CHAPTER EIGHT: LILY PAD
So I I've decided that very LONG and MARATHON chapters take a while to write and the only ones that suffer are my nerves and my readers. So to help speed things along the chapters are going to be a bit shorter, and may even just be one-shots if I need a filler. Also check out my tumblr page Neverland123 or just search the keywords "roses in december". I wanna start uploading my story there as well.
She had to be quiet while in the longhouse, unless she desperately needed a quarrel to be solved by the elders than it was not her place to be heard at the moment. But Lily Pad wondered why, if she had no problem to be solved or a concern for the elders to address, she had to be there to begin with. When she voiced this to her mother for the third time she had calmly explained that it was time for to become more involved with the tribe in matters that would one day be her responsibility. Her mother was concerned that she spent too much time alone and needed to get more involved with the rest of her tribal family if she was going to be a more functioning member of it someday.
She had gone to gatherings in the longhouse before, in desperate times when the entire tribe needed to be together in times when war was on the horizon or sickness became too great, but they had been few and in-between. There were just under two dozen people there, all older than her and all sitting cross-legged as they quietly discussed some matter involving where the latest game had migrated.
Lily Pad only half listened, choosing to lean her head on her sister's shoulder. Rose Stem was older, with beautiful long brown hair that today she decided to decorate with a string of puca shells. She wished her hair was as long and elegant as Rose Stem's, but instead Lily Pad's was short and unruly. It was unusual for a girl her age to have short hair, her youngest brother the only one rivaling her at this point.
But she had been foolish one night when her and her elder brother Short Rainbow had gone on their own for the night and had made camp on the other side of the island. He had let her make the fire while he had gotten the fish ready for their dinner. After dinner she had forgotten to make sure that the ring around the fire was contained, and a while they had been sleeping a twig had rolled out of the fire still ablaze and had settled near her hair. She awoke to smoke filling her nose and suddenly something was hitting her face.
If Short Rainbow had not awoken up when he did the fire may have spread from her hair and to her flesh. He woke up and saw the ends of her hair on fire and immediately rushed to beat it out. When the panic had passed she felt her hair and her heart plummeted when she felt mostly air. The ends were singed so badly that they had all but disappeared. They returned to the tribe the next morning and when Lily Pad saw some of the other children point and laugh she wanted to run into her wigwam and never come out. Her people rarely cut their hair, unless they were in mourning and only then it was done by the elders of their tribe.
Her hair was barely down to her chin now, but after that morning she never felt ugly again when amongst the laughing children an older figure appeared. Her grandmother, Tiger Lily, stepped forward and took Lily Pad's face into her hands and looked at her not with pity, but endearment. She thumbed away the two trails of tears that had somehow escaped from her eyes, and Lily Pad tried to look away out of shame but her grandmother would not allow it.
She began leading Lily Pad away from Short Rainbow and the other children all the while whispering to her, "Do not make yourself low over this. Sadness will not cure this, like all things it will re-grow with the seasons."
"But I am so ugly now," Lily Pad whimpered.
She felt her grandmother's hands tighten onto her shoulder, "No," she said firmly. "You are not ugly. None of us are ugly, child, we simply experience trials. All you have done is gain wisdom from your experience, and wisdom is never ugly."
Her grandmother had led her to the stream and had carefully taken a knife and cut her hair evenly, erasing the burnt ends and bringing a curl out she had not seen since she was small enough for a papoose carrier. When her grandmother has seen her fingering the strands unsurely, she reminded her of the time many moons ago when a fire had ravaged part of the forest. And how from the ashes the fairies and tree spirits rose and gave life back to the earth and make it green once again.
"Like time, this river runs continuously and always changes. You will emerge from this river a new person who will have no shame," with one hand she cupped the tiniest collection of water and let it dribble into Lily Pad's hair, "Water is healing, but we also fear it for there is no way to the Happy Hunting Ground if it chooses to take us from this world. You fear what the others will say about you, but remember everything heals and your hair will grow back. Never be ashamed to survive an experience, especially if it gives you a gift."
Lily Pad knew the experience her grandmother referred to. When she was younger, barely older than Lily Pad herself she thought herself clever enough to sneak onto the pirate ship. That pride had gotten her captured and interrogated about the hideout of Peter Pan before she was rowed to Marooner's Rock.
