Allie's adventure in the land of wonder.

Chapter 1
The beginning

Chapter Description: Where most stories start.

 “Where am I?” thought Allie.

She looked around and saw soft carpeted lawns in a riotous explosion of color. The sky was mauve with pink, puffy clouds that looked like cotton candy. The trees around her had leaves colored in various tartan plaids.

She stared at a rabbit happily munching on the colored grass. It sported a monocle and top hat, wearing a starched straight-neck collar that was held in place with a black bow tie.

The rabbit looked up at Allie and sniffed its nose derisively. It hopped off in a huff.

There were dancing bears and small white-speckled fawns dancing to the music coming from singing morning glories that were accompanied by a small band of squirrels and chipmunks playing musical instruments.

Allie looked at the cave that she came out of and saw that it had been sealed over. Realizing that she was now trapped, she pounded in futility on the solid granite rock face.

“Let me out! Let me out!” She screamed to the rocks. No one heard her pleas, and she finally broke down in tears, not knowing what to do.

The rabbit she saw earlier came back at Allie’s sobbing. Her puffy eyes and tear-streaked face raised a chord of empathy in him.

“Hello,” said the rabbit assuredly, “is there something I can help you with?”

Allie stopped crying. The sound of the rabbit’s voice was strange to her ears. but she recognized that it was an adult and could possibly help her out of her predicament.

“Oh, mister rabbit!” She finally gushed out, “Somehow, I’m lost in this strange place and don’t know how to get home!”

“It’s ma’am!” yelled the rabbit angrily before it tamped down its anger at being misgendered, “Sorry, sorry! What is your name and where are you from?”

“Um, my name is A-Allie. Um, um, I came from my grandma’s backyard,” stammered Allie at the rabbit due to its minor aggression. She hoped her answer wouldn’t anger the rabbit any further.

“There, there, Allie! I’m sorry for the outburst. I am Frau Hare, and can you be more specific? There are quite a few back yards that belong to grandmas.”

“I don’t know!” sobbed Allie anew. She was all of eight years old and didn’t even know what state her grandma was in, let alone her address.

The rabbit stood up uncharacteristically on its hind legs, moved closer to Allie, and put a paw on her shoulder to comfort her.

“Don’t worry, Allie! This is a land of wonder and we’ll just have to age you up a bit until you’re smart enough to know.”

It was the curious statement from the rabbit that caught Allie in mid-sob. She looked at the rabbit’s large brown eyes in astonishment and asked “Age me up? What does that mean?”

“We’ll get you a bit of aging mushroom. You’ll grow up a little bit and then you’ll know where you’re from. Come with me!”

The rabbit took her hand with its paws and pulled the girl along. They passed more odd sights along the way until they came upon a giant purple and yellow polka-dotted mushroom, upon which sat a large caterpillar.

“What’s up, babies?” asked the caterpillar. It had a dark blue top and light blue bottom. It eyed them while taking a hit on a large brass vape.

Allie was awestruck at the creature. “Um, hello! My name is Allie,” was all she could squeeze out of her mouth.

“Yes, yes!” said the rabbit impatiently, “Caterpillar, do you have any aging mushrooms available? We need to find out where this girl is from.”

“Sure thing, baby! One side of this mushroom is for aging and the other is for getting younger,” he took a long drag on the hookah and expelled a stream of technicolor bubbles. Little animated stars and swirls formed around his head as he continued, “I just don’t remember which side is which, you dig?”

“Hmm,” said the rabbit, “we’ll just have to experiment then,” It grabbed a piece of the mushroom closest to them, “Give it a try, my dear!”

Allie looked at the earnest expression of the rabbit; then she looked at the relaxed expression of the caterpillar.

Then she looked at the piece of mushroom.

“He said one side will make me younger. What if that’s the side you’re holding? I don’t want to be a baby!”

“Don’t worry, my dear! If that happens, we’ll just feed you a bit from the other side and return you to your normal age.”

Allie was of an age where she could still remember potty training and pull-ups at bedtime. She didn’t want to get younger; she wanted to grow up and become president of the country.

“Why can’t you do it?” she asked, “It certainly wouldn’t hurt you to be younger or older!”

The rabbit just sniffed while making disapproving “tsk tsk” sounds. “If I grew younger, I wouldn’t know you. If I grew older, then I might have forgotten you. I am a rabbit after all!”

Allie had problems following its logic, but she took the mushroom sample in her hands and took a little nibble.

“Did that do anything?” she asked.

“You’ll have to eat more to see the effect, baby!” said the caterpillar. He was perched so close to the edge of the mushroom, that a strong wind could knock him off. Allie ignored his intense stare and took a big bite of the mushroom.

“I don’t feel anything happening...wait! I-”

Allie shrank down into her clothing and fell on her rear. Her head popped up out of her oversize clothing, then she looked at the rabbit, held up her hands, and made cooing noises.

“Man, I wish she was older when she did that shee-” muttered the caterpillar.

The rabbit ran to the other side of the mushroom and broke off a piece. It brought it over to baby Allie and offered a bite. She either didn’t like the color or wasn’t hungry. She wouldn’t eat it.

After a bit of psychology, (the rabbit ended up making “choo-choo” sounds), she was back at her original age of eight. She put back on her clothing and took a bite of the mushroom.

She needn’t have bothered with the shoes, she had to pull them off her growing feet. Her stretch pants now looked like long shorts and her t-shirt was very tight as it only covered her midriff.

“Damn, girl! I can see your pointy things!” said the caterpillar.

“Well, excuse me for not wearing a bra!” said the matured Allie with an overtone of Teen angst, “I don’t suppose you have a shopping mall around here?”

“More importantly, my dear, where does your grandmother live?” asked the rabbit.

“Well, duh! She lives at 1313 Mockingbird Lane!” answered Allie with a sneer in her voice.

“That answers that! Have some mushrooms, my dear,” said the rabbit offering up the remaining bit of the original piece.

“Do I have to? I only just turned 16! I wanna go party!” She turned to the caterpillar, “Would you mind sharing a bit of that hookah?”

Despite the rabbit’s objections, the caterpillar shared his hookah with Allie and they partied for a few hours. After she passed out, the caterpillar put the remaining bit of mushroom in her mouth.

“Eat up, baby! Party’s over, now!”

Returned to her normal age, Allie was returned to her home. What the rabbit and the caterpillar didn’t know was that some mushroom spores had made their way into Allie's pockets, survived being washed, and fell out after being hung and dried on her grandma’s clothesline.

A large mushroom soon took root in the backyard...