WE #4 MC

Sooo sorry this is late, guys! School has been bogging me down big-time! Also, I originally wrote another one, but I hated it, so I started over. But here it is:) This is an Alice in Wonderland story of sorts:)



                                     

           Allie was listening to her sister drone on and on about the parts of speech in the English language. She kept dozing off or getting distracted by the beautiful nature around her. A flower here, a butterfly there, the big cherry tree they were sitting under.

            A cherry fell beside her from the tree and she picked it up and examined it. She liked the way the sunlight glinted off it at just the right angle, giving it a warm glow.

            “Are you listening?” her sister snapped.

            Allie jerked out of her thoughts. “Yes, Tracy.”

            “What did I just say?”

            Allie was silent for a moment, trying to come up with an intelligent response. “You said – “

            “Forget it.” Tracy closed the school book and stood up.

            Allie was going to protest, but decided against it. After all, she really wasn’t listening.

            Tracy headed inside the cottage house, leaving Allie to herself.

            Was it possible? Could she have just made her sister so exasperated that she cancelled lessons for the day?

            Allie decided not to stick around to find out otherwise and popped the cherry in her mouth as she stood up and stretched. She headed off down the property and made way for the river.

            Once there, she sat on the bank of the river and let out a sigh of contentment as she watched the small river rush by. The birds chirped their happy songs in the surrounding trees, the flowers were in full bloom, and the smell of fresh grass filled Allie’s nose.

            She lied down and closed her eyes, taking in everything with just her ears. It was so peaceful. She began to feel drowsy…so sleepy…so…

            Her eyes flew open as she heard a twig snap close by. She sat up and looked around. Had Tracy come looking for her? She hoped that wasn’t the case.

            Another twig snapped, closer this time. Allie thought she heard big feet thumping on the ground. Almost like…

            A hare appeared out of the trees, looking at Allie curiously. Allie stared back, surprised at what she saw.

            The rabbit was standing on its back legs and wore a small white coat with a little gold chain attached to it. Allie had never seen a rabbit wear a coat, but the white did go nicely with its gray fur.

            To her astonishment, the hare reached up to the little gold chain with its big paw and pulled out a pocket watch. It opened its mouth and said, “Late! Oh, so very late!”

            It stuffed the watch back in the pocket and ran right past her on its hind legs.

            Allie jumped to her feet and began to run after the rabbit. She didn’t know why, but she had to follow it, had to know what on earth a gray rabbit with a coat and pocket watch could possibly be late for.

            “Wait!” she called after it. “Wait for me!”

            The hare paid her no mind and continued to run, shouting every so often, “Late! Oh, so terribly late!”

            Allie no longer recognized her surroundings. She had no idea where she was, but she continued to run anyway.

            “Wait!” she called again.

            Suddenly, she tripped and was falling down a big hole in the ground. She continued to fall for what seemed like a lifetime.

            As she fell, pieces of black and white objects floated around her. What were those? A piece came close to her and she saw that a black Roman numeral 2 was on it. A little ways off, a black Roman numeral 10 was on another piece. A long, thin black stick floated around followed by a shorter one.

            What was all this? And then it dawned on her.

            A clock. These were pieces of a clock.

            Down she went, further and further, until at long last the bottom was in view. She began to panic as she realized she was headed straight for a huge lake of dark water. Of all things she had learned over the years, swimming was not one of them.

            She splashed into the icy cold water and thrashed around, trying to keep above the surface. It was no use. The water was pulling her down…down…she couldn’t breathe….couldn’t…

            Suddenly, a staircase appeared in front of her. She thrashed her way to it and used it to pull herself to the top of the water. She gasped and coughed up the water from her lungs.

            When she had recovered, she stood up and saw that she was in some sort of cavern. An enormous clock stood in front of her. Pieces of it were missing and she guessed that that was what she saw on the way down. As she watched, more pieces groaned and creaked and blew away in the wind.

            Suddenly, a spine-chilling laugh echoed against the cavern walls. A tall woman in a black robe appeared above the clock.

            “Time,” she said. Despite her evil appearance, her voice was smooth and rich as honey.

            Allie didn’t know what to make of this, so she just stood silently.

            “A priceless thing in the human world,” she continued. “You humans put so much value on it. There is lots of it, but you can never seem to have enough.”

            The evil woman picked off a piece of the clock and rolled it over in her slender fingers. “What is better than a world without time? A world where humans don’t have to worry about not having enough?”

            Allie’s mouth felt like it was filled with cotton, but she managed to get one word out. “Chaos.”

            The woman laughed again, that same icy laugh that sent shivers down Allie’s spine.

            “Oh no, dear child. Once time is gone, you won’t have to worry about it anymore.” She let the piece of clock she was holding in her hands blow away with the wind.

            “Time is running out.” The woman laughed again and disappeared.

            Allie snapped awake and sat up, breathing hard. The river calmly coursed by, the birds sang their lovely songs.

            A dream.

            Allie’s breathing returned to normal as she realized it was all just a dream.

            “There you are!” Tracy exclaimed as she appeared behind Allie. “I was beginning to think you had gotten lazy and disappeared on me.”

            “No, Tracy,” Allie replied in a bit of a daze.

            “Well, come on then! We have lessons to attend to!” Tracy helped her little sister up and began to walk back toward the house.

            Allie followed, but stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the spine-chilling laugh. A tall woman in a black robe appeared from behind a tree.

            Tracy turned and noticed Allie had stopped. “What are you doing, silly girl? Daydreaming again?”

            “Do you see that?” Allie asked.

            “See what?”

            “That woman.”

            “What woman?”

            Allie pointed to the tree, but the woman had disappeared. Tracy looked and shook her head. “I don’t see anything. It’s probably just your wild imagination.”

            For the sake of humankind, Allie sure hoped so.