I'm writing a story, and have the rough draft for the first 8 chapters written. Currently, my story is on hiatus while I care for my mother-in-law. That new thing is going well, so far. If you are a care-giver, you have my respect and empathy. If your Loved One is difficult or you care for more than one, my heart goes out to you. In the mean time, here's a "fluffy fiction" (the term is borrowed from a friend) for you to peruse at your leisure. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

Chapter 2

Dorothy walked around the outside of the garage and lifted the lid of a large wooden box, attached to the garage. Inside was a garden hose. I lifted it out and she took the end and twisted it onto the spigot. Then she lifted out a bucket with sponges and a bottle of “Wash and Wax” in it.  She looked pleased with her stash and said “It helps to keep things in here, out of the sun, but near the spigot. The sun just ruins plastic.” While she ran water into the bucket, she began:

 

 “I grew up in Kansas. After my folks died, I left there and went to a college. That’s where I met Alice. I took her cartography and geography classes, and she took me under her wing, and let me stay at her apartment.  Every summer, we would go exploring together. Neither of us had any family to question where we were going, or what we were doing or when. And Alice certainly didn’t care what any one would think. Back then, women’s travelling alone was unusual.  We eventually decided it would be fun to have our own car. One day Alice drove a new car to our apartment. Alice loved mechanical things, and I loved learning from her. And she had a very clever friend, and between the three of us, we were able to keep Rabbit in fine shape”.

 

Dorothy twisted the brass nozzle and the water stopped. I stood for a moment, not aware that she was waiting for me to pick up the bucket. Dorothy saw the bewilderment in my face and explained; “Well, Rabbit was new to me. I just thought he was a Model T, until I met Alice’s friend. He was so intrigued with mechanical things, and took care to keep Rabbit in working order. He eventually gave up on hat-making altogether.  Any way, Hatter was able to figure out how to incorporate Rabbit into something…well, sturdier.

 

I still stood, puzzled, waiting for Dorothy to make sense of what I was hearing. Dorothy stood waiting for me to pick up the water, and expecting me to understand what she had said. Then I was able to put words to my question.

 

“So, are you talking about Alice from “Alice in Wonderland”?  And THAT Rabbit, and THAT Hatter?”

 

Dorothy beamed and said “Yes, that’s right! So, but, you see… the book is just a story. It didn’t all happen, it’s just ABOUT them. You know? Fiction.” Dorothy held the bucket up for me, and I took it. She pulled the hose along the side of the garage, giving it an expert twist to keep it from kinking as we walked toward the cars. I stumbled along after her, partly from the weight of the water sloshing in the bucket, and partly from the weight of the questions sloshing in my head.

 

Then Dorothy spoke again; “Here. Why don’t you back your car toward the house just a little, and I’ll drive Rabbit forward, so we have room to give him a proper bath?” I smirked at Dorothy’s manner of speaking, as if Rabbit were a person. While we moved our cars, another question formed in my mind, and I decided to ask it; “How do you incorporate a rabbit into a car?”

 

Dorothy grinned and explained; “Rabbit was all watch works; an automaton. He was designed to keep things on schedule. I mean, that’s the short version. It just seemed natural, then, that when Volkswagen introduced their Rabbit, that he should like it. So he’s been content with this form ever since. Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself! But remember, you asked! So I answered. Now, where was I?”

 

Dorothy twisted the brass nozzle open until a jet stream turned to a strong shower, and she blasted the dust of a decade from the Rabbit.  “Oh, yes! So we would go on trips, exploring and having adventures. We drove every where, exploring places we’d never been before, and some times going back to places that were peculiar and interesting. There were places even locals didn’t know about, because those places weren’t as interesting to them as they were to us. Every year, we would return to the college; she would teach her classes and I would return as a student.

 

“Eventually I married an accountant named Leo, and we’ve had two children; Toby and Katy. Alice went on travelling. She took a sabbatical, in fact, and I had not seen her for a few years. I did get post cards from her, often. I eventually had to keep them in shoe boxes, there were so many.  She always signed them “Aunt Alice”. And then one day, she came back. It was in June, the week before our annual visit to see my in-laws”.

 

 Dorothy walked around the car, methodically blasting the dust first from the roof of the car, then the windows, and then she began walking the other way, being careful to bring the hose back behind her, as she blasted away the dust from the lower half of the car. She continued talking as we worked, each of us washing one side of the car. “Alice had so many fantastic stories. Our children just loved listening to them. Leo didn’t mind how fantastic her stories were, for they kept the children occupied, and he was able to do his accounting in his study, undisturbed.  One morning after breakfast, Alice and I were alone on a walk and Alice asked me if I would like to go on a short trip; just the two of us, for old time’s sake.