Now in the longhouse, Lily Pad looked up and caught her grandmother's eye. She was seated amongst the elders at the far end of the longhouse. There were six of them in all, and she was only one of the two women present. Her great-grandfather, Great-Big-Little-Panther, had been called the chief by the pale faced lost boys and the pirates. While he was considered very important amongst the tribe, her people didn't have just one leader. There were a handful of men and a few women who took care of any major problems that occurred within the tribe.
The best tracker, hunter, medicine woman, or shaman usually made up this council. Her grandmother was very established in remedies and ceremonies that would purge the body and spirit, and therefore earned a place in her people's heart at the highest respect. Her grandmother looked up from the discussion as it ended and caught her and Rose Stem's eyes. Both smiled at her.
Following the council's example, the small group of people in the longhouse began shuffling around to get ready to leave. The flap covering the longhouse opened and instead someone came in. It was Rose Stem's and Lily Pad's youngest brother, Coughing Fish. He respectfully approached the rising elders and went straight to the man to Tiger Lily's left. He was their grandmother's brother and their great uncle, Rain-in-the-Face. Coughing Fish whispered something into his ear, and a small smile caused the wrinkles in his elderly face to crease farther. Rain-in-the-Face then whispered something to his sister, who shook her head but also smirked.
When Coughing Fish left Lily Pad followed him out. Outside two of the older boys was each holding a restrained lost boy against their bodies. They did not struggle, their heads merely looked down at their restrained hands. Lily Pad knew they were not scared, they had no reason to be. They were disappointed they had lost the game they had been playing with her people since before she was born.
They only raised their heads when Rain-in-the-Face stepped forward, the older dark haired boy speaking first, "Hello, Chief."
No matter how many times they were told, the lost boys always referred to the elderly men as 'chief'.
"Hello, lost boy Book," Rain-in-the-Face waved his hand in front of him like a rainbow, "Do you forgo victory this round?"
"Yes," Book painfully admitted. "You win."
Rain-in-the-Face than turned to the smaller blonde child, "And you lost boy Sunny?"
Appearing more upbeat than Book, Sunny rolled back and forth on his feet as if just casually waiting for this game to end so he could play another, "Uh-huh."
The elder nodded to the two older boys who then cut the boys loose. As they were walking away, Book turned back and yelled, "Next time we'll get you, you better believe it!"
I was all said in fun, no bitter blood between the two tribes at all. Book was smiling as he said his last words and Sunny even waved at Coughing Fish as he passed. This was how the game went. One tribe captured a member from the other, brought them back to their camp, and then they were let go after the loser admitted defeat. You were allowed attempts to escape but once you were in the enemy camp you officially lost the game.
She had almost been captured once, just after her hair had been cut. Another part of the reason she'd been embarrassed about her hair was that her people believed that their hair was an extension of themselves. If their hair was gone then a part of their spirit could go missing as well, and with that their skills which they depended on to survive.
It was two of the older boys, Tin Tin and Slightly, who had jumped her from above in a tree they had concealed themselves in. No pale face had ever snuck up on her before that, not even the pirates. Tin Tin had grabbed her around the shoulders and Slightly had gone for her legs. They attempted to tie he her up, but she slipped a leg free and was able to kick Slightly away. With her legs free she pushed back against Tin Tin before taking off into the forest.
It had shaken her more than it should have. She had prided herself on her ability to take in her surroundings, to see things coming before they happened. Yet she did not see the footprints near the tree, did not take in the bent and broken branches above her. She wondered if her grandmother even knew what she was talking about when she said she would gain from her experience. If anything she seemed to have lost the very things that earned her respect in the tribe.
She hadn't told anyone of the failed abduction. But seeing the boys in the camp gave her an idea.
Before her sister could ask where she was going, Lily Pad had run into their wigwam and over to her bed roll. Underneath her furs she found her dagger, which she tucked into her belt, and eyed her bow and arrow set. She decided to take it and looped the bow over her chest and tied the quiver on her back.
"I'm going hunting," she said to her sister, looking straight ahead as she ran out of the village.
The boy's tracks were not hard to follow through the woods; in fact they actually kept to a known path which made Lily Pad scoff. Unless you were a small child, her people always chose the rougher terrain to explore so not to leave tracks for wild animals or pirates to follow. It wasn't long before she heard laughter ahead of her and slowed down, bending down so she was almost moving on all fours.
She could see them up ahead, Sunny and Book skipping and occasionally kicking at the rocks in their path. But it wasn't them Lily Pad was interested in. No, to capture one of them would be declared unfair in the game and she would not ruin this truce between her people and the lost boys. But these two would lead her back to where more of them lay and surely if the time was right she could capture a different boy and bring him back to the tribe. That would prove she was not weak and prove that the loss of her hair made her no less a warrior than her brothers and sisters.
