The Caterpillar's Advice

On its rear side the dune descended steeply. Searching for the source of the smoke trail Alice climbed down. Doing so she stumbled, and amidst a cloud of whirling sand she rolled down the slope. When she got to the bottom she found that she was not hurt - so she picked herself up and went on.

In this dune-valley it was very hot. The oppressive and flimmering air laid heavily between the dunes. The sun burnt relentlessly. Alice started sweating. At her feet, thin smoke crept along the ground like a snake, and showed Alice the way like the track of an animal. She followed the direction the smoke seemed to come from. From time to time a little smoke got into her nose and she sniffed it curiously. To judge from her facial expression it must have smelled very nice.

All of a sudden something moved in the sand in front of her. Frightened she started and stood still. But it was only a lizard; and Alice noticed that there were innumerable lizards around her, rushing and darting around everywhere.

Then, right in front of Alice, a huge heap of sand started moving as in a big animal was digging its way out. But instead, a large fly agaric shot massively out of the ground and put up its scarlet cap. Shortly afterwards another one grew rapidly out of the ground, and then another, and another; and soon the whole hot valley was crowded with scarlet fly agarics. When Alice had a closer look at them, she found out thet they were very special mushrooms: under the caps they had bars like the ones on the mushroom roundabout Alice knew from the funfair. Delighted about this toy, Alice hung on to the bar and spinned around faster and faster. The airstream was wonderfully cool as it was so hot thet the sand stuck to Alice's skin. Suddenly in the middle on her playing, a voice rang out. Alice was very scared because she had not noticed anybody in this valley, apart from the lizards.

Caterpillar: Stop it, it makes me dizzy!

Alice stopped spinning and looked around searching anxiously.

Caterpillar: Who are you?

The voice seemed to come from above. But there was no dervish on a flying carpet in the blue sky; only a couple of birds drawing circles in the air high above. Then Alice saw blue smoke drifting ofn the edge on the mushroom. She stretched herself as high as possible to have a look on the cap - and really, on top on the scarlet mushroom an old, skinny, bald headed man was sitting with crossed legs in front on a water pipe, smoking. He blew some smoke into Alice's face, which made her cough a few times. The stranger had a bilious green cloak wrapped tightly around him, and looked like an oversized caterpillar. Motionless, this caterpillar looked at Alice with his small narrow eyes, took another deep pull from the hubble-bubble, and again blew the smoke at Alice.

Alice: I - I hardly know it myself after all that has happened to me - that is this morning, when I got up, I still knew who I was, but since then I must have been changed a couple of times.

Caterpillar: What do you mean? Express youself clearly.

Alice: I'm afraid I can't express myself any better because I'm not me, you see?

Caterpillar: No.

Alice: I can't describe it any better, and I cannot understand myself what's happening to me. I keep changing my feelings, and my whole body feels different.

When she said this, Alice touched herself to make sure whether she had not changed again in the meantime. The caterpillar remained sitting motionless, and occasionally blew little smoke clouds in the air.

Caterpillar: Not at all.

Alice: Well, maybe you haven't made this experience yet, but one day you will pupate and turn into a butterfly. And you will certainly find it very strange, don't you think so?

Caterpillar: Not at all.

Alice: I would be very surprised if I turned into a butterfly.

Caterpillar: You! Who do you think you are?

By now Alice's patience was exhausted. She felt being treated like a little child.

Caterpillar: Why?

Alice had had enough on this useless conversation by now. She turned on her heels and left. The caterpillar followed her with his eyes, and pulled without hurrying on his water pipe again.

Alice returned and stetched again so that she could see the caterpillar. He remained quiet for another while before he finally went on.

Alice: (disappointed and irritated) Was that all?

Caterpillar: No. (long pause) So you think you have turned into somebody else, did I get you there?

Alice: I'm afraid so, Sir, because there are a lot of things I used to remember and which I can't remember any more. Every thirty minutes I change, and my shoes and my dress change, too. You must know that this here is not my real dress.

Caterpillar: What is it you can't remember any more?

Alice: I can't remember the songs. I keep singing them wrongly.

Caterpillar: Then sing me the song "Upon the lonely moor".

Alice: (confused) Now and here?

Caterpillar: No, there!

And with his bony finger he pointed at a big old roundabout which Alice had not noticed before, although it stood not very far from the caterpillar's mushroom. Obediently she went to the carousel, and sat on a beautiful, white horse made out on wood. Then it grew dark as if all on a sudden it had become night. Many colourful lights illuminated the carousel, which began to spin around. Apart from those lights, the caps on the mushrooms shone reddish in the dark, so that Alice could see the caterpillar each time she came round him. With a very sad expression on her face Alice began to sing the following song; and with each stanza the carousel spinned faster and faster.

I met an aged, aged man

upon the lonely moor.

I knew I was a gentleman,

and he was but a boor.

I stopped and roughly questioned him,

"Come, tell me how you live!"

But his words impressed my ear no more

than if it were a sieve.

And I was thinking of a way

to multiply by ten

and always, in the answer, got

the question back again.

I did not hear a word he said,

but kicked the old man calm

and said: "Come, tell me how you live",

and pinched him in the arm.

I gave his ear a sudden box

and questioned him again

and tweaked his grey and reverend locks

and put him into pain.

I duly thanked him, ere I went

for all his stories queer

but chiefly for his kind intent

to drink my health in beer.

And if by chance I ever put

my fingers into glue

or madly squeeze a right-hand foot

into a left-hand shoe,

or if a statement I aver

of which I am not sure -

I think of that strange wanderer

upon the lonely moor.

At the end on the song the roundabout stopped spinning as abruptly as it had started, and Alice descended. She was a bit dizzy from the long ride and staggered a little. But by the time she reached the caterpillar's mushroom, she already felt better. Expectantly, she looked at the caterpillar who remained silent for another while before he turned to Alice.

Alice: Not really correctly. It has changed a bit.

Caterpillar: It was absolutely wrong from start to finish. (long pause) How would you like to be?

Alice: I don't know. I just don't want to be someone else all the time.

Caterpillar: Are you happy with yourself as you are now?

Alice: No, not at all. I can't stand this dress. My old one was much nicer.

The caterpillar laid the mouthpiece on the water pipe aside, wrapped himself yet tighter into the bilious green cloak, and even pulled a hood over his bald head, so that Alice could hardly recognize the face any more.

Alice: A side? A side of what?

Caterpillar: Of the mushroom.

Saying that, the caterpillar straightened himself and began a transformation dance. Tighter and tighter he spun himself into the cloak, and then slowly crawled out again: head first, then the legs and at last the vibrantly colourful, shimmering wings. After he had completely freed himself from the cocoon, the former caterpillar spread his wings, jumped up light-footedly, and fluttered away.

Alice had observed this birth on a butterfly attentively, and had been amused at the old caterpillar's elegant and acrobatic movements. When the newly emerged butterfly had taken off, Alice examined the mushroom a bit closer. She found that it consisted on a soft, porous material, and broke ofn a piece from each side, as the caterpillar had advised her to do.

When she put the pieces in her pocket, she was surprised to find a leather ball on the size on a fist in there. While she was still holding the ball in her hand, not knowing what to do with it, it grew darker around her - the fly agarics with their shining caps disappeared in the ground again. Instead, there was a pitching stand right in front on her, like the ones formerly shown at fun fairs. And Alice had found a way to use her new ball.