"I'm listening." It's true. I wonder why I haven't read about it before I arrived. I am already enchanted by it.
"Over the years, Christ Church has had many distinguished students, tutors, and visiting academics. In my eyes, they are the most amazingly insane men of history. To name a few: madman and philosopher John Locke, madman and scientist Albert Einstein, more than thirteen madmen British prime ministers. And of course, our most beloved madman of all, Lewis Carroll."
"He went to Oxford? I thought he only used the place above as a studio."
"It's almost an insult not to know that, Alice. He was a math tutor at Christ Church."
I come across a temporarily closed area. The police are all over the place. Students can only pass by showing their IDs, and having their bags inspected.
"I assume you've arrived at the crime scene by now," the Pillar says. “Where the Cheshire killed a girl, a professor, a jock, an old woman, and a young girl two days ago.”
"How do you know that?" I look around, to see if he's watching me nearby.
"You're very predictable, like most people, Alice," I can hear him puff his pipe. "You’ll have to learn to be unpredictable if we want to catch the Cheshire Cat. Now walk ahead toward the police, and don't look too long at the crime scene. A regular student should have seen it before."
I approach the policeman. I can't help but shrug. It's not like I am a criminal. I am afraid he knows I belong to an asylum, and will put me back in. I just can't help it. I mean, the cold oxygen I am breathing here still feels like a dream.
"Alice Pleasant Wonder," the police officer reads my name on the card. "A lovely name."
All I do is smile. I hope I come across as sincere and normal.
"It reminds me of the girl who killed her classmates two years ago," he says.
My heart sinks to my belly.
Chapter 20
The Great Hall, Christ Church, Oxford University
Time stops, and I have no idea what to do. I can’t seem to utter words until the police officer speaks again, "Except that, that Alice’s last name was ‘Pleasance,’ and she's in an asylum."
"Yeah, I always get that." My smile is plastic, but he doesn't notice. Now I know why the Pillar changed my name. Although trivial, it makes me someone else. Did the policeman really fall for that, or do I smell something wrong?
“You look perfectly sane to me,” the officer says. I notice he tries to act serious, but he looks funny. He has a peculiar moustache, thin like a mouse’s whiskers. “Have a good day.”
“Thank you.” I take the card back and take a couple of steps up into the building.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire," the Pillar chirps in my ear.
"That wasn't funny."
"It wasn't supposed to be. Anyways, what you're entering now is the prestigious Great Hall."
The Pillars words ring in my head as I enter this enchanting place. Long dining tables are stacked on both sides. They are filled with all kinds of dining instruments, bowls, forks, and placemats. Gold and brown are the most common colors in this yellowish, dim-lit place. The walls are unusually high, and majestic in ways I can't describe. Portraits are hung behind the table on both sides. Exquisite oil painted portraits of people I don't know.
"A unique place, isn't it?" the Pillar says.
"Unbelievable." I am enamored.
"The Great Hall is where they filmed movies like Harry Potter. All that abracadabra wizard nonsense couldn't have used portraits if the Great Hall didn't exist," the Pillar says. "Also, movies like the Golden Compass with its hodge podge white bears were filmed here. The Great Hall is where every great story wants to take place."
"Really? I never knew that. Why do I sense resentment toward these movies in your voice?" I can't help but take the chance and ask him. The Pillar doesn't open up. Seeing him personally irritated at something gives me a small window into his mind.
"Why do I resent them?" the Pillar wonders. "Alice. Go ask any tourist about the Great Hall, they always mention this Harry Potter, and never Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland. Harry Potter isn't even real. Lewis and Alice are."
"I assume by Alice, you mean me?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You will know everything in time.”
I walk further into the hall. "So why am I not in class, and walking around the Great Hall?"
"Pull out the map from the book. What do you see?"
I do as asked, and stare at the Cheshire Cat’s map. It doesn't take a genius to see this is the circled spot on the map.
"Make sense now?" the Pillar says.
"It does." I fidget in my place. Looking around, the magnificent place turns into a scary castle in my eyes. What if the Cheshire Cat is watching me now? What if this is a trap, and I will be dead next?
Chapter 21
Inside the Great Hall, I walk among tourists. I didn’t know tourists from all over the world visited during college hours, but I like the idea.