It was not long before the boys found a stream and began to head east, following the water. As they carried on the stream got wider and the water became clearer. Laughter could be heard through the thick forest as Lily Pad decided to take to the trees. Jumping from branch to branch and tree to tree she came upon the whole lot of them near a waterfall basin. She had been here before long ago to catch fish, but she preferred the stream on the west side of the island closer to her village. As far as she knew the pirates never knew of this place.
And good thing too because it seemed the lost boys had gone and made a proper second home out of it.
The Water House was Nibs's pride and joy. More than Michael's basket bed and yes even the time he figured out how to pump water in from the pond above their hallway. The waterfall basin had been one of their favorite places to swim and play since Peter first brought them there forever ago. The water was clear as the bluest sky and always brought a smile to their faces when the boys were wracked with boredom. They could spend hours, even days here.
And they had. It had not escaped Nibs the growing number of boys that lived in the underground house, and while there was always room for them to sleep and play, there were just the odds and in-between days some of the boys wanted to get out and stretch their legs. They used to go camping whenever the cabin fever kicked in, but Nibs got the brilliant idea to build another hiding place for them to play. The only question at the time was where.
The basin was located deep in the woods, far too deep for the pirates to venture and just enough away from the Indian camp that they hardly ever came. The strong water-based trees that hung over the water were perfect for what Nibs had in mind concerning a tree house overlooking the water. Three large branches extended from a particular trunk, with two appearing perfectly parallel to one another as if to say 'Build on me' and Nibs just said, 'kay'. The third branch was on the very end and only a tad higher than the other two branches. When the tree house was constructed the base was settled upon the two flat parallel branches and appeared that the back of the house was resting on against the third branch. It looked like someone had just inserted the house in the tree branches.
It was big enough to fit ten of them comfortably and had had certain features added onto it over time. While the floor and roof were flat wood constructed for stability and elements, the walls he had allowed liberties with and consisted of branches, twigs, moss, and even several pieces of broken oars acting as window frames. Over time the two base branches had grown to hug the house and grow further over the water and expand. With left over planks of wood the boys laid them separately over branches as if to make a connecting bridge circling around the tree. Several were placed close together on a higher branch and were used to jump into the water. Eventually it just became known as the Water House.
The final added flair were the swings that hung over the water. On one side there was a rope swing and on the other sitting swing. Moira currently occupied that one, preferring however to standing straight up on the seat, rocking back and forth. After what happened at Slightly Gulch Peter thought it best that if they went swimming they do it at one of their secret hiding spots. Though they'd never encountered pirates at the gulch before they didn't want to risk going back there so soon, less the pirates decided to stake the gulch out.
Laughing came from every corner of the basin, boys floating on their backs and splashing each other. Some were up in the Water House and jumping from the branches, and others were lazily lying on the branches.
Peter was hanging upside down from the same branch the swing was tied to, and though Nibs was copying Peter the boy would never point out that their leader kept sneaking glances at Moira, making sure she was okay. When they got home the night she and Jacob had been captured, she didn't say much nor anything about what had happened. They had listened to Peter regale the story and Moira merely nodded at certain points for confirmation. She hid whatever was bothering her well, but the little ones could either sense she was troubled or were just shaken over the fact that they nearly lost their new mother.
After Peter's story and dinner everyone had promptly gone to bed. Jacob slept in the large bed with many of the others, while some had strung up hammocks or made nests in the holes in the walls located throughout the house. There were no doors blocking off entrances in the underground house, and even if your bed was located further down one of the hallways you could hear and almost see everything in the living area, which was where the big bed, Peter, and Moira were located. Peter had fashioned himself a cot out of interwoven tree roots that had broken through the dirt roof and had been covered in a roll-up mattress of sorts and topped with a blanket. Moira had fashioned herself a bed on the opposite side of the living area, stuffing a small mattress herself and content with a pillow and blanket.
Sometimes Angie shared with her and other times the little girl found another bunkmate. But lately Moira had gone to sleep alone and woke up with an extra small body in the bed. Or two. Or three.
The first time it happened she had almost jumped out of her skin and the bed itself when she felt something slink up and curl itself behind her. She quickly turned to find a sheepish Too Small had cuddled her from behind, and she instantly felt guilty when it looked like he would miserably retract himself when he mumbled, "I just wanted to make sure you were safe from monsters, and pirates," he added that last part.
She could not. Say no. To that face.
