Wendy gazed out at the heavens from her small balcony as the gentle breeze blew her honey hair about her.
"Wendy, come back inside," a voice drifted out to her. The sky was beautiful this evening. She played with the railing, she held on to it then leaned back, then pushed herself forward as if she were about to lance herself over it and then take off into the air. Wendy continued the rocking for a bit more, then stopped suddenly and looked up.
The clouds were ablaze with a fiery orange, the wind picked up just a tiny bit more. It felt marvelous; it made her feel free. For an instant she was almost reminded of at time almost 3 years ago.
"NOW, please!" Her mothers' voice was more forceful. That was the warning bell.
She hung about the window for a few more seconds before turning to face the nursery. It was no longer her room though, when the lost boys had arrived, bunk beds had been moved in, and Wendy had been moved out, into a little forgotten room in the back of the house. It had been used as a store room, but necessity and Aunt Millicent had convinced the Darlings to give the toys and other things in there to charity.
Now also thanks to Aunt Millicent's amazing decorating skills, the room did not look half bad. A wrought iron bed adorned one corner, with a night stand next to it, a desk beside the window, and a small vanity against the wall took up the next corner, a wardrobe another. But the other half did look bad. In fact it looked slightly gruesome to Wendy. The curtains were an awful frilly, bright, pink color and the wall paper had been picked by her aunt to go along with them. But Wendy did not complain and had to make do with it because she realized that with the boys and her brothers needing a place to board she could not be picky.
But the nursery still was and would always be her room in a way.
It was the turning point in her life and was the place where she could almost pinpoint the moment when she had gone from being a child to the moment when she had begun to grow up. The moment she had chosen to fly off with Peter Pan out that window, that was the moment that she had flown away from innocence, and left it behind as well.
"Wendy I don't think he's coming back." It was John that had spoken. She turned and gave him a rotten look and was about to answer when she heard Aunt Millicent burst in.
"Wendy, get away from that window! Now! Young Mr. Thomas is here!" She let out a girly giggle. "Make yourself presentable and go downstairs at once!"
Unbelievable how women were still so eager to get their girls married at a ridiculous age. Although Wendy was only sixteen, it was rapidly becoming the fashion to have ones daughters married by eighteen, and have them engaged by seventeen if not earlier.
Not wanting to disappoint her aunt, Wendy turned to John and with a look filled with disappointment, possibly even anger and said, "I think you're right." And with that she pulled down the window and barred it shut.