Down The Rabbit Hole

Birds, Bees, Flowers, Trees

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Allie couldn't think of what to say (the smoke was dimming her wits) but was properly ashamed at how she was acting, and bowed to the Caterpillar "I am terribly sorry sir, I didn't mean to stare, it's just that I have never seen a costume as elaborate and realistic as yours!"

Apparently that was not the thing to say because at her words the Caterpillar tinged radiant red and seemed to grow and expand and rise to his (many) feet.  "I CAN NOT grant you passage yet! You HAVE NOT opened your mind enough yet!"  And with that he shed his body becoming a blinding golden light and Allie staggered back as a wave of spicy green smoke rushed over her.  She tripped over a smaller toad stool and ended up falling back as the bright light rose up into the sky and she was transfixed with the cosmos opening up before her, sparkling with a million stars.  How had she not noticed the incredible open sky before? She pondered this as she seemed to fall backwards the span of a millennia and everything seemed to grow larger and more intense around her.  Closing her eyes from her dizziness, she just let herself go to the inevitable, a hard landing.  

Bracing herself for impact, but instead of a hard ground, she softly landed into a poof a feathers, which scattered into the air around her, floating away.  Still dazed and not thinking quite straight, Allie slowly sat up to look around her.  She wasn't quite sure what she was staring at because it seemed too incredulous.  But piecing it together, she came to the conclusion that she was in a humongous bird's nest with speckled eggs the size of her whole body.  Just then, an enormous Bird (presumably the mommy) came fluttering up to the nest with snake size wriggling worms in her beak.  To say Allie was a bit freaked out at this point, would be an understatement, but her brain was still super fuzzy and her body seemed to be responding very sluggishly.  When she finally managed to shift her legs, the Bird's beady eyes seemed to snap over to Allie.  Fear flooded her body as the Bird pecked quickly at her with her beak and Allie found herself being lifted out of the nest and being lifted up into the air as the momma Bird took flight.  

Then the Bird fluttered down to a flower? (how did this room have live flowers) and dropped Allie onto the petals.  Then the Bird flew off again and Allie was left shivering in fear on the top of a ginormous daisy.  Slowly the shaking stopped as she started acclimating to this new location.  Standing up she gazed out from this flower and realized there were thousands of flowers spread around her like a huge meadow.  Feeling a bit fazed and overwhelmed, she sunk back to her knees, wondering how she was going to find Louis in all of this.  But her sulk was suddenly interrupted when a huge buzzing sound drowned out her ears and she could literally feel the vibrations through her whole body.  Startled she jumped back as a huge Bee came buzzing right at her flower!   And once again she fell backwards as she slipped off the petal.  But this time the fall wasn't as far.  And she landed in a patch of clover.  As she looked up she saw the daisy towering over her, large dark green shag carpet piles sprouting up around her when she realized just how small she had become.  The toad stools were like mountains throughout this weird jungle she found herself in.  

Completely overwhelmed, she found herself too tired to get up from this comfy clover patch she had tumbled upon.  Past the flowers, and the mountainous toad stools, Allie could still see the massive night sky with all its twinkling stars.  It gave her a sense of peace and familiarity, because all through her life of moving from foster home to foster home, not ever really fitting in, not ever really connecting with anyone, she would find the most comfort and hope, looking up at the night sky.  Her favorite thing to do after a tiring, long day, was to grab her blankets, pillows, and sleeping bag.  Then go outside, lay down and bundle up to stare at the cosmos.  There were times when she would drift off, and wake up startled to the early morning sunrise.  

Allie's life had been very lonely, but not necessarily hard or hurtful.  Even though she was never adopted, and had been bounced around to different foster homes since she was left as a baby at the front doors of a small town orphanage, the lack of connection with anyone was mutual.  When she was ten, Cheshire, a spunky calico kitten came waltzing into her life on her 10th birthday, and it was on a night when she was gazing at the stars.  She was fantasizing with hope at the vast galaxy that it might be possible her true parents were out there somewhere, or there was more to her story than just a mundane foster kid meandering through life.  Just when tears were starting to pool in her eyes, the brave little kitten pranced up to her and settled his warm and purring little body on her chest, warming her heart.  

Then when she met Dino and Louis at community college, she was no longer without friends, because for some reason, they were just as uncomfortable with people as she was.   As if a thought bubble went floating by her and popped, she jumped up remembering that Dino was still sleeping away, waiting for her to continue her 'tour' (although it was beginning to feel like a journey now) of the club. She bumped into stem of the daisy she had been deposited on by the momma bird, and all of a sudden heard a voice from the top.  "Are you ready to continue the journey?"

The familiar tenor voice made her look up startled, but instead of the Caterpillar that she was expecting, she was looking into the gaze of a brilliant dazzling orange/yellow butterfly!  Warm heat was wafting over her as the Butterfly fanned his wings.  She nodded in dazzlement.  

"Then take this to help you along your way.  Not every thing is at it seems here and time and space and size have little meaning here."  He finished by dropping a leather bag as big as Allie, next to her and flew off.  Looking over at the "pouch", it had a long leather loop attached to it and she went over to open the drawstring opening.  A strong whiff of scents came drifting out to her from inside.  Hot cinnamon, that spicy aroma that had been haunting her all night, and a confounding scent of fresh baked biscuits.  When she reached in, she found a biscuit the size of a cake in there.  She pulled it out and inhaled its delicious aroma.  She couldn't help herself, she was a bit hungry (indeed suddenly becoming ravenous) and so she took a generous bite of the biscuit and felt a rushing sensation as it felt like she was rising extremely fast into the sky.  As she looked down, she could see her white Mary Jane heels get smaller and smaller. Gasping she realized that she was growing rapidly, and the open sky was shrinking at an alarming pace. Just when she reached her arms up to keep from crashing into the ceiling/sky, her body stopped.  

Feeling an intense head rush from that ascent, she brought her arms down and surveyed the room around her.  The toadstools that were just a second ago mountainous to her, were all of the sudden just as small as they would be to her in nature.  She could most likely squash them if she wasn't careful.  Sighing, she looked down near her feet and picked up the pouch that was now no larger than the palm of her hand.  She noticed that she was still holding the biscuit in her other hand and realized it was no longer cake size but quarter size now.  She looked in the bag once more and pulled out another biscuit.  Just taking a nibble this time, she felt her body start to shrink, but this time it was only a little ways and the biscuit became the respectable normal biscuit size in her hand.  She felt a tad better at this little sense of normality and put the two biscuits away in the pouch, then hung it from her neck.  

Gaining her bearings, she glanced around and found herself in the lounge at normal size again, from what felt an eternity ago.  Looking to her left she saw the bar, but Jane and Mary had left, it seemed.  Then she was able to look towards the back of the room, which before had been thick with green smoke, but now it was dissipating.  Probably because the Caterpillar wasn't smoking after he morphed and flew away.  There behind where he was sitting, an archway appeared.  She walked towards it, wondering where it would take her next.