I laugh loudly as I jump to another cloud. The feeling of freedom and space can make anyone even adults feel young. "Watch this!" Peter does this arrow trick that breaks a cloud into pieces. I roll my eyes laughing; I used to play like this with Peter in the playroom back home. A pang hits my temples like I'm exhausted. I brush it off and grab a piece of a cloud, "Hey Peter!" I jump/fly toward him and in midair I clap the cloud between my hands. Peter crows in surprise laughing, "It's like a firework!" I shriek.
After an hour of bursting clouds in each other's faces, I begin to just float. Peter floats next to me on his side. Instead of the usual grin his face is deadpan serious, "Peter what's wrong?" Peter then says, "Ruthie, did you know that if you take a twinkle in a boy's eye, he can longer be called a child. He must leave and become a pirate." Rufio. I sit up in the sky, weird to have nothing but air to sit on. "Peter! That's absurd! Why can't he stay? I mean, think, adults are only different because they must!"
Peter shakes his head, "A child is only made of innocence, Ruthie."
"It's true," A bell goes off next to my ear.
"Tink!" I throw cloud at her for scaring me again.
"Peter's right Ruthie, all boys have a twinkle but that twinkle disappears once they have no innocence left. They're can't get that twinkle back!" Tink says.
"Peter, that has to be another way." I lamely complain.
"Ruthie just, just-" He flies off a bullet style again.
"Ruthie! Please! You're the Lost Boy's mother! You cannot do what I know you were about to do!" Tink pleaded. She zooms in close to my face, so I can see her eyes are wide and her face on the verge of crumpling. A fairy can only hold one emotion.
"I'm Sorry Tink," Was I sorry that I don't feel sorry for having these feelings? What was I sorry for? But that was all I could say.