Chapter four - Il est beau
Once you kick off from the ground and start to float through the air, there is no going back to the way your life once was. You become care-free and begin to believe in anything, because anything is possible. The first time that Peter took my hand and guided me into the still summer night sky I knew that there was no going back to the Wendy Darling that I once was. I knew that it was Neverland or nothing and I would choose Neverland over nothing any day. With Peter laughing at my side and the wind rushing like a gushing river through my hair I knew that I had reached heaven. We soared high above the town houses of the city of London and from our height they looked like little houses which belonged to ants or things of that such. For many minutes we didn't talk as we flew high and high into the purple night sky. The stars were brighter up there and the very few clouds that hovered above the world, tickled out feet as we passed them. Peter would often loosen his grip on my hand but I would snatch it back again in fear of loosing my way or falling to the ground he looked at my worried face and laughed:
"Don't be frightened, it's not like I would fly off and leave you to get lost," he said gaily. His face lit up as Tinkerbell flew beside his cheek.
"I am not frightened of that, it is the pure fear of dropping from and ever so high altitude," I said looking down below me – we were very high up now. He laughed again.
"Why are you scared of falling I would never let you fall – well from this height at least," he said laughing again – I wasn't at all reassured by his last remark.
"You overwhelm me with confidence," I said sarcastically, making him laugh – he did seem to be happy at the moment.
"Well you should be confident, especially with a boy like me," he winked making me laugh. He then looked at where out hands were clasped, slowly we began to unfasten, if you would care to say, them and soon I was flying on my own. I reached my arms out in front of me and zigzagged from side to side, twirling around like a drill. I looked over to find that Peter had disappeared behind a cloud. I became anxious because I couldn't see either a boy dressed in leaves flying around laughing or a little light that gave of the effect that it was annoyed. I looked around and when I ended up at the end of the cloud that I though Peter had gone behind I found he was not there. Suddenly I heard a faint whistling sound from below me, as I looked down I saw Peter flying there on his back with his arms crossed. I was indeed relieved and he flew back up to my side laughing.
"You should have seen your face other Wendy!" I wasn't impressed.
"That wasn't very funny Peter, and why do you keep on calling me other Wendy – it for one isn't my name and I don't much fancy it either," I said looking at him, a look of thought came over his face.
"Well...Wendy" he said putting special emphasis on my name, "You are other Wendy because you are not the Wendy that I know," he said in a matter-of-factly tone, "But I didn't know that you don't like the new name that I gave you, so if you desperately want I will call you Wendy," he said flying on his side with one hand supporting his head, waiting for and answer.
"Well that would be much appreciated Peter, thank you," I said stretching out my arms and letting out a yawn, "So Peter what are the lost boys like?" I ask staring into the stars as we began to rise up away from the earth and into the realm of the planets.
"They are – well...um...err...lost?" he said not being able to find the right word to describe the group of you males that he called his 'men'. "They are an interesting sort, who obviously like stories, and they like to play and pretend to be on adventures when really we aren't on one. Oh, they aren't very clean or well mannered," he said giving a disapproving look. I gave him a quick over look and saw that he wasn't the cleanest person in the world either. I stifled a giggle, "But they are a bundle of fun in a sense and they will all fall in love with you," he said, I could feel the tips of my ears turning slightly pink.
"I cannot wait to meet them," I said smiling as we passed more planets and balls of burning gas. Then at the thought of the lost boys I remember my cousins, my family. I hadn't even given a single though to what they might think of my sudden disappearance, how they might act to my leaving. I thought of my poor Aunt and how sick with worry she would be and how she would have to hire someone now to look after the boys. Then my thoughts turned that my Aunt Wendy. It would be a terrible loss for her to know that she would never lay her sparkling blue forget-me-not eyes on the girl-child figure that belong to me, and how she had now lost her only niece and that there probably would never be another in my place. Then I thought of what she said that evening on the porch as she was about to turn and leave for France; 'Wendy, you are almost thirteen, and I have a piece of advice for you. If a boy comes to your window at night and has a little light following him and he wears garments made from leaves and vines, do not be afraid. If this boy offers to take you away to a place called Neverland...If he offers to take you away to a place called Neverland and you say yes, never, I repeat never return,'. I knew now as I flew through the realm of the planets and light of the twinkling stars that going back was never, ever going to be an option for me. I secretly swore to myself not to return and soon my eyes stung, with the though that I would never see my beloved family again.
