He calmly poured her a cup of tea and handed it to her.

“So tell me about yourself”, he said as he passed her the sugar bowl. She took it cautiously and grabbed a spoon and dipped into it.

“Ouch!!!”, a tiny voice cried out and she dropped it on the table and all the sugar spilled out. In the middle of the pile was a tiny man dressed in a little brown suit and h had mouse ears on his head. She stared in shock as he brushed the sugar off and hopped on her hand and walked up her arm and got in her face.

“What do you think you’re doing? I was just sleeping away all peaceful like and suddenly a spoon hit me on my little mousie head”, he squeaked angrily.

“Well there you are, DorMinMouse”, the Mad Hatter cried out happily and reached over and picked him up between his thumb and index finger and set him on top of a cupcake gently”, I was worried that pesky Syunggie Cat ate you for his mid afternoon snack.”

The little mouse man swiped some frosting off the cupcake and it off his finger,”So who’s the gorgeous chick that almost gave me a concussion?”, he said and looked at Ali.

“I had just asked her when you sooooo rudely interrupted. Do I need to teach you more manners?”, the Mad Hatter nagged back at him. They both looked at her and she glared at him.

“Ali….. this is just a dream…. you two don’t really exist. I’m going to wake up soon, right back in my ty day,”, she huffed and stood up to walk away.

“It’s rude to leave without excusing yourself”, the Mad Hatter nagged at her.

“Oh let her go, she isn’t that pretty anyway”, said the DorMinMouse and busied himself with the frosting on his cupcake perch.

She rolled her eyes and walked out of the garden, it was in the middle of a dense forest and she soon found herself lost. She walked until she came to another clearing. In the middle of it was a huge orange mushroom.

“And just what do you think your doing?”, a silky voice said and she looked up. In the middle of the mushroom a man sat cross legged dressed in a bright shiny green track suit with sequined sneakers. He held a long stemmed cigarette holder in one hand and blew smoke in her face. She coughed and waved her hand to disperse the smoke.

“I was trying to get away from a nutty hat maker and his mouse friend and I got lost”, she snapped back at him, annoyed.

“Well”, he said slowly as he took a drag, “why don’t you come sit up here with me? I promise I don’t bite and you look like you could use a cigarette.” She thought for a moment then clambered up beside him and sat on her knees. He leered at her legs until she pulled her skirt down over them.

“You seen like the nicest person I’ve met here so far. A bunny boy pushed me down a hole, a silly grinning cat made me drink a potion that shrunk me then the hat man said I was rude”, she pouted and reached for the pack of cigarettes that sat beside the man.

“Soooometimes”, he said and blew out the smoke, “you have to look at it from someone else’s perspective, pretty girl in orange.”

“Look, I lost my car, my job, and my fiance today”, she pulled out a cigarette and lit it, “and now I’m in a brizarro world where people dress like animals and there’s a psychopath serving tea. I think you could cut me a little slack here.” She took a drag and blew the smoke out in perfect rings. He reached out with his cigarette and put it right through the middle of one and chuckled.

“Did any of those things truly belong to you, my prettie?”, he said and blew a smoke ring so big it circled her head.

She coughed and waved the smoke away. “What does that even mean?”

“If they were truly yours, then you wouldn’t have lost them, now would you?”, he said a held his hand out, a green bottle appeared in his hand and he opened it and took a drink, “maybe you lost them because you didn’t need them anymore”, he said in a singsong voice.

“Dude, you’re not making any sense. Maybe you should lay off the drinking”, she said and took the bottle from him and smelled it. The alcohol in it was so strong it made her head swim. He snatched it back and made it disappear.

“If you drink that, you will never make it back home. You should stick to the tea”, he said with a chuckle.

“Where is this place anyway?”, she said.

“Dreamland of course. Where did you think you went when you fell asleep, hmmmmmmm”, he said cheekily and scratched his head. She stared hard at him, the arm he had scratched his head with had come from behind his back. As she watched she noticed that his back end was long and had lots of legs.

“AHHHHHH what are you?”, she cried and scooted away from him. He chuckled and reached for her just as she tumbled off the mushroom and landed right on her .

“Have a nice trip… see you next fall”, he called out as he stood and slithered up a tree and was gone, leaving a trail of smoke rings as he went. She got up and took off, her feet thumped loudly across the ground. Soon she emerged from the forest and stopped to catch her breath. She leaned against a rock and panted heavily.

“What…… the…… hell? That man was a caterpillar…… strangest dream I’ve ever had”, she said crossly and sat down and leaned her back against the the rock.

“Believe me, I’ve had stranger”, said a cheerful voice and she looked up to see two men in front of her. They were dressed in matching outfits; blue shorts with white shirts and red suspenders. They each had a little domed hat with a propeller on it also. The one that spoke was short and his companion was taller and it was comical that they were dressed like twins.

“Really? More of you people? Okay, where are your tails and ears? Or do you have some extra arms and legs tucked away somewhere?”, Ali got up and walked around them and checked for any abnormalities.

“Tails? Ears? Hidden arms and legs, you say?”, said the taller one incredulously.

The short one shook his and looked behind him, “No tails here, what about you brother dear?”

His brother did the same and shook his head with a grin, “It’s safe to say that I lack a tail as well.”

She stared at the curious brothers and suddenly remembered what the Mad Hatter had told her about being rude.

“Hello, my name is Ali. It’s nice to meet.”, she dropped an awkward curtsy and smiled at them. In response they each took one of her hands and shook it up and down rapidly.

“How do ya do and shake hands, shake hands, shake hands”, said the tall brother.

“How do ya do and shake hands, state your name and business”, said the short one with a grin.

“But I already told you my name”, Ali said slightly taken aback at their exuberance.

“Oh that you did, but what is your business here?”, said his brother.

“I wish I knew…. I think I’m dreaming. So my business is to wake up?”, Ali said with a furrow in her brow.

“Well that is fine business. We hope you figure that out”,said the tall short one.

“Wait, you haven’t told me your names yet!”, Ali said suddenly.

“I am TweedleDee”, the tall one pointed at himself with a grin, “and my brother is TweedleStupid”, he said and giggled.

“It’s TweedleDum, not TweedleStupid”, huffed his height challenged twin.

“TweedleDee and TweedleDum”, Ali said as she tried not to laugh”, its very nice to meet you.”

“Which one?”, TweedleDum said with a grin.

“Excuse me?”, Ali said.

“Which of us is it nice to meet?”, TweedleDum said and laughed.

“Um…. I suppose it is nice to meet both of you?”, she shrugged.

Suddenly they started to hit and pinch each other and ended up on the ground on the ground together.

“It was mine and you broke it!”,TweedleDum yelled as he pinched his brothers ear.

“OUCH!!! I said I was sorry and I even fixed it…. why can’t you just let it go?”, TweedleDee said and bit his brother on the nose.

“Because it was my favorite. I let you hold it and then you broke it on purpose!”, TweedleDum said and stuck his finger up his brothers nose.

Ali backed away quietly and the brother continued to fight long after she could see them; their voice were loud and only got louder as they fought over some past transgression.

She walked along the path; it was quieter far from the brawling twins and sometimes she swore she heard footsteps but when she turned to look behind her, there wasn’t anyone there. She noticed that the path changed too. The dirt became red bricks with hearts in the middle and the trees along the sides were cut into the shapes of hearts.