Chapter 16 - The Rainbow
The arrival at Port Star felt both sudden and late in the Neverland way of things. Wendy had a hard time deciding if it took more or less time than she had expected, but it didn't really matter because she was too entranced by the prospect of going ashore and the sights of their approach once they had arrived in the harbor proper.
The town itself looked as normal as any coastal village might in its setting against an at times rocky or sandy coast, but this one was also crested by a glittering arc of light that sat like a halo from every direction one could imagine. The halo came from the first twist of the rainbow to form the shape it made for the rest of Neverland, a point at which the rainbow broke the light beams into pieces that could then scatter onto any land they might find of their own accord.
Wendy considered that this might explain a lot about the inconsistency of night and day lights on the Neverland, though she was not certain. She looked up at Hook, whose face lacked the usual hidden sneer with which she was so familiar, but instead boasted a contentment without malice and something more like anxiousness than she might normally expect to grace his fair features. This was remarkable enough to her that she did, in fact, remark upon it.
"Why, Captain Hook, I daresay you have the look of a regular politician," she teased.
Hook rolled his head to gaze down at her, eyes their regular piercing but eyebrows raising an extra tick. "And I daresay you haven't met many politicians." His face tensed into a more serious countenance. "Wendy, with all sincerity, I beseech you to take this seriously."
"But I am, sir. Of course I am. What do you mean?"
"Things are different here, darling. The people are not what you are used to; this is not a place of pretend and make believe. This is not a place where Pan's influence holds much weight, but it is a place where everyone has their own lamp to keep lit, their own sail to mend." He sighed and gently raised his hook to brush her blowing hair aside. "Even the winds are up to something here, Wendy."
"Oh," she said, not bothering to attempt a more dignified reply. Hook's face had trouble ahead written on it, and she brooked no argument. He would know, after all, and the cleverest part of Wendy was the one that knew when to sit back and let an expert guide her through uncharted waters which, in this case, were both literal and figurative.
She was content to watch the ever-approaching shore and docks of the wondrous town of Port Star. Her eyes drifted along the coast and its sandy beaches and up the cliffs to the grassy tops she could see and the lighthouse blinking unnaturally even for a Neverland lighthouse, especially in the morning light.
"Is it alright to say that it is beautiful, at least, Captain?" Wendy asked, her eyes large and pleading when he met them.
"My darling," he purred, "how could it ever be wrong?" He wrapped his left arm around her, fingers tugging against the velvet of her jacket and nudging her close.
Hook stared out at the brilliant rainbow coast and sighed. "There are a great many things in this world that are beautiful and yet still terrible. You should never be afraid to name them, Wendy."
She only nodded and once again and watched the port grow closer.
Some time later, Wendy heard rather than saw the anchor plunge into the water; The Jolly Roger had found its mooring. They boarded a tender boat with several crewmates, a few dressed in various combinations of vivid colored and sometimes patterned clothes: Cecco in green, Bill Jukes in violet, and Smee in his blues and yellows. A few more pirates wore their standard dress. Smee had explained that many of them would have personal business in town and all of the crew would take their leisure time in shifts.
Wendy almost felt out of place with the dark indigo among their more brightly clothed companions, but she matched Captain Hook, and when he wore a garment, it made it clear that it was the standard by which to judge and nothing less.
The oars dipping in and out of the water pulled at a thread in Wendy's memories and took her back to the night she'd left Peter, frightened and bloody. She twisted in her seat and looked at The Jolly Roger as they rowed away and reached up to trace her fingers along what was now not much more than a red mark on her throat. The memory gave her a chill which was felt by Hook, who leaned forward and turned his face to study hers. His eyes looked impossibly blue, like two stars shining out from the shadow of his hat and the long curls of his hair the wind teased there. "Are you well?"
"Yes, Captain. Why do you ask?"
His eyebrows rose in response and Wendy, not for the first time, wondered if he'd had to practice that kind of righteous smugness or if it was as natural to him as the forget me nots and the soft black corkscrew curls.
"I was just recalling my last trip in one of your tenders and the circumstances that brought me to it." She absentmindedly stroked the mark on her throat again, but smiled. "It seems so distant now. I'm not sure I recognize who I was before I came back here, or the girl who ran away from growing up. I wonder what she would make of the girl who tends ropes and dresses like a pirate." Hook nodded and held her eyes with his.
At once, Wendy realized something she had not understood as a child and perhaps not even when she'd first been brought aboard his ship, and it was this: Captain Hook had a singular gift for listening. Not once during her ramble had he interrupted to correct, instruct, or question her feelings. He only sat there, clear eyes trained on hers but creasing with concern and something else—empathy?
A life of correction, instruction, and questioning had never subdued her desire to be heard, but just now she realized the difference between hearing and listening and being heard and being really listened to. Ten years ago he had feigned solicitude to manipulate her into revealing Peter's weaknesses, but this time it was not malicious. It felt more like being a ship out at sea that falls under the glittering path of a lighthouse at the top of a harbor town.
"Wendy," he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper, "You shed the only costume you were wearing when you put on the pirate clothes. There has never been a more promising scallywag or heartie. Fret not, my dear, for the girl did grow up, and she will very shortly be the woman who has seen the beginning of a rainbow." He lifted his hook gently to her chin and used it to direct her gaze toward the now very near docks, behind which and not so distant stood the crystal fountain and seven broad stripes of light in a ring around it.
