In a golden afternoon, under skies of cloudless blue, Leisel put down her book. She had just finished reading Alice in Wonderland on her mother’s recommendation. She took a deep sigh, wishing that amongst all of the war and the fighting and the stupid Nazis and rationing and the general war time gloom, that she could just disappear away into wonderland.

The greyness and stuffiness of the room was killing her, as was her new found despair of the world which seemed bleak and disappointing after reading the marvels of Alice in Wonderland. She ran down stairs and opened the kitchen window. It was too late to go outside; her mother had told her about the new curfew this morning which was even stricter than the last. Everywhere in Germany seemed to be getting darker and tenser. The hope was lost, the glory was lost and now they were trapped in war.

She sat with her legs hanging out of the windowsill, her eyes shut as the golden rays warmed her face so it tingled gently. Far off she could hear the birds singing goodnight in the distant trees, a sound she hadn’t heard since the war began. The sky was a palette of pinks and oranges and soft blues and deep purples all blessed into one stunning gradient that gently guided up into the darkness of space and the wondrous infinity of beyond. Like her, the trees too were soaking up the last of the suns dying warmth and they were an earthy brown that gently blended into the sky. Everything was perfect, in its place but oddly so out of place. In the gloomiest time of war it seemed like Leisel had found her own looking glass into another world.

“Carol must’ve got his inspiration from somewhere,” she whispered into the afternoon air.