Chapter 5: Starkey's Plan
~~ Such is the terrible man against whom Peter Pan is pitted. Which will win? ~~
On the deck of the Red Lady, night had fallen. The green lantern hanging off the bow masked the ship; in the sunlight one would be able to see its bright red coloring and the red hair of its figurehead. Now, it appeared greenish brown in the dank green light. A putrid, dirty shadow floating in the otherwise clear blue-green lagoon.
For a while, there had been a redskin troop on the banks of the lagoon, or so Smee's dogs told him, preparing for attack. They had been all painted out for war, the spies said. However, looking out into the forest from his ship, Smee saw no such troop. He was inclined to believe that they had been there, but now they had left. The scum of his crew were too scared of him to lie.
There was only one reason Peter would not have already attacked the ship. Peter knew everything that happened on this island, and Smee knew for a fact that several of his pirates were already dead. Smee knew Peter. Peter would go after the captain, demand that, whatever happened, the biggest obstacle be left for him alone. Peter would face fear and adventure in the face. So where was Peter? Why had Peter not come?
Peter must have forgotten.
Curse the boy and his childish forgetfulness. Smee would have to do something to make it clear to this boy that he meant business. But what to do, Smee didn't know.
There was a noise, a splashing sound. Someone was swimming towards the boat. Smee looked overboard, staring into the dim, green-tinted water. Who was that? He looked familiar. Someone from the old days, but all the pirates who had been alive then had perished… Wait, no, there he was, surely it was Starkey. Smee lowered a rope for Starkey to climb up on.
"Smee? Is that you?" whispered the newcomer.
"Starkey?" replied Smee.
"It is you! I thought you died! I thought they all died, except me!"
"I thought the same thing, Starkey! I thought the same thing!"
The two pirates and comrades embraced. "Oh, the good old days, under such a captain as James Hook!" whispered Starkey. "What a captain he was!"
Smee motioned for Starkey to follow him into the head. "Certainly. What a man, what a captain. But I must keep up appearances, the men think I was the only man Hook feared."
"You? The only man Hook feared? Oh, that's rich! Where'd they get that one?" Starkey's voice was full of disregard. He hardly thought that Smee could be the one spreading this rumor about their beloved, and horrifying, captain Hook.
"From me," Smee replied, his voice as small as possible. Starkey's surprise was evident, and Smee explained. "It's the only way that I could get together a crew to come and get revenge on Peter Pan and those blasted lost boys. You do want revenge on the boys, don't you?"
"Well, certainly, Smee. But, the problem is, all those lost boys grew up long ago. They're dead now. All the ones here are new, they are. So if you want revenge on those old lost boys, you're out of luck."
"Then I'll get revenge on the new lost boys! I don't care, as long as I get my revenge! I can get my revenge on Peter Pan, he was always the chief one!" Smee shouted, and then realized that maybe Peter had left too. "Peter is still here, right?"
"Of course. And still their leader."
"Then we shall get revenge."
"Yes. Revenge."
"What to do, though, what to do?"
"Why not lure them out with a cake, like Hook planned to do? After all, they no longer have a mother."
"Excellent, Starkey! Excellent!"
The two pirates began reminiscing, and the tales they recounted were so bloody and violent that I would rather not retell them here. After a few hours, they decided to wake up the dogs and begin their plan.
* * * * *
"A story, a story!" the boys yelled, swarming around Katie. "Tell us a story!"
Katie yawned. She was tired, having had adventures all day. "A story, then? Let's see… which one would you like?"
"One with adventure!" yelled John.
"And magic!" added Daisy.
"And a rat!" finished Beetle. Katie wasn't sure he even knew what a rat was, but she accepted his statement. A story with adventure, magic, and a rat. She knew just the story.
"One day, not so long ago, in Surrey, strange things began happening. You see, The Dursleys, residents of Little Whinging, Surrey, and completely normal people, found their baby nephew, Harry Potter, in a basket outside the front door one night in 1981. Harry's parents had been murdered, by the evil wizard Voldemort, but that's not what the Dursleys told Harry, because they knew that Harry's parents were wizards and they didn't want him becoming one himself. They told him that his parents had died in a car crash, and he was left with a peculiar lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead.
