Remake of Chapter VIII The Sea in the
Puddle
A LARGE ROSE-TREE stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses on it were white. Alice took a step towards the tree, and noticed a puddle to the side of it. She stepped into the puddle, and felt the ground fall away from beneath her. She fell into the puddle, and felt herself submerge into water. She sank very far before she saw the floor of the sea. She realized that she was breathing just fine, even though she was in a sea. She watched as the ground rose up to meet her. Alice could see the outline of large, grayish-white structures. As she fell towards the structures, she saw that they made up a full-sized city made of coral. She saw many undersea creatures that looked extremely like cartoon characters. They had large heads, and everything was rounded. Alice swam towards the closest animal; it was a crab who had an eye patch over his left eye, and a peg-leg for its left leg. It waddled around very slowly. It looked like an old pirate crab. Alice asked, “What is your name? Where are we?”
The crab turned to her, and yelled, “Blue-beard is coming! Blue-beard is coming!”
Then the pirate began running/swimming around frantically.
Alice repeated, “Excuse me, but could you please tell me where we are?”
The crab stopped running, and slowly turned to her, “Fire in the hole!” Before Alice could say anything more, the crab jumped to the ground, and began digging a hole. He stuck his head in it, and closed up the hole with sand. It reminded Alice of those ostrich things she had heard about.
Alice desperately wanted to talk to someone, so she stuck her head in the sand, also. “Excuse me, Mr. Crab, if that is your name, do you know where we are?”
“Of course I know where we are! We are here, where else would we be? And my name isn’t Mr. Crab,” it said sarcastically, “It’s Sedric,” it replied proudly, “And what should I call you? Ms. Human?
“My name is Alice, and don’t be so sarcastic. What I meant was, “Do you know where here is?”
“I really have no idea what you are talking about. Here is here. You humans never make any sense do you?”
“Yes we do make sense! You really have no manners do you, Sedric?”
“Not so loud!” Sedric whispered loudly. “There are spies everywhere. I’m putting your life in danger just by talking to you. You better leave now, before they get suspicious.”
Alice decided that a crab who was dressed up like a pirate, was afraid of things that weren’t there, and was paranoid about spies wasn’t really going to help her. She lifted her head out of the sand, and looked around for someone else to talk to.
Alice wandered around the city, and turned a corner. In front of her was a sign that read, “INFORMATION.” Alice walked to the sign, and asked the lobster standing at the desk where she was. “That’s an easy one! We are in the Sea in the Puddle,” it announced proudly.
“How do you leave?” Alice asked curiously. “Where is the exit?”
“The exit is where you came from,” the lobster answered, indicating upward.
Alice thanked him, “Thank you, I don’t know how to repay you.”
“No need for thanking me. I was just doing my job.”
Alice looked upward at the shining light at the surface, and began heading for it. Before she knew it, she was reaching the surface. She stuck her head out of the water, and saw land. She climbed up onto it, and was surprised to see that she was dry. Alice looked in front of her, and saw that same familiar sight.