What a great feeling.
I plan to sleep today, continue my Mush Room sessions with Waltraud tomorrow, then wait for a new mission around next week. Let’s step it up a notch, Queen of Hearts!
For my own sanity, and safety, I make sure Lewis’ key is still hidden in the wall of the cell. It is, and it should stay safe in here.
I have no idea how I will get the next one, or if I will be able to get back the one with the Queen of Hearts now, but we’ll see what happens.
To put myself to sleep, I sing, “I am mad, mad girl in a mad, mad world, it’s not a bad, bad thing if I am crazy.”
But suddenly, I hear someone sing it in the cell next to me. It’s not a girl’s voice but a boy’s.
I keep singing, and that boy sings with me.
Slowly it dawns on me. “Jack?” I whisper to the wall.
“Who else do you think is mad enough about you he’d voluntarily go in an asylum to be with you?” he says from behind the wall.
I place my two palms on the wall, wanting to hug it, and maybe kiss it. I can’t believe this is true.
“Jack,” I pant. “How did you make it? I thought you were crossing over to the other side.”
“Let’s put it this way,” he says in a smiley voice, “I told the guys in the hell to go to hell.”
“Poetic.” I laugh.
“I also told them I’m mad about you, so they suggested I came here,” he says. “They didn’t think I’d do it.”
“But I don’t think anyone can voluntarily come to the asylum. I mean, it’s ironic that if you tell someone you’re mad, they probably won’t believe you.”
“Not until you walk butt naked across the street in front of them,” Jack chirps.
I laugh hysterically.
Then the evil thought hits me that I may be just imagining it.
I turn around and watch my Tiger Lily. She is just standing still. She isn’t talking to me, so Jack must be real.
“I missed you so much, Jack,” I tell him.
“Me too,” he says. “How about we go on a date tomorrow?”
“Date? Where?”
“I managed to slip my name to Waltraud,” he says. “So I’m right behind you in the Mush Room list. Not a bad place to meet.”
I am floored. Laughing. Happier than ever. I love this goofy and weird guy. He just wants to be with me. What else can I ask for?
“It’s a mad world, Alice,” he says. “But together, we…”
“Together we can make it through.” I cut in.
“And you know how we’ll do it?”
“Have no clue,” I chuckle.”
“By being madder.”
I almost cry out of joy. With all things not making sense, Jack here next to me make the most sense of all.
And even if I am imagining him, I don’t mind. I love you, Jack Diamond, and together we’re about to stand up against Black Chess in the most nonsensical—but greatest—war of all time.
Epilogue
Director’s office, Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum
Dr. Tom Truckle, still sipping his favorite mock turtle soup, was watching the Pillar with intent through the surveillance camera.
The Pillar was smoking his hookah as usual. He was wiggling his feet and singing along to a song called “What if God Was Mad Like Us.” Tom actually liked the tune.
What was new? The Pillar was happy as usual, not giving a damn about this world.
But Tom was still puzzled, staring at the invitation he’d received from the Queen to attend the Event.
The invitation that hadn’t been for him.
The invitation that had originally been to professor Carter Cocoon Chrysalis Pillar.
Why had the Queen of England invited the Pillar to the Event? That puzzled Tom a lot.
He wished he could figure it out, watching the Pillar in his cell twenty-four-seven. But the Pillar never did anything strange or hinting to a clue.
Until now...
Dr. Tom Truckle watched the Pillar stand up and pull out a secret drawer in his favorite couch. From inside, he pulled out a mask of a clown, then he pulled out a long leather coat, and lastly a ridiculously long hat.
That among a number of teacups.
Tom squinted, horror filling his eyes. This couldn’t be. This just couldn’t be.
The Pillar sat back on the couch, smoking his hookah and staring at something his hand. Something Tom couldn’t see without zooming in.
Tom zoomed in, and he could see it.
While the Pillar was humming “What if God Was Mad Like Us,” he was holding a golden key in his hand. He kept staring it with a wide smirk from ear to ear on his face, fiddling with the key and smoking his hookah.
The END...