The Lion and the Unicorn

Or

"I'll believe in you if you believe in me"

The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said `Talk, child.'

Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: `Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!'

`Well, now that we have seen each other,' said the Unicorn, `if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?'

`Yes, if you like,' said Alice.

`Come, fetch out the plum-cake, old man!' the Unicorn went on, turning from her to the King. `None of your brown bread for me!'

`Certainly -- certainly!' the King muttered, and beckoned to Haigha. `Open the bag!' he whispered. `Quick! Not that one -- that's full of hay!'

Haigha took a large cake out of the bag, and gave it to Alice to hold, while he got out a dish and carving-knife. How they all came out of it Alice couldn't guess. It was just like a conjuring trick, she thought.

The Lion had joined them while this was going on: he looked very tired and sleepy, and his eyes were half shut. `What's this!' he said, blinking lazily at Alice, and speaking in a deep hollow tone that sounded like the tolling of a great bell.

`Ah, what is it, now?' the Unicorn cried eagerly. `You'll never guess! I couldn't.'

The Lion looked at Alice wearily. `Are you animal -- or vegetable -- or mineral?' he said, yawning at every other word.

`It's a fabulous monster!' the Unicorn cried out, before Alice could reply.

`Then hand round the plum-cake, Monster,' the Lion said, lying down and putting his chin on his paws. `And sit down, both of you,' (to the King and the Unicorn): `fair play with the cake, you know!'

When Julian was just a little kid, her mother was jailed for trying to help a friend abort a baby, with the use of hot baths. She didn't know the details. Julian went to live with her grandmother and her grandmothers poodle, Bobo. She didn't understand why, but in the manner of all little kids simply accepted that this was the way of life now. Kids don' t bemoan their fates, they simply get on with it. One of her favourite books at that time was 'Alice in Wonderland'. She read it and read it and read it again. She read it so much that one particular exercise at school had the teacher believing that she had the book on her lap.

"I want you all to write about your favourite books," she said. Julian started writing chapter one, 'Down the Rabbit Hole', and got about half way through the chapter from memory before it was time to stop.

The teacher read it and said, "Have you got the book on your lap."

Julian was impressed by that.

"No," she said.