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Chapter Two
Something moved in the bushes to the left. Well, maybe it did. Not a leaf rustled, but Wendy was sure something was there. There always was in this dratted forest. It was more of a jungle, really, which she remembered her uncle telling her about when he came back from India. If it weren't for Peter she'd be away from it all, back in England, living in a proper house, with a maid and maybe a nice husband. Perhaps she'd never have a maid here, but she might have a husband. If Peter stopped thinking of her as a mother, his mother, and more of a… what was the use? He couldn't even remember her name most of the time. Still, she had a nice enough house – a hollow tree and a cave underground – and a loving family – two dozen boys she took care of and a half dozen girls that helped her. She set her mouth in a determined smile. The forest stirred again.
"What is that?" she asked the boy ahead of her. Peter always sent some of the boys when she and her assistants went to Mermaid's Lagoon to do the washing. Not because he cared about her overmuch, she allowed, but because he and the boys would have holes in their stockings and bellies without her.
"I don't know. Not pirates." He sounded uncertain, except when he spoke of the pirates. He knew for sure they weren't in the woods.
"Ignore it," another boy snapped. She had learned from the boys that he had run off when she had arrived in Neverland, insisting he didn't need or want a mother. He had returned to the Lost Boys less than a month ago, for reasons unknown to her or anyone else. He should have liked her by now. He didn't.
They cleared the last of the brush and arrived at the edge of the lagoon. Wendy set her basket down with a relieved sign, and her helpers did likewise beside her. Something slid beneath the water. It was just a flash at the corner of her eye, but she was sure she'd seen it, and there was a small ripple as though something were swimming underwater. Peer as she might through the dark, clear water, she could see no hint of the ripple's source.
It was probably just a mermaid, but Wendy wasn't sure. There had been too many vagrant breezes and strange, half-heard sounds recently. Some of the younger boys, like her brother Michael, had begun to whisper that they weren't the only things living in the forest. Maybe they weren't, but who or whatever their companions were, they weren't the demons the youngsters made them out to be. Wendy was not at all worried. Peter would look after them, he'd keep them safe.
The horrid boy no longer looked bored and irritated. His eyes flickered across the water the way they would if he thought another had taken his things. Wendy had seen that look often enough to know it. They boys sometimes chose to believe that they could take anything they wanted and no one would mind. The ones they took from seldom agreed. Short, sharp fights almost always followed, and it was all Wendy could do to ensure no one was hurt.
The boy pulled off his shirt and, still wearing his trousers, dived smoothly into the deep waters of the lagoon. He refused to wear one of the bear suits that most of the other boys wore, opting instead for the rough linen clothes that Peter had taken to wearing in the past few years. It wasn't right that he should rise above himself that way. Not that she would mind if Peter abandoned the linen clothes for his old wardrobe of skeleton leaves. They showed off his smooth muscles and golden tan to perfection. But what was she thinking? It wasn't proper!
Wendy started to wash a pair of stockings, waiting for the boy to surface. The more she waited, the more he didn't. Had the mermaids drowned him? He had entered their lagoon, and they might resent the intrusion. They had proved when she first came to Neverland that they didn't like anyone except each other and Peter. She voiced her concern to Slightly, the boy who had walked in front of her through the woods.
"don't worry about Ray," he told her as he scanned the woods apprehensively. "He swims better than a fish. I doubt even the mermaids could catch him." Slightly had been with the Lost Boys almost as long as the boy – Ray – had, although he had stayed when Wendy came.
There was another oddity about Ray. All the other boys had names like Slightly and Starkey or Nibs and Curly. The others who had been there when she arrived were Tootles and the twins, both of who were known simply as 'Twin'. Her brothers John and Michael had ordinary names of course, but every other boy had an off name assigned to him by Peter. Except Ray. Oh, his name was odd enough, but it was a real name, one she could see a boy back in England having. Although the one time she'd tried calling him Raymond he'd looked like he was going to hit her. Fortunately, Peter had intervened. Ray could simply not be trusted without a keeper, and the only one who could control him was Peter. It was a sorry mess for a mother to have to deal with.
Wendy realised she had stopped washing and was sitting still, staring off across the water. With a furtive glance around she returned to washing the stockings. The three girls she had with her were still at their tasks, each washing a small mound of stockings and shirts.