Not saying anything she turned so she was facing him, pulled the blankets up and tucked them both in. She gave him a second goodnight kiss and cuddled into each other until they fell asleep again.
Now it was just a matter of not when, but who she would wake up to each morning. Some of the smalls had taken it upon themselves to rotate each night so they each got a turn, but often someone just had to go and have a nightmare or just want Moira time and snuck in even if someone else had claimed Moira's side for the night. Sunny had taken upon himself to sleeping at the end of her mattress like a housecat if there was no room next to her.
It was Sunny now who had made his way through the forest and ran to edge of the basin. When Moira rocked the swing toward the direction of the shore, he was able to hop on and join her, standing up at her side. She looked down at him and smiled while he reached for the sunglasses on her face she had just discovered that morning at the bottom of her bag, "And just where were you two?" She asked when Book appeared from the bushes as well.
"We gotted captured by Indians on the way over, sorry we were late." Sunny grinned, looking up at her through black glass and red lenses. He, as well as all the smalls, were being schooled in certain lessons in manners by Moira. That included pleases, thank you's, sorry's and your welcomes.
Sunny looked up at Peter hanging upside down not two feet above them. The little boy laughed and put his arms up, reaching for him. Peter grinned and reached his arms out and the next thing Moira knew Sunny had left the swing and was hanging from Peter's fingertips like a little monkey.
Eventually his grip began to loosen and Sunny laughed while yelling, "No, no, don't let me fall. Please, Peter," he held on only by a fingers now, "Hahahaha, no!" And then into the water he went.
"Hey, don't you lose those glasses," Moira leaned down and snapped her fingers at Sunny when he came up from the water, and he handed them back to her begrudgingly. "Lose 'em, you find 'em. You can wear them again on the way home."
Sunny seemed satisfied but not yet ready to leave Moira's side, so he amused himself by bobbing his head under the swing and holding onto her legs. As the small boy attempted to climb her like a rope, Peter snatched the glasses from atop Moira's head and placed them over his eyes. He would deny it venomously but ever since she had brought the glasses out she knew Peter had snuck out with them twice already and attempted to stare at the sun, fascinated with them.
Glancing up at him she couldn't stop the breathy giggle from escaping her as she took in the upside down and grinning Peter who looked back at her through Marilyn Monroe starlet sunglasses. Of course he didn't know the sunglasses were for girls and she absolutely forbid Jacob and Angie from saying anything, if nothing but for her own amusement for Peter was hardly ever unintentionally silly.
"What's so funny?" Peter cocked his upside-down head.
"Nothing, but might I say that you look sharp, sir." She teased. When his brow arched in confusion she clarified with a shrug, "I heard that line in a movie once. I'd always wanted to try it out."
She was jostled when he suddenly landed right-side up next to her on the swing, squishing them to the point that she had to rest her leg on top of his thigh to be comfortable. "What's 'sharp' mean?"
"It means you look good."
"Oh," Peter paused a moment before he removed the glasses and put them back on her face. Moira thought she'd crossed some sort of line with him emotionally before he beamed, "Now you look sharp."
She grinned at him.
"We're all sharp. Sharpy sharpy sharp sharp!" Sunny screamed from under the swing seat, nagging onto both Peter and Moira's legs.
Moira giggled at the little boy, "You know who else is sharp? Jacob!" She yelled up to her brother who was half asleep on a branch and cuddling his ukulele. "Can you still do Elvis songs?"
Before Beatlemania had hit him full swing Jacob had gone through a major Elvis Presley stage late that summer. She had caught him trying to do the pelvis moves with his guitar in front of the mirror one night and had not let him forget it. At all.
He pushed aside his embarrassment and took up his chance to show off. The boys had been intrigued with his ukulele the first time he'd brought it out but had hardly gotten out a few practice cords the entire time they'd been on the island. Even the newest lost boy was not privy to any of the current songs he knew, making Jacob wonder just how many decades it had been.
He decided on 'Hound Dog', figuring that if he was going to introduce the lost boys to the King that he might as well begin with the best. He strummed the first few strings, the endless hours of practicing quickly coming back to him
'You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine.'
Moira and Peter were swaying on the swing to the beat. It quickly became a tighter fit when Sunny insisted on getting back up and sitting on Moira's lap. The boys swayed while Moira lip sang along with the words.
'When they said you was high classed, well that was just a lie. When they said you was high classed, well that was just a lie.'
