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Alice finally felt comfortable in Wonderland after wandering about for a few days. All of the beautiful colors in the gardens and the mystical creatures she met started to feel less out of the ordinary, and Alice began to feel right at home.
One day, Alice set out in hopes of meeting new friends, or rekindling with old ones. She waltzed through one of the deep green forests and saw smoke coming from a house. Alice quickly went to the house to see what she could find.
From afar, Alice saw what appeared to be two men. “Wait a second… Are those fish? Or… Humans? OMG! They’re on feet just like humans!” Alice thought to herself. “Finally, something normal.”
As Alice quickly approached the house, she noticed these were not normal humans. Both of the creatures had human-like bodies, but their faces resembled a fish and a frog. Alice was very confused, but decided to continue to approach the house. The closer she got, the more intrigued she was.
Alice got to the door and decided to speak with the Fish and Frog Footmen. They did not seem to understand her, and instead were rude. Alice insisted she was going into the house, and she did just that. Passing the two guards of the home, Alice entered the house to see a Duchess nursing a child, a cook making soup and a Chesire cat with an odd, suspicious grin on his face.
“Uhh.. Hi.” Alice said to them. No one replied to her before she began sneezing uncontrollably from the amount of pepper in the house. “The chef must be crazy to tolerate such a smell,” Alice said aloud. “And what’s with that cat’s grin?”
“All cat’s grin that way,” replied the Duchess to Alice.
“Well, I’ve never known that to be true,” said Alice.
“Clearly you don’t know much,” said the Duchess. “Anyway, I’m headed to meet the Queen. Goodbye.”
“Why is she so rude?” Alice thought to herself. The Duchess left the home, leaving the chef, the Chesire cat and the child behind. Alice felt like these creatures did not welcome her, so she decided to go out to the forest and continue looking around Wonderland.
Shortly after she was in the forest again, the same grinning Chesire cat appeared, sitting on one of the tree branches up high. She was a little bit scared by the cat, but asked him for help anyway.
“Which way should I go?” asked Alice.
“What are you trying to find?” said the Chesire cat, the grin never leaving his face. “You’ll find something mad anyway you choose.”
“Something mad? Why would I ever want to be around mad people?” asked Alice, confused.
“We’re all mad here in Wonderland. I’m mad, you’re mad, we’re all mad. If you go that way…” the Chesire cat said, pointing to the left, “you’ll find the Mad Hare."
"But if you go that way,” he said, pointing to the right. “You’ll find the Mad Hatter.”
“The Mad Hatter!” Alice exclaimed with relief. Finally, someone she had met before. She had been trying to come across Absolem or the Mad Hatter again since their first interaction, but never got so lucky. Alice was ready to stop staring at the Chesire cat’s creepy grin.
Alice set out on her way to find the Mad Hatter, and after a few moments she noticed the Chesire cat was following her.
“Can I help you?” Alice said.
“I’m coming with you,” said the Chesire cat. “Hatter’s a friend of mine, he’ll be thrilled to see me.”
Alice found that hard to believe, but was a bit relieved she to have a Wonderland native come with her.
The two arrive at a house and Alice quickly notices it’s a tea party. “How exciting!” she thought to herself. A party meant there must be guests, and it appeared that she arrived right on time as she checked her WonderPhone and saw that it was six o’clock on the dot.
The Chesire cat ran ahead of Alice right up to the tea table and took a seat, and Alice realized that’s why he had been following her all this time. Alice was getting closer and closer to the house, but slowed down as she approached it because of her nerves.
“Alice, was it?” the Mad Hatter said from a distance, seeming extremely happy.
“YES, I’m so glad you remember me!” said Alice. For the first time in Wonderland, she felt like she had a friend. She quickened her step to the party.
The two caught up since the last time they had met, and Alice finally felt comfortable again with the Mad Hatter and the Chesire cat.
“You’re just in time! Sit, it’s six o’clock, which means it’s time for tea!” said the Mad Hatter, pointing at the clock.
Alice was a little confused, as it had to have been at least a few minutes since she had checked her WonderPhone last. She checked the time again and her WonderPhone also said six o’clock on the dot. Alice realized something was peculiar.
The Queen arrived at the tea party along with the Duchess that Alice had met earlier and didn’t particularly like. After listening to the Queen talk about how she always gets so much done right at six o’clock on the dot, Alice knew she had to speak up.
“About that… How is it still six o’clock?” Alice said. The rest of the partygoers looked at her like she was foolish. “When I was arriving, it was six o’clock. It’s still six o’clock and about half an hour must've passed by now,” Alice said.
The Queen looked at the Mad Hatter angrily. “Have you kept some truth away from us, Hatter?” the Queen said. All the while the Hatter looked to be enjoying himself, and the Chesire cat never lost his grin.
“Why yes,” the Mad Hatter said. “No one had ever noticed before. Time does not pass at my tea parties.”
Everyone was outraged. Alice looked at the Mad Hatter and said, “You have it all wrong, Mad Hatter. If you want to gain their trust, you must tell them the whole truth.”
Alice explained how he could grain credibility and potentially get even more creatures to attend his parties if he’d just be honest.
“Remember how we told Absolem to apologize for his wrongdoings? What you’re doing is also wrong. To be a good host, you must be transparent.” Alice informed him.
A week later, the Mad Hatter decided to warn his guests about him stopping the time during his parties. Word got out about his honesty and more creatures attended the next week than ever before.
Author’s Note
The beginning of this story is almost identical to the original. Alice meets the Frog and Fish Footmen outside of a house, and meets the Duchess and Chesire cat inside in the same way. Like this story, the Duchess wasn’t very nice to Alice, and neither were the Footmen. Alice left the house and went out to the woods where the Chesire cat surprised her. The dialogue the Chesire cat and Alice have about which way to go is almost the exact same in the original story, except this time she chooses to go where the Mad Hatter is rather than following the path to see the Mad Hare. The original story ends here, but I decided to continue it to show how Wonderland characters interact with one another and to add a PR component.
Mad Hatter’s Tea Party is a big part of Alice in Wonderland, so I wanted to include it. I saw a great opportunity here in showing how the Mad Hatter was keeping the truth from his party attendees about the time. In Alice in Wonderland, the time is stuck on six o’clock and the Mad Hatter is known for "killing time." In this version, the partygoers don’t know that he stops time and have been lied to by the Mad Hatter for awhile. This is when Alice teaches the Mad Hatter a very important public relations lesson: he will be trusted more if he just tells the complete truth. The ending shows how he tries this tactic and ends up with more tea party attendees than ever.
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