 

“Our reasoning would be that the children and their grandparents loved each other, so much, and there were so many fun things to do at the grandparent’s house, with the farm animals, a place to swim, trees to climb, and Leo was on vacation, and the grandparents could help Leo with the children. We discussed this with Leo, and we all thought that since the timing was just right, why not? 

 

“We decided that Alice should come with us, and meet my in-laws. Alice drove her car, and the children took turns with each other between riding in Alice’s car to listen to more of her stories, and riding in ours. My in-laws were happy to meet my “Aunt Alice”, and enjoyed hearing her stories of adventure just about as much as our children did.

 

“Leo mentioned to them that Aunt Alice and I were intending to go on a short trip alone. The in-laws insisted that Aunt Alice stay for a day or two before we left, but Alice insisted that we leave the next morning.  She told every one we’d be back in three days. They made her promise it would be only three days, and it was settled. Aunt Alice and I left the next morning.

 

“After we left, Alice told me that she had been revisiting all of our favorite places, and catching up with all of our old friends. That’s when Alice told me that something had gone wrong. Let’s just call it “deferred maintenance”, for now, and that it was getting out of hand.

 

 “You see, when Alice was telling my family her stories, I knew she was holding back some things that no one else should know. And in her post cards, I could see by how she wrote, compared to the pictures on the post cards, where she really was and whom she was actually visiting. She asked me if I had kept the post cards. When I told her that I had, she said we had to go get them.

 

“When we arrived at our house, Alice parked her car right next to our garage. I went into the house to bring out the boxes of post cards. There were two of them and the second one was almost half full. When I came downstairs, Alice was in the kitchen. She took half of the cards from the half empty box and laid them out on the kitchen table. When she finished, it was a map. That was something I had missed; I didn’t realize until then that she had been sending a map to me one piece at a time.”

 

“A map to where?” I asked Dorothy. She paused before she answered; “Oh, one of the places we had been”. Dorothy picked up the hose and rinsed the top and front of the Rabbit.

 

We continued washing the car. I found myself feeling as if Dorothy was side stepping my question, but I didn’t want to press too hard for answers. I was enjoying the story and wanted to hear as much of it as Dorothy would tell me. I asked her what happened next, and Dorothy resumed her story.

 

 “So, Alice and I visited some of our favorite old haunts, and visited with some old friends, and ran a few errands, you know, finding things that had been misplaced and getting them back to where they belonged,, straightening out a few details here and there, catching up on all the news.  

 

“Any way, true to her word, we were back to my in-laws on the third day. Every one was glad to see us back, and wanted to hear about our trip, and the children were eager to tell us all about their visit with their grandparents. And it was good to see Leo and the children again. I teased Toby and Katy about growing while I was gone. I wasn’t sure if they realized that it was only a tease, they both protested rather noisily about it, until Leo and his parents all laughed. When Alice and I laughed, the children began to laugh, as well. “

 

The Rabbit was finally rid of the brown coat, and was a gleaming white, as if newly painted.  Dorothy stood back and appraised our work. She smiled and said “Yes! Much better!” Dorothy put both sponges back into the bucket and handed it to me. I followed her back around the garage and she said “Just squeeze the sponges out here and dump the bucket” Then Dorothy pulled the hose back into the big wooden box, coiling it as she pulled. She took the bucket and sponges from me, put them and the “Wash and Wax” back into the box and gently dropped the lid shut. “I think we should go in and get out of this heat, don’t you?” She turned to me and I agreed that it was getting rather hot. She opened the passenger door of the Rabbit and reached under the floor mat, then stood up with a key in her hand.

 

“Do you want to bring the rest of our picnic with us? I hope they didn’t clear out the entire pantry before they closed it all up”, Dorothy said as she stepped into the garage. When she returned, she held up a crow bar and a hammer, one in each hand, and I took them. We walked up the stairs and Dorothy gestured to the right of the front door. I gently tapped the crow bar under the sheet of plywood and pried it away. After working my way from the middle to the top, it took less effort to pry the bottom of the sheet away from the door. Who ever had boarded the door shut had only nailed the sides and not the top or bottom.

