Alice goes to the circus

I had the very good fortune recently to attend a Gunnas Writing Masterclass with Catherine Deveny. Catherine's irreverant and humorous presentation makes this a must-do day for new and existing writers alike. During the day we had timed writing periods, and for the last one of these sessions we selected picture and word cards, not unlike QWC's "Morning Glory" sessions and wrote for 10 minutes. I happened to draw the words "Alice in Wonderland" and a picture of two entertainers in an old-fashioned balancing act with two bicycles. This is my "10 minute fiction", which also was published on Catherine's website for a short while.

Once upon a time in Wonderland, Alice was sitting quietly under her favourite tree, reading her book, when she looked up and saw the Mad Hatter bouncing down the road towards her.

"Whatever is the matter?" she called out.

"The circus," he shouted. "The circus is here and I'm going to be late!"

Alice closed her book with a *pop* and stood up excitedly.

"Circus?" she said. "Where?"

"At the castle!" cried the Mad Hatter as he bounced past.

Alice fell into step beside him, skipping to his bouncing, her long legs allowing her to keep up. Every day she had practiced her skipping, so she was now just as fast as he... and she looked a lot more graceful!

"What do they have in the circus?" she asked. "Animals?"

"No!"

"Clowns?"

"Pah!"

"Trapeze artists?"

"Oh good gosh, no!"

"What a strange circus!" declared Alice. "One day this silly land might learn to be normal!"

"Harrumph!" huffed the Mad Hatter. "Wonderland is normal, it's you who is strange."

As they got closer to the castle Alice could see the bright flags flying from the top of a big tent, and she could hear the sounds of a fair. Because of that sound people were streaming in from all over the countryside. Alice saw the White Rabbit and Bill and Ben, and the Cheshire Cat leapt from branch to branch above her, not at all his usual gruff self. Even the Smurfs had come out of their village for the spectacle!

So many people, and because of that the castle grounds were filled to swelling and the noise was ginormous in Alice's poor ears.

She put her hands over her ears and shouted "I wish this wasn't so loud!" and immediately everything went quiet.

"Thank you," said Alice, graciously, as she made her way through the crowd to get her ticket.

The acts were already lining up inside the tent but this was not like any circus Alice had ever seen, it was all back to front! There was a rabbit which pulled a man out of a hat, the top and bottom of a person who had been sawn in half waddled into the ring and were magicked back together by a Bearded Lady, and two jugglers rode in on a push-me-pull-you bike and juggled each other. Alice thought it was all very strange.

Then it was time for the final act.

"I wonder what it will be," said Alice to no-one in particular, and, of course, no-one answered her.

The Ringmaster spoke but Alice, because she hadn't unwished the silence she had wished for earlier, couldn't hear a word he was saying, so she just had to sit quietly and wait.

And, just when she thought she was going to see something spectacular...

She woke up under her favourite tree, with her book still in her lap.

"Oh well," she said, "I suppose in Wonderland even dreams have no ending!"