Bit of a filler chapter here guys, but I hope you'll enjoy it.
I would like to tell you that Peter and Wendy's relationship grew from there and blossomed into a long lasting romance, to be placed among those of Romeo and Juliet and Helen and Paris. Sadly I cannot. Perhaps it was that the pressures of society where too great, or maybe they were just too different in character and maturity. Time passed and though they did become closer but as a brother and sister are; rather than as lovers. John and Michael still didn't return.
The Darlings explained Peters sudden appearance away by saying that he was a cousin from the Raj who's parents had suddenly died. It was easy enough to get such excuses accepted in those times, and the presence of India in Peter's life story also explained the barbaric nature of his actions at times. Time civilised him, and slowly he became part of the society that he had once hated so much.
Eton. Oxford. Those where the marks of a man of society and one by one Peter became a part of each institution and became part of society itself. He was, it turned out, a smart boy and the scholarships offered was a great help to a hard pressed Darling family, pushed by the demands of both children to be educated to the best of their abilities.
Of course, the sudden disappearance of their other children was noted, but never in polite society. Whispers abounded behind closed doors of their deaths or, for the more fanciful, how they'd been sold into slavery but these whispers where never transformed into full blown gossip. Michael and Johns disappearance was just accepted and then forgotten as people began to take note of the achievements of their living children which were equally remarkable.
It was impressive that Peter possessed the intellect to make it into Eton on a scholarship, but even more so that he came through the process with flying colours and a honoured Eton tie round his neck. His progression to Hartford College, Oxford was equally unexpected and equally successful. Years of fighting had honed his reactions and he proved to be as talented on the sports field as well as academically. He captains the university to success on the cricket field and was capped young, playing alongside Hobbs and Fry.
Wendy, meanwhile, was carving an altogether more radical career. She refused to attend the privileged ladies colleges and finishing schools and instead lived at home studying in her own time, writing a series of children's books and radical pamphlets which gained her notoriety amongst the chattering classes.
So the years flowed and the Darling family slowly forgot about its adventures in Neverland. Darker thoughts filled their heads, worry about the coming calamity from the East. It was about this time, with Peter at Oxford and Wendy in the Peaks that the first rumours of something new caught Mrs Darlings ears. They were rumours of a boy, young still, who dressed in a top hat and who took children's dreams to Neverland.
Each Childs depiction of this boy and this land was different, of course. Some had flamingos flying over a lagoon, others had lagoons flying over flamingos, but all shared one common element; the flying boy and his top hat. He shared one common name as well; Pan.
At first Mrs Darling tried to ignore such rumours. They must merely be echoes of Peter she reasoned, or maybe some other boy had taken up the baton. Either way it was nothing to trouble Peter and Wendy about, for it would only bring back long-hidden memories and cause trouble. But then the stories began, stories of a boy visiting houses in London with open windows asking the children inside for Peter and Wendy. After several stories of this nature reached Mrs Darlings ears she decided to take action and wrote a letter to Wendy.
She agreed to return home at once and took up her old residence in the room with the permanently open window, living in hope that perhaps Neverland would be open to her once more. She remembered what Peter had said that final night before he had left; the last night he had been Pan and she wondered for the first time in years about the fate of Neverland.
Neverland needs a Pan. It needs a king, someone to command it and control it, to decide on the adventures and lead the lost souls of dying children to heaven. And if it does not have a Pan then it may well create one, finding a suitable soul and dragging it away from the real world. Peter had been unique in that he had chosen Neverland, rather than Neverland had chosen him, but he was not the first or the last. He was merely the beginning of another chapter in eternity.
Sorry for it being so short, and it may take a while tog et the next one up. My internet now isn;t available in the evenings, which is when i ususally write and essay deadlines are marching
Thanks,
BrooklynRed x
