Alice Through the Muddy Puddle

Exhausted, Debbie flopped onto the Emerson’s overstuffed couch and closed her eyes, thinking of the shiny new car that would make all of this babysitting worthwhile. Julie popped up behind the couch like a jack-in-the-box, eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Let’s play hide and seek again!”

Debbie tried and failed to stifle her groan. “Julie, we just played hide and seek three times!”

“And I found you! So it’s my turn to hide!”

“I wasn’t hiding Julie. I crouched in the hall closet for 15 minutes, and you never came to find me!”

Julie giggled and grinned. “That’s because I like hiding better!”

The older girl sighed dramatically and attempted to look angry, prompting another round of giggles from Julie. Legs still cramped from her time in the closet, Debbie had no desire to chase Julie around the Emerson’s home. “Want me to read you a book?”

“Tell me the story of Alice in Wonderland,” Julie pleaded, hide and seek forgotten.

Relieved that she could rest a while longer, Debbie grinned at the little girl. “Okay! Go get the book, and we’ll read it.”

“I don’t have the book.”

Debbie raised an eyebrow. “How can I read you a book that you don’t have?”

Rolling her eyes as though that was the silliest thing she had ever heard, Julie replied, “You don’t have to read it. Just tell me the story!”

Debbie tried to conjure up the story’s details, but her exhausted mind refused to cooperate. “I don’t know the story, Julie.”

“Everyone knows Alice!” Julie insisted. “Tell me the story. Pleeeease, Debbie!”

Thinking once more of the car that soon would be hers, Debbie decided it was worth a shot. Mr. Emerson always gave a big tip if Julie was happy when he got home, and the time was almost up. “Oh alright! Come sit with me.”

Scrambling over the back of the couch like a crab, Julie plopped onto the cushion next to Debbie and waited.

“Okay, so this girl named Alice…”

Soft red curls bouncing, Julie shook her head. “You forgot to say ‘once upon a time’.”

“Once upon a time, this girl named Alice fell asleep in a tree…”

“No no no! You’re not supposed to say she’s asleep until the end!” Julie insisted, staring incredulously at her babysitter.

“Okay, okay!” Debbie took a deep breath and began again. “Once upon a time, this girl named Alice decided she didn’t want to study and snuck into a field to play.” She looked at Julie for approval before continuing.

“She saw a white rabbit and decided to chase it. Running through a big clump of bushes, Alice fell into a big muddy puddle and sank right through the bottom into a crazy, upside-down world.” Hearing a soft tsking sound, she glanced at Julie, who was shaking her head once more.

“That’s not how it happened! She fell through a rabbit hole.”

Sighing, Debbie replied, “In this version, she fell through a mud puddle.” Thinking quickly, she added, “and she didn’t even get dirty! It was very curious.”

A thoughtful expression crossed Julie’s face.

Debbie accepted the silence as approval and continued. “Alice landed in a room that had a little bottle on a table. Do you know what the bottle said?”

“Drink me!” Julie cried happily, finally recognizing something from the story.

“That’s right! So Alice drank up the whole bottle. Suddenly, she started to shrink. She got smaller and smaller until she slipped right inside the bottle. Alice tried to climb out, but the sides were too slippery. She tried to break the bottle, but the glass was much too thick. Finally, she just sat down and cried.”

Pausing for a moment, Debbie waited for feedback from Julie, but the child seemed content with the story. “Alice cried so much that the whole bottle filled with an ocean of tears. At first, the thought she might drown, but then she figured out that she could breathe underwater like a fish!”

Julie covered her mouth with a hand and giggled. “Alice couldn’t breathe like a fish in the story I know. Did bubbles come out when she breathed?”

“They sure did! Thousands of them!”

After Julie’s giggles subsided, Debbie continued. “Since Alice can breathe underwater, she decides to swim down as deep as she can. Then she hears a voice asking, ‘Who are yoooou?’”

“There’s a caterpillar down there?” Julie asked, astonished.

“Don’t be silly, it was a big, chubby seahorse with its tail curled around a funny looking pipe that had hoses hanging off it.”

“Was he sitting on a big mushroom?”

“Better! He was sitting on a great big jellyfish!” Debbie smiled at her own cleverness as Julie emitted a long eeeeew and giggled. “The seahorse told Alice to have a seat, and she jumped onto her own big jellyfish and sat down.” Another round of eeeews and laughter followed.

“So Alice told Mr. Seahorse about how she shrunk and couldn’t get out of the bottle. The seahorse puffed on his pipe and thought for a while. Finally, he told Alice that the solution was simple. She needed to get big again!” Debbie paused for dramatic effect.

“But how’s she gonna do that?”

“One side of the jellyfish makes people bigger, and one side makes them smaller. So all Alice had to do was rip off a hunk and eat it!” Debbie expected more disgusted noises and giggles, but Julie looked upset.

“She can’t hurt the jellyfish! Alice wouldn’t do that!”

Debbie recovered quickly. “Of course she wouldn’t! And that’s what she told the seahorse, who just sat smoking his pipe for a while longer before telling her to do what she wanted. So Alice became friends with the giant jellyfish.”

“Did it help her get out of the bottle?” Julie inquired, readily accepting the twist in the story.

Relieved that Julie had provided a perfect way to finish, the babysitter ended her odd tale. “That’s right! The jellyfish got her out of the bottle and carried her all the way up to the edge of the muddy puddle. Alice was very tired when she got there and closed her eyes. When she woke up, she looked for the jellyfish, but he was gone. She saw how late it was and ran home for dinner.”

Debbie grinned triumphantly, but the little girl seemed to be waiting for something. Her smile faltered as she looked questioningly at Julie.

“You forgot to say ‘the end’.”

Stifling a chuckle, Debbie shouted, “The End!”

Almost immediately, they heard a car door slam, and Julie rocketed off the couch. As Mr. Emerson unlocked the front door, the little girl jumped into his arms.

“Hi, Princess! Did you have fun with Debbie?” He smiled at the excitement on the child’s face.

“Yes! We played hide and seek, and then she told me a story!” Julie turned back to beam at the babysitter.

Sliding Julie back to the floor, Mr. Emerson reached into his pocket. “That’s great, Princess!” He handed a few bills to Debbie, who immediately noticed the ten dollar tip.

Thanking Mr. Emerson and waving goodbye to Julie, the babysitter grabbed her backpack and opened the door. As her foot landed on the front porch, she heard the little girl ask, “Daddy, can you tell me the story of Alice in Waterland tonight?” Debbie laughed as she imagined Julie telling her father, “It wasn’t a mushroom, Daddy. It was a jellyfish!”