• I opened my eyes. I always love waking up in my feather bed! Ever since I got it around five. Brother is always incredibly jealous.
    I got out and made my bed. Somehow the purple and green blanket seem familiar...
    Oh well! It must be because they are my favorite colors, afterall.
    Me, Alice Hatter, the only one in all of Memoir to not love the color pink! I guess I am pretty weird.
    And today, this very day, I am going to graduate to year 16! Brother always talks about his year 16. How mother and father brought licorice horses from Candyland, how I was sick and couldn't come. Somehow, even though I was a seventh year, I couldn't remember! Can you believe that? I can remember year 5 but never around year 7!
    I combed down my brown hair, and put itin purple bows today. I grabbed my green cloak and draped it around my shoulders. My clothes took the usual transition from night clothes to day clothes.
    For all the clueless fourth years out there, our clothes automatically change with day and night.
    So much fun it will be! Even though mother and father are gone, I still have dear brother!
    I kissed the screen that held mother and father, our tradition is that when a person dies we hold a ceremony that traps that leaving spirits in a screen, that will ensure their reincarnation.
    "Goodbye, mother and father. You only have 6 months until you come back. I promise to be patient."
    I skipped out the door, that led into the bright sunny world. Day may only be 13 hours, but it was much more beautiful than I heard it was in Elsewhere, though their day is much longer.
    Can you believe it? 24 whole hours!
    How could someone entertain themselves for that long?I mean I would have-
    No,no,no! Brother said never to think about such things!
    So I shook my head, to relieve myself of those troublesome thoughts, and hurried on my way.
    I ran through the pretty green forest, and swam through the pink dyed river. Everyone insisted it be pink, and since I was the minority with my suggestion of purple, they made it pink.
    I dried off and kept going, there was still so much to do! I went into Kate Elf's workshop for some colorful decorations.
    Kate was about two feet tall, she says she comes from Elsewhere, but came here because where she came from, I think it was something likethe North Pole, or maybe somewhere else,they only had business once a year, and that they were always stressed at that time. She said she got sick of it and asked the old man who ruled over her to let her free, being the kind man he was, he did.
    "Hello Alice, dear girl, how may I help you?" she always spoke with an accent that clung to her voice, by living her for nearly fourteen years, it was almost gone.
    "Hello Kate, dear girl, I would like 4 strings of green and purple lights. And maybe that confetti you talk about all the time, it sounds interesting."
    Memoir people have the tradition to call people outside our family dear girl or dear boy, depending on their gender. They also have another tradition in which with eahc birthday, you receive a few memories from Elsewhere, that why we're the most intellegent of the people. We don't spend all of ourmoney on heaven's sugar like the Candy people.
    Nor do we have no rules like in Toybox.
    We base our goverment on what the people of elsewhere call... democracy.
    "Here you go Alice, dear girl, all that you asked for."
    She handed me a pink plastic bag, and a small card was attached. My first congratulation today!
    I opened the card and it revealed two words.
    Be Careful.
    My eyes widened, what is this? I mean, why?
    I looked up at Kate, who gave me a grim stare in response.
    And she mouthed, Rain with fall again.