Through the Looking Glass

by Carla Jablonski

  But there’s something you don’t understand. If they’re alive, why have they not come home? Is your father that disappointed in you? So disappointed that he never wanted to see you again?

  This saddens you so much you take to your bed.

  Then, one day, Alice bursts in and announces she has proof that your family is still alive—and being held captive by the Red Queen. You rally, your energy returning. You are determined to fight to bring them home!

  And perhaps the best news of all? Your friends are in this fight with you!

  “This is the only way to travel,” you tell Alice as you kneel beside her on the Bandersnatch’s back. It easily galumphs across the miles of harsh terrain, peaks, and glaciers on the way to the Red Queen’s stronghold in the Outlands. Behind you, Mirana and McTwisp are astride the queen’s white horse, and Mally rides atop Bayard. A horsedrawn cart carrying the Tweedles follows. You turn and gesture madly, urging your friends to keep up.

  In the distance, you see a large heart-shaped fortress that seems to be entirely made of bloodred roots, branches, vines, and leaves. Alice signals to stop at the top of a hill to strategize.

  “My family is there!” you declare. “I know it!”

  “And if they are, we’ll rescue them,” Alice promises.

  Mallmykun suggests that the group split up to gain more ground.

  You and Alice climb down from the Bandersnatch. “We’ll have to go by foot from here. Don’t want to attract attention. At least,” you add with a gleeful smirk, “not yet.”

  You can hardly wait until you are reunited with your family! What a celebration you’ll have!

  But when you and Alice sneak into the Red Queen’s private chambers, the root-, plant-, and leaf-infested room is empty. No family!

  SHOULD YOU SEARCH ELSEWHERE? GO HERE.

  OR DO YOU WANT TO TAKE ONE LAST LOOK AROUND? GO HERE.

  WARNING! You’re about to spoil a great story by not making a choice! Page back, then click one of the links to advance the story. Otherwise, the next section may not make any sense to you.

  “I GUESS we’ll have to keep looking,” you tell Alice.

  You leave Iracebeth’s private chambers and rejoin your friends. None of them have located your family, either.

  “We’ll have to broaden our search,” Alice suggests. “Maybe Iracebeth was afraid they’d be too easy to find in her castle.”

  “We’ll split up again,” Bayard suggests, “but cast a wider net.”

  A plan in place, you all go your separate ways.

  You make your way to the Tear-full Lake. Underland legend says it got its name because it was made by the tears cried by a giant. You’re not sure if that’s true, but you decide to keep an eye out for overlarge beings. Think of the hatting possibilities!

  You spot a crowd assembling at the shore. Perhaps your family is among them! You hurry toward them. A creature with the head, talons, and wings of an eagle attached to the body of a lion bounds toward you. Following more slowly is a large Turtle.

  “Excuse me, dear Gryphon,” you say, tipping your hat to the creature. “I’m looking for my family.”

  “No time for that now!” the Gryphon informs you as the Turtle nudges you toward shore. “The dance is about to begin! You can look for them when you change partners.”

  “What are we dancing?” you ask, scanning the assortment of people, animals, and things in-between joining hands in groups.

  “The Lobster Quadrille, of course!” the Turtle says.

  You’ve heard of this lively number but never seen it performed, as it requires not only a large body of water but a vast quantity of lobsters. You see that both are in abundance here.

  “Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?” the crowd sings.

  As a lobster grips your hand in its claw, you realize you don’t exactly have a choice.

  Go here to continue.

  WARNING! You’re about to spoil a great story by not making a choice! Page back, then click one of the links to advance the story. Otherwise, the next section may not make any sense to you.

  The dance is rather complicated. Several lines face each other, and everyone has a lobster as a partner on each side. The Turtle and the Gryphon keep time as seals, sea urchins, and oysters sing from the rocks. The lines dance toward each other, then dance away.

  “Somersaults!” the Gryphon cries.

