Photo by Skyler Ewing, Pexels.com
by Mileva Anastasiadou
The King of Hearts is dragging me down the rabbit hole, because he needs more pawns, more soldiers, more players, but he can’t fool me. I know the tale and how things work, because I lost my friends to Wonderland, and now comes my turn, like we have no choice, and we all have to end up down here and play this game. The rabbit approaches, he says, let’s play, only I don’t want to. Then he offers tea and pills and magic, he eyes me up and down, he says, you’re strong, he’s singing motivational songs like “Eye of the Tiger” and “Burning Heart” and “No Easy Way Out,” and I say, let’s give it a try, because after a while I feel like I’m Rocky, I’m jumping around, running in circles, punching the air, he claps and says, go, go, go, his eyes bright, blinking like fairy lights, as if he’s the coach and he is happy I believe in myself.
I step onto the board, into the maze, I run and fight and show no mercy, and I am winning the game, but I don’t get the trophy, I get crumbs instead. The king is screaming, off with his head, because I stopped playing and he is losing, and I say, enough, because Alice was right, the queen was powerless, and so is the king, only the players don’t know, and the rabbit approaches and screams, off with his head, the pawns follow, a white army of losers, they hear the king and follow his orders, like I’m a monster they want to kill, because that’s what they do, they make beasts, then blame the beasts when they are hungry, or angry, and when they catch me and I am doomed, I don’t wake up, there’s no escape like in dreams, because this isn’t a fairy tale, this could be a playground, a walk in the park, and we could be forests of trees that protect each other, like trees do, but we are lifeless pawns, we only attack, and this is a prison, a coming-of-age story, about a pointless game, a rat race, or the world as it is.
Mileva Anastasiadou is a neurologist, from Athens, Greece and the author of “We Fade With Time” by Alien Buddha Press.
