The Mad Alice

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

Chapter 3- Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

Alice sat in her room with her kitty, Dinah, gently petting her. Gracefully, Alice tied a pink bow around the cute cat's neck. As the kitten rubbed against her, her mind began to run wild again. Since her mother wouldn't listen whenever she spoke of Wonderland, she began to talk to Dinah about it. There was no way Alice could experience so many wondrous things and just keep it bottled up tight inside her. She had to tell someone about her adventures after she fell in the hole even if it was to a cat.

"Dinah, you're a very good listener unlike that Cheshire Cat. All he does is confuse me. That night we went out and stargazed, I saw the Cheshire Cat, but nobody believes me. My parents just think it's 'nonsense'." The thoughtful girl in the blue dress paused a few moment to ponder on different things while she continued to pet the loving kitten until something occurred to her, "That's it, Dinah! If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?!"

In response, Dinah gives a small meow.

"Oh, but you would! You'd be just like people, Dinah, and all the other animals, too. Why, in my world... Cats and rabbits, would reside in fancy little houses, and be dressed in shoes and hats and trousers. In a world of my own. All the flowers would have very extra special powers, they would sit and talk to me for hours, when I'm lonely in a world of my own. There'd be new birds, lots of nice and friendly how-de-do birds, everyone would have a dozen bluebirds, within that world of my own. I could listen to a babbling brook and hear a song, that I could understand. Why... it'd be just like Wonderland! That's it, Dinah! My world is Wonderland!"

Suddenly, Alice's obnoxious twin brothers ran into her room, making her jump. "Tag you're it!" One yelled before they both ran out of her room and out the door to the garden with Alice right behind them. When Alice stepped out of her house and into the blooming garden, almost instantly she saw the white rabbit dash into the woods as the twins scampered off into the woods as well.

"I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!"

Without even noticing her brothers, she fled from the garden and weaved through trees, focusing on the rabbit in the waistcoat. Suddenly, the White Rabbit took an unexpected sharp turn, and when Alice followed that direction, he was gone.

"Mister Rabbit! Oh, mister Rabbit! Oh dear, I'm sure he came this way. Do you suppose he could be hiding?" she talked to herself as she peeked around in different possible hiding places. "Hmmm... not here. I wonder... No, I suppose he must have... Oh!" When Alice peeked in a nearby hollow log, she found her twin brothers, but her blue eyes didn't see them as her wild siblings. She saw them as peculiar people that she met in Wonderland. "Why, what peculiar little figures! Tweedle Dee... and Tweedle Dum!"

"What?" one twin said as he crawled out from the log.

"Did she just call me 'dumb'?" the other said.

"Why don't you remember me? Alice? We met in Wonderland. I was searching for a White Rabbit when we met." She said, a bit saddened that Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum didn't remember her.

After Tweedle Dum climbed out of the log, they both looked at each other, concerned and confused, "Mum did tell us if she mentioned Wonderland that we should tell her..."

"Do you think Alice is having another one of her 'spells' as Father calls them?"

"Definitely."

Alice slowly took another step towards her brothers, "Are okay Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum? You were much more energetic and crazy last time I saw you two."

"Alice, what are you talking about?"

"Don't you remember Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?"

"Yeah, we better get Mum."

With that, the boys grabbed Alice's hands and led her out of the woods and back to the house. As soon as the boys entered the house, Alice's mother noticed all the dirt on their clothes, "Boys, get out of my clean house with your filthy shoes and clothes! What have I told you about that?"

"What are you doing Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?" Alice asked. When her mother heard her words, she stopped griping at the boys and stared at her confused daughter.

"She keeps calling us that!"

"And she said that she met 'Tiddle Dee and Tiddle Dumb' at Wonderland."

"Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum!" Alice corrects him.

Her mother was always angry or upset at Alice's spells, but this was the first time that she was really concerned. While the other spells were just childish, this one was different. Alice was mistaking her own siblings for some weird people in Wonderland that she supposedly met. Her mother didn't know if this was some cruel joke from Alice or if she was serious, and according to Alice's facial expressions, she was serious. The baffled and confused look on Alice's face really began to worry her mother.

"Alice... those are your brothers..." her mother replied gently.

"What? No, they aren't."

"Boys, step outside and wait for me to come out so we can get you cleaned up..." Once the twins stepped out, the worrisome mother continued, "Alice, who is Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?"

"They're those weird twins that babble the weirdest and the most peculiar things!" Alice said with a giggle.

"Alice, they aren't Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Those are your younger twin brothers."

"What?"

Not knowing what to do, her mother decided to just discuss this odd situation with her husband once he returned home. "Never mind, Alice. Go play with Dinah." Alice skipped off to her room, leaving her mother alone.

What is wrong with her? Alice's mother thought. How could she mistake her brothers for some people she made up in her head?