Another wall has photographs of famous rabbits. I see Peter Rabbit. Bugs Bunny. Rabbit from Winnie-the-Pooh. And the Easter bunny, holding a basket full of colorful eggs. On a bookshelf are many books, all with rabbit-related titles. How to Talk to Anybunny. Be the Best Hopper. Raising Li’l Rabbits Right.
“Ooh, check out what’s on that table!” Penny says.
The rest of us walk over to see. There’s a small bottle on the table. With a label that says: DRINK ME.
And next to the bottle are four little glasses! Meant for us? Probably, right?
Could this finally be the swallow to take us home? Or is it some crazy potion?
“This better not make us smaller,” I say.
Frankie shakes her head. “Since the last potion we drank made us small, maybe this one will make us normal size again.”
Penny opens the bottle. She sniffs it. “Yuck. Carrot smoothie. I hate carrots.”
I take the bottle and smell it. She’s right. The potion is green, not orange, but it does smell like carrots. I have a brief flashback to the time I fell into Hansel and Gretel and was force-fed veggie smoothies. Blah.
I pour a little of the potion into each glass.
“Cheers,” I say, and we all clink glasses. Then we each take a sip. The potion definitely tastes like carrots. Penny must not be pleased.
Suddenly, my shoulders are growing as wide as the room. My neck is going back up, up, up, but this time, the rest of me is getting huge, too! My feet look like my dad’s. Wait — they look like five times the size of my dad’s.
“AHHH!” we all cry.
We’re GIANTS.
I’m so big that I have to hunch over along the ceiling. My arm is so long it goes right out the window, which, thankfully, has no glass.
Frankie, Robin, and Penny are giants, too. One of Frankie’s arms snakes right up the chimney. Robin’s leg is through the side door. Penny’s hand goes out another window.
We’re wedged inside the house. I can barely move.
THIS IS NOT GOOD.
“What is that infernal racket!” an annoyed voice calls from down the hall.
The White Rabbit comes storming out of the bedroom. He’s wearing his little round eyeglasses. His wife, in a pink-striped bathrobe, and seven little rabbits in pajamas are behind him.
My elbow keeps growing. I’m about to knock over all the rabbits.
“AHH!” the rabbits shout and rush out the front door in the nick of time.
“Sorry!” I call to them.
“Hey! This is our house!” the White Rabbit shouts from the front lawn. “Get out!”
If we could, we would.
“Take that!” the White Rabbit says, and throws a rock at my arm.
“Ow!” I cry. “Stop that!”
The White Rabbit is scowling at me. “No! You stop growing in my house this instant. Get out!”
Mama Rabbit throws a rock at Robin’s foot. Then all the rabbit kids pick up pebbles and rocks and start flinging them at us.
“Is she really teaching her kids to throw rocks?” I ask. “Great parenting! You’re raising bullies! Is this how you raise little rabbits right?”
“Ow!” Penny says. “I can’t even move my leg to rub where the rock hit my shin!”
“Stop it!” Frankie yells as a pebble hits her in the arm.
Wait. What was that? Something soft just landed right on my foot that’s sticking out the window. Something that smells good. I sniff the air. Is that cake?
Another glob of something lands on my arm. It’s definitely cake.
Why are the White Rabbit and his family throwing rocks and cake at us? This makes no sense! Even for Wonderland!
I’m able to turn my face just enough to see the White Rabbit standing right outside, ready to throw another little cake at me. Where is he getting the cakes from, anyway?
“Scram!” the rabbit says, throwing more cake. It lands right on my hand.
I am so bent over just under the ceiling that I’m afraid my head will go through the roof!
“Listen, Mr. Rabbit,” I say. “Why did you tell us to eat the queen’s tarts? Were you trying to get us into trouble?” I ask.
“I did no such thing!” the rabbit says.
“Liar, liar, bunny pants on fire!” Penny shouts. “We all heard you!”
The rabbit frowns. “I’ve never seen you or these other giants before in my life!”
“You did so see us!” Penny says, all hunched over. Her elbow goes through another window. “We were smaller then. In the garden?”