"Wendy? Wendy are you alright?" asked Peter with a concerned look on his round cheery face. I nodded, quickly wiping away the tears that had escaped from my eyes. He looked up a head and his face lit up, he turned to me and winked, "Wendy, hold onto my ankle," I did as he said and grasped hold of his firm brown ankle with both of my hands. He whipped his head around and nodded to me then with a tremendous push we started to fly at an uncharted amount of speed with Tinkerbell fluttering beside us, he then shouted out, "DON'T LET GO!" but his word's trailed off, but I had no intention of letting go. I closed my eyes as we began to speed towards a ball of burning gas – second star to the right. Suddenly I felt the warm rays of the sun on my neck and the uncovered parts of my arm. We had slowed down and Peter was beginning to unclasp my tight hands around his ankle. I let go suddenly floating forward slowly not knowing where I was going.
Slowly I began to open my eyes to find a brilliant ray of light in the clear sky and as I look down I saw my future, Neverland. It was just as I had imagined it, an island all alone with no sign of land anywhere else just crystal blue, shimmering water surrounding it. There was a high volcanic mountain to the far side of it and the island itself was completely covered in dense green forest. Around the outline of the island there was a thin strip of white sand and light blue water that led into the deeper blue. The shore line went in and out, making little inlets and lagoons whilst there was one huge port which from a high. Still; it gave off the effect of it being busy and active. My face was in complete awe at the sight that lay before me, it was as if I had stepped into a dream that I never would want to wake from. Peter hovered near me smiling. I turned to face him with gleaming eyes as if all of my wildest dreams had come true, which was in fact the truth. I looked back to see ships docked at the sea port and one sail further around the island off the shore. I then felt something creep into my limp hand then realized it was Peter's hand. He held it then guided me over to the only clump of clouds in the sky lowering himself onto one on the larger and fuller clouds in the front so that we could have a clear view of Neverland. I felt a little uneasy sitting on something that might collapse under my weight, but after watching Peter float onto the cloud cross legged, I was more comfortable with the idea. I sat opposite him in the same position, smiling.
"So what do you think?" he said looking out on the island. I looked out to and not turning to him said softly:
"Il est beau," I turned to find him giving me a quizzical look whilst scratching his head in thought. "It means 'it is beautiful' in French. I never really fancied French, but on one of the trips Aunt Wendy made to London, she taught me a little. Just simple phrases that I might find useful one day," I said smiling at him then turning back to look at Neverland. Peter muttered 'Oh...' under his breath then turned back to look down on his home. "Peter," I said not turning around, "whose ship is that?" I said pointing down to the pirate ship that was moored further around the island, away from the sea port. I put his hand on my arm lowering it then said in a lowered and mysterious voice:
"That is the cursed ship of Captain Thaddeus Eiye," a shiver of excitement went down my spine. He then pointed over to the sea port and said, "That is the pirate sea port. Many old scallywags live there, some that don't sail, some that are just waiting for someone to take them out of there. There aren't many ship often docked there – one or two mainly – but you can get anything you need at that village – all you have to do is act like a pirate! Which may I add is quite easy to do. Yep, many ships come in and out of that port, but old Thaddeus Eiye has never left Neverland," said Peter stretching his arms up.
"So how long has he been in Neverland then?" I asked looking at Peter.
"Well, some say that he has been here since the beginning, but they are just old pirate tales. He lived in the pirate village for a long time before he became captain of that crew. But when Hook was killed," Peter sniggered, "He immediately took over Hook's old ship. Fixing it up to his standard's, re-naming it, getting aboard some new crew members and such, he became a man rising to power, and it was only a matter of time before he became my enemy," said Peter cheerfully. I smiled; it was indeed wonderful to know that the man who had haunted my stories for so long was indeed real. As I sat on the cloud I felt like I could stay in that one spot just as long as Peter was by my side, but then I realized that there was an absence of tinkling bells and small flake's of dust. I looked around and noticed Tinkerbell was not there. Peter saw me turning my head in all directions and asked, "What is the matter?"
