“And what?”
“It’s supposed to be your favorite place for playing as a child.”
“Me?”
“Yes,” the Pillar says. “In fact, it makes sense for this Mock Turtle to wait for you there. If you really keep the keys with him, then the name of the place is like a secret code between you and him. Your favorite childhood place. Makes sense.”
“Do you think me living in the compound is a camouflage, a trick to hide my true identity in the future, and the Mock Turtle being the leader of the revolution is only to delude the Queen?”
“We’re about to know in a second.” The Pillar stops.
I get out of bed and stare at the door he is pointing at. It leads to a garden. A vast one that is the same design as the one in my house at the compound. It looks like another part of Wonderland.
“I’m very curious about this Mock Turtle now,” I say. “Who could it be?”
“The last person that would ever cross your mind,” the Pillar says, pointing at him standing in the middle of the garden.
Chapter 26
THE PRESENT: MARGARET KENT’S OFFICE
The phone rang, and Margaret picked it up. “Who is it?”
“The Cheshire.”
“What do you want?” she said. “Aren’t you supposed to guard the Inklings until Alice awakes?”
“Something came up.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m getting signals from Jack’s mind.”
“Signals?”
“I can read his mind.”
“You don’t say.”
“I’m seeing memories.”
“I bet they’re all playing cards and None Fu games.”
“No.” The Cheshire hesitated. Margaret sensed he wasn’t quite himself. Something was happening to him. “They’re mostly about Alice.”
Margaret shrugged. She stood up, locked her door, and went back to her desk. “Anything useful?”
“A lot of lovey-dovey memories,” he said. “I’m still digging.”
“Anything about her being the Real Alice?” she asked eagerly. “Come on, there must a lead in her past to prove it’s her.”
“You sound too eager to know.”
“Yes, Cheshire, I want to know.” She gritted her teeth. “You know what it means if it’s hers.”
“Not really sure,” he lamented. “I’m not that involved in this Wonderland War.”
“You don’t understand,” Margaret said. “All of the Real Alice’s secrets lay in the few years after the circus. That’s where it all happened. You have to rummage through that wreckage in Jack’s mind. Harder.”
The Cheshire kept to himself for a while. Margaret couldn’t dismiss the possibility that the infamous cat was warming up to Jack and Alice, even if just a little.
“Cheshire,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” He was surely lying. “There is this memory about why Jack came back after she killed him.”
“And?”
“I can’t put my finger on it,” the Cheshire said. “But he came back to tell her something so important to him.”
“Tell her who she really is, maybe?” Margaret leaned back in her chair, a smile curving her lips. “That’s fantastic.”
“It’s driving me crazy.”
“You are crazy.”
“You think so?”
“‘We’re all mad here.’ Your words, not mine.”
“Yeah. I forgot.”
“It’s okay. Just understand that things are starting to get really exciting.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to. Just figure out why Jack came back, and if she is the Real Alice.” Margaret hung up then closed her eyes.
The few past weeks she had resisted the idea that the Pillar had found the Real Alice. It was a scary thought to Wonderlanders. But there hadn’t been enough evidence to support it.
Since Margaret needed all she could bargain with to get her thing back from the Queen, it’d be great if she came across proof that the girl in the asylum was the Real Alice. That would be perfect timing.
Chapter 27
THE FUTURE: THE DOOR TO WONDERLAND, OXFORD ASYLUM FOR THE CRIMINALLY SANE
Like the Pillar said, the Mock Turtle isn’t who I expected him to be. All the scenarios I imagined were out of context. Surprises keep on coming.
“Is that really him?” I ask the Pillar, pointing at the so-called Mock Turtle.
“Dr. Tom Truckle himself.” The Pillar is as confused as I am.
“He is the revolution leader?” I scratch my head, as if I am in a big cartoon show called life. “And how come he is the Mock Turtle?”
“He likes mock turtle soup a lot,” the Pillar remarks. “We should’ve noticed.”
I think about it for a moment. The puzzle starts to unfold in my mind. “And there is something else that should have given him away.”
“What’s that?” the Pillar asks.
“Tom Truckle is an anagram for Mock Turtle.”
The Pillar’s eyes glimmer. “Clever. But the question is: did he know he was the Mock Turtle back then when we were in the asylum?”
“And why did I leave the secret to the keys’ whereabouts with this old, annoying man?”
“Let’s see.” We walk toward Truckle. “Honestly, he doesn’t look as tense as in the past. Little too old for leading a revolution, though.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” Tom Truckle says, leaning against a tree in the garden. From what it looks like, this isn’t just a garden. It’s a prison, walled with enormous trees and stinging bushes. There is nowhere to escape. “My wardens will arrive soon. They’ll know who you are.”
“Do you know who I am?” the Pillar says.
“Why should I care?” Tom says. “I was talking to Alice.”
I realize Tom doesn’t know I’m from the past, so I need to play along while I get answers at the same time. “It’s okay, Tom,” I tell him. “Where are the keys?”
Tom fidgets, pulls out a few pills, swallows them dry. He looks at me. “I can’t talk here,” he whispers. “You have to get me out of here. How did you even get in?” He grabs me by the shoulders. “And why have you left the compound?”
“Hey,” the Pillar says. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start with getting you out of here. But first, we need to make sure the keys aren’t here in the asylum.”
“Who are you?” Tom says.
“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “Stick with me. Are the keys inside the asylum?”
“No,” Tom says.
“Then my friend is right. Let’s get you out of here first.”
“Tell me how, and I’m all yours,” Tom says. He cranes his head over my shoulder, his mouth agape. “Oh, no.”
“What’s wrong?” I say.
The Pillar taps me on the shoulder, looking in the same direction behind me. There is a TV hung above the door. It shows the Great Republic of Wonderland news. I’ve been declared a fugitive. Public enemy number one. The Queen has ordered my head chopped off for breaking the treaty and leaving the compound.
“The deal was that strict?” I ask the Pillar.
“Like I said, rich people stay in their compound for immunity, but they’re not allowed to ever leave it.”
“Why would I agree to such terms?”
The Pillar shrugs. I turn to Tom, and he gives me a look that worries me. He knows something I don’t know. “Show me out first,” he demands.