“Adelie Carroll is the winner. Adelie! Adelie Carroll!”
Some clapped. Some folded their arms in disgust. Some shot glares so piercing they might as well have been daggers. Suzie mustered through the crowd, pushing past everyone with a fervent declaration.
“Excuse me, that’s my sister!”
Relief stole over Adelie like a downpour. Suddenly, things were a little easier with her sister there. Suzie gripped her hands and bounced up and down, squealing with delight. She kept repeating the same words over and over before moving on to the next.
“You? You. Did it. You did it!”
Adelie tucked a hair behind her ear. Suzie’s excitement was doing the job, trickling in and injecting her with its own dose of disbelief. This morning, she’d been despondent, frustrated and borderline hopeless. She never in her wildest dreams could have imagined this.
Fifty-thousand dollars for finding a bunny in a cage?
“All this for a scavenger hunt?” she mused, but the crowd around her was so deafening, she could barely hear herself.
“It is hard to believe,” Wendy went on, signaling to quiet the crowd. “When you came here this morning, did you ever think you’d actually win such a grandiose prize?”
“No,” Adelie said, warming up to the newscaster. A smile crept onto her cheeks. “I never thought I would.”
“Mr. Hatter,” Wendy turned to Maddox. Adelie had forgotten he was standing beside her. “Did the challenge take as long as you anticipated?”
“Not at all,” he said. “I thought it would be something swift. The clues weren’t all that challenging, at least not enough to be impossible.” He smiled. “I knew the table would be the trick.”
“So, tell me, Adelie,” Wendy said. “How exactly did you get the rabbit to appear?”
Adelie tried to think back to what had happened. She’d said the riddle aloud; it had served as a verbal password, triggering a change she never expected. Who knew the table would respond to a code like that? It made her wonder what Mr. Hatter usually kept in there.
“I—I just spoke the riddle to the table,” she said.
Wendy’s forehead indicated her confusion.
Mr. Hatter stepped in. “It’s always been something, one of those hidden tricks I never informed people about. A few have discovered it here and there, but anyone who sits and says those exact words, where the trigger can catch them, unlocks the table.”
Wendy’s mouth gaped open. She appeared completely spellbound by his words. Or maybe it was just standing close to someone who looked like he did. His eyes had the effect of a magnet.
“Incredible.” She shook herself before turning back to Adelie. “Tell me, Ms. Carroll. What are you going to do with your winnings?”
Adelie hesitated. She wasn’t sure where this interview would be broadcasted, and she wasn’t about to tell the entire world her problems or about the foreclosure with her house.
“I’ll figure something out,” she hedged with a smile. At this point, she could no longer manage to clear it from her cheeks, and if she was being honest, she didn’t want to. Fifty-thousand dollars. She’d won fifty-thousand dollars.
Wendy turned to the cameraman to give her take on the report, and Mr. Hatter tilted in. “First interview?”
Adelie stared around the park in wonder as if seeing it for the first time. The lightness she’d longed to feel was there now, giving her the impression she was floating. Exhilaration fluttered through her, spiking her adrenaline in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time.
“First everything,” she admitted.
Another man with dark hair and a zip-up jacket joined Mr. Hatter’s side. He punched him in the shoulder and inclined his head to his left. Mr. Hatter nodded to him in unspoken communication and then tilted in again.
“Excuse me, Miss Carroll. Now that the surprise is over, I think we should take this to a quieter location. Would you care to join me?”
Oh goodness, this was really happening. She was really his grand prize winner. Adelie wasn’t sure what was more spine-tingling: that she was the winner, or his proximity and the prospect of having been invited somewhere by him. Either way, she’d take it.
Get a grip, she told herself. He's only inviting you because you're his winner.
“Where?” she managed.
“My office. Things will be much calmer there, and I can answer whatever questions you might have.”
Questions. Yes. She had those. Adelie had to admit, after such a bustling, emotional day, some solitude would be nice. She’d been looking forward to escaping the noise and crowds.
“That would be great. Do you mind if my sister comes?”
“Not at all.”
Mr. Hatter waved to the crowd, but it was already dispersing. People weren’t leaving the park, though—they were riding rides and enjoying their day in spite of the contest’s close. Several park guests even commended him on such a fun idea.
Dozens of riddle cards littered the walkways, being picked up by workers in imaginative, baggy uniforms with brightly colored pants in varying shades of the primary colors. Adelie walked in an unbalanced way as if on loose ground, her brain disconnected from the rest of her.
Suzie linked arms with her, slanting in as they went. “You!” she said under her breath. “You said you didn’t even want to come, and now look what happened.”
“I know. I know.” Adelie picked up the pace, scurrying to keep up with Mr. Hatter and his friend. The two men were caught in conversation, speaking in hushed tones a pace in front of them, darting the occasional glance back at Adelie. Every time his gaze connected with hers, it cinched something in her stomach.
What were they saying? Were they talking about her? If so, she wasn’t sure how she felt about all this attention.
“What’s the scoop?” Suzie asked under her breath. “When do you get the money?”
Adelie shushed her. Mr. Hatter said he would tell her. She wasn’t about to be greedy about it or demand the money. This was his offer,
