She took a small bite, barely a nibble, a crumb with the front of her teeth. Grabbing more of the cookie than any of the icing. It tasted like strawberry with a hint of almonds. Sugary crystals burst, tantalizing her taste buds.

She swallowed.

Heat bubbled across her face. Alice squeezed her eyes shut as an explosion of wind swept up from beneath her and whipped her hair across her features. An electric jolt ran across her body with a tingling zap!

She opened her eyes and in her line of sight was the canopy of trees tracing the horizon. The sun was in position, pushed along by the world's largest creature who kept it within the orbit of Wonderland. It was a nice site to see once again, but it was a view that suddenly made no sense. How was she up so high?

She looked down. Down!? Her body was giant and towered over the landscape. Bare from head to toe. Heat raced across her face, brightening her freckles from ear to knees. Her body was bare, and she was a giant! Giant like the trees, standing at the same height as those that surrounded her. She froze and looked down. Squinting, she could see Mad and the minuscule flower garden that had done this to her.          

“Mad!” She screamed. The thundering roar reverberated and echoed so much more than she anticipated. The surprise hushed her right away, fearful of the consequences that may have produced. Quickly, she lowered her voice; it still came out like a low rumble. “What the fuck!? What happened to me?!” Her anger and surprise noticeably lined her tone.

Down below, Mad put his hands on his hips, swaying back as far as he could, trying to see the entirety of her form. Looking up at her completely, perplexed, he responded, “I’m honestly not sure.” He quickly glanced back at the gossiping flowers for help.

“I would say the glutton ate too much,” the purple flower quipped, attempting to hide a snide laugh.

“I think so too dear sister. Too much too fast, and it just flowed right into her. It’s what you get for being greedy.” The white daisy yelled, shaking her head, and whatever anatomy they used as a tongue, “tsked” Alice in shame.

Alice managed to hear what they were saying. She crossed her arms in an attempt to feel somewhat covered. She was flushed with anger and embarrassment. “I would watch what you’re saying if I were you, one small step, and I’ll squash the whole field.” Alice threatened retaliation.

Mad laughed.

“How—why I never. We’re just offering some advice dearest.” The purple flower reached upwards towards the large, towering woman. A slithering set of leaves began to twist and twirl as a tendril formed around Mad, gracefully teasing him as it snaked up! Up! Up till it reached a point right in front of Alice. “Here, take this nectar; it’s filled with celestial power, the opposite of imagination. If you remember, it’s the other acting force of power around here. This is just like imagination, it’s very potent stuff. Take just the smallest amount you can muster.”

“Don’t be greedy.” the daisy remarked; the two snickered again.

Alice reluctantly took the small amount of nectar offered to her in the leaf. Against her giant hands, the amount was smaller than a thimble. She brought the cupped leaf to her mouth and ever so carefully held it there until one drop glistened its way down the tip of the leaf. The drop clung onto it, reluctant to let go; Alice gave it a little shake. It hit her outstretched tongue.

Sweet, like honey, but with underlying notes of lavender. The flavor blasted across her senses, filling her mouth and sinuses with the effervescent scent of flowers. Heat raced through her bones, and she felt the same electric shock and a similar gust of wind rustled her hair.

Falling!

She was falling now; her body had shrunk while up so high and now plummeted down to the earth below. Her voice quickly broke as she screamed. Gravity pulled her back, claiming her as its own.

In an instant, she hit something solid. She rolled forward and bounced into a wall. She felt achy, she expected a sharp immediate pain to indicate something broken, yet it never came. Standing up on her feet, she shook like a newborn fawn. Her legs wobbled forward while she looked around trying to gather her senses.

Her stomach churned and her brain stalled, refusing to catch up with what she was seeing. Now, instead of looking down and seeing her body towering over the trees, she was looking up and Mad stared down at her. His face blushed with shyness. He quickly averted his giant eyes.

No, not giant. She was now the one too small! Standing in the palms of his hands, he refused to look at her. She ran up and grabbed one of his fingers, stabilizing her weak and shaking legs. She was the same size as his pinky, smaller than the individual flowers that put her in this mess. Small like a mouse. Tiny and little. Naked in these giant hands that caught her.

“What is going on now!?” Alice screamed up at Mad, her voice high-pitched and diminutive.

