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CHESHIRE CAT AND CATERPILLAR IN WONDERLAND

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SANGEETHA KAMATH

 

"Snakes alive! *Cough cough* Where did you appear from, stranger? Creeping up on me like that ! I say, you'll send me to my grave, you will!"

"Cor! A talking caterpillar! How wonderful to meet you, Sir! I'm Alice…how do you do? A very balmy morning, eh? The Cheshire Cat brought me here. Quite a mad one if I must say so"

"*Puff ...puff...cough*...What's so good about this morning, anyway? The Queen will roll your head and mine too by sundown!"

"Goodness to heavens! Why is that, Sir?"

"Good Lord, you've trespassed her garden of exotic herbs, lass…and I failed as the gatekeeper! You don't know the mad Queen…Ahem! Ahem! I mean Her royal highness…you must seek pardon!"

"Not if she doesn't know I'm here. Now if you'll let me uproot some of these plants…"

"Blasphemy ! Uproot plants of Wonderland? Over my dead body! I'm the Great Garden of the Queen's Guardian…*hick... hick…cough*---the Great Guardian of the Queen's Garden…!"

"Oh come now, caterpillar, you can't be serious! A few plants and I'm off. And nobody will be the wiser. I've even brought along my shears."

"Blimey! Shears?! How did you pass through with a weapon upon you? Who are you, again?"

"Told you, you slimy, slithering worm! Don't get my temper rising or else, I'll slice you into a hundred pieces with these shears before the Queen rolls your head!"

"Holy Moly…what kind of a monster is this? She's worse than the Queen…*sob...sob*"

The Cheshire Cat is now all grins with his razor sharp set of teeth and spits, “The Great Guardian has been fed on psychedelic weed. We must proceed to do what we came to do.”

“What is it that you came to do, you mangy feline! Appearing out of nowhere and fading away with your psychotic smile plastered on your horrendous purple face!”

“Set fire to this toxic garden, the very air of which causes critical disorders and messes with your mind! We are not all insane here, caterpillar…our food was laced with dope and potion.”

Meanwhile there's an echoing roar of an uprising in the distance. The Mad Hatter stomps through a clump of mushrooms with the Deck Of Cards. Even before the Caterpillar can muster a cough, the Spades go on a digging spree to raze the opiate garden to the ground. The King of Clubs points his lance at the Caterpillar daring him to sound an alarm.

Snatching away his pipe which blows out smoke rings in code language, the army of cards dash it to the ground and crush it into smithereens.

With the pipe gone and at the mercy of rebels, the Caterpillar fears for his life going down on all his knees. Alice, the kind girl that she is, stops the soldiers from slaying the faultless caterpillar. 

Turning to the caterpillar, she tries to drive sense into him. “All the smoking from your infernal pipe has numbed you into remaining a caterpillar all your life! Why didn't you turn into a butterfly and fly away? Ever thought about that?

"Cursed by the Queen, lass! I've been her prisoner and slave all my life …"

"You've been living in a delusion feeding on opiate leaves and smoking toxic fumes prepared with Nightshade by the Queen.

See that plant with purple leaves? It's an antidote. Start chomping on it and you'll turn into a butterfly. Escape from this hellhole while we burn this place down!"

No sooner said than done, the caterpillar turns into the daintiest Monarch Butterfly and flutters away past the garden gates and castle grounds.

Meanwhile, the Cheshire Cat stands guard invisibly at the gate baring his razor blades of teeth to chomp anyone’s head off if they dared to stop Alice's mission.

Alice crams clumps of leaves, buds and stems of the antidotes which she had hacked off with her trusted shears and the soldiers hurriedly wheel out cartloads of them.

The garden soon goes belly up with roots of toxic herbs and plants in a mangled mass facing skywards. Striking a match, Alice sets a tiny spark on dry leaves and the flames spread like wildfire engulfing the Queen’s Garden.

Victorious, they all march out towards the edge of the rabbit hole to see Alice off. Her mission was accomplished. As they bid her goodbye, Alice turns around to see a golden sunset and the wicked Queen overthrown, fleeing in the distance chased by bloodhounds and rapidly vanishing from sight. 

With the evil shroud of magic lifted, Alice smiles softly at the adorable Ragdoll kitten mewing and brushing at her ankles. 

The Cheshire Cat no longer sported a hideous grin and a psychedelic appearance. 

©️ Sangeetha Kamath 

Pic Courtesy:Image by Natalia Koroshchenko from Pixabay

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  1. Srivalli RekhaApril 3, 2024 at 4:50 PM

    I haven't read the original so can't say much but I did enjoy the story, especially the cat and the caterpillar. Good job. :)

    ReplyDelete

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