"And so, Harry grew up, thinking he was absolutely normal, even though strange things would always happen when he was scared or angry. However, on his eleventh birthday, he received a letter, inviting him to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…"
Beetle was gratified by the prominence of Scabbers the rat, who Katie concentrated on, to please him. Daisy was thrilled by the magic, for the story is all about magic and few have more. And John was satisfied with the amount of adventure, because it is, after all, a very adventurous story. She had, however, only gotten halfway through before she stopped.
She stopped, and with reason, because all the lost boys except Peter were asleep. She turned to Peter.
"You tell better stories than Wendy used to," he said, absentmindedly.
"Really? How sweet of you to say," she replied, confused. He could hardly remember one day from the next, how did he remember Wendy now? She guessed he just could remember some times and not others.
"She told stories about silly old grownups getting married and having children. Your stories are about adventure, they're more fun."
Katie nodded.
"Jane told boring stories too. Margaret wasn't so bad, but her stories weren't as exciting as yours. I thought all girls thought about was silly old grownups getting married and having children."
Katie laughed. "That's like saying all boys think about is food. It limits the gender so much. I honestly am ashamed of you, Peter Pan, for thinking that all girls are like that." Katie was only teasing, but Peter took it seriously.
"Don't say that, Katie, even the girls who don't have exciting stories are more use than 40 boys! I didn't mean it in a bad way at all!"
Katie grinned. "I know, I was just teasing."
Peter didn't understand, but he smiled at her, one of his charming smiles. He still had all of his baby teeth. He went to his hammock and fell asleep. Katie paused on the way to her small bed, in the corner, thoughtful.
She would have a lot to get used to here, she thought. Just that day, Beetle had come up to her while they were swimming in the lagoon, and asked her to sew him a pocket. How was she to sew him a pocket? Her grandmother had taught her to sew, of course, but she wasn't very good, and she didn't have any of the materials there with her. She had told him that she would need a needle, thread, and something to make the pocket out of before she sewed him a pocket. He looked downright dejected. Peter and John were the only ones with pockets in the whole group.
And then there was the time that she had decided to try and play with the mermaids. She swam down, and out of shock that a girl should be swimming down to them, the mermaids all froze. When she had kicked a bubble through the goal at the end of the rainbow, however, the mermaids all ran away. Peter and she swam up to the surface.
The look on Peter's face was shocked. "Mothers don't play with the mermaids!" he had said.
"And why shouldn't I? I'm as good a swimmer as you are, I'm sure!" Peter took offense at this.
"Really? I think not! I'm the best swimmer there ever was!" After all, he was Peter Pan, and he was the best at everything.
What commenced then was a race to the island and back, nearly 300 meters. Of course, neither of the children counted, but by the end of it, all the lost boys were watching curiously, as Peter and their mother raced around the lagoon. Katie beat him, but only by a fraction of a second. She was out of breath.
"See? I… told you… I could… beat… you!" she yelled, and fell into the water, splashing all of the lost boys.
Peter was dumbstruck. "Mothers don't play with the mermaids… Mothers don't swim fast… they certainly don't beat me in races…" he kept muttering. Katie couldn't tell if he was disappointed or pleased. She certainly had told them stories every night before bed, so was there really a problem? Peter seemed to want her to stay, so there couldn't be a problem. There couldn't.
When they had gotten back to the house in the trees, Beetle had come up to her with a rusty needle, a spool of thread, and animal skin, materials for a pocket. She had smiled, and nodded. She would get to work on his pockets immediately.
She fell asleep with two pockets for Beetle beside her bed. She was determined to make a good mother for them, even if it meant doing things she wasn't sure she liked, sewing and telling stories. The adventures would start soon, right?