“Um, not quite right yet, I think,” Mad mumbled as he avoided looking directly at the naked woman pressed against his fingers. Attempting to keep lewd and playful thoughts out of his head.

“Hmm, yes, too little now,” said the white daisy. “You didn’t drink enough. Now you’re matching the size of the sip.” The two flowers started laughing.

Alice threw an angry look towards the plants. She swung from one of Mad’s fingers, holding on desperately as she raised her fist. Shaking a pea sized insult at the flowers, “Why, you stupid flowers!” Alice screamed. Her anger boiled her senses. She was ready to jump from his hand and tear at their leaves. She began to holler, but Mad cupped his hands quickly, gently like holding onto a fragile moth fluttering within. Muffled curses were only heard by his ears.

“Woah, woah,” Mad said as he prevented the flowers from the offensive onslaught of crude language. “Let’s just try this,” Mad said as he slowly peeked into his hands.  Alice, visibly flustered, glared up at him. He grabbed another cookie, pinched off the smallest crumb, and held it in Alice’s face, “lick this, but don’t swallow.”

The two of them blushed and quickly looked away after the second meaning behind those words hit their brains at the same instant.

"Fine, let’s try it again,” Alice yelled, exasperated and annoyed with the situation. Between the catty, mean, good-for-nothing flowers, the change of her body, Mad’s fumbling support and flirting, the chaos of each moment since she stepped back into Wonderland had her anxiety set to high, and her nerves frazzled. She had almost died moments before and now all this. What was going to happen next? She felt sick, she felt hot and cold at the same time. Words raced across her mind, and she wanted to shut them off. She wanted to go home, go to bed, let the sweet escape of darkness take her once again and this could all just be a delusion.

She leaned into the crumb and gave it a small lick the way she was instructed to. Once again, she felt the warmth flood her face, the electricity pulsed through her body. She shut her eyes tight and waited for what was to come.

Suddenly, a sense of weightlessness and vertigo hit her brain to the center of her core. The world was upside down!  She sighed and opened her eyes. Mad was looking at her but his face was now upside down and his hands wrapped around her cheeks. His expression was dark and pinched with concern. Alice looked around, everything that should be right side up, was in fact, upside-down. She saw her toes but flipped. She saw her bare body; still naked but flipped.

“Mad!? What’s happening?” she asked sternly looking up at him. He straightened up and she then realized she was of normal height, but her neck was not. Her neck was long and winding, like the body of a snake. The weight of her head had pulled her down and was held by Mad’s hands.

The flowers were laughing, “We have no explanation for this one,” they chimed in together followed by a whole chorus of flowers in the field joined in the hysterics.

“Here!” Mad offered, obviously nervous and worried about this current iteration of Alice. “Let’s maybe try just a little bit of both.” He quickly put a crumb and a drop of the nectar onto Alice’s lips. Working with haste, she couldn’t squeeze in a moment to protest.

Heat raced into her face again, the tingles ran up and down her veins, moving like poison with each pump of her heart. She held her breath and kept her eyes shut. Please, let me get back to normal this time. Alice thought to herself, trying to imagine what her body had looked like before. Never perfect, a little bit of chub hanging off her belly and thighs. She never liked it before, but now wished she was back the way it was. She said those words to herself trying to recreate that image.

The flow of energy stopped pulsating underneath her skin. She slowly opened one eye. The world was upright. She opened the other eye and Mad was beaming at her, eyes glittering with excitement, lips pressed wildly in a crooked smile.

“Ahahah!” a burst of excitement escaped her lips, “I’m normal sized again!” She had raised her arms and skipped into the air, forgetting, in the moment of joy, that she stood before Mad and the judgmental flowers butt ass naked; her clothing shredded and in small piles strewn across the field.  The sudden growth spurt all but tattered the textile into shreds.

“Oh, maybe a tad bit shorter,” the daisy quipped. Alice pierced them with an icy glare, causing the two to shudder.

“Her imagination should be fixed now, right?” Mad asked excitedly, pulling off his jacket and wrapping it around Alice’s body. It didn’t fit, so he fastened it in a way that held onto her like a dress rather than a coat.

