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The three quotes I was thinking of while I wrote this belong to their respective owners, whom I will completely credit after the story.
“Ever
drifting down the stream, Lingering in the golden gleam. Life, what
is it but a dream?”(1)
“Bird, Monster, Sea, Sky: The
scene on the lid of a sleeper’s eye. (2)
How you do you prove
that you exist? Maybe we don’t exist.(3)
Summary – A young high school girl goes for a walk in the park, and runs into the Cheshire Cat.
AWAKENING
by
Linker27
I was always one of those people who longed for a magic world to swallow me up, so I could live a life less dull. But, after I grew older and older, I stopped believing in magic and fairies. What was the point, really? I waited 10 years, before I finally realized I needed to wake up and smell the roses. Sometimes though, I still wish it could be, somehow.
“Would be, if it were. It certainly might, if it was. But if it ain’t, then it isn’t. Simple as that, Anna. Simple as that…”
“Wh- who’s there?” I demanded, and the light autumn wind blew through the dying trees. A fiendish laugh sounded behind me. I spun around, expecting to see something, but, I didn’t. A small noise, like little bells, sounded from the right. I glanced in the direction of it, but, again, saw nothing.
“Who is there?!” I shouted, quite annoyed by whomever was taunting me. And before me, a small shape began to take form. First a tail, then a body, and finally a head, with a smile of gleaming teeth. ‘The Cheshire Cat’, my mind supplied. Even though I knew what it was that stood in front of me, I asked “What are you?”
And, typically I suppose, the cat responded with, “That very much depends on what you see.”
“Are you the one they call the Cheshire Cat?” I tried.
“So they have called me, through the years. I’ve never met one as old as you, though.”
“One what?”
“You belong with us; with the hatter and the hare, at the bottom of the rabbit hole.”
“Either I’m dreaming, or I’m mad.”
“You’re mad. Everyone is, down there.”
“I must be dreaming… I have to be.”
“Or, you’ve just woken up. It’s all the same, in the end.” And without another word, the cat disappeared again. Shaking my head, I started walking home, the cat’s final words echoing through my mind. “…just woken up. It’s all the same, in the end…” Is it? I read Carroll’s books, as a child, but, they were books, right? Stories, novels, fiction? Right?...
That night, I dreamt of sleeping kings, and teardrop-lakes. I dreamt of tiny keys and a giant chess board. And in the center of my dream, there was a little girl, with ghost-like features, dancing in the park, right where I had seen the Cheshire cat, dancing, with little bells sewn all up her sleeves.
When I woke up; the dream was gone, but from that day on, I started to see the world anew; as if I had woken up for the first time.
