As I approach the Shoe Maker and Repair Shoppe, I can hear a large crowd. Gathered around the little tent is a multitude of people. My heart pounds. This is not right. I search for the tent of color- that of Trea's- and lo and behold: people are swarming in and around the hat tent, too. Something just eats me up inside. I march straight over to Trea's hat tent, burning with anger. They have no right! I push and shove and squeeze my way to the middle of the tent, grab one of the tables and put a chair on top of it. Without thinking, I get on top of the elevated chair. I look at all of the chaos. Every one taking whatever they please; a total free for all. "Stop!" I shout at one. "Knock it off!" to a couple of others wrestling for a hat. No one listens, illiciting so much anger and hurt and dispair that I cry out with a loud voice like no other heard: "STOP IT!!! ALL OF YOU!!!" The struggling inside has stopped, and so has the chaos outside the tent. I have everyone's full attention. "WHAT in Miser-loand are you guys DOING!?!?!"
"The King died," Someone had the nerve to say.
"And you guys think that is an excuse for your behavior??" I ask agahst.
"But we want our hats and he's not here to trade for them," another says.
"Yeah!," another quips. "We have no one to trade with! He has no living relatives!" I glare at her.
"Oh... yes. You do have some one to trade with. Did you even stop to think that he may have found some one he could entrust his belongings to?" Silence. "For your imformation, King Hatter did, infact have someone he could trust. Two people, actually. His dearest friend March Hare."
"And who is this other one?" the first person says with scorn.
"Wonderland's," can't believe I'm saying it like that, but the moment I do, color comes back, "Wonderland's Queen. Or would be Queen, had Our King survived longer. And I believe that she is still an heir to the throne and all his other belongings, first and foremost."
"Who is she?" they ask in a murmer, evidently the thought of a queen never crossed their minds.
"The one named Alyssa: Me." I can't believe I just did that. I just said, in front of a multitude of people, that I am their Queen. And that I called this place Wonderland. Trea would be so proud of me.
"You're lying! You just want all the wealth!" The first person says in protest.
"Really? Who was it that sought to rescue your dear King? Who was it that Old Man Time sent the messages to, warning that something would happen to the King of Wonderland? Who, pray tell, slayed the Jabberwalky in an effort to save him? Who mourned for many days, refusing to see light, man, or creature when she was the one that discovered the King is dead? Who is the one that searched and found him dead because she loves him so?! And who is the one wearing his suits because those suits are the closest she'll ever be to her dear King, one called Hatter, named Istrangelabutrea, affectionately calling him Trea?! If it wasn't me, your Queen, the one Your King has chosen, Then who did all these things? Tell, me who!!" My voice rising with each question and accusation, only now realizing the Wonderlandians are stunned to silence and tears.
"Perhaps the saddest part of this," a vaguely familiar voice says, "Is that Queen Alyssa only came to town to get a pair of heels, the price of which is far too high and should never have had to been paid. Does anyone want to geuss what the price was?" I look and see the shoe maker, the one that is speaking. He made his way into Trea's tent. The room is silent, when a small voice quips:
"Her favorite dolly?" a small chuckle from the crowd descends the tent.
"No, little girl. I'm afraid the price was much, much higher than that," the shoe maker says.
"Some land?" Another geusses.
"Her house?"
"Her home?" and a bunch of other geusses flood the murmering crowd, to each the shoe maker shakes his head no to. When the tent finally falls silent becuase they are out of guesses, he tells them:
"Her bitter sorrow. Had I not forced her to tell me why she was wearing Hatter's suit or as to why she couldn't trade me a hat, she would have traded one of the things mentioned. But I had insisted. And she told me her sorrow of the loss of her loved one. No pair of shoes should ever have to cost that." The room remains silent. "Give Queen Alyssa Hatter's hats back. Should she be willing to trade them, then you will do buisness with her. But for the time being, I don't think that she is quite ready to do so. Give them back to her. Now." One by one, the people put the hats back where they found them. And after the last one has done so, I zip up the tent, determined that it won't happen again.
"Thank you," I say to the shoe maker. "I don't know how I could have done that without you."
"It was the least I could do given the state you left in yesterday," he replies, leading me to his tent.
"Yesterday... That seems like sucha foreign word to me."
"What do you mean?"
"Ever since the tragedy, it's been like one, long, ongoing day. One that will not cease. Its been going on forever."
"I am sorry to hear that." The shoe maker wordlessly slips a pair of heels on to my feet. They fit perfectly, and they work perfectly for me and the everyday wear and tear that I'm wanting them for.
"Thank you," I say.
"You're welcome. Anytime you want shoes, you just let me know. You'll never have to trade a thing for them for the rest of your life."
"That is very kind of you." He gives me a some-what sad grin. Looking outside the shoe repair shoppe, I can't help but wonder at the crowd that invaded Trea's tent. "Sir, how did everyone know what happened to Trea already?" The look he gives me is very telling. "It was you, wasn't it?"
"I am sorry, ma'am. I did not think it would be a harm letting my friends know."
"But those friends told their friends and inturn told theirs, right?" He looks down in shame. "Is that why you aren't going to have me trade anything with you? because you feel guilty?" He continues looking down. I actually feel sorry for him. "If it makes you feel any better, March Hare and I were planning on telling everyone tomorrow. The week is now up. Infact, I think I'll go on over to his house now. You can come with, if you like." His eyes light up.
"I would be honored!"
"There is one question you need to answer first: What do you call yourself?" He looks at me vaguely confused. "I can't exactly introduce you to such a good friend as the shoe repairman and maker, can I? You must have a name!" He chuckles and says:
"Alex." It is my turn to look at him quizzically.
"You aren't from Wonderland, are you?"
"How did you know?"
"No one here has such a simple, Earthen name as Alex. Not that I've noticed, anyways." He looks at me wide-eyed. I lead him to March Hare's house as we talk. "Have you met any one with such a simple name as Alyssa?"
"No... not really. It never crossed my mind. But it does make sense. So how long have you known the King?" pain siezes me and I begin to withdraw. "I'm sorry," he retracts right away.
"No, don't be. I need to work through this, after all. So, let me see... the night/day I met him... the day I moved in... the day I met march hare... when I spoke directly with Old Man Time... the Mind Maze... two days at a house... two days at the asylum... two days to search and find... six days after trea's death... that's a total of 16 days since I met him. But I only been with him for three days. Less than that, really."
"Oh, wow. That is amazing. What made you feel so sure about the King?"
"Well, there's a gutsy question," I laugh, "but I don't even know. From the very first day I met him I liked him tremendously. I even got him to promise to stay eighteen for me. But then I returned to Earth..."
"And you couldn't stop thinking about him?" I look at him in amazement and smile.
"Exactly. And then I realized that I can't keep making him wait for me. Especially after I realized that Wonderland's time is different than Earth's."
"So then you returned for good?" My jaw almost drops.
"Yes! and he was nice enough to let me move in. But I thought that for sure I was crazy. I didn't even know how he felt about me. But then the next day, after leaving March Hare's house, I knew then what his feelings for me were. He did feel the same. We almost kissed, but then the evil wind took him away. That was the last I saw of him while he was alive." We continue talking and chatting, explaining this and that the rest of the way to March Hare's house.
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