Epilogue
“Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go round!”
—Alice, Alice in Wonderland
It’d be nice to say Maddox and I had our happily ever after, but like I told Ivory, those types of endings are found only in fairy tales.
Reality is messy. It’s scary and harsh, and there’s a certain madness in Wonderland that infects those of us who call this town home.
It brings us back even when we try to escape it because this is where we belong.
Wonderland is in our blood, in our soul, and it’s here where Maddox and I will have our plain old ‘happily.’
Nothing more and nothing less.
Just our hard-earned ‘happily.’
We’ll journey through this world together, hand in hand, facing every challenge side by side.
Together, we’ll rise above any obstacles life presents and recover from setbacks.
We’ll celebrate each other’s successes, knowing that not every day will be filled with clouds.
There will be sunshine—glorious sunshine—shining down on us. And when night falls…
Come night, we’ll dance under the pale glow of the moon.
We may not have our maze anymore, but we still have Devil’s Ridge.
Lit by the Dodger’s headlights, Maddox watches me as I scroll on my phone.
I set it on the car’s hood and hold out my hands to him, the first notes of Cass Elliot’s “Baby I’m Yours” echoing in the warm summer air.
“Dance with me.”
Maddox’s smile is honey and spice with a splash of mischief—just like him.
Exactly like him.
Exactly like me, and when he takes me in his arms, I realize what’s been staring me right in the face all this time. Wonderland isn’t home. It’s a place, a little town filled with larger-than-life personalities. Maddox is my home.
My home, my peace, and finally, my salvation.
The End