Week 11: Storytelling - The Never-ending Tea Party

Alice shuddered nervously as she stood before the high garden walls only able to imagine what could lie inside. She couldn't help but feel deterred from the whole mission at the idea of facing down one mad person, let alone two! Well, technically, it was one person and one animal, a hare to be exact. At least, that's what the grinning cat had said. Alice shook her head trying to clear it and focus on what she needed to do. This was certainly one of the most risky assignments she'd had working for the Correctors, but it was extremely important that she did the job that she had been sent to do.

The Correctors were a division the top secret Maintenance of the Magical and Supernatural program within the FBI. MMS dealt with everything from control of mythical creatures (so many people had spotted that nuisance, bigfoot, over the years and it really was a hassle to make all of those people look crazy in order to cover up his existence. He was now under close supervision of the Creature Wranglers) to coordination and supervision all interactions between Muggles and wizards to, of course, the overseeing of all the magical realms. Alice had really drawn the short straw on this assignment - no one wanted to visit Wonderland on purpose. It was bad enough that you might fall asleep and wake up in Wonderland in a dream, but venturing intentionally into a land in which a raving queen could cut off your head at any time seemed ill-advised. Perhaps things wouldn't be so dysfunctional in Wonderland once the Queen of Hearts had been stopped. At any rate, Alice thought, she wouldn't know anything standing on this side of the wall.

She expertly scaled the wall and peered over the top edge before pulling herself up onto the wall where she sat hidden by a tree. What she saw below inside the garden walls surprised her. A tall man with an enormous top hat sat across a from an oversized hare at one end of a very long table. It looked as though they were siting down to tea as there sat a tea kettle between the odd pair. There were also settings for tea about every two chairs all the way along the table. The man who Alice could only assume was the Mad Hatter took a sip of his tea.

 "Well, dear, are you going to join us or are you going to rudely creep about in the shadows? You're making us very nervous, you know."

Alice was so surprised at being addressed she nearly lost her balance and fell off the wall. She quickly composed herself.

"I apologize, sir! I'm here on assignment for work, but I'm afraid I didn't expect anyone to be having tea in the garden after midnight," she said, absently checking her watch (as many people are in the habit of doing when talking about the time even when well aware of what time it is) and the words that she had been about to speak died on her lips. She knew for a fact that she had arrived at the garden walls belonging to the Mad Hatter at five minutes to midnight, but now the face of her watch declared it to be six o'clock in the evening.

"Yes, yes, it is always tea time here," said the Mad Hatter tiredly but again without looking up from his tea, "now are you going to join us or not?"

Alice remembered the words of her assignment officer: Don't be surprised by anything that happens there. She shook her head once again at a futile attempt to clear it and jumped off the wall landing silently. Neither the Hatter or the Hare, who had yet to speak a word, seemed impressed. Alice quietly took a seat next to the silent Hare.

"Why doesn't he speak?" Alice asked

"He's a Hare," replied the Hatter in a tone Alice found rather condescending, especially considering the fact that she had apparently just entered into a time warp in which an oversized rabbit was sipping tea. She was about to say so but decided it better to just do her job so she could get out of there.

"So, why-?"

"Why does time stand still here?" the Hatter finished for Alice. He didn't seem mad, Alice noted, just extremely sad and distant, like he wasn't fully aware of his surrounding. "We were asked to do a recitation at one of the Queen's garden parties, but she quickly got angry and accused me of murdering Time, her consort, with my long-windedness. I assured her that my verse may be a bit long, but I was by no means a murderer. It was too late, however, because Time had already become angry, which of course is undesirable because everyone desires to have Time on his side, and he cast a spell on my pocket watch so that the time would never move past six o'clock in the evening."
The Hare sighed and nodded sadly.

"So it's always tea time," Alice said, slowly beginning to understand.

"Precisely."

"Why do they call you the Mad Hatter?" Alice asked somewhat cautiously. The Hatter didn't really seem to be one to follow normal social cues, but it was still a rather rude question to ask someone, "you don't seem mad to me."

"Isn't that what you'd say about a man who never leaves his garden and is always having tea?" replied the Hatter, not seeming the least bit offended. "Now, my dear, why are you here?"

"I've actually come for the watch," said Alice suddenly remembering the goal of her mission. "We believe it is the key to stopping the Queen of Hearts." Alice began to consider. "What will happen to you and the Hare if I take the watch?" she asked.

"I haven't the faintest idea," replied the Hatter, "We cannot leave our party and we do not get many visitors, let alone any who are interested in the watch."

"But what if you die?"

"It would be a change, my dear, and I would welcome any change at all," he said this with a sad distant smile. The Hare nodded in agreement. The Hatter took a very ordinary looking pocket watch out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Alice. "Good luck, my dear. Remember to keep your head about you should you encounter the Queen. People always seem to lose their heads around her."

"Well I'd say my head is on pretty straight," Alice replied somewhat haughtily starting to head for the garden gate.

"Yes, you do seem to have a good head on your shoulders," said the Hatter sipping his tea and with his eyes fixed upon nothing, "but all who meet the Queen seem to lose their heads."

Author's Note: This is a retelling of A Mad Tea Party which is a part of the Alice in Wonderland unit. I decided to use the same setting and characters from the original story but to change up the plot a little bit. I thought it would be interesting to give Alice a reason for visiting Wonderland and the Mad Hatter rather than have her just stumble upon them both. I changed a lot about the Mad Hatter's character. I didn't want him to be outlandish and eccentric but rather I wanted to paint a picture of a man who is slowly coming unhinged by his circumstances and whose lack of sanity is mostly speculation. I tried to convey the idea that his mind is intact, but he has a way of drifting in and out of reality which is why it is not strange to him that he is taking his tea with a giant Hare. The story about the Queen accusing the Hatter of murdering time is basically the same as the original except for the part about Time being the Queen's consort and Time actually casting a spell. In the original, Time simply refuses to move for the Hatter anymore but I thought it would add to the mystical element of the story if there was an actual spell involved. I also tried to use a bit of word play in the banter between Alice and the Hatter, just for fun!

Bibliography: Chapter VII: A Mad Tea-Party. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. 1865.
Image Information: Alice in Wonderland (image source: Ben Curtis Jones Gallery )