“Alice,” he breathed, taken by astonishment. “That’s her. She looks just like her.”
He couldn’t let this woman out of his sight. He had to talk to her. Not paying attention, Maddox kicked the edge of a display table covered with teacups staggered on separate stands. The entire display trembled, the china tinkling. Heat flamed in his cheeks. Patrons glanced in his direction. Maddox waved to them and then righted himself, only to knock down a decorative, black teapot that sat too close to the table’s edge. He lunged for it, but too late, the teapot shattered on the floor.
People nearby gaped at him. Great. That was just what he needed—for anyone who might recognize him to see the park’s owner making a fool of himself. Hurriedly, he spun around and signaled for the nearest employee.
“Sorry about this, Clark,” he said, reading the young man’s nametag. He couldn’t possibly know everyone who worked for him. “This was my fault. Can you get that cleaned up?”
“I—sure…” Clark said, but Maddox didn’t stay to finish their conversation. Quickly, he scoured the shop for a sign of what rabbit hole the woman—the perfect Alice—had disappeared down, but his heart dropped. The shop’s bell tinkled, and in a flash of blonde hair, she was gone.
***
“I’m starting to think there is no rabbit,” Adelie overheard one frustrated patron mutter to another as she took a stuffed rabbit to the nearest cash register.
Adelie had to say she agreed with the woman. She and Suzie had been here for hours and still had barely managed to find the fourth clue. “How many clues were there?” she wondered aloud.
She’d paused to admire a charming lamp with dripping beads along its shade when the sound of crashing porcelain startled her. People had clustered near the scene of the crime. Adelie spotted Suzie immediately and ushered her toward the exit. The last thing they needed was for the employees to think either of them had been the culprit for the crash.
Out in the sun once more, she could see many patrons still examining their clues. Others, however, seemed to be enjoying themselves, not caring about the prize at all—pushing strollers, buying treats for their children, and laughing in the spring sunlight.
“Tell me again what the next one said,” Suzie said as she ambled along beside Adelie. She’d stopped to inspect and admire a squat building labeled The Duchess's House. A cross-looking woman holding a baby could be seen through the window, and the Cheshire Cat smiled and blinked in and out of view from behind a tree.
It didn’t matter what others said, Adelie had always thought he was creepy.
She pulled up the last clue they’d gotten after the Pool of Tears. The water ride’s inflatable boats carried them over rapids and around treacherous rocks, surrounded by mice and birds. Her shoes and shirt were still wet, and the chilly March air didn’t help. The snow had melted mostly everywhere, but it was still cold.
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” she repeated. “Ugh, this is maddening. Even Lewis Carroll said there was no answer to that riddle. How are we supposed to find one?”
“Don’t you love that we share a last name with him?” Despite her pronouncement to find the rabbit, Suzie seemed oblivious that they’d made absolutely no progress.
“It’s not his real last name,” Adelie said, exasperated, trying to think things through, to see where others might be heading. If they didn’t at least try, this whole day would all have been for nothing.
“What if it’s not in reference to a ride this time?” Suzie suggested.
“What do you mean? They’ve all referred to rides.”
“You’ve read the book,” Suzie said. “What does that line have to do with anything?”
Adelie considered her sister’s question. The instruction on their pamphlet did imply not every clue would lead to a ride. If not a ride, then where?
“In the book, the riddle is said by just another crazy character while Alice is having tea at the March Hare’s house.”
“Then we go to the March Hare’s house.” Suzie declared this as if this was the simplest thing in the world.
Adelie pulled up the map. “You know, that’s not a bad idea.” Too bad everyone else who’d already gotten the clue was probably there too. Whoever had thought this whole scheme up needed to be shaken.
“It’s this way,” Adelie said as the mechanized Cheshire Cat reappeared from behind his tree and rolled his eyes at her.
Holding hands to stay together through the thick masses, the two sisters passed a robotic man dressed in a caterpillar suit on a large mushroom, holding a hookah and shouting out dizzy commands.
“The rabbit will be released at half-past ten. You’ll have the day to find him, though you’ll need more than time if you want to catch him. You’ll never catch him. I never said you would.”
People moseyed along, some stopping to admire a large waterfall. Others gathered at kiosks for breadsticks or corn on the cob. Workers swept the pave stones, collecting bits of garbage and fallen popcorn.
A thickset, cartoonish house came into view. Its thatched roof was interrupted by pointed bunny ears sticking straight up out of the rooftop. A sign with a caricature Alice holding a teacup labeled it, “March Hare's Mad House. Keep your wits about you.”
Throngs milled, stepping into the oddly shaped front doors and into apparent darkness beyond. Brief spurts and short shrieks of laughter escaped with each entry. Inwardly, Adelie dug in her heels. Whatever was going on in there, she wanted no part in it. Someone had to be the spoilsport. Might as well be her.
She pivoted, taking in the long, curved, fiberglass table situated in the March Hare’s front yard behind a low, white fence. The table was bright blue, its sides striped like a barbershop pole. Teacups of every size and shape littered the curved surface, and a mechanical dormouse appeared to reside in the centermost mug, popping in and out with crazy eyes and spouting out, “Twinkle, twinkle little rat.”
“It doesn’t look like a ride,” Adelie said suspiciously.
“Maybe it’s not one,” Suzie replied. “Maybe it’s a walkthrough and we’ll find the rabbit inside.”
Another cutesy sign, which gathered giant, fiberglass mushrooms at its base, read, Stuff and Nonsense. Don't believe anything you see within. If you get lost, just wait a while. The way out will come back to you.
“Sounds promising,” Suzie said. “It’s like a funhouse.”
It sounded like anything but fun. Had whoever crafted this hunt put the rabbit in there? Was that why no one had found it yet? She glanced around, settling on a decision. This would be their last stop. If they didn’t find the rabbit in there, they weren’t going to find it anywhere.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Poor bunny,” Adelie said. “It’s probably scared to death being hunted by all these people.”
“It’s a rabbit. It doesn’t care.” Suzie stepped onto the cartoonish path toward the door and paused to peer back. “You coming in?”
There was no point. With all these people? The weird clues? This entire situation was a ploy. Like the lottery, the likelihood of winning, of finding this supposed rabbit, were slim to none.