Chapter 2

Mabel.

” But not everyone is a sailor right? I mean … ” Alice scratches the floor with her foot, pondering.

She looks up , searching Dr Nox eyes for something – Or at least she thinks it’s something of a thing.

“Not everyone has to become a sailor right? “

Dr Nox smiles. The afternoon breeze had just flooded in, and as if affected by the depressing weather outside the rabbit hole, sinks close to their feet.

“i don’t know. what do you think? After all you live more years outside the rabbit hole than i have? ” He teased.

Alice didn’t know. For one, she lived only 10 years outside the rabbit hole and if she knew her months well, it was only a few months before it will be her 11th. But down in the rabbit hole, enclosed in the home ( or Cave, as Dr Nox calls it) of Dr Nox, she knew nothing of how to find the answer to -ironically- her own question.

“But Dr Nox, surely you have the answer? ” Alice pleads, her curiousity about to get the better of her.

Dr Nox eyes twinkled. Even in the midst of almost darkness, his dark olive eyes sparkle like emeralds – A reflection of the candle flames that stood nearby.

” Follow the shadows Alice, and you will find the answer.” Dr Nox calmly says, before ushering himself into his own bedroom, and slitting the lock – Like he always did, when he felt troubled.

Alice felt upset. The shadows? What was he implying?

Alice gaze towards the candles , and then to her own shadow that was cast behind her.
She makes a spin, and her shadow remains there – How funny, isn’t a shadow suppose to follow?

Maybe she wasn’t fast enough to catch what the shadow was doing.

” OR maybe the shadow wasn’t fast enough to catch what you were doing.”

” Who’s there?” Alice enquires. She wasn’t afraid- at least not yet- afterall the Rabbit Hole was full of suprises.

“Come out, come out whereever you are.
OR follow the shadows as another had told,
You could dance and pound for them,
and perhaps if you could, allow them to tell you a story;
I bid you that that story is haunting,
for many like the planet-man would have cried upon listening,
so come out , come out – little girl do not – whereever you are -
The shadows will only dance for you.”

The voice she heard had break into a song. Alice felt her knees quiver. What a scary voice.
She needed to get out of this cave. Yes. She did. The echoes that came after the song were unbearable, it was as if she was drowning – drowning in sounds.

——-

A burst of light came. Alice had to cover her eyes for a moment.
“Where.. where .. am i .” Alice mumbles.

” You are in my humbled abode.” The voice rang again, now louder and it was almost as if that voice came from just right in front of her.
Alice peers.

“OH DEAR MY!” Alice tumbles backwards. A stranger , no bigger than a few feet tall was just right in front of her.

“Hello.” says the stranger.

“Who, are you?” Alice enquires hesistantly.

“Why, i’m Mabel! And good choice you have made back there. Good choice. Obviously the shadows would not talk like me.”
The stranger gave a hissing laugh.

“I didn’t make any, i just was frightened . ” Alice was embarassed. She was never scared of anything, not even of the Queen.

“Ah. that’s not of your choice to decide in making one isn’t it?” Mabel clasped her gloves hands.

And as if time had stopped, Mabel froze, her bright yellow eyes gazing into Alice – or more like gazing at her soul.

“Stop looking at me like that! “Alice cried. “You are scaring me!”

Alice quickly retreated into the woods nearby, frightened.

” Dr Nox ask for my help and i shall assist him. Afterall, a scientist never has not experimented, and i for one, am hes most successful yet.” The voice paused, as if contemplating.

“Yet, i shall not beckon you if you fear so much as of your own fear that you can’t even see me as another companion in your voyage – I could only bear to hate myself for not allowing time for you to understand better.”

Alice felt guilty. Of course, Mabel was a little scary and her voice was a tingy bit daunting, but the fact was she was afterall a stranger.

Could Mabel ever become a friend?  Alice wondered.

Upon wondering, Alice abruptly remembered.
“Oh dear my! I ‘ve forgotten that i’ve this unbearable question that i need to have answered. OH MABEL! could you please help me?”

The woods was almost silent now. Under the canopy of leaves, only the brushing of the wind against them could be heard;
Sunlight like little sabers pierce through.

“Mabel? ” Alice looked around. She tried to remember where she had come from, but she couldn’t remember. Her steps were merely crunches in the bed of dead leaves, and honestly, there were too many crunches around.

Then she heard a loud crunch.
Someone had landed right beside her.

And to her horror, and amusement as well, Mabel sat , ogling her yet again.

