After the white witch

Here’s a bit that comes after the introduction of the white witch in Alice.

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“Evelyn,” said Christopher. “Do you want me to rub aloe vera on your legs?”

Christopher loved Evelyn’s long legs. Sure, Christopher loved Evelyn’s charcoal-silk hair and Asian eyes like black almonds as much as Alice did. But mostly Christopher loved her long legs. They reminded him of something he could map.

“No,” said Evelyn. “I want you to go to the pond with Alice. She wants to show you something.”

Evelyn went back to the sangria, and Alice and Christopher walked to the pond. When they got there, they took off all their clothes, jumped in, and then lay naked on the bank in the sun for a moment.

“I forgot to cut the oranges,” said Christopher.

“It’s OK,” said Alice.

“What did you want to show me?” asked Christopher.

“The bushes there,” said Alice.

Christopher looked in the direction of Alice’s gesture.

“That bush in particular. That’s where I saw the thing move. That’s where the hum of the fairies stopped. I think it had something to do with the change in the cosmos — the night I went under the water and came up to see all the constellations changed.”

“Hmm,” said Christopher. “That’s interesting.”

“Maybe you should make a map of it,” said Alice. “You’re the mapmaker.”

She squeezed water from her brown curls. Christopher leaned over and kissed her. She liked it when he did that. Christopher had nice lips.

“There it is again,” she said.

The bushes rattled but the hum didn’t stop this time.

“Maybe they’re getting used to it,” said Alice.

A white bald head stuck up out of the bush. Youthful it looked, or timeless, but definitely white and bald.

“Hello,” said Alice.

Nothing said the head.

“Hello,” said Christopher.

Still nothing.

“We’d better take care of it,” said Alice. “It looks hurt.”

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