“Oh yes, without a doubt. I bet with that last taste, she was using her mind's eye and gave the newly incorporated imagination the tools to work with. I say she’s as good as a newborn babe in Wonderland. She’ll need more training, but she’s at least acclimated now,” the purple flower stated so matter-of-factly.

“Honey-Suckle, that’s wonderful, did you hear all that? You’re good as new now.” Mad grabbed her hands and voiced those praises so sweetly. His tone was like a wind chime singing in the breeze.

“Yes, she can probably think of where she wants to go and use your portals now. That much should be easy as soaking up the rays,” the other flower joined in on the lesson. “Just imagine where you want to be and jump through the door. You’ll find yourself where you want to go.”

Alice turned to Mad.

"Open a door now," Alice demanded with icy determination.

"Right now?" Mad asked, stuttering, the look in her eyes screamed something was wrong. "Don't you want to rest a little first?" he asked, raising his hand to touch her shoulder.

She slapped his hand and swayed just enough to avoid his touch. His expression faltered, his eyes large with alarm, screaming hurt and confusion. Her icy cold stare didn’t falter. Their eyes held one another, an unbroken gaze, both screaming at each other with different wants and desires. That voiceless language suddenly became impossible to decipher.

"Now." Her eye contact was unyielding, the tone of her voice was flat and serious.

Mad was the first to break away. Without further hesitation, Mad lifted his hands into the air and drew a circle with his arms. The atmosphere began to quiver and vibrate as a portal full of imaginative energy grew right in front of them.

Alice looked through the portal, she was unable to see anything through it. Her physical nervous system built between her eyes and her brain couldn’t create an image. Instead, she closed her eyes and imagined where she wanted to be. All she saw was blackness, but she could create the image she wanted with her emotions, describing to herself where she wanted to be.

"Goodbye!" The flowers waved farewell as the two turned their backs against the pious field.  Mad looked back and gave a reluctant smile and a half-felt wave of his hand.

Alice stepped into the portal. Energy surged around her, similar to the heat and electricity that raced through her veins when her body was acclimating to the imagination. She redirected her focus from the sensations in her body back to the image she had in mind and felt the quivering snap back into place. Within those few moments it took to take one step in front of the other, she was no longer in that field.

She opened her eyes.

It worked.

Mad followed one step behind hers. His head popped out first from the portal. "Why here?" he asked solemnly before pulling his body the rest of the way through.

"I'm going back home," Alice said as she turned back to face him as the portal dissipated.

The two of them stood in front of the door. The same door Alice had found herself asleep in front of earlier. The carnage from the chase and battle seemed to have disappeared. Smoke from the previous explosion was now a tiny wisp of a cloud in the backdrop of the forest. There were no more beasts, no more soldiers, just Mad, Alice, and her door home.

The gnarled, larger-than-average tree, extra fat at its base and twisted from its roots, wrapped around a wooden and iron-clad door. Alice always thought that the door looked like it was there first, and the tree had grown around it.

"This is all too much for me right now. I have to go back home," Alice exasperated. She stood in front of the door, her eyes taking in the iron weaving of its design, anticipating this to be her final opportunity to memorize it. The metal decorations that held the planks in place always reminded her of rabbits. Had it been an intentional design, she wasn’t sure.

"What is?" Mad asked, sadness seeped from the back of his throat. His chest began to tighten and heave.

Alice sighed. Of course, he would be sad; he had just gotten her back. But she straightened her back and turned around to face him with determination. Her face was stern, a glint in her eyes showed the empathy she felt for him; her heart ached. She kept her voice calm—breaking eye contact. Guilt suddenly wrapped itself around her heart as his desolate and disheartened appearance held tight in her emotions.

"Wonderland. All of it. All of this! I don’t remember it being this way. Running from whatever is after you, those snooty flowers, my body doing all that," she glanced at him again. The emotions I feel for you, she whispered in her heart. Afraid to even think too loudly—afraid it would hold her back from her decision.  Emotions that had all come rushing back the moment she saw him. She wanted to say something; the subliminal flirting, the natural pull she felt towards him. Like the moon orbiting the sun, she was pulled into him naturally. She wanted to feel the heat of his breath against her ear. The rise and fall of his chest as they caught it together. His hands holding her face, and his cheeks burning red at the very sight of her. She wanted it, but it was all too much to voice.