“Why did the
chicken cross the road?”
Colonel
Harland Sanders*
Went to my
writer's club today. It was very fun and we critiqued another writers
work. You learn a lot by analyzing others work. Learning from other
people's mistakes is good, but also what is even better is learning
from what other people are doing right. I critiqued two stories today
with the rest of the club.
Anyway onto the
flash fiction!
The Other
Alice and The Other White Rabbit
Once a long
time ago a girl went after a white rabbit into Wonderland. This story
isn't about that Alice or that rabbit. This is about a different pair
of individuals. Still an Alice and still a living, breathing, talking
white rabbit. But a whole different kind of Wonderland that didn't
come from her following it down a rabbit hole.
And the rabbit
wasn't late. It was brought to the girl as a pet as a birthday
present. And it was on the birthday she got it that she learned it
could talk. When she learned it could freeze time with a spell and
shrink her down to its size in her bedroom and that's where she
entered this rabbits Wonderland. The rabbit could cast spells with a
few flicks of its little fluffy wrists and a few words here and
there. It would change the room to whatever it wanted it to be.
On the first
night with the rabbit it gave her its name, “Clock”. It then
taught her a quick little spell to make a single little snowflake
come from out of your palm. It didn't matter if you had a human hand
or a furry one like the rabbit.
The rabbit made
the girl promise she would never tell anyone about it because it
didn't want to be in danger by being discovered. He told her also not
cast magic outside of the room. She didn't because not only was Alice
raised to be an honest girl, she was a smart girl. She didn't need to
be told what would happen if people knew there was such a thing as a
magical rabbit to fight over.
Each night the
white rabbit would freeze time, change her room, give her a few magic
lessons and when the girl got tired unfroze time and sent her off to
bed. She learned more and more magic each day as she grew older and
older.
“Some of
these days I think you're just a dream Clock,” Alice said to the
white rabbit in the middle of a summer day while her parents were
away. At this time she was a teenager. Not ten like when she got the
rabbit. “I only speak to you at night. Sometimes I think I just
already went to bed.”
“I assure you
I am no dream.” Clock flicked his whiskers. Alice was shocked. This
was the first time the rabbit spoke outside of nighttime. “And now
I think you are practiced and responsible enough to cast magic
outside of the room. I have sensed you do it on your own. Usually
apprentices I take on try to do it on their own despite my asking but
you have kept your promise.”
“You've had
other students?” Alice knelt to look into the rabbits eyes.
Normally the rabbit would shrink her to make them able to maintain
eye contact as it stood on its hind legs. “But my parents bought
you when you were only one year old according to the pet shop owner.”
“Oh that pet
shop owner has been selling me to children to kids as pets for a very
long time, when I was 'only one year old'. I have been teaching
children magic for a hundreds of years in hundreds of times... even
in the future and multiple points in the present. You've already seen
I've got the power to manipulate time.”
Alice then
asked the rabbit, “Why did you teach me magic? For so long I
thought it was just to spend time with me.”
The rabbit
laughed a squeaky laugh. “I do care about the children I teach. But
my true goal is to make it so that you can go out into the world and
use magic yourself and help the world. Most of those odd coincidences
in the world that make it a better place and those blessings that
come at the best of times are my students. Now I think your ready to
start practicing it with me in the real world. In a few more years
I'm going to have to run off. Your family and friends won't believe
me living forever and eventually I need to move on to other students.
Even my time manipulation magic has its magic has its limits and I
can only spread myself so far. And eventually you need to go on your
own and help the world just like my other students.”
“But I'll
miss you.” Alice started crying with a few tiny tears.
“Yes, but I'm
confident you'll be one of my best students. Besides there are still
a few more years of lessons for me to teach. Even then I will send
you letters. They will come to you in envelopes as white as my fur
and with my name written as W. R. Clock.”
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