"Tinkerbell is no longer with us," I answered looking at him. He just shrugged his shoulders and said:
"She has probably flown home, which we should be doing soon," he added floating off the cloud. I nodded and followed him as we began to fly nearer to the island itself. As we drew nearer I noticed large outlines in the blue water – they must have been whales or large marine animals of some sort. Following Peter, we then entered the Neverland jungle from the tree tops. It was exactly how I imagined a rainforest would look like, tall trees reaching higher then the rest, the canopy and the under storey. As we flew through the forest amongst the tree trunks and the plants that grew on them I noticed than many of the trees had vines attached to them and it was as if someone was swinging on numbers of them but only the shadow could be seen. Before long we seemed to arrive in the middle of the jungle where there stood a circle of seven trees around a space in the middle which had small shrubs and ferns growing all over it. Peter led me to the largest tree out of the seven. He flew down to the forest floor and pushed a knot in the tree. I floated down and landed on the ground at the base of the tree, and being so caught up in looking at my surroundings it came a big surprise to me when I felt the ground shift slightly from under my feet and I fell through a hole which connected to a slide that curved under ground opening out into a cleared space in the earth. I fell onto the floor with a thud and got up dusting of dirt that now cover parts of my pink dressing-gown. I stood up and rubbed my backside making faces expressing the soreness I now felt. It took me a moment to realize where I was then in an expression of awe I looked around to see that I had fallen into a home underground. The ceiling was made up of roots and solid clumps of dirt and rock. The floor was pretty level and littered with many personal possessions, toys and old books mainly belonging to the boys. There were dug out selfs wide and long enough to act as cupboards with tree roots all entwined above them. They were littered with smashed up plates; olds leafs or crumbs, with stray knives and forks and even some pots and pans. Over the opposite side of the room to where I stood was a large cooking pot similar to the one that Cook had back in London. There was also a trickle of water running from one part of the ceiling into a basin like structure, as if it was a waterfall running into a pool. There were also many different species of flower and such around the walls or over in the out of way corners that I had never seen back in London. In the middle of the room was a long wooden table with assorted bowls and serving items with nine small chairs around it and one large decorated one at the end of it. This chair had a tall wooden back with antlers on the top and decorated arms and legs. There was also an old moth eaten cushion in the seat of the chair. I went over to it, being careful no to trip over any of the items on the floor and ran my fingers over the carving on the chair. I looked around and there were many more tunnels and slides that lead out of the large room and there was a single doorway with a tatty piece of material. I walked over to it and just as I was about to peek inside Peter said:
"That's my room," I turned around my hand over my heart, it was beating rapidly.
"Oh, Peter! You gave me such a fright! I am sorry I didn't know," I said walking over to where he stood – knuckles on his hips.
"It's okay. So Wendy, welcome to the home Underground. How do you like the look of it?" he asked as I came towards him. I stopped and looked around again.
"Well it is, how can I say this, messy. But everything one would expect from a bunch of boys living without a woman in the house," I said returning my gaze to Peter, "Where do all the tunnels and slide's go to?"
"Well, off to the different trees, the slides all come here but the lost boys all sleep in different trees. See, seven tunnels and seven slides for seven trees," he then turned and pointed to the slide that brought me into the home and said, "You know where that comes from – the largest tree. The tunnel that leads up to it is where Nob and Bob sleep. Then that set over there is where Talky and Candy sleep," he said then pointing to another tunnel and slide. Then turning around he said, "That is where Night and Whisper sleep. Then that is where Lo and Iggy sleep," then he pointed to the fifth set and said, "That is where Pyro sleeps – he is, your age actually and he wanted his own tree go he got one," said Peter shrugging slightly, "Apart from Tink he is my best friend," I looked at Peter.
"How old are the lost boys?" I asked a little anxious.
"Oh a range, Talky is three and Pyro is 13 and all the rest are in the middle," I nodded at his answer then looked around again and said,
"Uh, Peter, where do I sleep? Seeing as already five – if I am not mistaken, of the trees are preoccupied and you have the room in there which I suspect lead into another tree," Peter nodded in agreement, "So where do I sleep?"
"Well, come this way," he said walking over to one of the tunnels which didn't look like it hadn't been used in a long time. He started to climb up and I followed him. It was small but I could easily climb in it. There were many rocks and spider webs throughout the whole tunnel, but it didn't go for to long, soon we came up into a hollowed out tree which had a thin stream of light coming in which showed the dust particles. We must have been half-way up the tree but the floor was defiantly stable. It was a large round tree with thick black and dark reddish-brown bark. Peter went over and pulled a thin piece of rope which pulled up a set of old wooden blinds which were chipped at the edges. A flood of green light streamed into the room and I could see the room in more detail. It was a quiet looking room, with shelves carved from the original trunk as well as low bed that had a ratty old piece of cloth spread over it. There was also a long thick vine that had a groove in it and was worn soft from use which acted as a pillow. There were also carved out tables and basins and old, worn books on the shelves. Peter opened another blind to let another stream of light in. There was also a small candle which still stood fairly tall with a solid pool of wax at the bottom. On the dust floor there was a moth eaten old rug. I twirled around the room was wonderful. There were also leaves and flowers that had begun to bloom inside the room. I twirled around looking at the room it was everything I dreamed of. Peter looked at me after opening all the blind's smiling, "Do you like it?"
"Like it! I love it!" I exclaimed walking over to the bed. It had straw lining it that I had not seen before and a groove from so much use. The lining of straw was thin and needed to be replaced. I sat down and found it quite comfortable. Peter hovered over to me and sat crossed legged in the air, "Thank you so much Peter, this is perfect."
"Well I am glad that you like it. Hear that?" he said I strained my ears and heard yells coming up from the home underground. "The Lost Boys must be home," We both slid down the rough slide and landed back in the underground room. There before us were a group of nine boys making a mess. Peter let out a tremendous whistle and the boys all stopped and lined up from tallest to shortest, the all gave me very queer looks. "Boys this is Wendy,"