Nor should you, because youâre only a child.
ALICE : Being made to grow up too soon .
PETER : Yes. Thatâs it. Weâve arrived.
ALICE : Where?
PETER : At our story⦠At Peter and Alice.
ALICE : The love story?
PETER : Partly⦠And partly that other book. The endlessly painful one with no happy ending.
ALICE : Honestly! I gather itâs fashionable among young people to be dreadfully grim and depressive, you wear it as a badge of pride, but itâs rather a bore. Now Iâve had myshare of difficulties, but Iâve always carried on with some hope.
PETER : âDifficultiesâ you call it? Thatâs a comfortable euphemism, like finding another word for cancer.
ALICE : Loss? Death ? Is that what you want to hear?
PETER : Thatâs what it is.
ALICE : Iâm not afraid of the words, but I donât luxuriate in them.
PETER : Is that what I do?
ALICE : I think so.
PETER : Thatâs just who I am.
ALICE : Itâs indulgent.
PETER : Sorry.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND : Stop arguing, itâs too boring!
PETER PAN : Or start fighting at least! Who has a sword?
PETER : (Continuing to ALICE .) All right then, let me ask you: these feelings of loss, do you remember the very first time you felt them? ⦠And were you the same person after?
ALICE : How can I remember something like that? Itâs too vague.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND approaches .
ALICE IN WONDERLAND : Now sheâs telling stories.
PETER PAN : I love stories! Are there Indians?
ALICE : Iâm not telling stories.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND : Of course you are! You remember perfectly.
PETER PAN : And pirates and monsters and ships and battles and motorcars and balloon trips and undersea creatures andâ¦!
ALICE IN WONDERLAND : The darkroom, silly!
This stops ALICE .
CARROLL : Alice, keep still !
ALICE IN WONDERLAND : Donât you remember the darkroom?
PETER : Tell me.
ALICE : No.
CARROLL : You must stay exactly as you are !
PETER PAN : I love stories more than anything. Wendy told stories. And then she grew up.
PETER : Tell me a story, Wendy.
ALICE looks at him. So be it .
ALICE : My sisters and I had gone to Reverend Dodgsonâs studio to be photographed. This was not uncommon; weâd done it many timesâ¦
CARROLL : You must hold still, Alice!
ALICE poses for a picture. CARROLL is photographing her; a painstaking and elaborate process in 1863 .
ALICE IN WONDERLAND strikes an identical pose .
CARROLL goes about the minutiae of his task .
ALICE : I smell the chemicals still⦠Bromide and chloride dissolved to make the solution for the negative⦠Then like magic out comes the polished glass plate, which had to be perfectly clean, Iâve never seen anything cleaner, no dust, no imperfections, like the skin of a baby, fresh like youth, I donât know like what, like innocence !
PETER : (Laughs.) Oh God!
ALICE : Donât make me laugh, Iâm supposed to be standing still⦠Then he carefully brushed the solution on the glass with a darling little sable brush I always coveted.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND : (Re: sable brush.) Oh! Itâs ravishing!
CARROLL : Donât move! Just a little longer.
ALICE : Then he whisked the plate into the darkroom to dip it into the silver nitrate and then so gingerly back into the camera, like a surgeon those hands, those soft hands, then a final adjustment to the lens⦠(To CARROLL .) ⦠I want to move.
CARROLL : Youâll ruin it all.
ALICE : Lorinaâs making faces!
CARROLL : Sheâs a very silly goose and youâre my Queen! Hold still, Queen Alice!
ALICE : Then the moment! Hold your breath! Lens cap off. Time⦠stops.
Everyone holds their breath .
A few frozen moments .
ALICE : Lens cap on! Move!
CARROLL : Come with me, Alice! Double quick!
CARROLL and ALICE hurry into the darkroom .
Light almost disappears. They are now lit by the muted glow of the darkroom .
ALICE : Into the darkroom! Shut the door.
Craig Saunders, C. R. Saunders
Lynch Marti, Elena M. Reyes