 

Dorothy stopped me from pulling the plywood entirely away from the door frame, and said “Let’s leave the impression that this is still in tact. What do you say?” I stepped aside and Dorothy took the key from her pocket and unlocked the door. She took a deep breath, and opened it. She looked around as the door swung wide, and smiled. “Every thing is just the way I remember it”, she said. I followed her into the house. We took our time as she looked around. The sunlight came in through the tops of the windows, where the plywood had stopped short of completely covering them. She worked her way through the front room and into the kitchen.  On the kitchen table was a stack of post cards, and an empty shoe box.

 

Dorothy picked up the postcards and put them in the shoe box. I couldn’t see her face, as she turned and walked through a door around the corner, and returned with a broom. She raised the broom to sweep away the webs that were strung from the light to the table, and then dusted the chairs briefly with the broom.

 

“There! That should be sufficient. The rest can wait till later. Go ahead and have a seat! I’ll be right back”. I set the remains of the picnic lunch on the table, and sat down facing the in direction that Dorothy had gone. She returned with a jar of pickles in each hand. She held each one up for my appraisal and said “Carrots and green beans for the rest of our lunch, and pickled apples for dessert. Oh! Don’t worry! They really are sweet”. I had wrinkled my nose, but Dorothy smiled and set them in the middle of the table. The apples had a label on them that said “Eat me”, in neat calligraphy. I read the label out loud and she said “It’s a joke that Alice and I have”.

 

She turned to open a cupboard and took some dishes down for the lunch, and took some silverware from a drawer, and a clean dish cloth from the drawer next to it. She wrapped  the cloth around the lid of the jar to open the carrots and green beans, and set a fork into the jar. I was still looking around at the kitchen, which had windows on two walls. The cupboards were pale yellow, and were built between the windows. There was a hand pump on the side of the sink, which was under one of the windows. The pantry was around the corner of the far left of that wall. The wood fired kitchen oven was on the next wall, to my left. The white enamel gleamed in spite of the dust of nearly a decade.

 

Dorothy set a plate of pickles, salami and bread gently in front of me. I looked up and thanked her, and asked “So, what happened next? You got back to the in-laws, and every thing was fine, then what happened?”

 

Dorothy sat down and opened a strawberry soda pop. She took a sip from the bottle and smiled. “Oh, that’s delicious, every time. This has been such a treat! Well, any way, we went home after our visit, and Aunt Alice stayed for a little while. She always parked her car right next to our garage. Then one morning, she announced that she was retiring from the college, to continue her travels. We all thought it would be nice if she would return to visit us the following year, which she promised she would do.

 

Aunt Alice came back every summer, and we would all go to see my in-laws. Leo asked me if I thought Alice would appreciate a garage for her car built this garage for her car.

 I asked Aunt Alice what she thought, and she said “If you would please. And could it be just exactly where I have been parking my car?” She said it just like that. It was almost an awkward moment, but Leo said that would be just fine. She marked the exact spot, herself. By the time she returned for the third summer, the garage was built.

 

That summer she took me aside and told me that she wanted me to have the car. She explained every thing to me. Then, the evening of the day we arrived at the in-laws, she told every one that she was going to an island to live. They were all so disappointed. Leo wondered out loud what island that would be. Alice didn’t say, but I knew the truth, and kept her secret, right up to this day. The next morning, the two of us drove out to see our old friends, and she stayed with them. I brought the car back, alone.

 

I interrupted; “What island would that be? What was her secret?”

 

Dorothy grinned and promised that she would get to that part, eventually. Then she said Oh! Look at the time! I need to back to the home! I need to get changed!” I offered to go out to my car and get her clothes, and in a moment, I was back.  Dorothy had opened the apples and set some in a small bowl between us, and asked “Dessert?”  I picked one up with my fork and nibbled on it while she ducked around the corner and changed. She continued her story, calling out around the corner;

 

 “After that summer, I would go for a drive, on my own, just for a day or so, to visit Alice.”  (“On a not-an-island, after all”, I offered. Dorothy said “yes”.) “I would eventually go more frequently, while Toby and Katy were at school. I didn’t think any one suspected as much, since Rabbit always got me home again just on time. One day, Leo confided in me that his parents were not too keen on my travelling alone. Every one still thought I’d only go once each year. Gradually, Leo made it known that he wasn’t too keen on it, himself. The children, as they grew older, either had forgotten how much they had enjoyed Aunt Alice’s stories, or had simply adopted their grandparents’ attitude, and maybe they had out grown her stories. All the same, after Leo died, Toby and Katy began to protest my travels, themselves. They had families of their own and had gone to live at their grandparent’s place, which they had inherited. They had converted part of the barn into a house for Katy and her family to live in”.

