Chapter 3
With all the children tucked up in bed, George Darling and James Barrie were enjoying a brandy each. Mary reappeared after her final patrol of the children's bedrooms, and settled herself on the sofa.
"May I ask..." ventured Mr Barrie "How did you manage to come by another one to adopt? Are you collecting the little darlings now?" Mary let out a charming laugh and George snickered at the humour.
"Any more and we shall burst at the seams!" He replied.
"Well actually, it was the strangest thing..." began Mrs Darling. "It was just like before, when the other boys just turned up, and Wendy insisted we keep them because they were her boys! Only, with Peter, Wendy awoke in the middle of the night to find him unconscious on the Nursery floor! Naturally we put him to bed and he woke up, apparently quite well not long after. Of course, we couldn't turn him away then, and he seemed terribly disorientated, poor child... but even so, he certainly didn't want to stay. George had to hold onto him until he stopped panicking and trying to jump out of the window! It was all very unsettling."
Mr Barrie sat back and pondered. "And... does he want to stay here now?" Mary glanced at her husband and gave a regretful smile.
"I'm afraid not. But he doesn't leave because he has nowhere to go. We are sure he'll be happy, once he's settled in."
"Oh, of course. Of course." James assured them. "Tell me... where does he come from?" Mrs Darling's gaze dropped to the floor as Mr Darling cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"He says... He says he comes from Neverland."