Sunny was rocking back and forth very hard at this point, forcing Moira farther and farther back each time. She was having trouble holding onto the supports of the swing with the full weight of the little boy pushing against her and Peter was absolutely no help at all, in fact she suspected they both were making a game of it. She saw the look in Sunny's eye as he sensed the song was coming to an end.
'Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine.'
While Jacob enthusiastically strummed the final cords Sunny sat up on her lap and turned his torso so he was facing her. She only had one second between the little gleam in his eye and his smile to widen before she raised a finger to him and said warningly, "Nooooooooo." But he launched himself at her and wrapped his arms around her neck. The sudden shift in weight caused her to fly backward and loose her grip on the swing. Peter would have laughed at her and Sunny falling in the water had Moira not latched onto his arm with the hand she had warned Sunny with.
The shock on Peter's face was evident when she pulled him down, and when he emerged from the water she was laughing at him through her drenched hair, "I told you, Pan. Ladies don't get mad, they get even!"
Peter looked at her with mock disbelief, as if he couldn't get over that she had just pulled one over on him. Before he could retaliate he was splashed by Sunny chanting, "Even, even, even, Stevens. Hey, time me how long I can hold my breath underwater." And Sunny's head disappeared under the water.
Moira meanwhile took the wet sunglasses that had miraculously stayed on her face and threw them to the shore, "Well, now that that's been squared away," she looked up at Jacob above them, "Great tunes brother, didn't know you still remembered the King."
Jacob shrugged arrogantly, "He's no John Lennon, but he sure can strum that old string of his."
"Who's John Lennon? He a friend of yours back home?" Peter asked, partially floating on his back.
"He wishes!" Moira beamed
"I really, really do," Jacob confirmed eagerly. "No, he's the leader of this rock band called the Beatles. They are the grooviest band out there, like they write the coolest songs and let their hair grow out and get all the chicks they want—"
"Grooviest? Chicks? I mean I like eating chicken as much as the next lost boy but why do they need so much," Peter looked between Jacob and Moira, "You guys use weird words. And what's a rock band?"
This had become a common problem after the Woodham's had arrived. These boys were just not up to date on any current lingo and unfortunately that seemed to be all Jacob spoke half the time. Moira remembered him having to explain that 'cool' did not always refer to the temperature, 'dude' was a title of friendship (usually), and a 'flower child' was not a baby that grew out in the fields. Jacob had referred to Moira as one not too long ago and while it caused some confusion as to her origins in general, she awoke with a smile one morning to find a daisy chain hanging on the wall above her bed. She had since taken to wearing it in her hair.
"Groovy means something is cool, or awesome. 'Chicks' is just a way to refer to girls," Moira explained, holding onto the swing seat after getting a little tired, "And what do you mean John Lennon is the leader of the Beatles? Paul McCartney writes and sings more songs than Lennon I'm sure—"
"Don't even think of finishing that sentence!" Jacob glared.
"Paul McCartney is the leader," Moira insisted.
"No, no he's not," he whined. "John founded the band, he writes and sings most of the songs, so he's the leader."
"He may have started the band but Paul made it what it was—"
"Silence, heretic!
To Peter it was like watching a game of toss, the siblings going back and forth with one jibe after another. At first he was alarmed but the playfulness behind it came through very quickly and he was glad to see this argument was not meant at all to be hurtful. He'd witnessed (and been a part of) screaming matches between the boys and he hated to admit it but some had escalated into knock down smack downs, often over stupid things. The conflict never resolved and only resulted into bruised bodies and ego.
This argument only went as far as Jacob putting his hand over his ears chanting, "La la la la la la. I can't hear you. You don't exist therefore your argument is irrelevant. La la la la la." He walked along the branch and made his way down the tree until he was walking along the simple rope bridge that connected to the shore.
"You know I'm right!" Moira yelled to him.
"You're no longer my sister!
"That's okay, you're adopted. Someone left you on our doorstep in the snow and Dad wanted a boy," Jacob just waved her off and disappeared into the bushes, grumbling about getting something to eat. She smiled at Peter, "He knows I'm right."
Peter just offered her a smile that showed he wasn't going to argue with her. Yes he may have only met four girls his whole life but that was enough experience to make him learn that when a girl thinks she is right you don't argue with her. Ever.
Never. Ever.
Before he could talk again Sunny's head shot out of the water in front of him and took a loud and deep breathe. When he could talk he asked excitingly, "What's my time?" Peter was impressed but all Sunny heard was Moira shrieking.
"YOU'VE BEEN UNDER THE WATER AND NOT BREATHING THIS WHOLE TIME!"