It Will Forever Go On...
"..for all children grow-up, but childhood will forever be strong." As Jane speaks her last words, she glides her vision around the room, noting the nods of approval with smiling faces all around the room.
"'Tis your best delivery yet, Jane...you will be as good as Aunty Wendy soon enough", says a girl with dark brown eyes and auburn hair.
"Why, thank you, Lacey"
Peter sat quietly, his mind still lost in visions from his sister's tale, his gaze frozen and unmoving from the spot in space it rested since the story began. His father had given it all up, the plush greens of the forest, the perfectly sweet waters, and the eternal prism of colors seen only in dreams that forever glide above the island. And all for a girl...one single girl...his mother. Surely, she possessed some sort of magic that bewitched him, something that he knew he could not live without...but what is was...he could not understand...even after he would hear the story, over and over, he could not understand how he could have left it all behind. It made no sense, and yet, somehow it did. He knew the answer lay in the way his father still stares at her from across the room, as if she's a vision of wonder that he has never seen. How when they believe they are alone, they seem to loose themselves in a dance, their movements guided by a song no one else hears, seemingly floating without a speck of fairy dust. There was something in their eyes. A twinkle of magic not found in the Neverland, but still he knew of, that shown brightest only when they were within each other's reach. And there was something in her touch, that made his whole world seem right when everything else would seem so wrong. The smile on his mother's lips...that wickedly mocking smile, so sweet and inviting...caring and forgiving. The feel of her warm embrace, that seemed to push away all the darkness that loomed in a child's nightmares. He longed to feel her lips on his forehead, for once more at least. To know once again, the safety of her arms wrapped around his body, cradling him into her lap and whispering stories and songs of a mother's sweet lullabies into his ears. But if he was to know any of this again, he was sure it would mean abandoning the land of forever bliss. No...he could not...and would not...that was his home...from the day he was born... he knew there was something else for him beyond the cold London streets, and away from all things ugly and ordinary. He would not make the same mistake as his father. He would not let her change him.
"Peter?"
His sister's voice scattered his thoughts and he turns to see her face, adorned with perfect features, so reminiscent of his mothers. The same eyes, full of compassion and care for all in her heart. The same rosy smile, with one kiss hidden in the right hand corner of her mouth. "Yes?"
"You best be going now...we will not go with you tonight, but we must all get some sleep if we are to finish our home-studies before Uncle Jim arrives tomorrow."
"Right...yes..." He lifted off the bed and floated to the window, with Snowchime still perched on his shoulder, pausing to turn and wave goodbye. "I will be back...perhaps in a few weeks...just keep the window open..."
"We always do..." replied Jane as she followed him to the open window.
Peter smiled before lifting off and pushing the window down half way. The golden glimmer seen through the glass slowly moved to the right and finally, disappeared.
"Do you think he will ever just stay?" asked Charles, to no one in particular as he climbed back in bed, between Nigel and Jack.
"I believe not...he was always the most stubborn one in our bunch." Replied Nigel as he reached over to turn off the lamp next to the bed, and tucked himself in.
Jane smiled to herself as she watched as everyone settled back into their beds, and then laid down, pulling the covers over her shoulders. The look in his eyes whenever he heard that story was something to ponder. Sure, he flew away to the land of the never more, but there in his eyes, behind that spark of mischief and pride, was something odd, but not unfamiliar to any of them, at all. A gleam not child-like and yet, not fully mature either, like that in the forest green eyes of their father. It seemed to lay dormant, waiting for something, or someone to come by and make it sparkle even brighter. 'Perhaps he will not return home...but...he will return...somewhere...where a kiss waits for him...'
Peter left the nursery once more, determined to never again call it home, but as he did on each visit, he flew to the window two rooms down. Careful to not make a sound, he floated to the bottom right and slowly leaned over to peak trough the slightly open window, into the room. There in their bed, lay his parents, turned towards each other, the top of his mother's head slightly below the tip of his father's nose, wrapped in each other's arms, in a loving embrace, perhaps; but most likely, to keep warm through the night's chill, for they would never close the window.
Peter looked on, as a pain in his heart grew stronger. 'Mother...father...' He had made his choice, and this was the price. To never again know the joy of a parent's hug or tender kiss.
