《爱丽丝梦游仙境-1》第3章

Alice's screams echoed as she tumbled head over heels down the enormous, dark hole. Her hands reached out, searching for something to stop her fall, and she realized that the walls around her were lined with odd things … things you would never expect to find in a rabbit hole. Hanging on the dirt walls were crooked¹ paintings, ancient maps, cracked mirrors, demonic masks, and bookshelves crowded with bizarre paraphernalia².

She grabbed the first thing her hand touched and found herself holding an empty jam jar. Frustrated³ and terrified, she let that go and grabbed for something else—a crystal ball. Growing frantic⁴, she scrabbled through object after peculiar⁵ object, finding herself holding books, more jam jars, a badger⁶ claw, a monkey's hand, and finally a human skull⁷. With another shriek⁸, she flung this last terrible thing away from her and kept falling, down and down and down into deeper darkness, where there was no longer anything to hold on to.

Still she fell, as day passed into night, down and down, still falling.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Alice landed on a hard wooden floor, smacking⁹ her head as she hit the ground.

"Ah!" she cried in pain as the wind was knocked out of her. She gasped¹⁰ for air for a moment, then sat up, rubbing the bump on her head.

She was in a circular hall with closed doors all around her. There was something strangely familiar about it, although she couldn't imagine when she would have been in a round room at the bottom of a rabbit hole.

Alice got to her feet and tried one of the doors, but it was locked. She tried the next—and the next— but they were all locked. What was the use of so many doors if you couldn't go through any of them?

Finally she took a step back and glanced around the hall. That's when she noticed a three-legged glass table nearby. Had that been there before? She didn't understand how she could have missed it.

There was a tiny gold key sitting on top of the glass tabletop. Alice picked it up and tried it in a couple of the doors, but it was far too small. She paused and studied the key for a moment, then glanced around at all the doors in the hall, wondering if any of them were small enough for this key.

She spotted¹¹ a thick velvet¹² curtain between two of the doors and swept it aside, revealing a door much smaller than the others. It was only about two feet high and quite narrow, with a pattern of vines carved into the wood.

Alice crouched¹³ to fit the tiny key into the lock of the little door. It fit perfectly¹⁴. The small door swung open, and she ducked her head to look through to the other side.

It was difficult to see much, but she could tell that beyond the door was a garden with a fountain in the center. She got down on her stomach and tried to squeeze through the doorway¹⁵, but her shoulders got stuck in the frame, and no matter how she wriggled¹⁶, she couldn't go through.

With a sigh, she wriggled back into the hall and shut the door again. Stumped¹⁷, she climbed to her feet and went to put the key back on the table. But to her surprise, there was now a bottle sitting on the glass top of the table. She was sure it hadn't been there before. Alice looked around curiously¹⁸.

The hall looked deserted¹⁹. Alice squinted²⁰ at the bottle. A tiny white label around its neck said: drink me. Yes, that sounds like a great idea, Alice thought. Follow the mysterious instructions of someone you can't see. Drink a mystery potion. What could go wrong?

She removed the top, sniffed²¹ the contents of the bottle, and recoiled²². It didn't smell appetizing.

Alice looked around the room again. On the other hand, she didn't have a lot of choices. She shrugged²³. "It's only a dream," she said aloud to herself. A familiar dream … although she couldn't remember falling asleep. Maybe in the meadow? Or in the woods on the way to the gazebo? It was all so muddled²⁴ now. But this had to be a dream. There was nothing real about it. And if it was a dream, then what could happen to her?

Alice poured some of the drink into her mouth, shuddered²⁵, and coughed, gagging at the taste. Apparently²⁶ things could still taste horrible, even in dreams. She replaced the bottle top and suddenly noticed that the table was getting larger. She frowned at it.

It took her another few moments to realize that the table wasn't growing. She held out her pale hands and stared at them in shock as she got smaller and smaller and smaller. Finally she was two feet tall, surrounded by a puddle²⁷ of her now-oversize clothes.

Well, that raises some new problems … but at least it also solves one, she thought. Wrapping her skirts around her arms to lift them out of the way, Alice flounced over to the small door and tried to open it.

She groaned²⁸ in dismay. It was locked again! And of course she'd left the key on top of the table.

She turned and gazed up at it through the glass tabletop. The key glittered in the dim light, mocking her from far out of reach.

What Alice didn't know was that at that very moment, she was being watched.

A round eye blinked at her through a keyhole.

"You'd think she would remember this from the first time," muttered the eye's owner.

There was a flutter of feathers and some jostling, and a new, smaller eye, this one rimmed²⁹ in brown fur, replaced the first one at the keyhole. "You've brought the wrong Alice," said this new watcher.

"She's the right one." said another voice behind them, indignantly. "I'm certain of it."

The second eye blinked dubiously³⁰.

Alice was now trying to climb the table leg, but she kept getting tangled³¹ in her too-big clothes and sliding down. She was starting to think this was impossible. She'd never get back to that key. She'd be stuck, tiny and trapped and tormented³² by the key just out of reach, until she wasted away and died.

