The Theidle Boy
Drink This. Eat That. These short children do it all the time and none of them thinks twice but to read the instructions on the bottle. The little Alice was certainly not the first one to stumble across the looking glass. She was the first to get back out though. I remember one boy stumbling through growing larger and smaller with each instruction blindly followed. His name was Thomas Theidle. I liked him immediately because he seemed quite a bit smarter than the others. I followed him more than the others as well. I specifically remember his conversation with Absolem. He turned away from the billowing smoke at first, all three inches of him trying to get a breath of fresh air. “Who are you?” Absolem asked to which Thomas Theidle replied, “I’m whoever I want to be, here.” It was a very good answer indeed. “And… Whom do you wish to be” Absolem asked, another puff of smoke rising. Thomas Theidle thought for a moment before he answered. “I don’t want to be Sir Thomas Theidle.” He snaked those words out as if they were made of slime and all bad tasting things. “No..?” Absolem’s husky voice questioned. “Of course not! Who in their right mind wants to grow up to be all stuffy and old and sit at a desk signing papers while other old stuffy people yell at you no matter what choice you make? Not me, no way.” That, of course, was my cue. Absolem backed away off of his mushroom perch, and my grin filled the purple sky above the young Sir Thomas. “Never grow up, Never go back? Is that your wish?” My feline voice startled the boy, but defiance set in his lips as he shook his head no. “What if I said that you could stay here with us, and remain blissfully unhindered by these grown up things?” I allowed the rest of my head to appear, so as to not concern the boy too much. They always relax when they see that I am a cat, of course. A wish granting cat. “Thomas Theidle, I hereby grant that you are a genuine citizen of Wonderland and may stay out all of your days here, free from responsibility, and the obligation of … growing up.” With that, I began to fade and the boy, smart as he was, looked left and right and realized he was all alone. “Cat!” “Yes.” “Am I to be… I mean, I suppose there are other children here. I shouldn’t like to be alone all the time.” “Ah…” My whole body reappeared without my urging and my now solid tail flicked with satisfaction. “ Then I guarantee that you will never be all alone for as long as you shall live.” Thomas was too smart to smile. He waited. With concentration then, I split the boy in half, brains and all and called them the Tweedles. They were happy evermore.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
July 2017
Categories |