Julian's Secret

Thank you so much SHERRI GIBSON for the pretty purple ribbon.

Julian could hardly believe his eyes, but there it was nonetheless--a tiny door at the base of a tree trunk. It looked as if it had been there for years, the tree growing around the door's arched outline. The knocker and hinges were no more than an inch wide, the door itself only six inches tall. Julian knelt down and gave the door a tug. It didn't budge.

"Julian!" his mother yelled from across the street. "Julian, dinner!"

He didn't want her to see. This was his secret, and he didn't want to share it with anyone. He ran home, bursting through the front door with the energy only twelve-year-old boys possess.

"Julian," his mother said, tousling his blonde hair. "Wash your hands and set the table, okay? You have any homework tonight?"

"Nope. It's a good thing, too. I'm kinda tired. I think I'm gonna go to bed after dinner."

"Your sister wants you to watch Alice in Wonderland with her. You promised."

"Mom, she watches it every day. Besides, why don't you buy it on DVD? All we have is that old VHS tape Grandma bought us, and the stupid VCR keeps eating it."

As his family ate dinner, Julian stared at the park across the street through the dining room window. He could see the tree from here. He'd seen it a hundred times, but he'd never noticed the door before. "I'm going to bed," he announced. "I'm not feelin' too good."

"You aren't, huh?" his mother asked, feeling his forehead with the back of her hand. "I hope you aren't getting sick, Julian."

When he was sure that everyone was asleep, Julian tiptoed downstairs as quietly as he could. It was 2:00 a.m., and he didn't want to wake his family. He snaked the longest shoelace he could find from the eyelets of his father's work boot and stuffed it in his coat pocket. He took the small flashlight from the kitchen drawer, gently unplugged his mother's cell phone from its charger, and crammed both into his pocket alongside the shoelace. Now I'm ready, he thought, and shut the front door behind him.

The park was very dark this time of night. Owls hooted from the treetops while a stray cat meowed from under a nearby shrub, but Julian wasn't afraid. He was on a mission, and nothing could stop him now.

He pulled the flashlight, shoelace, and cell phone from his pocket and tied them all together. He turned on the flashlight and set the phone to video record. Kneeling down on all fours, he took the tiny knocker between his thumb and forefinger and timidly rapped on the door.

The door popped open. Inside he could see a wee staircase spiraling down into darkness, each step no more than four inches wide and one inch tall. His heart skipped in his chest. He lowered the shoelace with the flashlight and cell phone attached down into the tree trunk.

Down, down, down ... the staircase must have gone down at least three feet. Finally, Julian felt the phone and flashlight come to rest on something solid. He waited. He wasn't sure what he was waiting for, exactly, but he thought he'd know it when it happened.

There! Was that a tug on the shoelace? he wondered. There it was again! "Holy mackerel!" Julian shouted, pulling on the shoelace as fast as he could. What would he see on the video? What had pulled on his string? What wonders awaited him just three feet below the surface of this tree? He could barely contain his excitement as the cell phone emerged from the darkness. "What the...." Julian whispered, for there attached to the cell phone was a tiny bottle with a label that read Drink Me.

Julian tried to watch the video he'd recorded, but there was nothing but scuffling sounds, blurred images, and darkness. Drink Me, he thought. He looked over his shoulder toward the safety of his house where his parents and little sister slept. He shone his flashlight into the darkness of the tree trunk, the miniature staircase spiraling into nothingness.

He raised the bottle and drank.

"Come, Julian."

There was a young girl standing in the doorway. She was blonde, pretty, and her dress was the purest white he'd ever seen. She held her hand out to him, and he realized that he was no taller than she was; neither of them more than four inches tall. "Come," she repeated.

"Do I know you?" he asked. "You look familiar, but ... how do you know my name?"

The girl took his hand and led him into the tree trunk, closing the door behind them. Julian could see light at the bottom of the stairs, and they descended hand-in-hand to the bottom. "My name is Ecila, and this is my cat, Jabberwocky. Say hello, Jabberwocky," the girl said, bending to stroke the cat's fur. "We've been waiting for you for a long time, Julian. You're late."

