235: Alice’s Tale

“What would you like for your birthday?” asked the Mad Hatter

“Cake” answered Alice quickly.

“Cake … what?” prompted the Mad Hatter.

“Cake, please.” corrected Alice.

“That’s better” said the Mad Hatter,   “You shall have cake.” 

“”BUT” continued Alice.

BUT,  BUT, but? interrogated the Mad Hatter, “You have a qualifier for your request?”

“I only want cake” Alice went on, a little nervously, ”if I can have it on a nice cake stand.:  

“The girl wants a cake stand”, announced  the Mad Hatter, to no-one in particular then stopped to think for a while. “Where will I find a cake stand in this day and age?”

After a few seconds, he looked up with a smile on his face.  “I know”, he muttered to himself, “I’ll ask the neighbours.”

He summoned all the neighbours, via the street communicator.   Most responded immediately, though some were off adventuring (as usual on a Thursday).

It transpired that the residents of burrow-under-the-tree street were not amongst the  elite who owned a cake stand, except for my human beans, who had not one but two cake stands in the furthest recesses of their kitchen cupboards.

(How posh is that!)

These were promptly recovered, cleaned and presented to the Mad Hatter.

“Why, thank you” he said, genuinely delighted. “Alice will be so happy”.

And Alice was happy.  That weekend, she had the bestest birthday party a girl could have, complete with cake on a cake stand.

I was sitting in a nearby tree grinning and watching. I thought “Will Alice remember the cake stand in 2 years, or even 2 days, time, but I was forgetting the 84 photographs that Alice’s parents had taken.

The cake stand was front and centre in many of these photos.  The world will know of the cake stand for years to come. 

I was - and am - content.