Chapter Fifteen
Rabbit Bound
Bidding the kind, loveable old elf a fond farewell, Alice began making her way across the many hills and valleys leading away from the mine, on her way home, hopefully, via the White Rabbit’s neat house.
“I know where the Rabbit’s house is located,” she said, thinking aloud, “but not the way to it. This is such a strange place, this top of the world...” She continued walking in silence, hoping that her quest to find the evasive Rabbit might soon came to a happy ending.
Without Fle for company, Alice had only the Mouse to talk to, if she felt lonely. However, since eating his fill of Gorgonzola, the Mouse had fallen into a deep sleep. Peeping in at him, fast asleep in her apron pocket, Alice, trying to put her best face forward, said, “No, I shan’t be bothering him.”
After walking for over an hour (it might well have been two, because being alone, and with no watch for assistance, Alice had lost all track of time), she came across a path. Unfortunately, it was not the narrow winding path she was searching for, but another, a path as different from the former as it was possible to be. Shrouded in darkness by huge, louring trees bordering it, whose limbs and branches blocked almost all available light from reaching ground level, this path was in no way welcoming.
Despite feeling real trepidation, Alice stepped onto the path and, making her way along it, began whistling, trying to abate her growing fears. To a point, this worked, and she convinced herself there was nothing strange or untoward along it – until she heard a scream, that is!
“Who’s that?” Alice whispered, afraid to speak any louder, lest the perpetrator, the one who caused the person to scream, might hear. She thought she saw someone moving, up ahead, in the shadows, ‘but who could it be?’ she wondered. Calling out for a second time, and a bit louder, Alice said, “Hello is anyone there?”
No reply.
Opening her apron pocket, Alice gazed down onto the sleeping Mouse. “Oh, Mouse,” she said, the fear cracking her voice, “Oh, Mouse if only you were the Cat, at least then I’d have someone whom I could speak to, someone who might perhaps listen…” She closed the pocket, leaving the Mouse to his slumbers.
For a second time, Alice thought she saw something, half hidden in the shadows. Trying to be brave, she crept forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever, or whatever it might be. Then she saw it again, a figure scampering between the huge trees bordering the grimy path.
Saying nothing, Alice furtively followed the figure, determined to catch up and see who it might be. Another scream, much closer now, and Alice jumped high in the air, with fright.
From somewhere deep within the shadows, a voice timidly asked, “Who’s there?”
Alice said nothing.
“I said who’s there?” the voice called out again.
“I am not going to reply,” said Alice, “until you first tell me who you are.”
“You did.”
“I did what?”
“Reply, in fact you replied twice,” the voice informed her.
“Grr,” said Alice, annoyed by the clever talking individual, lurking in the shadows.
“Well?” the voice asked.
“Well what?”
“Who are you?”
Deciding to go along with the charade, and to be as ‘clever’ as he, Alice replied, “Me”
There was a short pause, and then the voice asked, “Me?”
“Yes, me.”
Another short pause, and the voice said, “Don’t you mean I?”
She had him now, Alice had beaten him at his own game, and she laughed, “How can I be you, that’s silly.”
There was another pause, a longer one this time, before the concealed person resumed speaking, and when he did, he said, “Start again?”
“I will agree to start our conversation, over again,” Alice replied, “but only if you promise to speak clearly and honestly.”
“I agree,” the voice said ever so quietly.
Happy to have sorted that out, Alice waited for the voice to begin. She waited and waited for him to begin speaking, but he failed to say anything, not a even single word passed his lips. Finally, tired of it all, she called out, saying,” I’m waiting?”
“You are?”
“Yes,” she replied, “Why haven’t you begun?”
“I was going to let you start, this time,” the voice said, trailing off uncertainly.
Believing the conversation to be going nowhere, taking the initiative, Alice said, “If you come out from the shadows and let me see you, perhaps then we can speak with some civility and decorum.”
There was a rustling in the trees, twigs snapped, leaves crackled underfoot and an owl somewhere high above hooted its annoyance at being disturbed. Then she saw him, Alice saw the White Rabbit emerging from out of the shadows. “It’s you!” she gasped quite in surprise, the very second she laid eyes on the fur clad individual. “I’d have thought it was anyone but you!” she said, and then running over to him, she gave the Rabbit a big hug. Suddenly remembering how smart-alecky he had just been, she stood back and chastised him. “Why were you speaking to me like that?” she asked.
“Like what?” the Rabbit replied, shrugging his shoulders, raising his upturned open hands, so innocently.
“Like you’re doing right now,” she said, stamping a foot on the ground.
“Sorry,” he replied, “I always get a bit on the defensive when I don’t know who I am speaking to, and especially so when I’m in the Forest of Doubts.”
“The Forest of Doubts?”
“The Forest of Doubts and Fears, to give it its full title,” he replied, brushing the dust and leaves off his jacket and trousers. Coming closer, he asked, “Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over the place for you.”
“You’ve been looking for me?” said Alice, stunned by the Rabbit’s nonchalant statement. “I’ve been looking for you – everywhere!” she said.
“Eyeing her with his pink beady eyes, the Rabbit asked, “Everywhere?”
“Well, not everywhere,” Alice admitted. “But I have searched for you in an awful lot of places, really.” Returning her attention to the forest, Alice asked, “Who did I hear screaming?”
“You, me – who knows. It’s anyone’s guess, that’s why they call it The Forest of Doubts and Fears,” the Rabbit explained.
“What were you doing in there?”