  You flip over and over, along with your fellow dancers. As the world goes topsy-turvy, you scan the lines for Hightopps. So far, no sign of them, but there are many, many dancers.

  “Now throw as hard as you can!” the Turtle shouts.

  All the dancers shriek as they run toward the water. You run with them, clutching your lobster partner’s claw.

  “Hang on,” you huff as you dash to the shoreline. “Who throws whom?”

  The Lobster gives you a mischievous grin. Suddenly, you are flung into the water.

  You splash around, trying to get right side up. You burst to the surface to see your lobster partner giggling onshore. You look around and see you’re the only non-lobster in the lake. All the lobsters bob and laugh around you.

  You start swimming back to shore. It may take a while with the lobsters tugging you under, grabbing at your nose with their claws, and otherwise making themselves nuisances.

  But when you do make it to the beach, you’re greeted with a happy surprise: your family has been found! They were in the castle all along. Now your new mission is to find some dry clothes.

  THE END

  RETURN TO THE BEGINNING TO TRY A NEW PATH, PREFERABLY A DRIER ONE.

  WARNING! You’re about to spoil a great story by not making a choice! Page back, then click one of the links to advance the story. Otherwise, the next section may not make any sense to you.

  YOU JUST can’t accept that your family isn’t here in this forest-gone-mad room. You were so sure they were here! You could feel it.

  You scan the rotting vegetables, scattered leaves, and bizarre contraptions you don’t even want to identify in the Red Queen’s odd organic fortress. Your eyes land on a curious freestanding gold frame. You pick it up and realize that it’s actually a very ornate ant farm. Then your eyes widen. A hat is being sketched in the sand!

  You bring the ant farm close to your face. It can’t be! But it is!

  You smile through your tears as you realize what you’re looking at: tiny people. They gesture wildly and seem to be shouting, but they’re so little you can’t hear anything.

  “Father! Mother! Everyone!” you cry. “It’s you! Teeny, tiny yous!” You kiss the glass pane and then giggle as your family tumbles about in the sand.

  Alice comes to stand beside you. “You found them!” she says.

  You nod at her, beaming with joy.

  And then, suddenly, gates crash down over the windows. You turn to see the bloody Big Head herself standing in the doorway. She’s smiling in an especially sinister fashion.

  This can’t be good.

  Alice is grabbed by two vegetable guards and Iracebeth yanks a peculiar device from Alice’s pocket.

  “Thank you ever so much!” Iracebeth gloats. “You have delivered to me the most powerful device in the entire Universe.”

  The expression on Alice’s face tells you that this is not a welcome turn of events. Things aren’t improved when more vegetable footmen drag in all your friends. Prisoners, the lot of you. “I recall now why I don’t like her,” you mutter.

  “Now we shall see justice,” Iracebeth trumpets, then strides out of the room. The other prisoners are dragged out with her. A gate drops, trapping you and Alice inside.

  You pick up the ant farm. Your father cups his hands around his mouth.

  “Tarrant?” he calls in his tiny voice. “Is that really you? I’d stopped believing so long ago, it feels impossible.”

  “It’s not impossible, merely unpossible.” You fiddle in your pocket and pull out the little blue hat to show him. His smile cover
s his tiny face.

  “Oh, Hatter,” Alice cries, trying unsuccessfully to squeeze through the gate. “What have I done? We have to stop her! We have to get out of here!”

  You look at Alice, then at the paper hat, then at your family inside the ant farm. “I think I have an idea.”

  After some quick adjustments, conversations, and descriptions, you stand at the barred window, holding a blue paper airplane made from your little hat. Your father sits inside it in the pilot’s position. He’s carefully checking how sturdy the thing is.

  “I feel like I’ve traded the frying pan for the fire,” he shouts up at you. “This is crazy.”

  “Someone once said wisdom is born from total insanity,” you tell him.

  His face twists in confusion. “Who said that?”

  “Me, just now,” you reply.

