Peter Pan
A Different Wendy
Chapter Four
Marie joined the others on the roof and heard Violet telling Peter and Slightly that, "Marie promised she would never marry and would never fall in love because of one night when she woke up from a bad dream and went in mother's room to sit on her lap and have her rock her back asleep. She found that mother wasn't asleep, but sitting by the open window, crying. Marie had crept quietly over to the chair and crawled up on mother's lap, 'what's wrong, Mommy?' she'd asked. 'Nothing, dear.' Mommy answered, cuddling Marie to keep warm. 'Please tell me, Mommy.' Marie had asked. 'Well, Mommy is sad because she lost someone very close to her when she was younger.' Mommy tried to explain. 'What happened to them? Did they die like Gramma and Grampy?' Marie didn't understand. 'No, sweetie, he didn't die. I loved him, but he didn't want to grow up. His name was Peter Pan.' And then Mommy told her the story about you, Peter. And that's why Marie won't let anyone but me and Ethan get close enough for her to love, because she doesn't want to get hurt like mother."
"Violet!" Marie rushed over and pulled her sister away from them. Peter and Slightly looked amazed. They stared at her.
"You aren't going to love because of me?" Peter asked.
Marie swallowed, "I don't want to talk about it."
Peter shook it off and smiled, "You know, little Violet her could be our storyteller too, she's just like you and your mother."
"I guess it runs in the family." Marie shrugged. "Now shouldn't we get going?"
"Yes, I should very much like to fly again." Ethan said.
"Me too! Me too!" Violet jumped up and down.
"Okay, then let's go!" Peter sprinkled Tinkerbelle's faerie dust over Violet and Ethan and instructed them to think a happy thought and it would lift them into the air.
Violet clasped her hands together and frowned, thinking of a happy thought. She began to lift up into the air. "I'm flying!" She exclaimed.
Soon Ethan was flying around in the air next to her and they were ready to go. "Come on, Marie." Ethan called down to her.
"I'm coming." Marie pushed off the ground and flew beside her younger siblings. They followed Peter and Tinkerbelle. In the back was Slightly, going slow, like he was thinking about something. "Catch up, Slightly!" Marie yelled down to him. Slightly picked up speed and whizzed by her.
"Me catch up?" Slightly had his arms crossed over his chest. "I think it's you who needs to catch up!"
Marie took hold of Violet's hand, Violet took hold of Ethan's too, and they flew up to meet Peter, Tinkerbelle and Slightly. Peter sent Slightly ahead to tell the Lost Boys they would be arriving soon. Slightly flew off and disappeared into the distance.
"Marie, come here and look at this." Peter pointed to an extra bright star. "That's how you get to Neverland. Second star to the right and straight on until morning."
"How odd, I never knew you could measure by stars. How do you find the right one?" Marie questioned.
"It's easy, but you probably wouldn't know." Peter said smirking.
"And did my mother know?" Marie asked.
The smirk was wiped right off Peter's face, "I don't know your mother, so how would I know if she could find the right star?"
"Peter, you know Wendy was my mother, you knew before I did. Well, just so you know, she never loved my father; she only married because her Aunt Millicent asked her what the neighbors would think of her if she didn't. My mother wanted to stay single forever because the one she loved, you Peter, refused to grow up. So don't try to pretend about this. It was you who did it." Marie stated.
Peter looked the behind us at Violet and Ethan, down at the London streets, and above us at the stars, but he wouldn't look at me as he spoke, "I didn't love Wendy. She was just a silly girl who told good stories."
"That's what you say, but I think you're lying." Marie said. "You're hurt because she moved on when you haven't, and now it's too late because she's dead."
"Hold on to my foot." Peter ordered.
"What?" Marie looked at the foot he held in front of her face.
"Just do it, and pass it on." He said impatiently.
"All right. All right." Marie grabbed his foot and had Violet and Ethan do the same.
"Whatever happens, don't let go." Peter shouted back to them.
They were flying faster and faster through a vortex of light and color. Marie shook her curls back in the wind. They all screamed as they popped through to the other world, the world that was Neverland and released each other's ankles letting themselves fly in different directions and land on the soft cotton candy-like clouds.
"Are we in Neverland?" Violet's brown eyes wide with wonder.
"Yep, this is it." Peter whispered, "Neverland."
"Wow, it's even more beautiful than what Marie described it to look like." Violet was peering down below them at the huge Island and the blue, blue water. "I've never seen trees so green, or water so blue and clear. It's like heaven."
"No, it's better," Peter said, "because in Neverland, you don't have to wait until you're old to go there, and you stay young and have fun forever!"
"It really is the most…colorful…place I've ever seen." Ethan said. "But is there anything to do? I mean, didn't Hook get eaten by that crocodile? So who do you have to watch out for and to fight with? There isn't even a television."
"Television?" Peter goggled. "What's that?"
"You've never heard of television?" Violet asked incredulously.
"Don't say it like that, Violet, we just got it ourselves." Ethan scolded. "Television is moving pictures, so it's like watching a play right at home, and you can change the program to a different movie if you like. It's the best thing since the cinemas opened."
"What do you need television for when you've got adventures to go on yourself? It's better to make up your own adventure than to watch one someone else made happen." Peter said.
"Yeah, you said so yourself, Ethan, you always wanted to make up your own adventures. Now you can have them all the time." Violet smiled.
"So what is there to do in Neverland?" Ethan asked again, but he was truly interested this time.
"Well, there's the faerie wood, the pirate's caves, and yes Hook is gone, but there's still the pirates left and me and the Lost Boys challenge them to duels every so often, then there's the Indians, and the mermaids and us, the Lost Boys. We're building a new hideout tomorrow, because there's a new bad guy in Neverland who's about to find our old one, and now we need to make a different one, more secret and more fun. You can help." Peter offered, then continued, "But the thing is, we don't know who's hunting us down, so we have to find out quick, because it's never good to have the bad guy know who you are when you don't know who the bad guy is."
"Wow, I guess you do have a lot to do, but don't you get sick of just fighting all the time?" Ethan wondered.
"Get sick of fighting? I love it! We live for the trouble we cause. And we don't always fight; sometimes we just hang around the hideout and eat or play games and stuff." Peter informed them. "Come on, I'll show you the old hideout, but first you have to promise never to tell a soul."
"I promise." Ethan made a cross over his heart.
"I promise too, cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." Violet made a cross over her heart as well, and pretended to poke her eye out with a needle.
"Wait a minute." Peter looked around. "Where's Marie?"