Chapter 9.

"Good thing the rains finally came last week," I commented as I walked through the fields, thick with wildflowers, with Wendy. "I suppose those trees might have fallen over in dehydration if the rain had not came when it did."

"It does look a deal… healthier." Wendy's weak reply had me on edge, considering she could talk endlessly about anything. "Suppose we rest now? All of this walking is tiresome."

"We have been out if not for an hour, at the most!" I exclaimed, dropping to the ground with a pout. "Why, Wendy… this is not like you at all. You never play anymore. Rather, you talk of your joints aching and you being out of breath, as if you were some feeble old woman kneeling over in her rocking chair! I've had enough of it, Miss Darling. Enough of your facade, and back to the old Wendy full of smiles and stories to share. You have not told me a story in a dreadfully long time, you know."

"There are no stories to tell…"

"No stories?" I raised my eyebrows. "But certainly there are. I would love to hear of your adventures in Neverland, perhaps? You know all there is to know of Hook and Peter Pan and…"

"Peter…" Wendy breathed, dropping to her knees next to me, her hand to her chest. "Oh Peter!"

"Whatever is the matter?" Wendy's gasps of air made me uneasy and I moved closer. "Wendy, are you alright? Shall I run for help?"

Her gasps for breath soon went away, and she was left breathing hard as I stared at how her chest rose and fell deeply. When she looked up, her face possessed a ghostly pallor and had a light gleam of perspiration on her forehead. She set a clammy hand upon my shoulder and let out a weak smile.

"Just a mite of a cold," she tried to explain. "It shall soon…"

"What's wrong?" I demanded firmly. "I am no longer a child, Wendy Darling. Jeanette has made sure of that. Anything that occurs I am perfectly capable to handle."

"Nothing is wrong…"

"Why do you persist to lie to me?" I asked softly.

"Annie… I… I do not know what's wrong!" Wendy grabbed my hands for support. "Why… the doctor told us it was only a cold. Nothing horrid or dangerous at all. Of course we believed him. Was it not his job to ensure my well-being and cure whatever was wrong? When I started coughing haphazardly and I soon found blood coming up, I thought nothing of it. Why should I? The doctor told me it would pass and that I had nothing serious. What doubt was there? Then I started having fainting spells. I would just walk downstairs and be so exhausted that I would pass out. I would play it off, saying it was just the heat, for surely I thought that was the matter. It was only when I had began coughing up blood and then passed out before a guest during supper that mother summoned the doctor again. He confirmed that something was indeed wrong, and then told me that… that I had consumption."

"Oh Wendy…" I looked up at her beautiful face that had lost its youthful splendor to the sickness that claimed her body. "Suppose you get better?"

"There is no cure…" a silent tear left her eye and it was more touching to me than a dozen tears, and soon I was bawling like a nitwit. "Come now, Annie, there is no reason to fret. I have plenty of time…"

"For what?" I cried. "You're dying, Wendy Darling. However can you expect us to have a good time ever again now that I shall constantly be wondering if that shall be the last moment I spend with you? Why… it shall drive me insane! You weren't meant to die."

"It is all in the hands of the Lord, and I trust whatever awaits me in the future."

" But Wendy… you will never marry, or have kids, or grandchildren, or even see me get married or…" I shook my head, ashamed of my selfish thoughts. "I'm sorry Wendy. I had not meant to scold you for a fate you cannot control. That was entirely inappropriate behavior, andI apologize. I just… I just wish that you were well and we did not have to worry about such things."

"It is all part of life, Annie." Wendy smiled. "Everything that lives must die, just as everything that is in existence must come to an end. What kind of life would you have if you could not ever finish the journey? Is it not what awaits you at the end of the adventure the greatest moment of it all? Why, life would not be half it is worth, if you lived forever, now would it?"

"Release me!" I ordered, fighting with all my might to free myself from Hook's grasp as he dragged me down the halls of his ship. "You have no use of me!"

"That is where you are wrong. You are the most useful thing I could have."

"No, I'm not!"

"Peter is bound to come after you…"

"He does not care a bit about me!" I shouted. "I have not seen the likes of Peter Pan in well over a year. I am nothing but a silly memory among millions in his head. Insignificant. Not worth mentioning or remembering."

"Pray you are wrong."

"Whyever would I? It is the truth."

"If you have no purpose to me," Hook tipped his hat to an unruly, robust pirate who grinned a mouth of silver and gold. "Then I am sure my crew might find use of you. They have not had a decent lass for centuries."

"You would never!" I spat, as a fear towards a situation I had never before imaged sprung to my head.

"My dear child," Hook sneered as he tossed me into a room. "What kind of man would I be, if I were not to keep my word?"

"You are no man," I retorted. "I hope Peter cuts off your other hand for this matter. Or rather, he just kills you and feeds the rest of you to that crocodile."

"I shall fill that vile creature's stomach with the likes of you before that happens, you brat!" and with a dark laugh, he slammed the door and locked the door.

"Peter!" I cried, banging on the walls with my fists until I felt they were raw. "Let me out! You can't do this! Let me out this instant!"

"You be best not te be makin te cap'n mad," Smee, a rather eccentric fellow, walked in with a jug and a piece of bread. "Some ale an bread fo' te lass, how bout it?"

"I am not hungry…"

"Be best ye be eatin it, fo' ye ne'er know when te cap'n be gettin a likin te not be sharing 'is food."

"Would Peter come for me?" I asked him, desperate for anyone to talk to. "I would like to think he would, but I do not know if he would."

"'e be comin fo' Wendy," Smee shrugged after he placed the tray on a table. "Ay don' be seein why 'e ain't be comin' fo' ye, Miss."

"Thank you kindly," I gave him a smile. "For talking to me. You… aren't like the other pirates."

"On'y 'cause someun on tis ship need be te good un' it all," Smee gave me a clumsy salute before departing.

"I wish I could take the word of a pirate," I sighed to myself as I looked at the tray of food before me. "But it is either I trust the one person I've met in Neverland who showed some compassion towards me, or I might as well be fed to the crocodile now."