"The Caterpillar"

December 1905 - Alice talked me into going back to Wonderland with her. She probably
could have talked me into almost anything. I packed a few things in my knapsack and we
set off after breakfast. I followed her into the mirror and stepped out, into a bright sunny
day in some hills. Nothing seemed unusual, other than a flock of pink flamingoes flying by
upside down. We walked down to the valley and Alice described the rather bizarre flora
and fauna like an expert professor.


Along a stream, everything began getting larger. The flowers and grass towered over us. I
wondered, perhaps we were becoming smaller. The music was somewhere nearby. It was
relaxing and very exotic sounding. I asked Alice where we were going. She shrugged and
said, "To wherever we end up". That made sense.


"How do you spend your days? What is it you do here?" I asked. She tipped her very pretty
head, as if confused and said that she did the things she wanted to do and didn't do the
other things. Trying to get a clear answer was very difficult in this new world. Looking at
my pocket watch, I saw that had stopped running. I asked her what time it was, because it
felt as if it had been noon for about six hours. Alice was next to the stream and looked at
me. She stretched her arms over her head and yawned, then shrugged again and asked,
"What is time?".


"Time.... is the measure between then . . . and now." The music had stopped and a deep
resonant voice spoke this well conceived answer. I looked up and turned around. From
over the edge of a huge mushroom, the blue head of a gigantic caterpillar looked down at
me. It may have smiled, I'm not certain. The things leaned back and then a purplish ring of
smoke floated out into the air. The music began again and we walked up and sat on a
grassy knoll, listening to caterpillar play on.