Chapter 3

To my horror, all I see on the canvas is Maddie’s grin, appearing and fading alternately like the Cheshire Cat’s. Where is she? In jail. Is she okay?And then most frightening of all: should I help her?

The rational voice in my head, the one that echoes Cora, Mom, Peter, and my long-dead father, shouts at me, NO! You should stay far away and mind your own business!Yet there is a piece of my heart that will always reach out to Maddie, and that piece now rises into my throat and threatens to strangle me. The rest of the day I spend sitting on the studio floor, with the blank canvas face down on the hardwood as if to hold Maddie beneath it so she can’t invade my life. I hear the White Rabbit’s voice as he searches the house for his missing gloves. He’s always running late and so am I: late for the day when I will actually find my own life again.