Every knot was once a straight rope| Open

That golden glow that touched her fair skin felt divine, this warmth that spread over surface and seeped down to the bone making her shiver with a sensation that was nothing short of breathtaking. Amelia wondered how much darker it might make the copper dots on her body, those freckles that she had spent so much of her isolated childhood parked in front of a mirror connecting like they were stars to form constellations on herself. There had been a Snark, Mandrill, and Grampus painted on Amelia with these small wonky-dots that as she’d gotten older popped up more and more. How strange and yet fascinating it had been for her young mind to explore!

Her march had been swift, lofty too. So very many things to see in the woods, all the greenery, all the tall lumbering trees that seemed to groan a hello to her when the slightest breeze touched the sky, and Melly, she answered back. Smile wide and a curtsy ready because wasn’t nature the true royalty? Or perhaps that was merely a thought seeded by all the time she’d spent watching Hatter worship his plants and nourish seedlings to bloom. The wind wanted to greet her too, it’s cool fingers sweeping across her bare legs and making the skirt of her dress twirl around her thighs. ”Hello to you too. How do you do?” Her musical voice responded spinning in a circle to help.

Then just like that, strings cut from a dancing marionette, Amelia fell. It felt like forever- this constant descent into blackness but in the distance there was light once more, the dreamy kind that she embraced as an old friend, first out of necessity and then from fondness. There was a bear in a suit stood on hind legs with a frog whose neck bulged with a resounding ribbet, a cue! Music like so many tinkering elves and hum of baritone filled her ears and pulled at the corners of her mouth. A ball and she was the guest of honor. Everyone was waiting they’d said and who was she to disappoint. The floor was clouds and up above some mirrored image of Wonderland, Melly turned topsy-turvy . In the middle of the collections of clouds she could see a human-shaped man, tall, dark, and handsome though there was nothing distinguishing about his features. Amelia just knew. It was in the way he stood, confidence abound, and the kindness that she could see glowing from that spot in his chest where one’s heart would be. Was it Hatter come to join her? But no, this man was unfamiliar- the charmer she hadn’t met yet.

Why did some things end? So others could begin. Amelia couldn’t tell how long her slumping body had been laid out on what little beaten path there was in the wood, but the sun was in a different position in the sky, an inch or two further toward sunset by any calculations and the sounds of the forest were becoming sleepy. Early crickets rubbed their legs together to chirp and birds were flying home to nestle. Snaps of twigs and rustle of branches all around, Melly might have let her mind wander to darker places, menacing ones where nightmares might have begun to slip through the shadows, but her pulse was steady even as she groggily stirred, stretching like a cat from its afternoon nap, a deep yawn cutting through the foliage. As she stood, her head darted in the direction of the larger presence around, seeing in those creeping shadows another human-like form. ”My dream!” She excited bounding over to the as of yet unidentified person, skip in her step and wholly unafraid. ”The most marvelous of meanderings with dancing bears and-“ Amelia looking down at her pretty dress now dirt smudged in places and sighed. ”Quite the mess you are, My Dear.”

Notes: Wearing this