“For what they did yesterday, locking you in the basement. Don’t you remember?”
“Ah, that.” I wonder if I should confront her with the knowledge that they’re not my sisters, and that she isn’t my mother. But what’s the point, really?
I need to ask practical questions. “Did you see Jack?” She must know him at this point — or doesn’t she know about my relationships at this time?
“What about Jack?” Lorina descends the stairs.
“I wonder where I can find him.”
“Why?” She snatches my sandwich and tucks it into her bag. “Tuna. Yuck!”
“Do you know where he is or not?”
“You better stay away from Jack, Alice.” Edith arrives.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Jack is mine,” Lorina says. “All mine.”
“And you’ve been looming for some time,” Edith says.
I thought we were a couple by now.
“It boggles my mind why you think he’d be interested in you,” Lorina says. “He is mine.”
“Not yet,” Edith reminds her.
“I always get what I want,” Lorina says, chin up.
I don’t have time for this nonsense.
“And what’s with the thinning hair?” Edith points at my withering hair. I guess it haunts me everywhere I travel in time. I think it has something to do with the time I have left alive.
I comb my head with hands. No time to be embarrassed about it. My mother has already disappeared somewhere.
“We shouldn’t lock her in the basement too often,” Lorina says. “It looks like rats are ripping out her hair.”
“Looks better that way,” Edith says. “She looks mad. To the point.”
The sisters giggle.
I need to know where to find Jack, couple or no couple. Or should I just stay away from him? If we’re not a couple, why would he get on the bus with me later? I’m confused here.
“I know he’s yours,” I tell Lorina. “Can’t you just tell me where I can find him? I need to return a pen I borrowed.”
“A pen? Such a lame excuse.”
Why can’t I just be the Bad Alice and choke both of them right now?
“Tell you what,” Edith says. “I’m suggesting you forget about school today.”
“Yeah,” Lorina says. “I’m seducing Jack into kissing me today. Better find something else to do.”
“Like what?”
“Like your favorite mad professor at Oxford University.” Edith giggles. Lorina giggles back.
“Mad professor?”
“The one whom you trust over everyone else,” Lorina says. “The one you think understands you.”
“Aren’t you too young for him?” Edith laughs.
“Who are you talking about?”
“Don’t pretend you’re naive.” Lorina waves her hand, dismissing me. “Go to him. Professor Carter Pillar, who believes that Wonderland exists, like you do.”
I am speechless.
“Honestly, it’s a joke,” Edith says to Lorina. “You won’t believe how many young girls attend his free lectures, escaping school. Each one of them believes she is Alice.”
They both laugh and walk away.
In my mind, I think that finding the Pillar isn’t a bad idea. He always has a way out in these situations. I follow them out. Going to Oxford University wouldn’t be a problem.
Chapter 65
THE PAST: LECTURE ROOM, OXFORD UNIVERSITY
The girls swarming outside the lecture hall are all teenagers. Most of them are certified nerds. A few pigtails here, thick glasses there, and of course they all carry an Alice in Wonderland gadget. Several goth-like girls are also present, loud talkers and jokers, wearing silver piercings and black tattoos, hair dyed in pink and dressed like rock stars, and wearing t-shirts about an evil Alice. Last but not least are the girls in costumes. All Wonderlastic masks, disguised as the Hatter, the Rabbit, and Queen of Hearts, and more.
Oxford University has turned into a simple Comic Con, waiting for Professor Carter Pillar. What can I say? It’s the Pillar. Always influential and doing what he likes to celebrate madness.
I walk among them, hugging my books and strapping on my backpack. The girls talk about their crushes on the professor. His free spirit, and the fact that he understands them.
“I hope you don’t end up in an asylum,” I mumble, chugging through.
“You know Alice is real?” a girl suggests to her friends. “Professor Pillar says so. There is a Wonderland War coming.”
I roll my eyes and stay silent. I think we’re all waiting for the lecture room’s door to open. There is a bulletin board that talks about the Pillar’s theories on insanity. It basically spreads the idea about the world going nuts. It also promotes hookah smoking.
A few professors, wearing ties and smoking pipes, pass through the corridor. They stare at us, Wonderland believers, as if we’re parasites. One of them mentions the committee’s disgust with the Pillar’s ways, wondering how the university permits him to gather those teenagers and poison their thoughts.