So, I had to write a chapter for an imitation Alice book, and I rather liked it, so here it is. I don't think I'm going to write any more of it, but if I did I already know what would happen in the next few chapters. Any feedback would be nice. I might post something from one of my comics next.
Ta;
Aean
Chapter One
It was a rather musty place, and Alice had no desire to go there on such a hot, humid day. Besides, Alice had gotten a brand new pair of pink gloves for her birthday last week that she had wanted to wear to tea with Deirdre next door, who didn't have gloves that were half as nice. But Grandmother wanted "something new for the kitchen" and had taken Alice along as "a very special treat" but absolutely WITHOUT her gloves, so as not to get them dirty. So along Alice went, feeling very hot and cross, and determined to show this by being very silent and holding her chin raised high in a haughty fashion. Grandmother didn't seem to notice.
The little silver bell at the door to the junk shop tinkled as they walked in, and Alice immediately forgot how upset she was over her little gloves. There were simply piles and piles of curious things, and there wasn't nearly as much dust as she thought there would be. Grandmother went to talk with Miss Sybil at the counter as Alice wandered over to the trays of costume jewelry. It took her a minute before she realized that the bell at the door was still ringing, even though it most certainly should have stopped.
How very rude, Alice thought to herself. She turned to confront the bell: "You have gone on quite enough now—" When she saw that the bell, in fact, was still.
"Did you say something, dear?" Miss Sybil leaned over the counter to peer down at Alice. Her eyes were very large and very green, and her white hair looked even more untidy than usual next to neat little Grandmother.
Alice politely curtsied, feeling very embarrassed, since it was rather silly of her to be scolding the door-bell when it hadn't been doing anything wrong. "I had only thought the bell was ringing, ma'am. What is making that tinkling sound?"
"Oh, that must be my Aeolian harp. It's rather an eyesore, got it for a song at the estate sale. I put it up in the loft so I can tell when a draft gets in. Would you be a darling and goo stuff more rags into the upstairs window?"
Alice curtsied again and said she would. She had never seen an Aeolian harp, and was very curious to know what it was. Miss Sybil pointed to a wicker basket next to the staircase, which was simply spilling out scraps of cloth. Taking a bundle of them with her, Alice climbed the stairs towards the strange sound of the Harp.
Upstairs was much dimmer then downstairs, and was divided up into lots of little hallways by bookshelves that were full of all a manner of things. Alice walked through them, sure that she’d find the window easily if only she kept toward where the light seemed to be coming from, or where the noise of the harp seemed loudest. And it was quite louder here. As she walked, she looked about at the shelves, some of which were just filled with books, but also little statues and teakettles in between the tomes.
“This is a much larger room then I had thought,” Alice changed her grip on the pile of rags, which seemed to be getting heavier “otherwise I would have gotten to the other side by now! I wonder where the harp could be. Who is playing it? Perhaps it plays on it’s own, like a music box. It must be very small, if it’s on a windowsill. Or perhaps it is merely next to the window, and it is very large. I wonder if it is a very hideous thing, since Miss Sibyl said it was an eyesore. It must be quite a hideous thing, if it can make one’s eyes sore to look at it. I wonder if it shall frighten me?”
As she walked further and further into the room, the shelves seemed to get taller and taller, and their contents got stranger and stranger. Alice stopped to look at one, which simply towered high over her, that looked to be full of plants with long, curling fronds and thick, spiky tendrils.
“How very wonderful these are!” Alice dropped the rags, clapping her hands. “Oh, look at that darling little one!”
Alice reached up and tried to get at a little plant that seemed to be all curls, with tiny flowers like beads scattered on it. But it was only just too far, and Alice looked around for something to stand on. On the shelf behind her was a big tin box, which looked very solid. She brought it over to the shelf filled with plants and set it down. Standing on it, Alice found to her dismay that she had misjudged the height of the box, and she was still too far from the little plant. Alice hunted through the opposite shelf for another sturdy thing to climb on, and soon had found another box. This one was wood, and she set it on the tin one. But judging from this standpoint she thought it wasn’t high enough, so she went and got another box. And another and another. While she stacked, Alice hummed along with the little noises the harp as making. It sounds so close, Alice thought, I’m sure that it’s only around the bend ahead, and I can find it as soon as I’m done here.
Soon, Alice thought the boxes might be high enough to claim her prize. Climbing up, Alice found that she was almost there, but if she tried to grab the plant the poor thing might get knocked over, and all its soil would spill. Alice turned to climb down for another box, but to her great surprise the ground was quite further away then she had anticipated, and she sat, holding tightly onto the box, hoping she wouldn’t fall.
“Oh, what shall I do now?” Alice whimpered as she felt the boxes swaying underneath her. “And those poor rags—I’d forgotten I need to put them in the window! Just wait one moment, dears, and I’ll come down! Oh you wicked, pretty little thing!” Here Alice had turned to the plant, whose tendrils swayed in time with the stack of boxes. “Why did you keep moving away from me? I am almost sure you were on the third shelf before, and now you are most definitely on the eighth! Now you’ve distracted me and I’ll never get to go see an Aeolian harp.”
Alice was wondering again how to get back down to the rags on the floor so as to get back to the task she was charged with when she realized something was hanging from her foot. She looked over, and saw that one of the rags had gotten caught on her shoe. Moving gingerly, she grabbed at the cloth and held it tight in her hand.
“Did you come to try and rescue me? That was very thoughtful of you. Unfortunately I don’t see how—Oh!” Alice saw that the rags had become tangles into a lot of knots, and that it was almost like a rope, but with lots of extra ends, like an upside-down tree. “Well, I think I can climb down a bit more easily now, thank you very much.” Alice then curtsied as best as she could while lying on her stomach, which wasn’t a very good one at all.
By catching the end of the rag on the corner of the box, Alice secured the rag rope enough to use it to steady her self as she climbed down. She hadn’t gotten very far when she came to the end of the rope, and wasn’t even halfway down the stack of boxes.
“Oh dear! I must have climbed down the wrong branch!” Alice looked down, clinging to the rope and the boxes. “I do hope Grandma doesn’t come up and see me, she hates it when I climb trees. I hope there is no tree sap on my dress!”
She looked around, thinking that something on the shelves might help her. Fairly close by was a very thick vine hanging down from the shelves that seemed to reach almost all the way to the floor. Alice was a bit doubtful, but if she could jump, she could reach the vine. “Oh, but I must take these rags with me,” Alice looked up at the rope “because if I get to the harp and I find the window, I will need the rags to stuff it with.”
Alice tugged at the rags and loosed them from the corner of the box, and the end of the rope fell into her hands. She looked at the vine
closed her eyes
and
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>jumped
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>to the other side.
Post a Comment