Chapter Two
Many years have now passed since that final day and Wendy is a woman. Even though she fought it and fought it, tears streaming down her face with every inch she grew, she soon became tired of fighting and surrendered to the inevitable. Her curled auburn hair is now tied up off her heart-shaped face, neatly pinned out of the way and her old blue nightgown long since outgrown is replaced by a blue pinafore with a simple white apron. The perfect housewife. She is married to a kind and loving gentleman who goes to work in the office every day and brings home pretty presents for his pretty wife. Life is normal.
Wendy then became a mother. She was so worried that she was not ready, that it was just too grown up, that the child would not be interested in her stories about far off magical lands and a boy who can fly. But when her Jane came along, so beautiful and inquisitive and eager to listen to her stories, all fears flew away. She would sit telling adventurous tales to her daughter and now to both her daughter and her son in the old nursery at number 27. Edward bought the house off Mr Darling when the old man found he could no longer battle the stairs every day. He had hated living alone in the big house once shared with his late wife. Mary passed away quietly a few years prior. She died as she had lived, gently and without fuss. Just drifted off to sleep to visit the Neverlands herself. George lives down the street in a retirement home a stone's throw away from John's new house.
John. The first of the Darling children to quickly adapt and fit back into life in London. He grew up first without complaint, went to university and was soon buying ties and a briefcase for work at his father's bank. He married one of the bank managers' daughters, Average Audrey as Wendy secretly calls her sister-in-law, and they live frugally with their twin equally average daughters Matilda and Maude. Wendy is certain her sister-in-law was raised by skipping over childhood and reaching adulthood before she could toddle. Sufficed to say, the weekly family dinners on a Sunday afternoon were often slightly tense. George Darling would watch in bewildered amusement as somehow it always came round to his grandchildren arguing over the existence of flying people or Tinker-whatsits and other types of poppycock that he can't quite hear or remember anyway.
You may have noticed the absence of the youngest Darling child. Michael Darling, last to grow up, clung tightly to his sister's stories and even when she was married and tried to speak of their adventures less often (for fear of her new husband thinking her a very confused woman), he would beg to hear just a little more. Always playing with his toy cars and fire engines, Michael eventually grew up to drive tanks for the army. When 1914 rolled around and he was enlisted, I am sad to report that Michael Darling was taken from this Earth, mere months before his mother joined him, as Wendy always said most likely due to heartbreak at losing her youngest child.
On a happier note, even though Nana passed away many years ago from simply old age, Wendy still has her puppy Nana II. Like her mother before her, Nana II ardently cares for Wendy's children and helps her mistress bathe and bed them every night, whilst eagerly listening to the stories too.
And so we come to a fairly typical day in the household of Wendy and Edward. Well at the moment it is just Wendy's as her husband is still away fighting. This is a constant worry for Wendy as he is fighting the same War that took her beloved little brother and she lies awake at night in terror that her children could be fatherless someday soon. But every morning she forces these fears aside and glides into her children's nursery and wakes them with a story; a story about pirates and fairies and boys who never grow up.
This morning is no different from any other. After yet another night of broken sleep, Wendy goes into the nursery and sees her daughter already awake. Jane, dressed in her favourite lavender nightgown and grey cardigan, sits at her desk scribbling away in her notebook. "Probably writing a to-do list or something," Wendy thinks to herself. When Edward left for France three years ago, he asked Jane to take care of her mum and Danny and since then, Jane tries to act grown up and more mature than her thirteen years.
Daniel snuffles and whimpers on the other side of the room, his little hands clenched into fists in front of his face. Wendy sits on his bed and gently takes his hands into hers. "There, there my love. It's only a dream." Her soft voice awakens Danny who clings to his mother.
"H-Hook was going to scratch my face with his hook! And I couldn't find Peter! I w-was screaming b-b-but he didn't come." Danny's nut brown eyes fill with tears and run down his face. Wendy strokes his back reassuringly.
"Now Danny. Peter Pan would never abandon a fellow Lost Boy! I'm sure he was on his way. Those pesky pirates were probably blocking his way –"
"Oh Mother," Jane interrupts, sighing. She puts down her pencil and faces her family. "It was just a silly old dream, Daniel. It doesn't mean anything."
"Well actually Jane something very similar happened to me once," Wendy says, trying to ignore her daughter's disparaging eye roll. "You see Danny, we were all tied up together on the Jolly Roger and Hook ordered us to either join his crew or to walk the plank. And of course I could never do that to Peter so I agreed to walk the plank…"
Wendy's story is met with a gleeful gasp from Danny. Despite herself, Jane slowly edges closer to her mother to hear the story better.
The sparkle in Wendy's blue eyes dims slightly as she sadly remembers her company. "So Hook cut me loose from the Lost Boys and your u-uncles and jabbed me in the back with his sword! He pushed me forward until I was balancing precariously at the very edge of the plank. I could hear the tick tock tick tock of the crocodile who was swimming closer and closer to where I was standing. I could feel my legs shaking and my mind racing as I hoped and prayed for Peter to fly and rescue me. I had complete faith that he had survived Hook's bomb and would be on his way. But as Hook's sword shoved me once more and my balance began to fail, my belief faltered and I suddenly worried that this would be the end. I would never see Grandmother and Grandfather again."
Danny is shaking with anticipation and barely able to contain his excitement. "What then? What then, Mamma?" Jane vaguely remembers her Mother telling this story a few months ago but for some reason that she can't quite put her finger on, she doesn't say anything.
"Well with one final swing of his sword, Hook pushed me off the plank and off the Jolly Roger! The Lost Boys and your… well… they shrieked and hollered at the pirates and fought against their bindings. And I fell down down down towards the crystal clear waters. I could see the crocodile swimming steadily towards me and I knew that the second I hit the water I was croc-food. I cried out for Peter but as I frantically scanned the horizon for him, I saw only the empty blood orange sky – "
"Technically blood is red, Mother, I don't see how –"
"Shhhhhhh Janey!" Danny yells, now jumping up and down on his bed.
"Just as I was about to fall into the ocean, I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for the splash and the freezing water to swallow me up before the fearsome beast did a few seconds later buuuuut….. who should suddenly grab hold of my waist and whoosh me up up up and away – "
"PETER PAN!" Danny grabs hold of his wooden sword and his green hat and swipes at invisible pirates. "ARGH! Janey we must help Peter save Mamma!" He tries to grab his sister's hand but she quickly pulls away.
"No Daniel. I must get on now. I don't have time for silly stories and games."
Danny's lower lip begins to wobble. "B-but we must defeat Hook together. Peter is busy! He's holding Mamma!"
Wendy stifles a giggle. "Come on Jane. Play along for your brother. Please?" She becomes serious and holds her daughter's stare, pleading with her eyes for Jane to not spoil her little brother's fun.
Suddenly infuriated with her Mother and her stories, Jane turns and stalks back across the room to her desk. She sits with her back to her family and picks up her pencil once more. Wendy sighs disappointed. "Don't worry Danny," she says hugging her son close to her, tickling under his chin and making him giggle and squirm in her arms. "Jane has important things to be getting on with right now. It'll just be me, you and Peter this time."