I still remember when my wife of thirteen years, Alice, told me about her adventures into Wonderland. At first I did not believe her. All I did was sit there quietly, question her sanity, and offer to retrieve her cup of hot tea with extra honey. Little did I know that Wonderland is indeed real, and that I would be traveling there shortly after she told me about her journey.

It was a quite lovely night. Alice and I had just returned from our nightly stroll and we were sitting in the living room, by the fire together reading fairytale books. I had just settled down into my large, leather recliner and as I reached up to my face to remove my spectacles, Alice giggled.

“Darling, what is so funny?” I asked curiously, still focusing on my book.

“Oh nothing, Lewis. It’s just that your reading glasses remind me of the white rabbits,” she responded with a childish grin on her face.

“White rabbit?” I said, as I raised my head to look at her.

“Why yes. He was a little white rabbit with a pocket watch, vest and spectacles,” she responded.

Alice began twirling her silky, blonde hair around her slim fingers nervously. Her sea blue eyes met mine, and I noticed a glimmer of childish curiosity in them.

“Oh, how peculiar Alice. Are you feeling well?” I suddenly became worried, since insanity tends to run in her family on her father’s side.

“I feel fine!” She assured me.

“Why don’t you go lie down? I think you may be a bit sleepy,” I suggested, leaning over to feel her forehead.

Suddenly, Alice’s expression changed to a stern, concerned look. She leaned forward and put her left hand on mine.

“Lewis, I need to tell you something that I have never told anyone else before. Do you swear to me that you will never, ever, tell a soul,” she said as I suddenly became extremely nervous.

Alice proceeded to tell me about her adventures in Wonderland from when she was just a little girl. I sat in awe as she described in detail falling down a rabbit hole, meeting a Cheshire cat, having tea with a mad hatter, and fighting against a Queen of Hearts and her army of playing cards. Once she was finished, I quietly got up from my chair, kissed my wife on the top of her head and went to bed. I turned around to see if Alice would be joining me, but she just sat in the armed chair, not even blinking.

The next morning I walked downstairs to find Alice asleep on the couch. Pulling on my black coat, I walked outside into the frigid air and began my morning walk to the end of our street. As I walked down to the end of our gravel driveway, I glanced over to the side of our rustic home. I suddenly saw three baby white rabbits disappear into, what looked like, nothing. Suddenly overwhelmed by curiosity, I wandered over to where the animals were to find an unnaturally sized rabbit hole.

I then remembered Alice’s tales about falling down a rabbit hole, and without a second thought, I dangled one foot into the hole, followed by the other. I suddenly lost my balance and fell into the hole. As I tumbled to the center of the Earth, I watched floating picture frames, pianos and other home decorations whiz past me. After what seemed like forever, I landed on the ground. I laid there on my back for quite some time, trying to comprehend what I had just experienced. Suddenly, one of the rabbits hopped onto my chest and sniffed my chin. This creature was followed my two others, who all walked over me cautiously exploring.

“Excuse me, sir?” the smallest rabbit said.

I jumped onto my feet, throwing the triplets to the ground without meaning to.

“You can’t talk!” I exclaimed as I rubbed my eyes, causing them to water.

“We can, sir. Welcome to Wonderland,” the second patiently replied, as he stuck his tiny pink nose in the air.

“No, no, no. This is a dream. Nothing but a silly dream,” I said in an audible whisper.

“Mister, the isn’t a dream,” the third assured me.

“You are the husband of Alice Kingsley, correct?” They asked in unison.

“Yes, but how in the world did you-“

“Your wife visited Wonderland years ago sir. We are the children of the White Rabbit. Our father is gravely ill, along with most of the inhabitants of our world,” the smallest replied.

“Dream. This is a dream. Nothing but a dream,” I kept repeating to myself.

“Please sir, please allow us to take you to the hatter. He will explain all of this to you. It also looks as if you may be in need of medical help,” the smallest rabbit said as he indicated a medium sized cut on my left shin.

“Alright, I will come with you. But I still believe that this is not really happening,” I said as the rabbits began hopping down a dirt path.

As we walked to a certain “tea party” we passed overly sized mushroom trees, smoking caterpillars and a peculiar chubby little boy who was waddling down the path next to ours carrying and urn with the letters “FB” carved into it.

“Who’s that?” I asked the rabbits, wondering why he was crying.

“Oh him? He’s Fat Boy. His brother just died,” one of the rabbits responded without even turning around.

“He passed? That’s terrible! I should go give my condolences,” I replied as a I started over to the boy.

“No! Have you gone mad? You cannot talk to him!” the smallest rabbit said to me.

“Why not?” I asked.

“You, just can’t,” he responded.

“Why do you call him a fat boy?” I asked.

“Well, his real name is Tweedle-Dee. His brother is Tweedle-Dum. But ever since the Queen of Hearts took over, she insists that we call them ‘Fat Boy,’” the rabbit said.

“How humiliating,” I responded.

“Exactly,” the other said, and the topic was immediately dropped.

After walking for quite some time, we stopped at a white picket fence. The rabbits squeezed through the posts, leaving me by myself. Almost instantly, a man with a very large top hat, pale face, and a bow tie with the letter’s “JD” embroidered into it appeared. He smiled at me, revealing a very noticeable space in between his top front teeth. His orange hair was the boldest out of all of his attire. I was amazed by this man’s unreasonable and outrageous fashion choices.

“Welcome to Wonderland, Lewis,” he said with a laugh.

“How do you know my name?” I asked.

“Never mind that. Now please, come in, come in. May I offer you some tea?” He asked

After he carefully served me tea, making sure that he dropped exactly three sugar cubes and a teaspoon of honey into it, the hatter began explaining what was happening to me.

“Lewis, when your wife visited Wonderland, she was just a young girl. She helped save our world, and for that, we are extremely grateful. But now the Queen of Hearts is taking over our land, and causing many of us to perish. After keeping you and Alice under close watch, we were able to send the rabbits to intrigue your curiosity. Our plan worked, because you are here. We ask you, humble Mr. Kingsley, to please help us. We need you to fight to save our land,” he informed me.

“You are completely mad! This is not real at all. I will soon wake up in my own bed, in my own home, and in my world!” I exclaimed.

“But sir,” the hatter began, “we’re all mad here.”