"Alright. I'll take the cheese to the bathroom and cut it open with something," I pick it up from the table. "I assume there is another message inside. Like a fortune cookie, maybe."
"Alice, Alice, Alice," the Pillar sighs. "When the Cheshire says ‘eat me,’ you have to eat it. You don't have time. Just look at the sun." I tilt my head again, and see his point. I can't believe a girl's life depends on me. Who in the world am I to save a life? "Come on, pull your sleeves up, and dip into the cheese. Detach yourself from the tourists. What’s the worst that could happen: they might think you’re insane?" the Pillar is having the time of his life.
And I have to save a girl whom I don't even know.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes, then sink my teeth in the cheese. It's actually delicious. I nibble on it at first, as the people around me gather to see what kind of cuckoo I am. I have no time for them. Maybe I'll have time to explain later, after I save the girl.
The nibbling turns into bites. I choose a side and bite through, waiting for a piece of paper to come my way. It doesn't.
I turn the block of cheese and bite the other side. I am trying my best not to even breathe. The sun has turned into a bomb, and keeps on ticking in my head.
More people gather around me, staring at the nineteen-year-old in a modern Alice dress gorging on cheese.
A boy picks up the Cheshire's label which has fallen from the block, and shows it to other people. "It says: Eat Me!" he laughs. "This is so awesome!"
I am biting from a third side now. I can't see the sun through the glass anymore. It’s going closer to perpendicular. Or am I just panicking?
Tick Tock. Tick Tock. I think I am going to vomit.
"It's a show." The old woman with the white bushy hair is back. "She isn't a crazy girl. It's a show, and it’s entertaining!" She begins clapping, and the tourists follow. They don't clap as in “wow, that's awesome.” They clap as if we're in a beer fest, and I am doing the polka dance.
I take a deep breath and sink in again. My head is going to explode. Why is my head ticking louder whenever I eat more chunks? I can't find the Cheshire's message. This must be cheese overdose.
"You think she'll grow taller?" another tourist asks.
"Nah," her husband says. "That's the kind of stuff they'd do in Disney."
Tick. Tock. Tick Tock.
"Interesting how mad behaviors always entertain the sane," the Pillar whispers in my ear.
"Shut up!" I yell at him, spitting Cheshire Cheese on the tourists.
They clap even harder.
"Tell me, Alice," the Pillar says. "Why is your head ticking?"
What? How can he hear the ticking in my head? Now, this is absurd.
"It's like Tick Tock, all the time," the Pillar says. "Do you have a time bomb somewhere?"
I can't believe he hears my own thoughts. I can't live this way if he truly does. Suddenly, my teeth hurt really bad. I have bitten something made of steel. My eyes widen, as I keep chugging through the cheese like chattering teeth. The message isn't a piece of paper. It's something made of steel. Finally, something falls off the cheese. A watch.
"That's why I thought I was ticking," I mumble. The tourists laugh. They're on cloud nine now.
"A watch?" the Pillar wonders. "Please tell me it is not a pocket watch, or this Cheshire’s sense of humor is atrociously absurd."
"It is a pocket watch," I pick it up and rub the cheese off it. "It has a rabbit drawn inside. His two hands show the minutes and the hours."
"That’s brilliant. Show me!" the old woman says.
"Don't you dare come near me," I sneer at her, and get back to the Pillar. "The watch isn't working. It stopped once I touched it, I think."
"That’s even more interesting," the Pillar says.
"Do something!" I shout at him. "We have to save the girl."
"Don't yell at me. I am not the killer here," he says. "Well, I kill people, but not this one. Tell me Alice, anything unusual about the watch?"
"Other than that it’s not working, I don't think so."
"A pocket watch that isn't working," the Pillar thinks aloud. "What time is it stuck on?"
"Six o'clock."
"That's the message," the Pillar says. "I don't really know what it means, though.”
"What? How can you not know? I thought this was some kind of sick game you were playing with the Cheshire. You have to know."
"I don't," the Pillar says firmly. "Sorry, kid. We're going to have to give up on the girl. It's almost noon, and the Cheshire wins this round."
"I'm not going to give up on her!" I shout.
"Why? You don't even know her. She means nothing to you," he says.
I say nothing, because I don't know why. I just have to save her. I can’t stand knowing that I could save someone then bail on them.
"Did a Cheshire eat your tongue?" the Pillar says.
"Okay, okay," I try to calm myself down. The tourists are taking pictures of me. They are filming me with their phones. That old woman keeps grinning at me. "Let's see. The watch is fixed on six o'clock. Now it's around twelve-thirty. The Cheshire said I have until noon, so six o'clock can't be a number. It can't be time."