“Huh?” the rabbit says. “I have no idea what you’re talking about! I’ve never seen you four before — at any size. Now get out of my house!”
He IS the White Rabbit from the queen’s garden. I saw him with my own eyes! Same face. Same pink nose. Same floppy ears and little round eyeglasses. He’s right in front of me now.
But I can tell by his expression that he doesn’t know who we are. His brow is furrowed and he’s frowning. He reaches into the pocket of his robe and pulls out a tiny carrot and begins munching on it distractedly.
“Wait a sec,” Penny says. “I thought you hated carrots! The rabbit we met earlier said he hated carrots! Remember?!”
I gasp. She’s right. And … what was it the Cheshire Cat said? The surprise was a disguise you saw with your eyes.
Could the Cheshire Cat have meant the White Rabbit? Maybe the rabbit who told us to eat the tarts was in disguise — as THIS white rabbit. Maybe that rabbit was someone else entirely?
But who? And why? Who would want to get us in trouble with the queen?
“Oh, goodness! Oh, dear!” the rabbit says. He looks at his pocket watch. “I’m very late. I must go! Bye!”
The rabbit rushes off. But his wife and seven bunny children are still glaring at us. The kids keep throwing cake at us. A piece lands on my chin. I stick out my tongue — might as well taste it and see if it’s the right swallow — but my tongue can’t reach.
Penny’s face is now so big it’s blocking the doorway. I can barely see out the window.
“Take that, freaky giant girls!” a bunny kid says and flings a piece of cake at Penny. It goes right into her mouth.
“Argh!” Penny barely manages to say.
“Penny!” I cry. “Are you all right?” Doesn’t that bunny kid know throwing food into people’s mouths is a choking hazard?
She’s swallowing. Which is a super-loud sound when a giant does it.
“Not bad,” she says, licking her lips. “Chocolate peanut-butter!”
“It’s a good thing you’re not allergic to peanuts,” I say. Haven’t they heard of nut-free in Wonderland?
“Oh!” she calls out as her hand suddenly comes out of the window. Her foot comes down from the chimney. “I’m shrinking!”
Could Penny be shrinking because she swallowed the cake?
A bunny kid pulls his arm back and pitches a piece of cake right at my face. It lands on my cheek. Ew, sticky! But it really smells delicious. I manage to swipe it off with my tongue and take a nibble. “Yum, that is good.”
And it works! My arms start shrinking. My foot comes out of the window. I’m suddenly standing straight up.
Two bunny girls throw pieces of cake at Frankie and Robin. They quickly take licks.
We’re all card-sized again. I arch my back and rub it. Being a giant is achy.
“I’m calling the guard-cards!” Mama Rabbit says. “They’ll arrest the intruders!”
One of the rabbit kids is glaring at us. “Yeah! You’re toast!”
“You have toast?” Penny asks. “Can we swallow some?”
“No! Run!” I yell. We scurry out the front door. The bunny kids are chasing us.
Right outside the door is a mouse. A huge mouse. Well, probably a normal-sized mouse that looks huge because we’re tiny.
“Are you the ones who ate the tarts?” the mouse asks.
“Um …” Penny hesitates.
“Don’t answer!” I hiss.
“The mouse might be working for the cards!”
“The cards saw us eat the tarts with their own eyes,” Robin points out.
Forget the fact that cards shouldn’t even have eyes in the first place. “I don’t know what they actually saw,” I say. I am trying to think like a lawyer. “Just don’t admit anything. They’ll use it against us!”
“If you did, I’ll help you,” the mouse says. “Climb up on my back and I’ll get you out of here!”
“Should we believe him?” Robin asks me.
“Grab them!” one of the bunnies says, coming up behind us.
“Believe him!” I say, and jump on the mouse. What other choice do we have? Robin, Frankie, and Penny jump on behind me, and the mouse takes off bounding down the path.
“This is weird,” Frankie says.
“This is wild!” Robin adds.
“This is FUN,” Penny says, with a giggle.
