to tell you can never leave this room,” Bettina said with an authoritative tone I hadn’t heard her use before. “Do you understand me?”
The three of us nodded obediently in unison.
“I followed you to Wonderland,” she said.
I gave Tasha a look and mouthed the words “I told you so.”
Topher pinched my arm to settle me down. I turned back to Bettina the Big Liar and waited for her to continue.
“I tried to get in,” she said. “Like I’ve tried before. I wasn’t expecting to because it’s usually a no-go…but then it happened…the door opened. I went inside.”
“We didn’t see you there,” Tasha said, a thick layer of doubt coating her words.
“The three of you were already gone.”
“Gone?” Topher echoed.
“At the dinner party. At least that’s where she said you were.”
“Go on,” I prompted. My stomach growled to remind me none of us had actually eaten any food at the dinner party. I was starving, but it wasn’t exactly the right moment to suggest we order a pizza.
“Adrianna said she had something very important for me to do,” Bettina continued. “If I helped her and did what I was told, she would consider inviting me back to Wonderland.”
“So basically you’re using us?” Tasha said. “To return to Wonderland?”
“Put it however you want, Tasha. Do you wanna know what she told me or not?”
Tasha folded her arms across her chest. “Tell us.”
“You’re each going back to Wonderland,” she said.
“When?” I asked.
“She didn’t say exactly.”
“Well, what did she say?” Tasha asked.
“A few days. She said it would be a few days. But you have to be prepared. She made that very clear.”
“What happens when we go back?” I asked.
“Will the others be there?” Topher said. “Do we get to see them again before school starts?”
“She said that each of you will have to make a choice,” Bettina said.
I sat up in the uncomfortable chair. “She told me the same thing,” I offered. “So did…my mother.”
“When you get there you’ll be asked to decide.”
“Decide about what?” Tasha asked.
“Yeah, what are we choosing between?” Topher wanted to know.
My great-aunt’s words floated into my mind. In that moment, I knew. I felt a chill go down my spine. “Between life and death,” I said.
Bettina looked in my direction with her heavily outlined eyes. “Destiny is right,” she said. “Adrianna said so.”
“You mean we have to decide if we want to live or die?” Topher asked. “No, she wouldn’t do that to us.”
“It’s not about us,” I said. “It’s about people we love. People who are already gone.”
“You mean, like your mom?” Tasha said.
I nodded, trying to ignore the urge to cry. “Yeah. I think so.”
Bettina’s foot finally stopped moving. “It’s more complicated than that,” she said.
Tasha’s body tensed. “Explain.”
“She wouldn’t tell me everything, but she gave me a sense of how Wonderland works.”
“We’re listening,” I said.
“When people arrive at Wonderland they’re either alive or dead,” Bettina said. “In our case, we’re all alive. But some of the others that are there…they’ve been given a second chance.”
“To do what?” Topher asked.
Bettina looked into our eyes. It felt like she was trying to read our minds. I wondered if this was a tactic she used on her unsuspecting customers who came to her convinced she could see into their future. It was effective. I was starting to believe her. “To change their fate,” she said. “Their outcome.”
I stood up partly because the wooden folding chair was hurting my back but mostly because the realization of what Bettina was saying—and what Wonderland was really about—hit me hard. “What you’re talking about is crazy,” I said.
She raised a pierced eyebrow. “Is it?”
“Magic is one thing,” I told her. “But bringing someone back from the dead?”
Tasha and Topher looked up at me. I glanced down at their wide-eyed expressions. “Destiny, what are you saying?” Topher asked.
“We were picked for a specific purpose. A reason,” I explained. “Adrianna saw something in the three of us. That’s why she brought us to Wonderland. She knew we would believe in it. She said we had to be certain. We had to feel it in our hearts.”
“I felt it,” Tasha said. “In the courtyard with Juliet. I’ve never felt that way before about anything.”
“Same here,” Topher said. “When I was with Pablo…nothing else mattered.”
“You don’t have to explain it to me,” I said. “I know exactly what you guys are talking about. Dominic made me feel…”
“Like you were falling in love?” Bettina asked.
I nodded in reply.
“Maybe the six of you have more in common than you think,” Bettina suggested. “Maybe you each lost somebody who was really important to you.”
“Like who?” Tasha asked. “The only person I’ve ever known who died was my father.”
“Maybe Adrianna is going to give you a chance to reconnect with him,” I said.
“Why would she?” Tasha said. “I don’t mean any disrespect, but his death wasn’t exactly a big loss.”
“You weren’t close to him?” I asked.
“He wasn’t close to anybody,” she said. “Except Jack Daniel’s. He drank himself to death. Got so messed up one night he drove himself into a telephone pole. He died on impact.”
“So you wouldn’t bring him back?” Topher asked.
Bettina hopped down from the edge of the stage. “I know who I’d bring back,” she said. “My grandmother. What about you, Topher?”
“Maybe my dad,” he said. “Although I’m not really sure if he’s dead or not. No one knows.”
Tasha’s voice rose when she spoke. Her words were sharp. “Do you guys hear what you’re saying? It’s one thing to stumble upon some magical house, but bringing someone back from their grave? That’s too psycho—even for me.”
A voice tumbled across the theater, reaching us. When we heard his words, we knew weren’t alone anymore. Our secret meeting in the Magic Mansion had been discovered. “It’s not psycho,” Clark said. He was standing in the double doorway leading to the lobby and the makeshift gift shop. He was wearing faded jeans, a red button-up cardigan sweater over a white tee, and a pair of old blue Converse. His hair was messy. Maybe he’d woken from a deep sleep and hurried to get here. To find us. To stop us. “I know what it sounds like, but it’s true.”
I locked eyes with my uncle’s beautiful lover and asked, “How do you know, Clark?”
He held my stare, licked his lips, and then said to us, “Because I died two months ago.”