“Matt, the Mad-Hatter, what an awful name,” Alice groaned under her breath. She was driving too fast for this middle of nowhere road but she really didn’t care anymore, maybe Magnificent Matt the Mad-Hatter would save her. When she had told all her family she would be a stage actress she had meant on Broadway, not a magician’s assistant.

When a small white rabbit hopped into the road, Alice’s first reaction was to think that it looked an awful lot like the one Matt would pull out of his Mad Hat in a few hours. Too late she realized she would hit the poor thing if she didn’t do something, so she swerved right. However she swerved too far, too fast and plowed into a tree. The pack of magic cards on the dashboard exploded open, showering Alice in red hearts. Alice blacked out.

When she opened her eyes, the rabbit was sitting on the hood of the car looking at her. One of its ears was flopped down, giving it a befuddled look. Its nose twitched.

“Hi little bunny, I almost died for you,” Alice giggled at the rabbit. The rabbit, apparently startled, jumped off the hood and took off into the woods, “Well that was rude,” Alice huffed.

She opened her door and stumbled out. She was surprised to find that she was completely fine albeit a little woozy. Alice wandered into the woods, trailing playing cards in the breeze, looking for the little rabbit that had caused such a mess.

She walked through the woods, her dress snaring on twigs and brushes, until she stepped into a field of daisies. The flowers waved in the wind, creating a white vortex. Alice had a bout of vertigo, as if she were about to fall through the field. She thought curiously of the flowers that Matt would pull from his sleeves later at his magic show. She bent down to sniff one of the flowers, but as she got close, it chirped and flew away.

Alice stood back up and watched the white dove fly up and into a tree.

“Well. That was peculiar now wasn’t it?” Alice said dreamily to herself. Suddenly the white rabbit poked its head out from the flowers not far away and wiggled its ears. She was thrilled to see her little friend, for she felt attached to him after suffering a crash together, Alice began to run towards him.

As she ran through the flowers they erupted into flocks of white doves, fluttering and swiping at her face with their wings. The birds, or flowers because they were still shaped like daisies, swirled around her, buffering and batting at her with their wings. Alice screamed, trying to protect her face with her arms but still being battered roughly. She crashed to the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks. Laying on her back, staring at the sky of flying flowers, Alice felt very tired of all this silliness and very much wanted a nap. However, there was a rock sticking her in the back so she couldn’t stay there..
She fumbled around for a moment before she found a doorknob in the ground, this is what was poking her in the back. Perplexed, because the ground is a strange place for a doorknob, Alice turned the knob and the whole world opened up.

Alice found herself sitting at an enormous table, filled with tea pots and small snacks, in a huge rectangular garden. The garden must have been at least an acre of flowers, hedges and fruit trees, and the table filled almost every square foot that wasn’t taken up by a plant. Plants grew from holes in the table, like amoebas of life in a petri dish. Alice wasn’t even sitting at the edge of the table, in fact, she was sitting in the table. A small hole just large enough for her to sit or stand had been cut into the table and there she sat, trapped by a table. With nowhere to go she picked a small snack off of a nearby plate.

“Oh, I wouldn’t eat that one, my dear. I think the Cheshire dragged that in this morning,” a voice said from under the table. Alice squawked, dropped the tid-bit, and clamped her legs together. Matt, the magician she worked for, stuck his head out from the hole she sat in.

“Matt!” Alice shouted.

“Matt? Who’s Matt?” Matt asked.

“Well, well you are! Matt, the Mad-Hatter. You’re a magician,” Alice said the last word with enough contempt to make Matt appear hurt.
“Matt-Hadder? Mad-Hatter? Had-Matter? No it doesn’t matter,” Matt babbled, pulling his head back under the table. Alice could hear Matt scrabbling around under the table until he stood up inside another hole far on the other side of the garden.

“Hello!” he shouted, it sounded like he was away miles and miles away. Much farther than he even was. Alice noticed a number of other holes drilled into the table, many of them closer than the one Matt had picked.

“Why don’t you come closer?” Alice called back.

“Because this is my spot,” Matt shouted, pointing at his feet. Again, Alice could barely hear him. Alice roller her eyes, crouched down and began to crawl underneath the table towards Matt.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! You have a spot, you have a part to play, and you can’t just go changing that,” Matt screamed, running across the top of the table. Frightened, Alice backed away and stood up in her hole.

“What are you doing?” Alice screamed at the empty table, Matt was gone. Annoyed, Alice fell back into her chair, but she kept falling into a tunnel. She spun and toppled, end over end, through the darkness. A huge cat appeared in front of her, spinning to follow her face. It smiled, a full-fledged human mouth, and chuckled.

“Alice, where are you going?” the cat purred.

“Down, I suppose,” Alice said, watching the cat spin and turn as if it was swimming.

“Ah... well, down isn’t a very good choice. You’re heading for the Queen of Hearts’ castle,”

“So? What’s wrong with that?” Alice said, a feeling of dread creeping over her.

The cat laughed, and his head popped off. Alice recoiled violently, sending her into the side of the tunnel, which she tore right through. Alice, bedraggled and soaked, exploded out of a fountain with a scream and into the Queen of Hearts’ courtyard.

The Queen screamed, furious and startled, for someone to remove the head of the young lady who had just splashed water and koi fish all over the courtyard. However, nobody heard her over the rest of the shrieking. Alice sat up from her spot on the ground with her blonde hair plastered to her face.

The fish, angered by the sudden disruption to their lives, flopped across the courtyard and leaped back into the fountain. A tiny, little sparrow caught one of the fish, which was easily twice the bird’s size, and flew off with it screaming a victorious battle cry. Alice swept her hair off her face. The Cheshire cat’s head was rolling around the courtyard laughing maniacally, except it seemed no one else noticed.

Alice looked up into the face of the Queen- and gasped. Alice was looking up into her own face, a red tinted reflection.

“Who are you?” The Queen growled.

“Alice!” she squeaked, scooting away from the towering woman.

“And what are you doing here?” The Alice with the crown of hearts and the crimson dress seethed through her teeth.
“I was on my way to a magic show,”
“A magic show?”
“Ye-Yes, ma’am. But I hit a tree and then, um, I found some flowers that turned into birds when they were startled,” The crowd leaned in closer, straightening their straight ties and smoothing their smooth dresses. Alice saw the Queen getting angrier so she began to rush through her story.
“And then I met Matt, but he was crazy and he had a huge table in a garden. Well then I fell into a hole and the Cheshire cat asked where I was going. Then I erupted out of the fountain,” Alice blurted out in a rush. The crowd, under the scowl of their Queen, whispered, remembering the other stories that they had heard.
“We are actors. We are serious people, we do not care about your magic. It is silly. You are silly. Now, won’t someone chop her head off?” the Queen screamed.

Alice awoke, her heart beating against her chest, her breath coming in short puffs, and the machine next to her beeping in time with her heart.
“She’s awake; the coma has broken!”