 

Dorothy came back into the kitchen, wearing her flannel night gown and terrycloth bathrobe, and had her slippers in her hand. She paused; her eyes misted over for a moment, and then she continued; “Those two were so clever and so creative. With the barn converted like that, Katy’s family could live in the barn and Toby’s family could live in the house. I didn’t want to go with them. I wanted to live here. And I suppose they couldn’t fathom the idea of letting me live here alone, and go travelling without them knowing where I was, so they did what they thought was going to work the best.”

 

I had finished an apple, and quietly asked “Should we clean up, before we go?” Dorothy handed the wash cloth she’d gotten from the drawer earlier, and I dusted the crumbs and wiped the pickle juice from the dishes. As I did, Dorothy took the dishes from me and stacked them neatly in the center of the table. Dorothy smiled and quietly said “That’s good enough for now. Maybe we could come back tomorrow. We should go”. Dorothy’s voice and manner were subdued, compared to her bright spirit earlier. As I packed what was left of our picnic into the cooler, Dorothy poured the apples that were left in the bowl back into the jar and put the lid back on. She handed the jar to me and I set it in the bottom of the cooler “The dishes will be fine here, until tomorrow” she said. We walked to the front door. The afternoon sun was turning the kitchen golden as Dorothy pulled the door closed, to lock it. I lightly tapped nails in the plywood back against the door jamb, to give the illusion that it was still nailed shut. It stayed.

 

We walked out to the cars, and Dorothy took the tools from me. She backed the Rabbit back into the garage, and closed the doors. When she got into my car, she took off the socks and shoes and handed them to me. I put her clothes in the trunk next to the cooler. She had her slippers on by the time I got into the car.

 

As we drove away, I admitted to Dorothy that I would need her to guide me back the way we came. Then I told her how much I had enjoyed the day and how much I had enjoyed listening to her story. She smiled and said “I’ve had a wonderful day, too!. I’m glad you wanted to come. Thank you for getting me out of that place. I’ve wanted to see Rabbit again, and I’ve wanted to see our house again. And such a lovely picnic!”

 

I was glad to see Dorothy’s spirit return, and I said “Well, it was even better after we added the pickles to the menu. And I am glad you enjoyed the day.” After that, except for Dorothy reminding me which turns to take, Dorothy chatted with me, pointing out the larger trees and the landscaping at the few houses that dotted the country side. When we entered town, she fell silent. Before long, we were at the home. On our arrival, they came out and helped Dorothy into the wheel chair, and said asked me how our day went. I said that we had a nice drive. Dorothy of course, said nothing. They wheeled her into the home, talking about how good dinner was going to be. I tried to follow them in, but they said “It’s after visiting hours. You can come back tomorrow”. 

 

I said good night to them and drove home. I took the cooler and clothes out of the trunk, and set every thing on the kitchen counter. I pulled the jar of apples out of the cooler and set them on the table. I put the cold packs in the freezer. I did a load of laundry and put Dorothy’s “vacation clothes” in with every thing else. I unpacked the rest of the picnic, including the bananas (“We hadn’t even touched them,” I mused).

 

I nibbled on the pickled apples while looking through Dorothy’s composition book. I was trying to understand the maps. I began reading the parts that I thought I understood.  I read her notes pointing out the larger trees and the landscaping of the few houses that dotted the country side. At the bottom of the last page, Dorothy had written “We need to go for a drive. You ask them for permission before you come to my room. Bring clothes for me and leave them in the car. I wear size 8 shoes.”

 

The washer stopped and I put every thing into the dryer. While I waited for the dryer to finish, I looked through Dorothy’s book again. I nibbled on some more pickled apples (they really were sweet), and I read the parts that made the most sense, and some parts that made no sense. When the dryer finished, I folded Dorothy’s clothes separately, and set them on the counter next to a pair of size 8 shoes. I went to bed, still thinking about the writing and the sketches in the composition book.

 

The next morning was Sunday. I was excited to go see Dorothy. I went down stairs and made a fried egg sandwich while my coffee brewed. Then I pulled two hoagie rolls out of the cupboard and made two big sandwiches, and decided to pack the bananas. I added the cold packs and two bottles of sparkling apple cider. I put the cooler and Dorothy’s composition book and her “vacation clothes” into the back of the car.

 

When I got to the home, I asked at the desk if I could take Dorothy for a drive. I was puzzled by the look on their faces. The same orderly that I had seen every morning that I visited, walked over to me. She said “Dorothy isn’t here”. I asked where she was, and she answered “That’s what we’re trying to find out. It seems she slipped out in the middle of the night.”