"Oh!" Wendy fully gasped and leapt to the edge of the tender to get the closest look possible, nearly tipping herself overboard. Hook managed to catch her by the waist and Cecco had looked ready to dive in after her; she noticed none of this as she stared, shamelessly in open-mouthed and wide eyed awe. "I say… it's," she gasped again. "Well, it's quite literally breathtaking."
"There she is, our Wendy Darling."
She finally tore her eyes from the rainbow and beamed up at him, "Aye, Captain."
Cecco and a pirate named Sven made quick work of securing the tender to the dock, then hopped out to offer a hand to Hook as he stepped off who, in turn, offered his hooked arm to Wendy. She marveled at how the crew moved from boat to dock as easily as she might move from one chair to another and felt more than a little self conscious about her less graceful attempt, but if any of them noticed it, they were kind enough not to say anything. She was doubly grateful for the captain's proffered arm when she began walking and realized how used to life at sea she had apparently gotten.
"Don't worry, my beauty; your land legs shall return apace." Hook patted her hands where they clutched him and paid her a kind smile. He traced his long index finger over the bumps of her knuckles before clutching her top hand and turning it over so he could press something hard into her palm and closing her fingers around it.
"What's this?" she asked, then squeaked an "oh, my" as she took in the largest cut gem she had ever seen, a sapphire about the size of a miniature teacake.
"For the fountain. It likes gemstones and other fine things."
"Thank you, Captain." Wendy had seen her share of gems and treasures, mainly from the loot they had pilfered from Hook all those years ago (perhaps she had always been a pirate), but she had never seen something so exquisite quite this size and that she was going to toss it like a coin into a fountain was a dizzying prospect.
They stepped into the light ring toward the crystal and two things occurred to Wendy at the same time: first, she had never known true color in her life, only its imitations as best they could exist outside the roots of a rainbow; Second, she was not only seeing the colors, but feeling them through a gentle humming and buzzing that seemed to come from her inside as much as her outside. It felt like having a hummingbird in her chest or to being the sand under the rush of the incoming tide.
She crouched down to place the sapphire among the other trinkets and baubles and fairly gasped when the shimmering, foamy waters swirled and intensified their hum. Hook, crouching at her side, smiled and reached in with his hook to slide it over the foam. "Don't be frightened, Wendy. It likes our attention."
Slowly, she extended her fingers to trace the foam still clinging to the edge of his hook. It had the notion of touching a seabreeze. "It's so…" her words fell away with her thoughts as she risked touching her fingertips directly to the busy surface of the water and swirled them around. "It's like holding onto a memory and forgetting it all at once."
"Yes," Hook said. He smiled as the water dazzled over her hand. "Oh, it's rather fond of you."
After some tugging and gentle prodding, Wendy walked away from the fountain and out into the regular light of day. She once again accepted the captain's arm as they stepped down a cobblestone walkway lined with buildings, mostly wooden and some stone, all two or three stories high. It looked familiar and new all at once in the fashion of Neverland's contradictions, from which architecture was not spared. She admired the cheerful hues of the structures; lemon yellows and seafoam greens and plum purples complimented each other in unexpected rows and stacks of variety. Here or there one might find a ruby red storefront next to a cobalt pub or a tangerine apartment. Awnings and draped fabric flags crisscrossed some intersections where they were tied to tall crystal lanterns filled with fat white candles. Wendy hoped she'd have a chance to see them lit.
One or two turns into their stroll, a less bright but no less lovely edifice waited at the end of the street. Tall, midnight blue, and imposing, although not gloomy, stood an elegant tower surrounded by trees with little white flowers Wendy thought looked like dogwood. She noticed Hook's steps grew in stride as they made their approach and she had to work to keep up with the pace his longer legs had set. It occurred to her that the only walking they'd ever done together had been leisurely and confined to the ship's deck; she'd never seen Hook in a hurry to go anywhere, really, and this notion sparked a gleam of curiosity.
"What new thrill awaits us at this new destination that has you stepping so keenly, sir?" Wendy nearly giggled, hopping along to keep up.
Hook looked down with a raised eyebrow suggesting she'd said something strange but then took notice of her difficulty maintaining his pace and stride and slowed down. "Forgive me, darling," he sighed and allowed a thoughtful expression to pass over his fair features.
"No need," she said, this time without laughter in her tone. Hook had always had an expressive face, and whether it be joy or malice or something else painted on his fair features, there was almost always a shadow of amusement paired with it. What Wendy saw now was more like disquiet. She looked down at the cobblestone path and saw that it was now darker with small bright pebbles among the larger stones and she imagined it would mirror the night sky. Looking back at his face, she admired the fine lines of his thoughtful frown under the bounce of his hair with each step and squeezed his arm in her small hands. "What troubles you, Captain?"
To her great surprise, he turned on his heel and pivoted toward her, bending at his waist to meet her face to face. He swept his eyes side to side searching for anyone who might intrude on their privacy and, seeing none, he spoke in a hushed tone. "Neverland is a curious place, Wendy, and none of us can know all of it, not even Pan. Out at sea we have some agency, some limited peace. Here there is the rainbow, of which I daresay even Neverland is unsure." Hook relaxed his features and offered a more familiar smile with a subtle nod of his head toward the midnight tower she could see over his shoulder. "Here, there are people who are not simply ruffians playing follow the leader. Here, my darling, there be dragons."