Chapter 4

 To home and back again

Why do you see me stranger?
Coming from afar – I had yondered near;
Nearer to your beckoning eyes, glistened with tears-
Pray you! I tell you to sit by me, and tell me why for why that ill?
And if you whimpered to tell me your troubles, I’d praised you more thousand over.

“Hello” said Alice – Courtesy was most important, even at your lowest hours!
In front of her, a bed of lovely flowers, with an array of vibrant colours, were tilting their heads low as if bowing.
And as Alice scanned the entire, the field of flowers seem to stretch forever, until Alice’s eyes met with the sky and she found a dizzy fuzzy line that divided the burning azure from the colour-speckled flower field.

Alice waited for a reply. Surely the flowers had heard her?
She always had spoken out loud.

“Hello!” Alice repeateded, lifting her voice and pulling her head closer to the flowers.

One flower gave a shuffle.
That was weird , thought Alice.

So Alice crouched lower and lower till her buttocks rest against the field. As she sat, Alice spoke again, “Can you guys hear me?”

At this point of time, Alice was wondering whether she was just hearing voices before. It couldn’t be that flowers didn’t spoke in the Rabbit hole, and yet again, in reality, flowers really didn’t speak a human word at all.

Alice was doubtful – Doubt was ill to her.
So feeling rather uncomfortable, Alice decided to do one last check.
She rested her upper body against the ground, then flipped herself over so that her face was towards the sky. And when her body was fully parallel and touching the ground, she moved towards the field of flowers by pulling herself forward.

And as Alice went nearer and nearer, till her hair brushed against the stems of the flowers, abruptly, Alice found herself face to face with tiny yellow faces, with eyes like the black-amberish beads her mother’s sewing box had.
And upon the flowers realising that Alice was indeed face to face with them, an eruption of screams and hollers and a flutter of movement immediately came. Alice was so shocked by that abruptness she immediately sat up.

And upon sitting up and looking across the flower field, she saw a seemingly tide of colours going towards the sky.

“You should never do that!” said a flower.

Alice looked down  , and finally she saw all the flowers with their black-amberish beady eyes looking back – All the flowers looked angry though.

” I’m sorry. “Alice said apolegetically, and she looked down embarassed.

Alice didn’t know why the flowers didn’t want her to look at them – Afterall they are still so beautiful.
SO she asked, ” Why can’t i look at you guys?”

” How rude.” a voice promptly replied.
And Alice look up, to see the flowers in a flurry of discussion – The blue flower was busy chattering with the yellow flower, and the red flower was poking the green flower which spoke to the white one, and many other coloured flowers were speaking to each other.

“We are the garden folk. We cannot look at humans. As simple as that.” said one white flower.

Alice was puzzled. And she asked again, ” How come? “

And the white flowers gave a very stern and straight face.
“You asked too many questions.” said a blue flower.

And then again a flurry of discussion came.
Alice notice now that the red flower was speaking to the white flower, and the blue flower spoke to the yellow flower, and the many other flowers spoke with other coloured flowers.

“Because we are the Garden Folk. Just like you a human, we have our own rules.” said a red flower, her black face almost too dark to begin with.

“And what are those rules? ” asked Alice, her hands now behind her back, and her right leg couldn’t help but to start fiddling with the dirt.

A few flowers shook their head.
“They are not for you to know. Just like a human, rules made for you are rules made for you. IF you tell us, we become bound by your rules, and it’s only to our shame to lose our soul just because we asked what governs you.”

Alice was ever more confused. “Even if i told you about the rules that i know of, doesn’t mean you need to follow them.”
Alice thought about the occasion when her dad told her that she should always use the cutlery to eat her food, and yet there were times when she didn’t follow at all.
And there was a time when a stranger had told her she talk too much in the library, which was suppose to be not for talking, and she didnt follow that or the stranger’s words either.

More flowers shook their heads.

“A symphony is brought about by a set of rules. One musician can defy those rules to play the piece in an indifferent way, but then that leads to the collapse of a symphony. We flowers are united as a race of our own kind, to defy our rules, is to spoil the symphony, is to ruin our unison; Our unison is only but to potray the beauty God has left for us; If we choose to be like you, how more imperfect do you wish us be?” said another red flower.

And Alice shook her head. She didn’t understand at all. The Rabbit hole was full of puzzling mysteries.

A white flower continued, ” Disharmony comes from the lack of understanding from each other. Rules are meant to bring a cohesive understanding and bring about the harmony that unites a race.”
And a blue flower continued, ” yet we cannot deny how amusing men has made trouble for themselves by choosing the rules and not allowing the rules to choose them- In such a way we see only the principle of rules being defeated – What was meant to unite end up being only the irony of it’s purpose.”

And a green flower adds most musically, ” Their symphony is only but a rotten one – like an orchestra of greedy soloists, we can only hear cacophony.”

Alice somehow felt insulted. She wanted to leave. But she wasn’t sure why for she couldn’t understand what the flowers spoke of, of whom of which of what, of why and most importantly how they came about saying all this. She tried to think back,  but she was lost in her thoughts.
So she decided she needed a breather. She needed to leave almost immediately.

So she enquired, ” Do you know which way to Dr Nox’s cave? “

“Straight ahead,” said a pink flower.

Alice look ahead – Only a colour speckled flowers and a burning azure sky.

And just as Alice lift her left leg ready to walk ahead, the flowers tilt their heads low and their eyes were lost in to their own shadows.
The shuffle of movements and the tide of colours that came again and went towards the blue sky immediately stopped Alice-

She couldn’t walk ahead! She would crushed the flowers!
How cruel of her.

So Alice immediately back away, and ask the flowers to make a path for her to walk through.
The flowers shook their heads and were unwilling to move.

So Alice turned back, thinking she would face the woods, only to find a reflection of the same sight in front of her before.
Another whole stretch of flowers lay in front of her. And when she turned towards her left, she saw the same sight, and similarly when she turned towards her right- That was when she realised the field of flowers were surrounding her,and she had only a small room for herself.

Alice was trapped.

Fustrated, Alice crouched and shook a flower’s stem.
The flower immediately look up, petrified – It was ironically a pure white flower.

“how may i get out of here?”Alice pleaded.
And even before a white flower could speak, the black flower next to it immediately said,
” The white flower does not speak, for if it speaks, I wither and become it. Answer this riddle and we will let you pass.”

Alice noticed the white flower sinking it’s head back into it’s shadow just as the black flower spoke.

Alice agreed almost immediately and the black flower spoke, ” What is the answer to all answers? Answer.”

Alice was deeply troubled by the question. The fact that the question comprised of the word answer three times was puzzling enough.

“I don’t know . “mumbled Alice, thinking she had to spent here.

And just as she felt lost and was about to tear again, a yellow flower said, ” Follow that path and you will find an old whiz. Talk to him and he will give the answer you need.”

And Alice turned towards the yellow flower to only see a path cleared for her.
Alice followed it without any second thoughts – It was nice to feel free.
and just as Alice turned a corner the path ended at the doorstep of a house.

The house was neither large nor small, neither simple nor intricate, neither old nor new, neither ugly nor beautiful – It was just what a house should be.

———————————–

Just as Alice was about to knock, she heard a pink flower say, “Don’t worry, if i’m here, it means everything will be okay.”

And Alice tried to hold on hope to those words, though she didn’t find any meaning in them at all.