They were standing in the center of a large room. Around the perimeter were a series of underground caverns, five in all, each illuminated by torches plunged deeply into the walls at 10-foot intervals. "How can I be late?" Julian asked. "Late for what?"

"The Queen's been waiting for you," Ecila said, taking Julian by the hand and leading him into the center cave. A wooden sign above the entryway designated this route Where You Be Headed. "It's not every day that a Biglander comes to visit."

The Queen? Julian wondered.

Deeper and deeper into the cavern they went, the torches flickering with each gust of wind, and although they passed many other tunnels to the left and right of them, they never strayed from the main path. "Thank goodness you're leading the way," Julian said. "I'd surely be lost if I was down here by myself!"

Julian chanced quick glances into the other caves as they passed by them. Strange creatures lurked there, and some of them appeared to be wearing human clothes: a blue caterpillar with a penchant for smoking, a bespectacled rabbit obsessed with time, a disappearing cat ... and were those playing cards painting roses?

"We must hurry, Julian. The Queen doesn't like to be kept waiting. She has a very bad temper, you know. Look, we're almost there," Ecila said, pointing to a light up ahead.

They emerged from the cave onto a grassy field. There was seating on all sides, and it was filled to capacity. The spectators cheered at the sight of them, while the colorful flowers that bordered each wall sang in beautiful harmony. "Are those flowers singing?" Julian asked, but Ecila shushed him.

"She looks angry," Ecila said. There in the center of the arena was a great throne. To the left of the throne was a pit--a bottomless pit from what Julian could tell--and he could hear screams coming from its depths. And Ecila was right ... the Queen did indeed look angry.

"Silence!" the Queen yelled, to which the crowd immediately obeyed. "Biglander, come forward, child!"

"Go," Ecila whispered. "And bow!"

Julian's legs were visibly shaking as he slowly approached the throne. "I ... I'm sorry if I made you mad," Julian stuttered. "I didn’t know...."

"How dare you keep me waiting? I have no patience for thoughtlessness and insubordination. Off with his head!"

"What?" Julian whispered. "Wait...."

"No!" Ecila yelled. "Your Majesty, please. I beg you!"

Julian started to run, but the playing cards blocked his escape route. He turned to see the rabbit and caterpillar closing in on him. I can't believe a caterpillar is cutting me off at the pass! he thought, taking a few steps backward, losing his balance on the edge of the pit.

He fell.

Down, down, down into the darkness he flailed, screaming like he'd never screamed before.

"Julian, Julian!" his mother said, shaking him. "Oh, my God. He's burning up. Dinah, go get in the car. We're taking your brother to the hospital. I knew he was getting sick!"

Dinah jumped and fidgeted excitedly. "Mom, guess what I found! I followed Julian to the park, and I saw a tiny door in a tree. It's like a dollhouse door, and it has a knob and...."

"Dinah, please. Turn your movie off and get in the car, honey. You can finish watching it later, okay?"

Julian's dad laid the thermometer on the coffee table and lifted his son off the couch where he'd fallen asleep watching Alice in Wonderland with his sister. "Dad," Julian whispered. "I was there. I saw the caterpillar and the playing cards and the rabbit ... Ecila took me there and...."

"He's delirious. His temp's 104," Julian's father said. "Ecila ... that's Alice spelled backwards, isn't it?"

"Honey, have you seen my cell phone?" Julian's mother yelled from the kitchen.

"You should have seen it, Dad," Julian said, wrapping his arms around his father's neck and lying his head on his shoulder. "It was cool at first, but the queen was real scary, and the playing cards ... can't trust 'em. The caterpillar was way faster than I thought. Sorry I forgot to bring your shoelace back."

"Humph. I was wondering where that thing went," Julian's father said, looking down at his boots as he lowered Julian onto the car's back seat.

Something small and shiny slipped from Julian's hand and rolled down the driveway, tinkling against the concrete till it came to rest against the fencepost. Dinah skipped over and picked it up. The tiny bottle glimmered in the late afternoon sun.

Drink me, it read.