* * * * *
And so they did, they certainly did. The very next day, they began. Katie, Peter, and the lost boys climbed down from the house in the trees, to find a cake, a beautiful cake, sitting on the ground, waiting for them. Bright white, with blue flowers in icing. The boys ran towards it, grabbing it and taking large handfuls, but before any could enter their mouths, Katie stopped them. "Stop!" she yelled, and they all froze. "What do you think you're doing? You will have no cake unless everyone gets an even share!" she knew enough to avoid conflicts. The lost boys looked around. There was cake on the ground, cake on their faces, cake in their hands, cake everywhere except in their mouths. It was so spread out that no one could get a good sized piece if they had to split it up between them. The lost boys dropped the cake. Katie smiled. "Now look at you! You're all dirty! I say we have a nice swim in the lagoon to wash off!" Peter was looking at the cake hungrily, but the lost boys followed Katie away to the lagoon.
Peter was left alone. He reached down, gingerly picking up a piece of the chocolate dessert. He lifted his hand to his mouth, and took a bite.
Poor Peter, that he should be the only one to partake in the poisoned cake. Poor, undeserving Peter, he should be the only one to fall into the pirates' trap. Lucky Smee, Peter didn't always listen to a mother's directions. However, the poison was not so vile that it came to work instantly, and for the moment, the pirates on watch guessed that he hadn't ingested enough to set off the poison.
The rest of the pirates found their trap smeared all over the forest that night. Fortunately none of the boys had eaten it. If they had, the poison inside would surely have done them in.
The injuns didn't fare half so well. Nor did Peter.
He was in bed the next day, horribly sick to the stomach and feeling as if the world were about to end; Peter Pan was never sick. They sent the lost boys out to play in the lagoon, but Katie and Peter stayed in the house in the tree, Peter relishing in self-pity and Katie almost positive that he had, in fact, eaten some of the cake.
She finally convinced herself to ask him about it, when he was looking on the rebound, that evening.
"No, I didn't," he said, fully confident that he would never eat 'that cake I told you not to' after all, why on earth would he ever disobey his mother?
"Well, then, what kept you from the lagoon for so long? You were quite far behind us when we reached it."
"I must have had an adventure. I can't remember," he answered, truthfully. He couldn't remember getting to the lagoon late, either, he only remembered the splendid game that Katie and he had played with the mermaids. She certainly was a peculiar mother.
Katie sighed. "The next time you go off and have an adventure, promise that you'll take me along, okay?"
Peter blinked and nodded. Katie was content to accept his answer, although she still believed he had, after all, eaten some of the forbidden cake.
The poison had worked its course, and because Katie made Peter stay in his hammock all day, Peter ended up none the worse for his morsel of cake. However, the lost boys as a whole certainly did. For it was that day that the pirate spies found out that Peter had a mother once more.
The pirates saw all the lost boys leaving the house, and paid them no heed; it was their captain that they were after. When Peter didn't come, they snuck up to the house, climbed the tree, and peered inside, to see Katie kneeling over Peter's hammock, wiping his brow.
The sight of the good little mother sent them for a loop, and they sped all the way out of the forest and onto the ship, stopping at Smee's door and shouting, "He has a mother! He has a mother!"
Smee came out, frowning. "You mean the Wendy-lady has returned?" he asked. He was almost positive that she had grown up, and Starkey was sure he had never seen her, for several decades.
"No, no, she is named Katie!" yelled the pirates, who had heard Peter thank Katie in his best theatrical impression of a dying boy.
"Katie? Then it is a new mother," worried Smee, and once more locked himself up in his cabin, with Starkey.
"I have a plan," muttered Starkey, once the door was closed. "This one will work for sure."
"Well, what is it?"
Starkey whispered into Smee's ear, careful that no one should hear, because one never knew if a fairy was hiding behind the lantern, or if a mermaid was just beneath the window of the cabin. Smee cackled with delight. "Excellent, my good Starkey! The bird is caught!"
Author's Note: Thanks go out to all who read previous chapters, the reviewers thereof especially. Lupe Silverwing stands out as the only known reviewer of chapter 4, and so bigger thanks go to her. This chapter, however, is dedicated to Silvara Wilde, who e-mailed me asking for it to be posted, and thereby got it posted. Thanks for requesting, Silvara, I hadn't posted because I thought no one liked the story. With that said, review please! If you tell me you like it in a review, then I'll post it without any e-mails. You've read the story, take a few seconds and make my day! Please?