“I’ve already told you,” the Rabbit replied. “I was looking for you.”
Sensing that he was hiding something, Alice pressed him further, “And what else?”
“Well,” he continued, and ever so sheepish. “A Rabbit can’t be expected to remain looking – forever”
“Go on…”
“If you really must know,” he said, “I was out searching for earthnuts – now are you happy?”
Confused (for she had never before heard of such things), Alice asked, “Earthnuts?”
“Yes,” the Rabbit replied, “though some people prefer to call them truffles.”
“Truffles?” said Alice. “Aren’t they something so rare and exotic, the Queen of Hearts said she’d personally chop of the head of anyone found digging them up, without her sole permission?” Just then, she noticed the Rabbit’s bulging pockets.
Swallowing hard, the Rabbit ever so humbly whispered, “You won’t tell her, will you?”
“That depends…”
“It depends on what?”
“On whether or not you are going to share them with me,” she giggled mischievously. “Show me what you have found...”
Alice counted as the Rabbit emptied his pockets, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven – seven fine earthnuts, no less!” Picking up the finest specimen, she held it close to her nose, inhaling its unusual aroma. “Hmm,” she said, “I’m not at all sure if I like them.”
“Picking up another, the Rabbit also smelt it, and he said, “You will, after I have prepared them in my own special w
ay...”
As the Rabbit set about preparing the earthnuts, Alice sat on the ground, watching, waiting patiently while warming her hands on the fire the Rabbit had set to cook the dainty treat.
“They will be done in less than a jiff,” the Rabbit called out, placing a shell (Alice had no idea where he had found it) full of water into the hot embers, then dropping the earthnuts into it.
As they began cooking, the aroma produced drifted into Alice’s nostrils, and she exclaimed, “You’re right, Rabbit, they smell absolutely delicious.” The Rabbit smiled.
Fishing an earthnut from out the steaming hot water, the Rabbit said, “Here you are, Alice, you can have first taste.”
Accepting the hot article, Alice closed her eyes as she took a small bite. Then she took another and another and another, until she had consumed the entire earthnut, and all without saying a single, solitary word.
“Well? What do you think?” the Rabbit asked, holding a second hot nut in his furry paws.
“Mmm, they’re fantastic,” she replied, opening her eyes to see the second earthnut held temptingly in front of her. “Can I have another one?”
Saying nothing, but feeling justified, even exonerated for having secured them illegally, the White Rabbit offered her the second nut. Returning his paw to the steaming waters, he withdrew another tasty specimen, this time for himself. “Yummy,” he said, laughing, the hot juicy waters dribbling down his whiskers.
Having each eaten three of the hot, tasty morsels, Alice and the Rabbit stared into the shell, at the last remaining earthnut languishing in the cooling waters. They both wanted to eat it, yet they were both unwilling to admit their greed to the other. In the end, Alice saw a way out from their predicament, suggesting, “Why don’t we share the last one?”
“Share it?” the Rabbit asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Alice replied. “We shall both eat it, toasting the Queen’s health!”
“What a splendid idea,” said the Rabbit, removing the last nut from the water and quickly cutting it in half with a small knife he had procured from somewhere. “And how could she ever be annoyed with us, after doing such a noble thing?” Taking a piece each, Alice and the Rabbit chewed contentedly on the last groundnut, to the Queen of Hearts’ health.
Having finished eating, Alice began speaking, she said, “Rabbit?”
“Yes, my dear child, what is it?” he replied lazily.
“I’ve been thinking…”
“Thinking – about what?”
“About your neat little house…”
The Rabbit’s ears cocked.
Alice continued, she said, “Rabbit?”
“Yes?”
“I’ve been thinking, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you are like a gypsy…”
“A gypsy?”
“Yes, I know you’re not really a gypsy, but that’s the best way I can describe what I’m thinking. Like a gypsy, I think you have no fixed abode – Does this make any sense to you?”
“Go on,” said the Rabbit, in all seriousness.
Turning, to face him directly, Alice said, “That’s why I couldn’t find you – or your neat little house…”
The Rabbit continued to listen.
“I know you do have a house – I’ve seen it. Why, I very nearly knocked it down, when I grew so terribly big, all that time ago, in Wonderland.”
“Yes, I remember,” said the Rabbit, in full agreement with the unfortunate episode.
“But your house…” Alice struggled to find the right, the correct words to continue. “Your house – I think it can be anywhere. Yes, I am sure
it can be anywhere. That’s why it’s here, at the top of the world, and yet also in Wonderland! And that is why I had no hope of finding it, when I was searching for it. Rabbit, your house is a congeniality home. A house – a home that can only be found when you don’t think about it, but know you will find it, anyhow.”
“I’ve heard it called many things down through the years,” said the Rabbit, “but never a congeniality home…”
“You haven’t?” Alice asked, her face dropping noticeably.
“No, a congeniality home is the one thing that it has most certainly never been called,” he said, pulling his long whiskers at he spoke. “However, the gist of what you are saying is correct. My home is there for you or, indeed, anyone who needs it, and at any time. And if that means calling it a congeniality home, then so be it, it is one!”
Smiling, laughing, Alice hugged the Rabbit with all her might.
“Now there’s no need for that,” he said, embarrassed by the attention being lavished upon him, just as his house appeared, complete with white-painted picket fence, a beautiful garden with a vegetable plot to the rear, including a fine selection of cucumber frames, and a shiny, brass plate on the front door, spelling his name, W. Rabbit .
Alice in Wonderland on Top of the World Page 15