The Girl That's Never Been copyright 2001 Michelle Dockrey based on the short story "The Cheshire" by Bill Kte'pi, which can be found online at http://www.cyphertext.net/~vix/cheshire.txt. Dm C Dm C It was sixteen years ago, outside an aging movie show Dm C Am Am I was found not knowing where I was that night Dm C Dm C Not a thing did I possess but an old blue gingham dress Dm C Dm Dm And a faded photograph in black and white Now my memories are quite clear, even if I still can hear All the shrinks who said some trauma was to blame Light another cigarette, breathe in deep, try to forget Dm C C Dm Dm That it's a photograph of Dinah and that Alice is my name Chorus: Dm Dm Dm C Save me, save me, I've lost my memory Dm C Am Am I'm outside the world looking in Dm Dm Dm C Save me, save me, I'm lost in the memory Dm Am Dm Dm And I'd swear I'm a girl that's never been Now it's all the life I knew, except I know it can't be true I'm not her-- there's no such thing as Wonderland Hold a steady job somehow, three months clean and sober now Oh, the ways I tried to get back there again "Try to move on, don't be sad--" so I placed a personal ad I asked, why is a raven like a writing desk? And on the phone, out of the past, so glad he's found me now at last-- And I'm afraid to go and meet him but I know my answer's yes [chorus] Bridge: C C Dm Dm Just another city loner wearing sunglasses at night C C Dm Dm Leather jacket, purple turtleneck and blue jeans worn too tight C C Dm Dm Just a rummie by the jukebox in a casual curious pose Am Am Am Am But I don't know how he knows the things he knows Well he sits down with a grin, "Why little Alice, where've you been? Not so little, not so Alice, now, are you?" As he sips my untouched drink, I say "I can't be who I think" He says "You are, and you're not, and I am too. Are we figments of our gin? Are we long-lost orphaned kin? Or the mad descendants of a writer's pen? No one's sane behind their mask. Ask what you really want to ask." And I close my eyes and whisper, "Can you take me back again?" [chorus] "Darling Alice, so bereft, there's no back-- you never left. All the rhymes are still there waiting to be sung." And he holds up in the air a little picture paper square Slips between my lips and underneath my tongue. "Shall I tell you now, Miss Little, what's the answer to the riddle Of the raven that you used to send your call?" He takes the glasses off to see, yellow cat's eyes turn on me, and says, "It's nothing like a writing desk at all." Chorus: Save me, save me, I've lost my memory I'm outside the world looking in Save me, save me, I'm lost in the memory And I'd swear I'm a girl that's never been And he faded, leaving nothing but a grinnnnnnnnnnnnnn.