—

“Of course i can help! I’m unlike other strangers, you know! ” Mabel smiled.  ” I’m one of a kind “She said cheerfully, nudging Alice at her side.

And immediately as if there was a time lapse, Mabel’s expression dissolved into becoming composed.

“And what is your question? ” Mabel said seriously, in a slight amusement.

“well , do we all have to become sailors? ” Alice exclaimed.

Mabel look puzzled. Alice pondered why.

“Oh of course you don’t know! ” Alice scratches her head in embarassment yet again.
How could she know what’s a sailor when she didn’t know about the boats and sea, and all the things Dr Nox and her had talked about before.

” Don’t know?”Mabel said subtlely . “Don’t know? ” Mabel replied.

And there it came again – The laughter that sounded more like a snake’s hiss.

“OF COURSE I KNOW!” Mabel shouted at the top of her voice.

“You know what’s a sailor? ” Alice was shocked both ways.

“Of course, darling, of course.” Mabel started to waltz and everytime she lift her feet and pressed against the earthly bed, it was rather quizzical why she left no sound.

” Sailors, jerks, atheist, missionaries, i know them all . ” Mabel smiled to herself.

“But why do you only enquire about the sailor? ” Mabel eyes Alice suspiciously.

“Well .. I .. ” Alice trembles, trying to find a proper answer. Mabel now reminded her of her 3rd grade teacher, who was repulsive because of being so cold-hearted and overly objective.

” What is there about a sailor that is much more profound to be understood? Why is it always the sailor that rides the ocean and not another stranger like I? Why is it that a sailor whose only capabilities are to watch the sea and understand the boat is to be the one – the only one- to be within the reachs of a paradise? Why is it not a stranger, but a sailor?”

Mabel seems to be singing yet again now.

Alice contemplated leaving. She was surely not going to get her answer from this stranger.

“Can you answer this question, you fair lady?” Mabel asks, not looking in Alice’s direction.

” Maybe a stranger can become a sailor if the stranger wants to?”  Alice answers in a trembling voice.

“rubbish.”  Mabel simply said.

” A stranger walks his own path, a path that can never be identified by a sailor. A stranger does not become a sailor when he wants to,a stranger unfortunately never becomes one. But a sailor can always become a stranger, yes, a stranger. A stranger to Her, a stranger to Him. A sailor will seek that paradise, and a stranger debunks it. We live in a world without seeking pity. We are our own Gods, we rule this world. We are unfeared of, only to frighten. “

Alice bites her lip. She has this burning feeling and it comes whenever she wants to say something. But her mother had always told her, such words when spoken only on impulse, will get her only into very deep trouble.

But she couldn’t stop them. Those words, were like water, seeping out of her mouth.
“Sorry, Mabel , but i don’t get how it is answering my question.” And Alice turns hastily away.

For some reason, she knew Mabel had turned around to look at her just as she had turned away. Somehow it reminded her of something, something that had happened before.

” You knew not why but out of earnesty to come to this hole, in here , you indulge in the greatest treasure of all. It is not mine to tell you what it is, nor is it anybody’s granted wish to be fufilled. No man could ever walk in to a place filled with his evermost desires to realise that he was in there, just as no stranger could ever ride the ocean and knew he was a sailor.

A sailor rides the ocean because he has to. But you ask will everyone become a sailor? Yes everyone will become a sailor, but not everyone will be a sailor. Becoming is not being, but being is becoming.”

Alice turns back. And upon turning, Mabel’s back was facing her again.

“Like shadows, we believed they are a mere reflection of our movements. But we can never know how much of a shadow is of our own, and neither can our bare eyes prove to us so – For there some things that are just far beyond the ability of one man to understand. If you ask me why do we all have to be a sailor, i can only tell you this : It is not ours to understand why , but it is given to ours to understand how, but even at the point of understanding how, comes the impossibility of understanding how it is why.”

And Mabel walks away, her tail hanging low. The soft crunches of that her feet that should have been left, smoothen.

Yet as those words slowly fill Alice in,
Alice was suprised when she tried to remember that stranger, all she could remember were those words, and the alienated feeling that always hung between the two.

                                                                         —-

As Alice plodded along, rubbing her head as the words left it sore, she felt a short tug at her back. Suprised, she immediately thought it was someone else. But to her amusement, it was only a tree branch, hooked like a witch’s finger.

 ”Let go.” Alice smiles cheekily.
And she was suprised when the tree branch fell limp and the woods that were behind her slowly dissapeared.