  You lift the airplane holding your father up to the window. You experiment with several angles to find the perfect launching position.

  “Ready?” you ask, but you don’t wait for an answer. You hurl the paper airplane through the bars. You’re pretty sure the tinny little sound you hear is your father yelling as he takes to the air.

  Now all you can do is wait. And hope.

  Very soon you hear growling, snorting, snuffling, and thwumping. Can it be…?

  Massive teeth chomp down on the gate, ripping it right out of the wall.

  “Yes!” you cheer. “Bandersnatch to the rescue!” Your plan worked! Sending your tiny father out on the teeny airplane to find the gigantic Bandersnatch was risky, but it paid off!

  “We’re free!” Alice cries.

  You hold up your hand and the Bandersnatch bends down. Your father jumps into your palm.

  “You did it!” you congratulate him.

  “It was your plan,” he says proudly.

  “Now to grow you back…” you tell him.

  You scan the room and spot an elegant tea tray. A dome-covered plate looks promising. You lift the top, revealing a tiny cake with the words Eat Me written in icing. “Aha!” you exclaim.

  You take a piece of cake. “Not too much, now!” you warn your family.

  One by one, they each take a bite of cake and pass it along, quickly returning to their normal sizes. You are amused when Alice averts her eyes. Silly girl. Of course their clothes wouldn’t grow with them. Your mother sets to finding things to wrap everyone in before your father approaches you slowly.

  He stands in front of you. “I see you haven’t changed a bit.”

  “Nope,” you tell him. You brace yourself, wondering how he’ll react.

  There’s a moment of silence, then…“Good,” he says with a sharp nod.

  Every bit of you smiles. Your toes curl happily, your nose perks up, your chest expands, and you feel ten feet tall—without taking a single bite of the Upelkuchen cake! Your family—alive! Reunited! And your father beaming at you with pride—a sight you feared you’d never see. Now here it is, even better than you ever dreamed it. You feel lit up inside.

  You are reaching out to give him a hug when an odd thing happens. Suddenly, you’re all moving in slow motion. It doesn’t last very long, but you’re all bewildered by the strange ripple in time.

  “What the dickens was that?” your father sputters.

  Patches of rust appear in the walls and floor. You hear Alice gasp.

  “Time! He’s slowing down,” she says. “He’s going to stop! It’s why he wanted the Chronosphere.”

  “Hang on!” you say. “If Time ends, we’ll all end. He told me so himself.”

  “This is my fault,” Alice says. “I stole the Chronosphere! I should have listened to him.”

  You and your family exchange looks. You all seem to agree, but they wait for you to say it. You know Alice did what she did to try to help you. You know where the blame really lies.

  “We’ve got to stop the Big Head!” you declare.

  One problem: how are you going to do that?

  Since the Red Queen was so intent on that time-travel thingie, that could mean she plans to go somewhere in time. You look around the chamber. There are pieces of that Time fellow’s contraption scattered on the floor. Should you put it back together? Will that get you wherever she plans to go?

  Or should you try to find Iracebeth first to see exactly what she’s up to?

  IF YOU SEARCH FOR THE BIG HEAD WITH ALICE, GO HERE.

  IF YOU STAY WITH YOUR FAMILY, GO HERE.

  WARNING! You’re about to spoil a great story by not making a choice! Page back, then click one of the links to advance the story. Otherwise, the next section may not make any sense to you.

  ALICE BELIEVES that Iracebeth wanted the Chronosphere to go back in time to change her past. So you’d better get Time’s contraption put back together in case you have to follow her there.

  Alice runs off to find Iracebeth and try to talk some sense into her—which sounds like the least sensible thing anyone could possibly try to do. But that’s Alice for you. In the meantime, you and your family rebuild Time’s machine.

  “I think that’s it,” your father declares, tightening a final screw.

  You and all the other Hightopps take a step back to admire your handiwork. It’s a marvelously demented piece of machinery! Like a tasteful metal fascinator made for a giant’s head.

