Chapter 2: A Strange Boy
North awoke feeling like his skull was going to split in two. It hurt to move, it hurt to think and he dreaded opening his eyes for he knew that the light would hurt. He was right. After he spent a few moments getting his eyes adjusted to the glow of the gas lamps, North found that his surroundings were far from pleasant. He was in one the communal cells that housed prisoners waiting to go before the magistrate. It smelled horrid thanks to the wooden bucket that served as a toilet. It had obviously not been emptied in days and there probably wasn't a soul alive who could remember the last time it was cleaned.
North's only cellmate was a boy of about nine or ten years old with bright orange hair and green eyes that held wisdom beyond his years. The boy was dressed in a tattered green shirt and brown pants, which given the amount of mud stains, had not been cleaned in some time. He had no shoes or socks on his feet but he had the carefree smile of most boys. "Hey there I see your finally awake, they must of hit you pretty hard."
North blinked and sat up, then he scrambled to the bucket and vomited. The boy made a face as North continued to spill the contents of his stomach into the bucket.
Finally, when the nausea subsided he turned to face his cell mate. "Sorry."
The boy smiled "No problem."
He sat up and after a few moments of awkward silence venture forth a question. "So what are you in for, uhh..?"
"Peter." the boy said "My name is Peter Pan and to answer your question, vagrancy."
North had to laugh at that. "Vagrancy, huh? Their really reaching with that one."
"Yeah, their looking for my parents right now. Not like they'll find them , they've been dead for years. So what did you do?"
North leaned back on the stone wall, feeling the coolness of it seep though his shirt and vest. He closed his eyes. "James North and I was arrested for disturbing the peace in a bar."
A few more moments of silence passed before Peter asked another question. "So what do you do for a living?"
"I'm a captain." North said nonchalantly, eyes still closed.
"A navy captain?"
North opened one eye and look a the boy quizzically "Yeah," he lied "why do you ask?"
"Have you ever dealt with pirates?" Peter ask his innocent green eyes peering sappily up at the older man.
"Yes.." North said reluctantly.
Peter jumped up excitedly and snapped his fingers "Great! The you can help me!"
North leaned forward "Help you with what?" He did not receive and an answer however because his cell mate was running about checking the window and then the cell door.
"Perfect. Ok, James you and I are getting out of here." North was a bit taken aback, first because a child just called him by his first name and second that he could not see any way for to get out.
"Ok Pan, I'm confused how are we going to get out of a locked cell?"
The boy looked back at him and laughed "Fairy dust of course." North nearly had a heart attack. He could not be serious. Of all the cells in London he had to get the one with the crazy cellmate.
"Child, this is not an imaginary cell. Fairies don't exis…." In the blink of the boy crossed the cell and clamped a hand over North's mouth.
"Don't say that!" Peter said looking North straight in the eye "Ever time someone says that, a fairy somewhere falls down dead." North didn't say a thing because of Peter's hand and because he was focusing on the fact that the boy was hovering three feet off the ground.
"Pan…your-your flying!" North exclaimed when he was allowed to speak again.
"SHH! Not so loud! You'll wake the whole station up!"
North was not listening "How do you do that?"
Pan rolled his eyes "It's a long story alright.