“Really?” I ask, staring back at her. “Being curved around the ceiling of a house was fun? Being pelted with rocks was fun? Riding a mouse is fun?”
Penny laughs. “It kind of is,” she says, holding on tight. “Don’t you think?”
“I kind of do,” I admit as we zoom through Wonderland. Maybe this place isn’t so bad after all.
Soon, the angry bunnies are far behind us. This mouse is fast.
“What do you guys think?” I ask my friends as we bounce around on the mouse’s back. We all hold on to his fur tight. It doesn’t seem to bother him. “Was the White Rabbit who told us to eat the queen’s tarts a fake?” I explain my theory about the first rabbit we met being in disguise.
“But why would he disguise himself as the White Rabbit?” Robin asks.
“He clearly wanted us to eat the tarts,” Penny says. “Maybe he wanted us to get in trouble.”
“But why?” Frankie asks as we zoom under a branch.
“Maybe he’s trying to trap us,” I say, shivering. Trapped. Like poor Cliff.
The mouse comes to a stop at a quiet clearing. The ground is covered with grass, so it makes for a soft landing when we all jump off the mouse’s back.
“Thanks for the lift,” I say.
“Anytime,” the mouse says. “My friends and I are all impressed that you took a stand against the queen. You girls are brave. We’ll help you any way we can.”
“We’re trying to find something magical to eat,” Frankie says. “Any suggestions?”
“Is there a Wonderland restaurant?” I ask. “McWonderland?”
The mouse shrugs its mouse shoulders. “I only eat stuff I find on the ground. Ooh, there’s a seed!”
I am not eating a seed off the ground. That’s where I draw the line. Even Jonah wouldn’t eat that. Unless it was covered in ketchup.
The mouse nibbles on the seed thoughtfully. “Maybe my friends can help,” he says, looking around. “Guys?” he calls out. “Any ideas?”
Suddenly, a bunch of little animals emerge from behind the trees — a duck, a rat, birds. They’re all chattering. And they’re all our size, too. It’s like a magical zoo.
The duck waddles over to us. “Nope, I have no ideas,” he says. “But I bet the tart was good, huh? I’ve always wanted to try a queen’s tart.”
“It was only so-so,” Robin tells him. “It was a tomato tart. Why would someone make a tomato tart, anyway?”
A rainbow-colored baby parrot flaps over to us from the tree branch above.
“Can I rest on your shoulder?” the parrot asks Penny. “I’m very light.”
“Sure,” Penny says, beaming. “I love your feathers.”
“Me too,” he preens.
Another rainbow-colored baby parrot lands on me. I can feel his claws on my shoulder and his soft feathers on my cheek. He isn’t that light. Um, maybe his parents could come get him now?
“These birds are amazing,” Penny says. “My grandmother had tons of birds as pets. Ooh, there’s a pink hummingbird,” she adds, pointing up to the branches. “And a yellow canary! And look at that one!” she says, pointing to a blue-and-white bird perched on a branch. “Does anyone know what kind of bird that is?”
“Hmm,” Frankie says. “I’ve read about that kind of bird before. I forget what it’s called. Let me think …”
“Who cares about that one?” the baby parrot on Penny’s shoulder says, frowning. “He’s only two colors. I’m a whole rainbow.”
The parrot on my shoulder finally flies off. Ahh. Better.
“Does your grandma live in Smithville?” I ask Penny. “You talk about her a lot.”
She shakes her head. “No. I mean, she used to. But …” She hangs her head. “She died a few years ago.”
“Oh, no,” I say softy. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Me too.” She sighs. “My mom was really close with her, too. And ever since my grandma died … well, my mom doesn’t want to be around that much.”
Poor Penny. I miss my nana, too, since she lives across the country, but at least I can speak to her whenever I want.
A grown-up rainbow parrot flies over and tells the other birds that the Four of Diamonds is feeding bread to the ducks at the pond. All the birds start to fly away. The mouse and the duck get ready to go, too.
“We won’t rat you out!” the blue-and-white bird says as he soars away. “Promise!”
“I won’t, either,” says a small gray creature by my foot. “And I am a rat.”
