The Mad Alice

The Talking Flowers

Chapter 4- The Talking Flowers

Alice helped her mother in the garden as they usually do once a week. In Alice's family, their flowers and shrubbery are very important. In fact, they frequently won garden awards which made all those afternoons in the blazing sun all worth it. Her mother took a lot of pride in her yard work; it was always exquisite.

This particular day, it was way hotter than usual which meant big hats for shade and extra ice in their glasses of lemonade. Bees, butterflies, and dragonflies flew all around the flowers excitedly while Alice's mum pulled weeds and her daughter watered the blooming roses, irises, daisies, tulips, lilies, dandelions, and pansies.

A certain yellowish butterfly fluttered by Alice, snatching her attention, "Look at this butterfly, Mum. Its wings look like two slices of bread. Why curious butterflies!"

Her mother peeks over her shoulder and laughs at Alice's comparison of the butterfly to bread, "A bread-and-butterfly!"

Alice giggles at her mother's humor, "Oh, yes, of course." A fat horse fly buzzes by and Alice continues with the puns, "Ah, a horse fly! I mean, a- a rocking horse fly!" With a light laugh, her mother turns back to continue pulling the nasty weeds.

As Alice waters the roses, she hears a different voice coming from the flowers say, "Naturally!"

She couldn't believe her eyes, but Alice has seen and experienced some crazy experiences lately so she had no reason to not believe them. In all honesty, she should have never fall for her eyes fibs and her ears white lies because her eyes and ears bent to the sick will of her brain--who made her schizophrenia come alive.

"I beg your pardon, but uhh... did you... oh, that's nonsense. Flowers can't talk."

"But of course we can talk, my dear," the rose spoke.

"If there's anyone worth talking t," shouted an iris.

Then the daisy broke in, "Or about!"

"And we sing!" A pansy said.

Alice knitted her eyebrows, "You do?"

A group of tulips replied, "Oh, yes. Would you like to hear 'Tell it to the tulips'?"

Another group of flowers shouted at the tulips, "No, let's sing about us!"

"We know one about the shy little violets..." All violets said.

"Oh, no, not that old thing!"

"Let's do 'Lovely lily at the valley'!" A lily yelled.

"How about the daisies in the..."

"Oh, she wouldn't like that!"

"Girls, girls!" A rose said, quietening all of the other flowers, "We shall sing: 'Golden Afternoon'. That's about all of us!"

All the flowers serenaded Alice with their charming voices; all of them formed a lovely harmony. Softly, Alice began to sing with them and a smile appeared on her face. When the song finished, Alice was very impressed, "Oh, that was lovely."

The mother thought her daughter's singing was beautiful music to her ears, "That was very lovely, Alice."

"Thank you, Mother. The flowers helped me." Without applying much thought on Alice's words, her mother continued on with her yard work, humming the tune.

"What kind of garden do you come from?" A pretty daisy asked.

The young girl shrugged her shoulders, "Well I don't come from any garden..."

"Do you suppose she's a wild flower?"

"Oh no, I am no wild flower..."

"Well," a rose curiously asked Alice, "what specie, or shall we say, genus, are you, my dear?"

"I suppose you can call me a genus, humanus, eh... Alice!"

"Ever seen an Alice with a blossom like that?" A daisy asked.

"Did you notice her petals? What a peculiar color!" Another daisy commented, her leaf gesturing to Alice's blue dress.

"And no fragrance!" An iris stated.

"Haha, just look at those stems! Rather scrawny, I'd say."

A tiny rose bud interrupted the other flowers strident remarks, "I think she's pretty!"

"Quiet, bud." Another flower hissed.

"But I'm not a flower," Alice informed them, saddened at their snide comments.

"Just as I suspected; she's nothing but a common mobile vulgaris."

"Excuse me, a common what?" Alice said with a bit of frustration in her voice.

"To put it bluntly, a weed."

"I am no weed," the small girl shouted at them.

"Don't let her stay here and go to seed!"

"Go on now!"

"Move along! Move along!"

"We don't want weeds in our bed!"

Alice's face turned a bright shade of red, almost as red as a rose. The flowers looked so pretty and she always admired them in the past, but now, she didn't even want to be outside anymore. Their pestering got under her skin, and she stomped away grumbling, "Oh, all right, if that's the way you feel about it. I could pick every one of you if I wanted to! That'd teach you. You can learn a lot of things from the flowers... Huh! Seems to me they could learn a few things about manners..." Out of pure frustration, Alice's blue eyes filled with big tears.

Her mother, who had watched Alice speaking to the flowers, gently approached her. In an attempt to comfort her daughter, she bent down to her level and placed her hands on Alice's shoulders, "Are you okay, Alice? What happened, dear?" Even though she asked what had happened, she had an idea it had to be Wonderland related.

Alice immediately hugged her mother and her tears began to fall, "The flowers were mocking me! They said I was a weed..."

"Oh, darling, flowers can't talk." Mother said while caressing Alice's blonde hair.

"But they do, Mother. They really do! They were teasing me. Never have I ever experienced such rude manners..." Alice mumbled through tears.

"Alice, flowers do not talk..."

"Yes, they do. They talk just like us."

While more tears were being shed, the mum's mind was racing. Besides telling Alice this is all nonsense, she decided to go along with it for now. Last time Alice had a 'spell', she discussed her concerns to her husband. They agreed that whatever has been happening to their daughter is getting really out-of-hand, but she knew, at this point, they should consider ways they can put this crazy, mad Wonderland ordeal to rest. This is starting to affect her daughter more and more to the point where it's making her uncomfortable.

Little did she know about the mental illness that is holding her daughter hostage...