Chapter 8: The Madhatter

After what felt like forever the blackness faded into a smoke-filled room. I squinted my eyes to focus on where the memory had taken me, but it was so hard to make anything out. My eyes scanned the room searching for either her face or his. There were too many people in this bar. From the volume of the noise alone, you could tell it was crowded tonight. As my sight began to return to normal, I was finally able to recognize where we were.

Why didn’t I think of this bar sooner? Willow was always raving about the artwork done here and wanted to come to get some photos for her art series, ‘Happily Never After’. That was the only reason we got our fake IDs in the first place. However, we never ended up using them to come here.

There was a house party at Tracy Allen’s due to her mom and dad being in Bermuda for vacation for a week. She planned a party every night that they were gone but Willow and I were convinced after only one party that it wasn’t our scene. Plus, we were forced to go to the liquor store because there was a rule that in order to get into the party you had to bring a bottle. The cashier watched both of us as we walked throughout the store. When we walked up to the counter and he asked for our IDs we thought for sure we were caught. We ended up both leaving the store with bottles of booze in hand and were too scared to ever go back there to try again.

In Ellis County, the Mad Hatter was the most popular hotspot for hipsters and college kids looking to get drunk and hook up with members of the opposite sex. The interior was amazing, decked out with full Alice in Wonderland decor from its floors to all four walls. I would have to say based on everything I was seeing that the dance floor is my favorite part of this entire bar. It was painted to look like the Cheshire cat's face making sure not to leave out his huge evil grin. When I looked a little closer, I could see that the floor changed colors as people walked and danced across it. Each wall’s scene was more vivid than the last one, making it that much more memorable. Everything about this bar looked like it was literally ripped out of a page from The Alice in Wonderland children's book. I was a little jealous that she came here without telling me.

From what Willow told me, the Mad Hatter’s bar was painted by Alec Dunby. Any restaurant painted by the most popular artist in town managed to experience nothing, but success once renovated by him. Not sure if that was because of the nostalgia of him himself or something about the business that kept people coming back. He was famous not just for his beautiful works of art but for his anonymity.

There was not one person in town that knew who he was or even what he looked like. Anytime he was paid for his work each bar had to follow certain guidelines. A newspaper article was released with gossip on the process that he made the owner go through. One no one was allowed in the building at the time of renovation, the business had to allot a whole week for it to be completed, and that he designed absolutely everything with his own hands. His manager handled the business end while he made his vision come to life with hard work and determination. In my opinion that was his only redeeming quality.

It boggled me that even though no one had ever seen his face that still didn’t stop the hordes of girls out there that were infatuated with him. I was not included in that pool. If I were Willow would have murdered me in my sleep a long time ago. What was so appealing about him anyway? All we had to go off was the many rumors that had been circulating since he first premiered 2 years ago when he was paid to do street art on the side of buildings. Since then it had transformed from street art to interior designing actual rooms and many business owners wanted their establishments made over by him.

As the song changed it brought me back to the here and now. Willow. The only way that I was going to find her was if I went around and looked. There were too many people in the bar, and it was too hectic to find her by just standing here looking into the crowd. It would take too long. I made my way through the dance floor. After 6 excuse me later, I started to notice a pattern.

One the people around me couldn’t hear me and two I wasn’t bumping into anyone when I should have been. I walked around not caring who got in my way and hurried through the crowd. That meant that even though I was here in her memory and I was walking around like my body was here in person, no one could physically see me. If this is a memory of Willow’s, how come I wasn’t taken straight to her. Is there some kind of limitation on how this works? This could be a good or bad thing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see where the memory takes us. When I started passing the rainbow mushroom tables I couldn’t help but analyze face after face hoping that one would call out to me. Where were they?

Just like magic I heard her voice, “Thank you. Keep the change okay?”. There was another voice that chimed in, “Thanks so much. Please let me know if you need anything else.” I followed the direction the voice was coming from and my eyes landed on the bar. It sounded like she could have been talking to the bartender. I could tell the inspiration for the bar was the mad hatter tea party scene because of the big sign saying, ‘We're All Mad Here!’.

Like in the story there was a white oversized table cover over the bar counter that caused the table cover to appear to be changing colors. When my gaze moved upwards, I could see that the lights were designed to look like teapots of all different colors and were strategically hung at many different angles. The barstools at the bar were all different in size, shape, and color. I could tell that each of them was hand-made from antique oak due to the many years of observing my grandpa in the workshop.

I found myself mindlessly walking over to the bar in a daze. There was this strange part of me that just felt like I was headed in the right direction. My assumptions were confirmed when I was halfway there, and my eyes landed on her. She was recognizable from her tight blonde curls put halfway up and the other half down with a blue ribbon in her hair. She was the only one I knew that would come to a bar decked out in full Alice in Wonderland attire.

It was almost as if I could hear her defending herself, “What? It's all part of the process! How else am I supposed to get into character?”

As I walked toward her an overwhelming feeling of unease swept through me. For some reason, I could feel a sense of urgency mixed with excitement. The excitement was from her but where was this other feeling coming from? I couldn’t quite pinpoint its location as I looked around me. Willow grabbed her teacup and took a sip as she pushed her hair out of her face and glanced to her left. I wanted to see what she was looking at so rushed toward her. This was the last time Willow was herself, I can’t miss anything! That one thing could change everything.