Alice in Wonderland

The second the alarm went off, Alice jumped out of bed. She had never been a morning person before, but now, since she became her own boss, waking up at the crack of dawn no longer posed a problem for the thirty-one-year-old. Dressed in her navy blue pajamas adorned with stars and matching slippers, Alice shuffled into the kitchen and switched on the Smart Light. At first, Alice was skeptical when she heard of this invention, but was now a total believer. The light started off dim and gradually became brighter over a span of five minutes, giving the human eye time to adjust. Additionally, the man who installed it hooked it up to a tiny sound machine that emitted bird songs whenever someone turned the light switch on in the morning.

“Good morning to me,” Alice said and smiled as she pulled out her favorite mug from the cupboard. A multitude of colorful squiggly lines decorated the ceramic cup, always filling Alice with optimism for the new day.

As she waited for the water to boil, she sat down at the table and closed her eyes. In she inhaled, and out she exhaled.

“Today will be a great day,” she said excitedly, just like she had every single day.

After having poured the hot water over her tea bag, Alice grabbed the home-made yogurt and granola combo from the fridge and rushed to the door. She was ready to leave when she realized that she was still in her pajamas. Laughing at herself, she placed her breakfast on the table in the hall and went to change in the bedroom. In under five minutes, wearing blue jeans, blue pullover, and white sneakers, she was ready to go. Alice grabbed her tea and muesli and slowly walked down the stairs.

 A turn of the key, and she was in “Wonderland.” The bell above the door greeted her energetically. Alice switched on the lights and looked around. Her dream finally came true. There were bookshelves all around her. Slowly, she made her way through the aisles, picking up the misplaced books along the way. People often pulled out a book to browse through it and sometimes even carried it out of the aisle, but then abandoned it whenever they found something else that caught their interest.

For other people, alphabetizing all the books every single day might prove tiresome, but to Alice, it was like a walk in the park. All she had to do was run her finger through the spines, and the books would jump out and rearrange themselves. The scattered books she had gathered, flew out of her hands and danced, before returning onto the shelf.

“There,” Alice said proudly to herself when she got to the last book under the letter ‘Z.’

A final look around the room, and the bookstore was ready for the public. Alice walked up to the door, unlocked it, and flipped the sign over to show ‘Open’ to the outside world. Waiting for her first customer of the day, Alice thought of her grandmother, who was the one that turned Alice’s dream into reality. On her deathbed, Grandma Mary revealed that she had been saving up some money for Alice so that she could one day run her own bookstore. The will also included details regarding the deed to the store.

“I know you’re special,” Grandma Mary said with a gentle smile. “I hope you put your gift to good use.”

At that point, Alice was not sure what that gift was, but she had since discovered it.

“Hello,” a man in his 40s said as he passed by Alice.

“Hello!” Alice exclaimed, and placed her breakfast under the counter. “Please let me know if you have any questions,” she called to the guy who was halfway down the aisle filled with children’s books.

The black-haired man raised his hand and kept on walking.

“Does he have a boy or a girl? How old? Is it for his child or a gift for a stranger?” Alice wondered.

Just as the man was getting to the end of the aisle, a book with an elephant on the cover fell out of the shelf, prompting the man to jump as if he had seen a ghost.

Alice giggled.

The man bent over, picked up the book, and leafed through the pages. Turning the book front and back, he nodded and brought it to the register.

“Do you know if this is a good one for a five-year-old girl? I’m supposed to read something to my daughter tonight, and we have already gone through all the books we have a million times,” the man, who looked like an Adam, asked.

“May I see it?” Alice asked, reaching for the book. “Balthazar and his stripes,” she read the title out loud.

Suddenly, Adam was no more. Instead, a baby elephant stood in front of Alice’s register.

“Why are you sad?” Alice asked.

“Peter is so fast. I want to be like him,” Balthazar answered, wiping a tear with his trunk.

In the distance, behind a bush, Alice saw a tiger. He was running, chasing another animal.

“And he’s so good looking. He has golden stripes, and I’m all grey,” Balthazar continued.

“Enough,” Alice said and closed the book.

“Excuse me?” the man in front of her asked.

The elephant disappeared, and so did the tiger.

“It’s a wonderful book about friendship. It teaches us that we don’t need to be like everyone else to fit in. We all have unique qualities that make us who we are, and we should be proud,” Alice said, passing the book back to the customer.

“So, you’ve read it?” he asked.

“You could say that,” Alice answered, thinking about Balthazar and his friend Peter.

“It sounds like something Maddie will enjoy. I’ll take it.”

Alice scanned the book, wrapped it in pale pink tissue paper, and gently placed it into a light blue paper bag.

“Do you have a picture of her?”

The man opened his wallet and showed Alice a picture of his red-haired girl. Immediately, Alice saw Balthazar boosting Maddie onto Peter’s back with his trunk.

“She will love it. Otherwise, bring it back, and I will refund you your money,” Alice said as she completed the transaction and handed the paper bag to Adam.

"Another satisfied customer," Alice thought with a smile and took a sip of her tea.