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I remember that day. When the hot sun beat us both of us, soon we were both asleep. We were so exhausted, drained. We fell asleep under the big oak, you with your boots half off, me resting my head on your shoulder. Do you remember?

Just earlier we saw that black rabbit run off in a hurry; mumbling to himself: "Oh dear! Oh dear! What have I done with it?"

Now because we were young as believed that rabbits could misplace items, we asked him if we could help, you and I did.” Excuse me, Mr. Rabbit? Have you lost something?" You asked.

" I have! I misplaced my watch, it was somewhere around here when I last checked the time," He replied checking under his unusually large rabbit foot. Actually, now that I think about it, the rabbit was a lot bigger than usual. It was about as tall as us.

But we weren't afraid, he was a nice rabbit. He wore a white vest and red bow tie. His hat matched his vest and his fluffy ears stuck out from the top of it.

"What does your watch look like?" I asked politely, I wasn't afraid of the rabbit, but if I were rude I wasn't sure what he would do.

He made a heart with his fingers (Yes, this rabbit had very nice human like fingers concealed in his white gloves) "It's a heart, and solid gold. Very valuable," He replied searching through some tall grass, his rabbit tail wiggling.

We started to search too, but nothing came up. Then suddenly a large 'ping' rang out from the rabbit's pocket.

"Oh my!" He said, do you remember his British accent? I remember it.” I seemed to have left it in my pocket!" He was now wearing pants. They were red like his bow tie.

Now, because we were young and believed that rabbits could slowly become more human and mysteriously acquire articles of clothing, we didn't question why. We just let the magic happen.

He stared at his valuable solid gold heart-shaped pocket watch, "Hm, it appears I'm late. I best be off then," He waved and in the blink of an eye he was disappearing down a large rabbit hole. And if I remember correctly, wasn't there before.

You noticed something glint in the sunlight (You always were more observant than I) you nudged me and pointed. No words needed, I saw it too. The solid gold heart-shaped pocket watch, left behind by the tall black rabbit.

It was a strange watch; all of the numbers were not numbers. They all said 'late' and there was a hand pointing to each one. (There were four) "Odd watch," I commented, you nodded in agreement.


Now because we were young and believed that suddenly appearing rabbit holes existed (and because we were responsible children), we jumped after the rabbit, to return his watch, you and I did.

Your skirt poofed out and caught the air, making your decent slow, as my new umbrella did. We saw the rabbit making his way down. He had no umbrella or skirt to cushion his drop, but he moved slowly as we did.

Somehow, either he slowed down, or I sped up but the rabbit and I were level,” Excuse me Mr. Rabbit, you seemed to have dropped your watch," I said holding it out for him.

The rabbit put on reading glasses after retrieving them from his pocket, "Hmm, I do not believe that this watch belongs to me. It does look valuable though, I do hope that it's owner gets it back," He said then tucked his glasses back in his pocket,” Now I have a matter to attend to. Please excuse me," Then he was plunging into the darkness.

I looked to you for answers you shrugged, letting me know that you had none. I stared at the watch, all the late-s were exchanged for Roman numerals and there was only two hands. "Three o'clock," I said handing you the watch.

"So it is," You said. You put it in your pocket for safe keeping. (You always had the better pockets. Mine were usually too small or already had things in them. A yo-yo, some cards, maybe the occasional bag of crackers)

You were next to me now,” This place is strange," You said pointing to one of the many cupboards that made up the wall of the rabbit hole. You took the watch out of your pocket and clicked it open,"We've been falling for two minutes," You said returning it to it's new home.

"So it has," I said in reply. It felt much longer than two minutes. I remember wondering how the rabbit was going, if his appointment was going well.

Our feet landed softly on the maroon and black checkerboard ground.

"Well, that was in interesting fall," You said dusting nothing off your skirt.

I nodded and closed the umbrella. Suddenly the umbrella seemed to grow arms and legs! He too dusted off his...bottom and hopped away waving happily.

Now because we were young and believe that umbrellas could grow limbs, we waved back calling out 'thank you's.

"So, how do we get back up?"You asked looking at the rabbit hole we just fell through.

I thought about it and studied the hole,"Well it appears to be a chimney," I noted. The room we were now standing in looked like a miniature hose. Tiny sofas, doll sized cupboards lining the walls. The hole in the ceiling seemed like an ideal chimney,"Well, how does Santa Clause get back up?"

You scoffed,"'How does Santa Clause get back up?' Santa Clause is magic, he uses that to get up. Everyone knows that," You said quite matter-of-factly. "We can't get out without his magic,"(You always knew more than I)

I pondered this for a second,"Well, how are we going to get this magic then?" I asked.

You shrugged and preceded into a small door that we could hardly fit through (I don't recall IT being there before either) We then found ourselves in a even stranger room than before. Long tall, skinny doors ran on each side of the pure white hall-like room. We counted together coming up with a total of 24 doors, 12 on each side. Then on the back wall was a glass table with many labeled bottles on it.

We tried the first door on my right, it wouldn't budge, actually it looked quite fake, like it was part of the wall or something. So we walked to the glass table ignoring the other 23 doors.

There were 30 bottles on the table, the liquid was every color imaginable. Pink and blue and green and purple. Only the blue ones were labeled "Drink me" all the others said "Do not drink" Because we were so interested in the bottles we didn't notice the small wooden door behind us, it wouldn't have mattered either way, it was much smaller than the other door.

Now because we were young and held on to our parents' lessons tight (Always follow directions) we each picked up a blue bottle, both labeled 'Drink me' and took a sip.

It didn't taste good, but it didn't taste bad, now that I think about it, I don't remember it tasting like anything.

My body began to heat up, I don't know if yours did too, but I'm guessing it did. Then everything around me began to grow. (Because a shrinking person is simply absurd!) Backed up into the small door that I mentioned. It was now the perfect size, just right for us now that everything else was bigger.

But when you backed into it, it sneezed.

Now because we were young and believed that doors could sneeze you said "Oh! I'm sorry, and bless you,"

The door nob jingled and little black beady eyes blinked in the wood,"Oh" he sniffed,"I've been in this room so long, I must be collecting some dust!" He sneezed again.

"Bless you," We said at the same time.I held out my handkerchief, then realized that the door had no hands. So I just polished the handle.

"Oh thank you ever so much!" The door said,"I would love to repay you with letting you through me, but I'm locket," He said sadly.

"Where is the key?" You asked rocking on the backs of your heels.

The door looked to the table,"It's up there," He said. "But now you're far too small to reach it,"

I pondered this for a while. Then noticed a small silver box under the table,"What is this?" I asked then walked over.