I wonder again: is it possible that my mind keeps coming up with such things?
I close my eyes and sigh, wanting to trust my mind. At least, I hid the key somewhere safe now. I don't have to hide it from the Pillar anymore, as Lewis had warned not to show it to anyone as well. This isn't just any key. It's is one of they keys to one of Wonderland doors, whatever that really means.
I open my eyes, and feel a bit relieved actually. Time to rest and prepare for a hectic day tomorrow.
Since Waltraud denied me a shower, I lie on the mattress on the floor, wishing for some sleep. They bought me a new one with the picture of a huge rabbit on it.
Waltraud knocks on my door again and tells me I will get my shower after I get my postponed dose of shock therapy. "No point in showering when you haven't sweated enough yet," she says, and tries to talk me into telling her where I have been. I tell her I am not allowed to say. She laughs and says they must be experimenting on me like a lab rat, because I don't even count as a human. It's interesting how insults don't count when you're in dire need of sleep.
Waltraud doesn't give up, though. She pulls the sliding window in the door and peeks in. "I just found a way to get you in the Mush Room."
"Huh?" I pull myself up and rub my eyes.
"I requested you for interrogation in the Mush Room tomorrow." She rubs her hands with childish enthusiasm.
"On what basis?"
"I requested I interrogate you about the patient who escaped last week, remember?"
"Yeah, I do. But I don't think my cell is close to the patient's."
"It's isn't. But I just remembered you acted strange that night."
"How strange?" What night was that, exactly?
"You asked me if I saw a White Queen enter your cell." She laughs. "I mentioned it in my report. Maybe you were distracting me so the patient could escape."
"I don't even know this patient."
"The patient never had a real name on his file," Waltraud says. "We call him the Muffin Man because he had an obsession with muffins." She shoots me with one last evil laugh and then shuts the window in the door, dimming my room into a mysterious darkness.
I take a few seconds to digest what I just heard.
Chapter 27
The Pillar's cell, VIP ward, Radcliffe Asylum, Oxford
In the morning, when I am sent to the Pillar's cell, he is in one of those happy Caucus Race moods again.
I stand before the cell and watch him through the black bars. He is dancing in place, holding his cane up to the ceiling.
He is not alone.
Several of his favorite Mushroomers dance next to him. They aren't dancing to music, though. They're tapping their feet and drooling to the silly words of a nursery rhyme.
One of them faces the rest of the Mushroomers in their pajamas and chants:
"Do you know the Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man,
Do you know the Muffin Man,
Who lives on Drury Lane?"
Then the Pillar claps to the beat, the same way children would sing the song in a kindergarten. Then one of the Mushroomers facing the first chanter responds:
"Oh yes! I know the Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man,
Yes, I know the Muffin Man,
Who lives on Drury Lane."
The Pillar claps his hands and then rewards the Mushroomer by allowing him to slide over to the first one on the other side. Then both of them face the rest and start all over again:
"Do you know the Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man,
Yes, I know the Muffin Man,
Who lives on Drury Lane."
"Alice!" The Pillar's voice is barely audible across the chants and claps of the Mushroomers. "Come out and play!"
"Why are you doing this?" I cock my head, knowing most of the Pillar's actions are usually significant, not just a fool man's calling.
"It's the song the corpses were singing in the morgue."
"I know what it is." I raise my voice but control my temper. "Why are the Mushroomers singing it?"
"The same reason why the corpses were singing it." He winks. Now I am sure the song holds crucial information. Did he figure it out?
"Am I supposed to guess the reason now?" I ask impatiently.
Like a music conductor, the Pillar signals the Mushroomers to lower their chanting. He takes a few steps forward, holding the bars with his gloved hands. I wonder if he sleeps with that elegant blue and gold striped suit he wears. "You forgot to tell me the Cheshire paid you a visit," he says in a blaming tone. "Why did you do that, Alice?"
"I..." Stuttering isn't helping. I don't really know why I didn't tell him. "I think because I wasn't sure it really happened."
"That explains the random occurrence of events," The Pillar says. "All the clues he sent you were based on him trusting you would tell me he paid you a visit a week ago, the night the patient called the Muffin Man escaped the asylum."
"I don't understand."
"If you'd told me he paid you a visit, I'd have dug deeper behind the reason why." His tone is still blaming, but also calm and assured. "I'd have easily known from Dr. Truckle that the Muffin Man escaped the asylum that night."
"You knew the Muffin Man was a patient in the asylum?"
"No, I didn't." The Pillar laughs and abandons the bar, straightening up. "Anyway, now we know the Cheshire helped the Muffin Man escape the asylum. That's why he visited you."
"So he wasn't really here for me?"
"Of course, that was part of the plan. Helping the Muffin Man out to commit the crimes was his first priority, though."
"Are you saying it's not the Cheshire who committed these murders?"
"The Muffin Man!" the Mushroomers interrupt us.
"Who is he?" I grip the bars myself now, curious about the mysterious killer. "Why is he so important the Cheshire got him out? What's going on? Who is this Muffin Man?"
"I know who he is now." The Pillar pulls out a file with The Muffin Man written on it. It's his file at the asylum.
"You read it?"
He nods.
"And?"
"He is pretty terrifying, I have to say. He admitted himself to the asylum many years go. The asylum rejected him on the basis of 'no apparent insanity.' It's laughable. So he climbed up to the Queen of England's chamber and threatened her," the Pillar says.
"The Queen of England?"
"Yes, the only one who's allowed to drive without a driver's license or license plate." He rolls his eyes. I never knew that about the Queen of England before. "The Muffin Man managed to sneak up the Queen of England's chamber a few years ago and threaten to kill her. And voila, his wish is granted. He is finally admitted to the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum."
"He threatened the Queen herself so they'd know he was mad?"