Part 3
Stuck tight
Lizzie sat in a teashop with her mother, a cup of tea and a rather sticky slice of chocolate cake before her. Her mother was reading a newspaper so Lizzie was left to her own thoughts. She was thinking back over her dream of Oz the night before. It really had been a most odd and, in the cold light of day, a rather emÂbarrassing dream. Not really something she would think of talking to her friend, Lotte, about let alone her mother! It had been really sexy though and she had certainly enjoyed it. But her dreams were not normally like that and why had she dreamt of Oz? That horrible man in the bookshop had mentioned Oz so she supposed that must have set her subconscious to work. But why his suggestion? And, when she had dreamt of Alice that time before, it was he who had shown her that copy of 'Wonderland.' Curious.
Just then the bell on the teashop door rang, Lizzie looked up and a new cusÂtomer came in, it was the young man from the bookshop. He did not see Lizzie but sat down at another table and ordered a cup of coffee and a teacake. Around his neck he had a satchel and from it he took a spiral bound notebook and a paperback book. From inside his coat he took out a yellow and black fountain pen and began to write, smiling to himself in a rather self satisfied way. Lizzie wondered what he was writing; he was certainly engrossed in whatÂever it was.
As Lizzie and her mother walked past his table, leaving the teashop, the young man happened to look up; he winked at Lizzie, and went back to his writÂing. "Odious," thought Lizzie. She had not been able to even glance at what he had been writing because he had seen her. Very annoying. She had hoped to take a quick glance but whilst she had not seen his writing she had certainly seen the title of the paperback book on the table, it was "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."
Undressing that night Lizzie wondered whether she would indeed dream of being Alice again. "I wonder if I'll meet the Cheshire Cat," she thought, "though if I meet the mouse again I'd better not mention anything at all about cats." It was not long before she fell asleep.
She heard a little pattering of footsteps in the distance, and looked up eaÂgerly, it was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself `The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where CAN I have dropped them, I wonder?'
"Oh I'm back in Wonderland," thought Lizzie with some excitement and guessed in a moment that the White Rabbit was looking for its fan and pair of white kid gloves, and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were nowhere to be seen—everything seemed to have changed since her swim in the pool the last time she had been there, and the great hall, with the glass table and the little door, had vanished completely.
Very soon the Rabbit noticed Lizzie, as she went hunting about, and called out to her in an angry tone, `Why, Mary Ann, what ARE you doing out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!' And Lizzie was so much frightened that she ran off at once in the direcÂtion it pointed to, without trying to explain the mistake it had made.
"He took me for his housemaid," she said to herself as she ran. As she said this, she came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass plate with the name `W. RABBIT' engraved upon it. She went in without knocking in great fear lest she should meet the real Mary Ann, and be turned out of the house before she had found the fan and gloves. She found them rather quickly and was just going to leave when her eye fell upon a little bottle that stood near a looking glass. There was no label this time with words like `DRINK ME' on it. Lizzie could not remember from the book whether she was meant to drink this bottle but it seemed likely and the more fun thing to do. After all being in a dream it did not really matter what she chose to do or not do!
"I know SOMETHING interesting is sure to happen,' she said to herself, "so I'll just see what this bottle does. I do hope it'll make me grow large again, for really I'm quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!"
Lizzie uncorked it and put it to her lips. Something certainly happened. BeÂfore she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceilÂing, and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken. She felt her breasts burst the buttons of her dress as they grew to womanly size. She hastily put down the bottle, saying to herself, "That's quite enough, I hope I shan't grow any more, it's happened again, how odd, I've grown out of being a little girl. I can't get out at the door, I do wish I hadn't drunk quite so much!"
Alas! It was too late to wish that! She went on growing, and growing, and very soon had to kneel down on the floor: in another minute there was not even room for this, and she tried the effect of lying down with one elbow against the door, and the other arm curled round her head. Still she went on growing, and, as a last resource, she put one leg out of one window, one leg out the other side, and found herself with an arm up the staircase and out a window and another up the chimÂney. She could not move at all and said to herself, "Now I can do no more, whatever happens. What WILL become of me?"