Then she noticed a small box under the table. Now that hadn't been there before, either! Alice whirled around and glared at the doors of the hall.

Exasperated³³, Alice opened the box. Inside was a beautiful little cake with the words eat me written on it in ornate pink icing. It was almost too pretty to eat, but again, she didn't have much choice. She considered the cake, then looked up at the key, high above her on the table. It was worth a shot. Of course, she might disappear altogether, but then she'd just wake up from the dream, and that would be all right, too.

Alice took a tiny bite of the cake, and then another.

WHOOSH³⁴!

Suddenly she shot upward. She grew and grew at an alarming rate. She reached her normal size, where her clothes fit again … and then kept growing. Buttons popped, seams began to strain, and her skirt got shorter—Alice couldn't help thinking how scandalized Lady Ascot would be at the sight of her bare ankles. But then she was distracted by the feeling of her head bumping against the ceiling. What if she kept growing until she filled the whole hall? What would happen then?

To her relief, that was where she stopped. Towering over the table, she bent³⁵ far down and picked up the small key. It looked no bigger than an eyelash in her giant hand. She sidled across the room, crouched, and put the key into the small door's lock.

"She's the wrong Alice," said the second voice definitively³⁶.

"Give her a chance," the third voice insisted.

Alice giggled³⁷ a little at the thought of trying to fit through the door at her current enormous size. She sat down with the bottle in one hand and the cake in the other. Sipping³⁸ from one and then nibbling³⁹ from the other, she managed to shrink and grow and shrink herself down to the perfect size for the door, about two feet tall. Of course, now her clothes were far too big again, but she'd s olved one problem.

Dragging her skirts behind her, she ran to the door, unlocked it, and stepped through.

 

爱丽丝一头栽进这个巨大的黑洞时，兔子洞里回荡着她的尖叫声。爱丽丝伸出手摸索，希望能抓住点什么让她停止坠落。然而她发现周围的墙上全是些稀奇古怪的东西……这些东西你从没料到会出现在兔子洞里。泥墙上挂着歪斜的油画、古老的地图、破碎的镜子、恶魔的面具，还有一个堆满稀奇古怪的随身物品的书架。

她抓住自己摸到的第一件物品，发现握着的是一个空果酱罐。爱丽丝又沮丧又害怕，她松开果酱罐又继续抓别的东西——这次她抓到一个水晶球。爱丽丝越来越焦躁，她胡乱摸索着一件又一件奇怪的物品，发现自己抓到书、更多的果酱罐、一只獾爪、一只猴子的手，最后竟然还抓到了一个人类的头盖骨。又是一声尖叫，爱丽丝吓得扔掉了头盖骨继续往下跌落，坠啊，坠啊，坠入更深的黑暗中，在这里什么东西也抓不到。

她还在往下坠，从白天到黑夜，往下坠，往下坠，还在往下坠。

似乎过了很久，爱丽丝终于一头栽在硬木地板上，停止了 坠落。

“啊！”撞蒙了的爱丽丝痛苦地叫了一声。她躺在地上喘了好一会儿，然后坐起来，摸了摸头上鼓起的包。

她发现自己在一个环形的大厅里，四周都是锁着的门。她对这一切有种莫名的熟悉感，尽管她无法想象自己什么时候来过兔子洞底部这个环形的大厅。

爱丽丝站起来试着去打开其中的一扇门，但门是锁着的。她换了一扇门——又换了一扇——但全都锁着。如果这些门都打不开，安着又有什么用呢？

最后，爱丽往后退了一步，环视着整个大厅。这时她发现不远处有一张三条腿的玻璃桌。之前它就在那儿吗？她无法相信自己刚才竟然没看到。

一把金色的小钥匙静静地躺在玻璃桌上。爱丽丝拿起它试了好几扇门，但这把钥匙实在是太小了。她停下来，仔细研究了一会儿这把钥匙，然后抬起头对大厅里所有的门扫了一眼，琢磨着哪扇门足够小，能用这把钥匙打开。

爱丽丝发现两扇门之间挂着一幅厚厚的天鹅绒窗帘。她将窗帘拉开，露出一扇比其他那些都要小得多的门。它大约只有两英寸高，很窄，木门上雕着一幅藤蔓的图案。

爱丽丝蹲下将小钥匙插入这扇小门的锁眼中。太合适了！小门一转就开了，爱丽丝低下头看了看门外的世界。

门太小看不到太多，但她肯定门外有一座花园，中间有一眼喷泉。爱丽丝趴在地上，想要挤过去，但她的肩膀被门框卡住了，无论她怎么扭动，都无法穿过那扇门。

爱丽丝叹了口气，又扭动着身子退回到大厅里，再次关上门。她迈着沉重的步伐起身把钥匙放回桌上。然而让她意外的是，桌上现在竟然有一个玻璃瓶子！她确定刚才桌上绝对没有！爱丽丝好奇地望了望四周。

