“Oh, you can’t help that. We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad… …we’re all a little mad.” Alice vanished. No cry. No trace. Weeks went cold. Months misplaced. Then she came back with her eyes gone distant, speaking soft to someone out of sight. She stopped to let an empty space move past her, then hurried after— “I’m late. I’m late.” They asked where she’d been; she looked straight through them, listening hard to something underneath. Pressed her palm against the garden brickwork, then leaned in close waiting for it to speak. They asked again. She watched the wall, then turned as if it called her twice. “I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night?” Wrong Alice Am I the one they lost? Wrong Alice or what the passage brought across? Same name. Same face. But the memories don’t match. When they call me Alice, something else answers back. “Who in the world am I?” “How puzzling all these changes are.” By dusk she wandered. No pause. No rest. Eyes turned inward. Murmuring, “Not yet.” She crossed the garden with her head turned sideways, talking low to someone no one could see. She stopped beneath the branches like they knew her, then looked up slowly “Curiouser and curiouser.” They moved to reach her; she looked straight through them, listening hard to something underneath. She traced two fingers over the brickwork, then answered softly before the silence could speak. She touched the glass. The reflection breathed. Its mouth moved first. She followed its lead. “I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, because I’m not myself, you see.” Wrong Alice— Am I the one they lost? Wrong Alice— or what the passage brought across? Same name. Same face. Now the memories answer twice. When they call me Alice, something else opens its eyes. “I can’t remember things as I used to…” “How do you know I’m mad?” One of us remembers falling. One remembers climbing through. One still turns when they say Alice. One looks back before I do. I say my name to stop the noise. The second voice repeats it too. “But if I’m not the same, the next question is… Who in the world am I?” “And what will become of me now?” “Curiouser and curiouser.” “What a curious feeling!” “Oh dear, what nonsense I’m talking!” “It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.” “But I don’t want to go among mad people.” “We’re all mad here.” Wrong Alice I am the one they lost. Wrong Alice and what the passage brought across. Same name. Same face. Two voices in one breath. When they call me Alice… We both answer Yes. (Yes-) “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
