In The End
I decided to try my hand at writing something sad. Please tell me how I did. As usual, I don't own Peter Pan. If I did, there would be SO many alternate endings by now. I suppose that makes my lack of ownership a good thing.
"…And they defeated Captain Hook and lived Happily Ever After. The End," Peter Pan would say whenever he finished telling the story of his adventures with Wendy Darling.
"What happened with him and Wendy," a Lost Boy would always ask.
"She stayed with him in Neverland."
"He left Neverland to be with her."
"She left, but eventually returned."
"She left, but, they both eventually stopped missing each other."
The lie changed from night to night, because he could never bring himself to tell them something sad before they went to sleep. In the end, their adventure had become a story to tell: nothing but a memory.
Often, she crossed his mind, and he would take some of her descendants every now and again, hoping to feel the spark that he felt with her.
It never worked.
She impacted him greatly, but he could never grow up. So, there, he sat, trapped in the paradise that needed him to exist. He was sitting alone now and thinking. All he could do was tell their story and meet with her descendant. Thunderclouds moved over Neverland with the emotions of the island's ruler.
Because in the end, he and Wendy couldn't be, and he knew it.
Because his stories were just that.
Stories.