  “Should we bring it to Alice?” you mother asks.

  You frown. “Actually, I think I’d better test it. Safety first.”

  You climb aboard and study the gadgets, gewgaws, levers, and buttons for a moment. You press a promising-looking button. The machine roars to life. You grin: it works!

  Go here to continue.

  WARNING! You’re about to spoil a great story by not making a choice! Page back, then click one of the links to advance the story. Otherwise, the next section may not make any sense to you.

  ALICE ASKS your family to gather up the pieces of that machine while the two of you track down Iracebeth. You rush through the castle and discover that everyone is in the palace garden. It looks as if Big Head is presiding over a trial in which she is the prosecutor, judge, and jury. Executioner, too, you realize grimly.

  Alice interrupts the proceedings, but Iracebeth grabs Mirana and jumps into the whirring, twirling, glowing Chronosphere. They vanish.

  Vegetable footmen approach you and Alice. You don’t much like their menacing attitude. Just as they reach out for you, an enormous roar stops them in their tracks.

  “Reinforcements!” you cheer. The Bandersnatch, carrying your family members, bounds into the garden.

  Everyone scatters, and you and Alice take the opportunity to rush over to Time. You untie him as Alice tries to rouse him. Rust spreads over his body.

  “I let my heart distract me from the schedule,” Time says mournfully. “I’m a disgrace to the profession, the concept, myself.”

  Go here to continue.

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  Too bad you can’t figure out how to control it!

  You pop around all over the past, the present, and even the future, never stopping long enough to get off the gollysnarking contraption! And there are no signs of it ever coming to

  an

  END.

  THE CHRONOSPHERE FINALLY BREAKS DOWN AFTER AN IMMEASURABLE AMOUNT OF TIME, AND YOU FIND YOURSELF BACK AT THE BEGINNING. GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING AND START A NEW ADVENTURE.

  WARNING! You’re about to spoil a great story by not making a choice! Page back, then click one of the links to advance the story. Otherwise, the next section may not make any sense to you.

  He may be a pretentious old fogey, but you can’t help yourself: the bloke needs cheering up. “C’mon, old chap,” you say. “Don’t give yourself a hard time. Besides, you’re the only person who can rebuild that thing!” You point at the pieces of machinery your family lays out in front of him.

>   “The Tempus Fugit,” Time murmurs. He looks up at you and smiles.

  No one can resist you when you really try, you think with more than a little pride. Not even Time.

  You chortle with joy as Alice expertly guides the Tempus Whatsit across the Ocean of Time. You really wish she weren’t in such a hurry: there are so many wonderful images floating by so quickly! You’d love to hop out and revisit a few.

  But no. There’s this whole save-all-of-time-and-the-Universe problem to deal with first. Perhaps on the way back…

  Iracebeth has brought Mirana back to when they were little girls. You don’t understand why—until Mirana makes a confession. All those years ago, Mirana told a lie and betrayed her sister…and that one lie has stayed with the Iracebeth ever since.

  You’re shocked! Mirana has always seemed like a paragon of everything good. And Iracebeth, well, not so much. But here is the White Queen herself admitting that much of what went so horribly wrong for Iracebeth was Mirana’s fault. Just as Iracebeth has been claiming all these years.

  Go figure.

  Then you see a sight that makes you clutch your heart. You don’t know if you can take any more surprises. Iracebeth and Mirana—both crying—are now hugging! And—gasp—smiling!

  Then something truly bizarre happens. A door flings open. Standing in the doorway is a little girl—a little girl who looks surprisingly like Iracebeth only with an ordinarily sized head.

  Her eyes travel up to the Red Queen’s enormous head and heart-shaped do, and she lets out a shriek.

  Who can blame her, really…

  Poof! The little girl and the Big Head suddenly turn into rust-covered statues. And the minute they do, rust begins spreading everywhere.