They arrived at the museum in no time. Unfortu-nately, a huge crowd had lined up at the turnstiles. As she gripped her ticket and prepared for the wait, she looked up at Jericho.
And froze.
He seemed completely different again. If she hadn’t just been talking to him, she would’ve assumed this was a different man.
He answered her unasked question. “We’ve changed venues. I have to dress accordingly.”
He’d worn a black suit for the Survey Meeting and blue-collar work clothes as the Gravekeeper—now, as the museum’s curator, the only thing his outfit shared with those two was the opening at the chest. He wore an unimposing, light brown coat and pants, his delicate spectacles resting on his nose once more.
Other than the scars, he looked like a scholar. Fitting.
He smiled. “You’ll get used to me soon enough. Now come over here—I’ll guide you.”
Alice frowned. “I’d feel bad cutting in line.”
Jericho laughed. “That’s what a priority ticket is for!”
He beckoned her to join him. They walked alongside the line, she handed her ticket over at the turnstile, and they squeezed into the packed museum.
Alice paused in the front room, her eyes widening. Other attendees bustled past her.
The paintings on the walls were alive.
Painted elks ran through fields of swaying grass, fish splashed in two-dimensional streams. A bird swooped out of a painting and flapped through the room, causing a few children nearby to clap their hands in delight.
“This…this is amazing,” Alice breathed. “What is all this? How is it happening?!”
“If I told you the trick, it wouldn’t be interesting to you anymore. Besides—we’re only getting started.”
Alice felt like she’d stepped into another dimension. It wasn’t just that animals could leap out of their picture frames—the pictures lit up, featured shifting clouds, flickered with geometric patterns. Alice found herself squinting at the red glow emanating from the painting of a sunset. The beauty moved her. She knew it had to be some sort of illusion, but it still gripped her and wouldn’t let go.
A rabbit jumped out of a painting and bounced past Alice. She watched it run, dumbfounded.
“Mommy!” some kid shouted as she pointed at it. “It’s a bunny rabbit! Let’s catch it together!”
“Whoa!” someone else cried. “Did a flying squirrel just jump up there?”
Alice rubbed her eyes. “I still want to know the trick behind it,” she murmured.
Jericho gave a wry smile. “You came all the way here—take your time and enjoy the exhibits. You can have all the explanations you want later.”
“Thank you. But do you really have time to be my guide? You seem so busy…”
Skipping the line with her priority ticket had been enough of a blessing. She didn’t want to monopolize the time of the most important man in the museum.
But Jericho pursed his lips. “No, I’ll stay. Right now, I’m more concerned…about you than anything else that may come up.”
“Me? Why are you concerned about me?” She and Jericho had hardly spoken; she wondered what might make him worry about her. She glanced in a nearby mirror to confirm that she didn’t look sick or anything.
Jericho’s reflection loomed behind hers. He gazed through his glasses at Alice’s reflection in the mirror.
“You don’t look satisfied,” he said evenly. “Something’s wrong.”
“It’s not that…”
“It is that. And it concerns me.” His eyes were unreadable. “Did something happen to you in Hatter Mansion?”
“Nothing specific.” Alice’s lips moved as if she were talking to herself in the mirror. She pushed her shoulders back, feeling a rare opportunity.
“Jericho…I’ve just been wondering. Why did the move bring me to the Country of Diamonds? Why here? I can’t get the question out of my mind.”
She’d never been able to say those words to anyone in Hatter Mansion. Jericho raised his eyebrows in response.
“Then…before you came here, you were in another country?”
Alice nodded. “But if I say more, it’ll only be complaints. You don’t want to hear that.” Alice didn’t like subjecting others to her grousing.
The curator in the mirror puffed out a breath. “I don’t mind. And I don’t know what you’ve heard, but…I’m living on dead time.”
Alice remembered a similar comment from Blood. “Dead time?” she repeated. “What does that mean? You’re alive!”
The people of Wonderland were living embodiments of time. It was why when one person vanished, another quickly came in to take his place. Everyone in Wonderland said the same thing: We’re replaceable. Life and death are cheap.
But this was the first time someone had said he was already dead.
Jericho stood there for a long moment, a fragile smile on his face. Then he tapped his chest…maybe referencing the clock inside.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said quietly. “This is the Gravekeeper’s territory—I take care of the graves, both below and above.”
“……”
She still didn’t understand the “already dead” thing, but it didn’t sound like Jericho would elaborate. And she was pretty desperate to talk to someone about her situation, so if he was offering…
“Well, I first came to the Country of Hearts,” she explained. “I stayed in Heart Castle as a maid, sorta. Then I moved into the Country of Clover. I knew there was infighting between the different territories, but I still visited a lot of the other ones—including Hatter Mansion.”
As Alice talked, Jericho listened quietly. She cleared her throat.
“When I came to Diamonds, I went to Hatter Mansion again. And the same people live there, but…they don’t recognize me anymore. And little by little, I’ve realized that I never existed in this place before.”
“Same people?” Jericho repeated.
Alice ran her finger down the mirror. It left an oily mark from her skin, which quickly vanished.
“I knew Blood, Elliot, Dee, and Dum in Hearts and Clover. And even if they didn’t recognize me, I figured it was safer to stay somewhere I knew. But now that I’ve been there awhile…I’m not sure that impulse decision was a good one. I feel a little stuck now.”
If she’d gone to other territories and investigated them instead, or even if she’d been honest about where she’d come from the first time she re-met Blood, maybe things would’ve gone differently. Maybe they would’ve gone better.