In Another Wonderland

READ THE PREVIOUS POST FIRST!

A short story, by Flynn (aka N.T.C.):

Breathe in. Breathe out. Slowly. In and out...
She chanted it like a mantra, meditating away the hubbub of the other students on the bus until it became one low, rumbling hum. She had had this migraine for the last six hours, at least.

After waking up at 5 a.m. with the beginnings of hay fever, after finding out about the forgotten maths test next period, after realising that she’d left her CD in her locker, and running back up the stairs to get it, then running back down to catch her almost departed bus back home, Shelley was exhausted. She slowly breathed out a sigh, letting it run down her chin and past her neck, gently rolling over her burdened shoulders, letting her mind gently sway past the thought that her English assignment had gotten soaked to the point of no repair right before it was due. Shelley slugged her backpack off her shoulder and onto her lap, leaning her head on it to ease the pain she felt. The bus rocked none too gently, but it was all she needed to lull her into an exhausted slumber.

The crick in her neck only got worse when she tried to lift her head. “Where am I?” Shelley thought, then as realisation dawned, “Oh no.” Shelley was still on the bus, and she had missed her stop, but not by much. She would have to walk an extra ten minutes, but that was better than having to call home. Hoisting her weathered backpack onto her shoulders, she noticed the big, wet spot it had left on the front of her skirt. Something had leaked in her bag. She sprang from the sandpaper steps, and slowly trudged her way uphill and into the local library- she didn’t need to be home for another couple of hours, so she might as well try to lift her spirits in her place of sanctuary. She stepped inside and immediately felt comforted…

The library was much bigger than she remembered, and so much noisier. She could barely hear herself think above the din, tucked away as she was in her little corner. Her favourite book “Alice in Wonderland” lay open on her lap. She tried hard to block out the all the clamour, but it was hard. A gloved hand tapped on her shoulder. Shelley turned in time to see the most amazing sight. A white rabbit asked her in a rushed voice, “Look at the time. Oh my! I’m late! I’m late!” and he was off before Shelley could attempt to guess what had just occurred. Curiosity took the better of her and Shelley ran after the hasty rabbit, but stopped with a jolt at the sight that met her. No wonder there was so much bustle and noise inside.
As Shelley walked through the Non-fiction section, she heard snippets of Einstein’s lecture on relativity, and Neil Armstrong discuss his experiences on the moon, while at the adult fiction section, Count Dracula constantly shifted from bat to ghostly man. As she tried to pass through, Captain Ahab chased his elusive Moby Dick and nearly drowned her in the process. “Hey! This is dangerous!” Shelley tried to shout, but the sea’s roar was too loud. She quickly swam her way past and sought comfort in the Shakespeare shelf. Once there, she became privy to the prophecy of the three witches from MacBeth, but wanted to see no more, as the acrid stench from their cauldron twined its way into her nose. They turned suddenly, eyes glowing an iridescent green, so frightful that she almost bolted away, but managed to just slip away slowly.

Finally, Shelley made her way back to the children’s fiction section, thinking she would be safe from harm there. Almost instantly, she was pulled into a game of merry-go-round. She gently pulled away, giving her apologies to Cinderella, Humpty-Dumpty, Goldilocks and a variety of other characters. She had almost settled down again in her corner, when the librarian shouted that it was closing time. With a sigh of relief as well as slight disappointment, Shelley prepared to leave the library- she just needed to borrow that one book. “Hello,” she smiled at the librarian, “I’d like to get this book out please.”
“You’d like to do what?” the librarian began to laugh. Shelley thought that perhaps he was laughing at her soaked and dishevelled appearance.
“I’d like to borrow this book, please.” She repeated, gathering as much dignity in her stance as she could manage.
Another librarian appeared behind the counter, “What’s going on here?”
“It wants to borrow a book,” he chuckled.
“Oh dear, don’t laugh. This is a serious problem. Dr. Hayden warned us that sometimes the characters might contract Artificial Intelligence Memory Relapse. Help me get her inside, we need to give her the injection.”
Shelley had no clue as to what they were talking about, but she did start to sweat when they came towards her with something that looked like shackles. While one of them grabbed her arms and the other tried to tie them together, Shelley flailed and tried to kick, “Let go of me, you, you….”
“It’ll all be fine soon Alice.” All too late, Shelley realised who, or rather what, they thought she was.
“I’m not one of your characters! Please! You have to listen- my name is Shelley Hennessey, and I just came to relax for a while in the library. I’m just a regular kid from school. Look- look, my uniform”- Shelley looked down at her clothes. She knew she was wearing a checked navy skirt and a plain white shirt. But what she saw instead was a pale blue summer dress with a white collar.
“Think again girlie.”
“I’m not a character! I’m not Alice! I’m not!”
“Oh yeah- then what’s that on your hand?” The lady pointed to a barcode stamped on the back of both hands. “Come with us now.” They dragged her into the dark room.
“NOOOOOO…”

She jerked her head up despite her aching back and neck. Where was she? Shelley glanced this way and that, looking for the librarians, but there was nobody around. Shelley checked her hands- no barcodes. Whew! She looked down at herself. Shelley had never been so happy to see her stained shirt and wet skirt- she was herself, still the same old short redhead with freckles, braces and a pair of huge glasses. Oh no, her glasses, where were her glasses? She began searching through her bag when the librarian called out that it was closing time.
“Drat,” she cursed quietly, Mum would kill her for losing her glasses again. And as though conjured by though, Shelley’s mum appeared in the library, searching for her no doubt.
“Mum!” Shelley called out, “Thanks for coming, I’ve had a really rough day and the wildest dream…”

THE END

Recognise the story, Emu?
And what say you, the rest of my mateys??