This is Onderland

Wonderland meets the communist manifesto.

Book I

Where can you run away to at 45? Ephine, a middle-aged, peri-menopausal, empty-nester stereotype of disenchantment screams at her energy-vampire co-workers, sets off the fire alarm, and quits her soul-sucking office job in cinematic defiance. Reclaiming her rebellious, teenage spark, she squats in an abandoned church and climbs on a new man until she falls through a door to follow Alice, Anya and Simone as they search for The Book to defeat the Red Queen. Her new friends are the kindred spirits she has searched for her whole life, and they need her help. Though rather than become the heroine, Ephine longs to laugh, dance and sleep. 

As Ephine seeks, plays, and shoves her way through the endless doors, she is swept along on road trips, desert drug trips, and strange trips in search of the women's commune. Urban mysticism, indigenous knowing and irrealism embroider her journey through Onderland. She stretches the bounds of reality, questions the pull of the familiar, and the possibility for social change.

Eventually missing a life that makes sense, she must choose between her deep friendships or reuniting with her children.

Door 42

She finds a small glass bottle filled with purple liquid. When she opens it, it smells like fresh raspberries from her childhood garden. After she drinks, her body moves in a quiet dance for the rest of the day, her mind a muffled breeze. She tries to take the other bottles with her as she leaves, but they disappear on the other side of the door. She writes down this door number, vowing to return. Temple Hymn 42. 

Door 1888 

In The City, they walk forever in the late nineteenth century. Their robot guide warns them about the Bes who rob bodies of their youth and beauty, turning minds black and feeding off knowledge. They will make you sad and depressed. "Just like a husband," quips Phi. Everyone laughs.

Zorya Nightwichuk is a writer from Western Canada. She has work in The Sociological Review, Blood Tree Literature and Thimble. Her work explores the power, limitations and aesthetics of language and imagination.