“Good luck,” says the big mouse before he bounds away. “See you later, alligator!”
I close my eyes. “Please tell me there’s not an alligator behind me.”
“I think this time it really was just a figure of speech,” Penny says, laughing.
“So what now?” Robin asks when all the animals have gone. We start walking again.
“Frankie, is there anything left in the story that we could eat?” I ask.
Frankie bites her thumbnail. “I don’t know. We’ve kind of been going through the book backward. We started at the queen’s garden and then we went to the tea party, and then we went to the Duchess’s house and the White Rabbit’s house … and I think we just met all the animals that Alice met when she flooded the forest with her tears … which means … Look! A door!”
Straight ahead, surrounded by trees, is, in fact, a door. A shiny blue door. Attached to nothing, though. Just a door. How could a door just be there?
“Should we go inside?” I wonder.
“Don’t you see?” Frankie says. “It’s one of the blue doors from the beginning! We’ve come full circle!”
She throws open the door and runs inside.
Robin pushes her way in next, and Penny and I follow.
Yup. It’s the long hallway with the banana-yellow ceiling, the chessboard walls, and all the blue doors. This is where we landed when we first fell into Wonderland. We did come full circle. My heart sinks.
We must have gone through everything in Wonderland if we’re back here. And nothing we drank or ate was the swallow to bring us home.
I feel panicky. Did the Cheshire Cat lie to us? Was Cliff right? Were we tricked? Is anyone who they say they are? Are we trapped here forever? Trapped like Maryrose in my mirror?
“Well, hello,” says the White Rabbit. He’s sitting on the glass table, wearing his red coat and little round eyeglasses. His legs are swinging beneath him and he’s looking at his pocket watch. The DRINK ME sign is on the table, next to the bottle of potion.
Huh? Where did he come from? Was he here when we came in? Or did he just appear?
I narrow my eyes at him. “Which rabbit are you?” I ask. “Are you the REAL White Rabbit or the FAKE White Rabbit?”
“The real one of course,” he insists. “There’s only one rabbit! And it’s me!”
“How do we know for sure?” Penny asks, hands on her hips. “Prove it!”
PLOP!
Thud.
What was that sound?
It sounded like something falling onto the ground … just like when we fell in.
I turn around. A creature about our height has landed at the far end of the hallway. It comes hopping down toward us.
Oh, wow.
It’s another White Rabbit. He’s also wearing a red coat and little round eyeglasses. He looks EXACTLY like the rabbit sitting on the table.
This White Rabbit glares at us as he hops closer. “You four again? How’d you make it out of my house?”
“Wait. Are you the real rabbit?” Frankie asks him.
“Of course I am!” he says. He studies the other rabbit. “Who are you?”
“Who are you?” the other rabbit asks.
My head hurts. The first rabbit said HE was the real rabbit. But the one who just fell into the hallway recognized us from his house.
Which is the real one and which is the pretend one?
I stare at both rabbits. They look exactly the same. How can I know who is telling the truth?
Suddenly, there’s another noise:
PLOP!
Thud.
“OOF!”
We all look over to see who could have fallen in this time. It better not be a third rabbit.
No. It’s a girl.
She is wearing a blue dress with a white smock. She’s a little younger than us. I’m guessing she’s around seven. Jonah’s age.
“Oh, my,” the girl says, brushing back her blond hair. “Where am I? I fell down a rabbit hole!”
Penny gasps.
“OMG!” Frankie cries.
“Oh wow oh wow oh wow!” says Robin.
Oh, wow is right.
The girl is Alice.
Alice! THE Alice! In Wonderland!
She’s finally here!
“It’s her!” Robin murmurs, her eyes wide.
“Shhh,” I say. “Don’t interrupt the story. If she doesn’t see us, maybe her story can continue the way it’s supposed to.”
Alice doesn’t seem to see us. That’s because we’re all still tiny, so we’re basically down by her feet. So are the two White Rabbits.
Alice frowns at the table with the DRINK ME sign.
Abby in Wonderland (Special Edition) Page 9
