Chapter 10.
"I miss Wendy," Michael carped as we sat beneath a tree with Wilhelma, who had taken a great fondness to being outdoors. "Do you think she'll be coming back soon, Annie?"
"I suppose," my curt reply had me disappointed in myself, for my answer was a response that I would expect receiving from some adult who thought me incompetent to handle the truth of the situation. "I do not know when she shall come back though, Michael, if ever she does. Her sickness worsens and I do not think it shall improve any time soon. We can only pray she gets well now."
"Oh bothersome!" Michael pouted as he began to pick at the grass quietly. "Annie… might Wendy die?"
His question made the air seem thick with uncertainty and I skipped a breath or two in trepidation over the answer to his question.
"It is very possible…"
"I don't want Wendy to die, Annie." Michael whimpered as his childish tears came. "Peter is smart to not leave Neverland. Why… if I had known Wendy might die, I don't think I would ever leave Neverland."
"But dying is something that everyone must do." I said softly, although I was experiencing the same thoughts and opinions as he. "It is a matter of life, a part of our journey everyone must someday venture if they plan to make an end of it."
"I don't want to die," Michael replied fearfully. "I cannot imagine not waking up in my bed and not being here."
"It is something I cannot imagine as well…"
"Why does Wendy not call for Peter?" Michael cried. "He would take her back, if only she asked. Then she does not need to bother about dying."
"Wendy has accepted her fate. She chooses not to run from it into some world of fantasy, forever bound to being who she is for eternity."
"What is so wrong with that?"
"Everything changes. Not even the world in which we live in goes unfaltering. To be part of this world, you need to alter along with it. Nothing can replace the sense of growing alongside with everything around you. It is all part of life. You ask her to go to a world where she will never change or grow any older, but that is no life. If that is the future you have to offer her, then she might as well die now."
Sounds of drunken pirates slamming into the walls of the ship as they swaggered down the hallways blended in with the beating of the waves and the hi-hoes of the crew above deck. Once in awhile, I would hear the intoxicated talk of the unruly men wishing to "get a bit o' te lass te cap'n brought in", in which a vulgar lump would arrive in my throat before I commenced to bang on the walls, shouting for a boy who had forgotten of me.
"There be nothin' left o' ye, lass, if'n ye be beatin' yourself against those walls." Smee commented upon finding me sobbing against the wall, my hand that continued to hit the wall growing weaker and weaker with each sway of flesh against wood. "Come on, now, an eat a bit o' food, eh?"
"Peter has forgotten about me," I cried as I rested on the rough bench and took a bite of bread. "He shall never come for me."
"Now lass, don't ye be thinkin' that. Te cap'n wouldn't be takin ye if'n he thought Pan might not come."
"Then why is he not here?" I wiped my eyes, ashamed of my fearful tears. "Why has he not come? Does he not realize the severity of the situation?"
"I do not know," Smee replied before retreating to the door as he always does. "Peter Pan is but a child, miss. You cannot expect so much from a child."
"Peter…" my tears took reign once more as I stood and left my food to rot.
"Losin faith now?" Hook's sinister voice entered the room as I felt my body go tense when he opened the door. "Believin that fool of a boy has forgotten you?"
"I told you I had no role in Peter Pan's life now." I threw aside my doubt to look him straight in the eye. "I have no use for you."
"Ye don't be needing to convince me," Hook sneered. "I only came to give you a new companion."
The loud banging of feet stomping and a young boy's shouts gave me goosebumps, and my mouth opened wide when Hairball was heaved into the room with so much force that when he collided into the small table that held my food Smee brought, it was knocked over and the jug of ale fell to the floor with a strident smash. My eyes locked on a piece of paper that lay beneath a piece of broken pottery, and I let my eyes leave it only to ensure that Hook had not caught sight of it.
"Perhaps Pan will come now…" Hook laughed.
"Annie… Hook…he didn't… he didn't try to hurt you, did he?" Hairball gasped when Hook had left as he sat up and rubbed his head.
"No… I am fine." I threw his question aside as I bent down and picked up the piece of paper that was soggy from the ale. "I wonder who had…"
"Annie?" Hairball stood up and approached me. "What does it say?"
"The note's from Peter!" I put the paper to my chest and cried with joy. "He has not forgotten."
"Girls are weird," Hairball remarked, dropping to the ground and proceeded to scratch the hair that still had taken over his head. "Fancy only you girls can find something to squeal about in some silly note."
"Peter is coming for us. Why should I not be ecstatic?"
"Why would he not come for you?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Of course he would come!" Hairball snapped. "Why… Peter is… he is in love with you! And how horrid it is, indeed, Annie. I hope you're happy."
"Peter does not…"
"Yes he does!" Hairball retorted. "Ever since you left, he has been locked up in his room. He won't even let Tink in. He left his room only a day or so ago, I think, and he isn't the same. He looks… older. And when Freckles went to ask him to play, he gave him the weirdest look… like he was asking him to cut off his head or something. Peter has never turned down a good day of fun. It is just as it was when Wendy left!"
"Peter was probably just suffering from a headache or taken ill," I shook my head at how absurd I sounded. "There are plenty of explanations behind his behavior."
"Peter doesn't get sick!" Hairball's eyes almost popped out of its sockets at my suggestion. "Why… how can he? He doesn't get any older. But Annie, Peter is getting older. I can feel it. We all can. He's ignoring Tink, and I have not seen him fly in the longest time."
"Peter is not in love with me!" I barked defensively.
"Pan! Pan!" our thoughts focused on the pirates running outside our room. "He's here!"
"On deck… te lot o' ye!" Hook's familiar orders made the sounds outside that much louder. "All hands on deck!"
When the scrambling of the pirates halted, Hairball and I turned to one another, our eyebrows raised. He persisted to scratch his head and then shrugged, not knowing any explanation. Uncertainty and doubt filled the room and only left at the entering of a proverbial laugh.
"You thought I had forgotten you?"
