Everything around me is grand and majestic. I come across a table full of empty teacups right before the Great Hall’s massive door. “What are those teacups for?”
“They are usually for professors’ and intellectualists’ meetings,” the Pillar says. “Rarely are they for the priests from the cathedral, who sometimes have special meetings in here too.”
“Don’t tell me the Mad Hatter is involved?” I don’t know how I even dare to ask.
“Be careful of what you wish for, Alice,” the Pillar’s says. “He’s even worse than the Cheshire. Are you inside the hall yet?”
“I am.”
“Tell me where the arrow on the map points exactly. Can you make it out?" the Pillar demands.
"It points at the portraits on the wall behind the tables in the Great Hall."
"These are portraits of very respectable men and women you’re staring at, except they aren’t wizards," the Pillar chews on the words. I think he really hates Harry Potter. "Well, they are real wizards of science, literature and all sorts of arts. Can you tell me which portrait the Cheshire Cat wants us to see?"
"Hmm..." I count the portraits on the map. "It should be...let me see..." I walk tangent to the wall, and finally stand in front of a black and white portrait. It’s of a middle-aged man, with fair features and nurtured hair. He looks very familiar. Very intelligent. I read the sign underneath, “Charles Lutwidge Dodgson."
"Interesting." I hear the Pillar breathe into his pipe. "So that's what the Cheshire want us to look at."
"Who's Charles Lutwidge Dodgson?" I say.
"Shame on you, Alice," the Pillar laughs. "It's Lewis Carroll's real name. It's written right under the name on the plaque."
"Lewis isn't his real name?"
"Lewis Carroll is a pen name, part of the forgery of the truth behind Wonderland,” the Pillar says. “Let's figure out why the Cheshire wants us to look here. It’s one of his games, I’m sure. There has to be a reason behind it."
"Maybe he’s just fascinated with Lewis Carroll?" I suggest, unable to see something peculiar in the portrait.
"You still think this isn't the real Cheshire Cat, and just some infatuated copycat?" the Pillar says. "You're even worse than the media. Look harder at the portrait. Something must be odd. The Cheshire likes riddles."
I look, but I can't see anything that catches my eye. I even check the portrait’s frame, to no prevail. A couple of tourists glance awkwardly at me when I do that. "Could you just tell me what I am looking for?" I whisper, aware of a few people around me probably thinking I am mad, talking in the headset all the time.
"It depends on what you want to find," the Pillar muses.
"That's not funny."
"I think it is. Tell me, Alice. Lewis’s picture is a profile, right? Do you see anything in the direction he is looking toward?”
“Another portrait. Einstein.”
“Does he still look crazy with that white cotton candy-like hair?” the Pillar mocks him. “Anyways, I don’t think that the Cheshire want us to look at Einstein. How about the portrait opposite to Lewis’s on the other side?”
I turn around. “Actually, there is no portrait in that spot on the other side. You think it’s a secret door?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s unlikely that the answer is that far from the location of the portrait,” the Pillar says. “Since the portrait faces the table, do you see anything unusual on the spot facing Lewis Carroll?"
"I do," I say. "It definitely unusual, but it I don’t think it belongs to the Cheshire."
"Can you please describe it?" I sense the Pillar's curiosity in my ears.
"It's a block of cheese," I try to sound casual. Why is there a block of cheese in the Great Hall?
"Cheese. How quaint," the Pillar laughs. "Of course, I don't have to tell you what cheese and a grin have in common."
"I suppose you say 'cheese' when you grin in a picture, which refers to the Cheshire Cat somehow?"
"He has a sick surreal sense of humor, doesn't he?"
"He has a sick mind. He kills young girls. Besides, it says Cheshire Cheese on the block."
"Cheshire Cheese. Now that's clever," the Pillar snaps his fingers.
"I don't see how."
"Lewis Carroll was born in Daresbury, Warrington, in Cheshire," the Pillar says.
"Is that a coincidence?”
“From now on, there are no coincidences. Everything we’ll go through is preciously planned by the Cheshire, and its solution has to relate with Lewis Carroll.”
“Is that what inspired Carroll to create the Cheshire character, because he was born in the town of Cheshire?"
"Create, no. Write about, yes," the Pillar explains. "Cheshire is a dairy county, long known for a peculiar cheese warehouse in the banks of the river Dee. That’s when it was still a port, more than a hundred years ago."