大厅看起来很荒凉，爱丽丝眯着眼睛看了看瓶子。瓶颈上一个白色的小便笺写着：喝了我。对啊，这主意听上去真不错！爱丽丝心想。遵循一个藏在暗处的人的神秘指令，喝下这瓶神秘的药水，能出什么岔子呢？

爱丽丝拧开瓶盖，凑近闻了闻，感到有点害怕，因为这味道闻起来可不怎么诱人。

爱丽丝又扫了一眼房间。从另一方面来说，她也没有太多选择。她耸了耸肩，大声地对自己说：“这只是个梦而已。”一个熟悉的梦……尽管她根本就不记得自己睡着了。也许是在草地上？或是在去凉亭路上的树林里？现在一切都太混乱了，但这一定是个梦，因为它一点儿也不真实。但如果这是个梦，接下来爱丽丝又会怎样呢？

爱丽丝往嘴里倒了一点儿药水，她浑身颤抖，剧烈地咳嗽，药水的味道让她作呕。显然，哪怕是在梦里也有难吃的东西。爱丽丝将瓶子放回桌上，却突然发觉桌子越变越大。她不禁皱起了眉头。

又过了一会儿她才明白，桌子并没有变大。爱丽丝伸出自己苍白的双手，惊讶地盯着它们，因为自己变得越来越小，越来越小！最后她缩小到只有两英寸高，被现在这摊显得过于宽松的衣服包裹着。

好吧，新的问题又来了……但爱丽丝觉得至少解决了一个问题。她将过长的裙摆绕在自己的手臂上，提起裙子向前走。爱丽丝挣扎着走向小门，试图打开它。

爱丽丝沮丧地哼了一声。门又被锁住了！显然，她把钥匙落在了桌子上。

她转过身抬起头透过玻璃桌面看着那把钥匙。钥匙在昏暗的光线下闪闪发光，在她够不着的地方嘲笑她。

此刻爱丽丝不知道的是：有人正关注着她的一举一动。

一只圆溜溜的眼睛透过锁眼向爱丽丝眨了眨。

“你觉得她一开始就能记起所有的事情吗？”眼睛的主人喃喃地自语道。

在一阵翅膀的扑腾声和推搡的窸窣声过后，又来了一个眼睛更小的，这个长了一身棕色毛发的家伙取代了第一个站在锁眼前的那位。“你带回来的是假爱丽丝。”这位新来的观察者说。

“她就是那个爱丽丝，”它们身后的另一个声音义愤填膺地说，“我敢肯定！”

第二个家伙半信半疑地眨着眼睛。

爱丽丝现在正拼命地往桌腿上爬，但她那大得要命的衣服老是缠住她，让她总是滑下来。爱丽丝慢慢觉得自己在做无用功，也许她再也拿不回那把钥匙了。这把够不着的钥匙让变成小不点儿的爱丽丝无法脱身，陷入了困境，直到她精疲力竭，然后死去。

这时她在桌下发现了一个小盒子。这个盒子刚才也不在这儿！她转了一圈，眼睛盯着大厅里所有的门。

怒气冲冲的爱丽丝打开盒子，里面是一块精致的小蛋糕，上面用装饰性的粉色糖衣写着“吃了我”。蛋糕漂亮得让爱丽丝都不忍心吃掉它。但她依旧没有太多的选择。爱丽丝仔细看着这块蛋糕，又抬头看看那把钥匙，钥匙在她头顶的桌上。值得一试！当然，她也有可能会完全消失，但到时候她只要从梦中醒来就行，那样也挺好的。

爱丽丝咬了一小口蛋糕，然后又咬了一口。

呼——

爱丽丝的身子突然往上蹿，以惊人的速度在成长。她恢复到了正常的身材，衣服又合身了……但她还在长大。纽扣都崩掉了，衣缝越来越紧，裙子越来越短——此刻爱丽丝情不自禁地想到如果阿斯科特夫人看到她裸露的脚踝该有多愤慨。但随后，脑袋撞到天花板的疼痛感分散了她的注意力。如果她不停地长大直到占满整个大厅怎么办？那时又会发生什么呢？

让她松了一口气的是，长到天花板这么高她就停了下来。爱丽丝高高耸立在桌子边，努力弯下腰拾起那把小钥匙，在她巨大的手掌中这把钥匙看起来比一根眼睫毛还小。爱丽丝侧身穿过大厅，蹲下身子将钥匙插进小小的锁孔。

“她是假的爱丽丝。”第二个声音笃定地说。

“给她个机会吧。”第三个声音坚持道。

爱丽丝一想到以自己现在这个巨大的身形要穿过那扇狭小的门，就忍不住咯咯地笑起来。她坐下来，一手拿着玻璃瓶，一手拿着蛋糕。喝一口药水，然后再咬一口蛋糕，她一会儿缩小，一会儿变大，直到自己的身高刚好能穿过那扇门——大约两英寸高。当然，现在她的衣服又大得要命，但她好歹解决了一个问题。

爱丽丝拽起身后的长裙跑向那扇门，用钥匙打开，然后跨了过去。

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