A moment passed, and still he stared. Snowchime chimed something in his ear that to us might mean "We must get going". He looked to his fairy and smiled, and lifted his hand to the pouch hanging on his waist. Forth, he pulled out one single leaf, of the most radiant green. The color of a thousand summer winds, with the scent of sweet waters. He shifted his eyes towards his fairy, who instinctually turned away from him and gazed at the moon, pointing and chirping about its particular brightness on this night. He slowly closed his eyes and pressed his lips on the leaf. 'Father...mother...never forget about me...'
He placed the leaf on his palm and let the night's wind lift it up and carry it into the room. However, it did not land on the floor below the window as it always did. Tonight, the wind saw it fit to carry it to his father's face, where it landed gently enough to not make a sound, but nevertheless stirred his eyes. Peter looked in unsure about whether to flee, when his father's hand moved to his face and removed the leaf. Looking at it for a second, he turned to the window, to see his son. Their eyes met, for the first time in years, but not a word was said. Peter smiled at his son, and placed the leaf next to Wendy's face. No...he would not wake her. He would not let her see what she could never have again. He could not bear to see her shed one more tear, and he could not chance his son giving up what he knew he still was not ready to leave behind. Little Peter motioned to speak, when his father quickly rose one finger to his lips. 'No, not a word...'
Little Peter hovered outside the window for a few more seconds. Starring at his father, the one and true Peter Pan, and noting that he was boy no more. And yet, on his lips, was that same smirk, of which fables were told. A half smile half sneer. Fully mischievous, and definitely cunning. A slight lift on the left hand side of his lips, with a promise of laughter and forever bliss.
The same little devilish smile overcame Little Peter's lips, as he bowed down, his gaze still held firmly on his father, but turning slightly towards his mother as he stood up straight. The smile faded, and his eyes glazed over. 'Never again...to feel your embrace...' He waved goodbye, and backwards he floated, his eyes lingering on the window until he could no longer see within the room. Off he flew into the night sky, towards the heavens, to the star on the right.
Peter stared at the window, for a second longer, before turning back to his wife, her eyes still closed shut. As he laid his head back down, he heard her soft voice. "Is he gone?"
Peter eye's opened wide. She was awake, for how long? She knew he had come? Why did she not speak? "Wendy...you were awake?"
He could see her eyelashes slowly lift up, as she absently stared toward, into his neck. "Yes...I always am..."
Peter looked on, unsure of what words to speak.
"I know when my boy is near. I can feel him." She said, not moving an inch.
"Why do you never speak to him?" He said, half sure of her reply.
"Because...he is not ready...to come back...and perhaps, he never will..." She turned her head up to look into his eyes. "...besides...the world needs a Peter Pan..."
Peter smiled as he searched within her azure eyes, for the little girl he'd fallen in love with years before. She was definitely still there, hidden within the women that he would always love. How odd life tends to be. Making you think you want something, then making you realize, it was a whole other magic that you always needed, even if you never knew it. Although he loved her with all his heart, in that moment, he felt that he fell just the tiniest bit deeper in love with the perfect angel in his arms.
And there you have it...the happily ever after that you were never told. Ah...but I see there are skeptics out there...unable to believe, my words and version of the tale you think you know. But I can assure you, 'tis all true. I know...because I was there....not since the beginning....but towards the middle...not at the end...because there is none. There story began with a kiss...and still goes on...for they will forever live on...in our stories, in our hearts. A love that offered the one enchantment that the magical boy, had yet to experience. Why the deception all these years? The answer is simple. My father wished it so, and my mother agreed. He knew that children needed him to be the eternal boy, to bring a spark of light into their sometimes darkened days. To be the one that lifts them out of loneliness and tears, to a world where a child, will never fear.
My brother sought the life my father left, but he also ended up choosing a life more ordinary. Yes, 'tis the blessing, or the curse; however you wish to see it. For a child can only remain a child, so long as he knows not of the enchantment of a love's embrace, and as luck or fate would have it, he ventured into the window of his very own 'Wendy' one night. Drawn in by a sadness so strong it hurt his own heart, he met a girl of ebony hair, and eyes of honey, and every bit as wickedly mischievous as he. An only child, she was, orphaned at the tender age of three, and under the care of her aging grandmother, too distraught from the loss of her son to pay any attention to the lonely girl. He rescued her, from such a sad life, and with a look and a sigh, and a brush of the hand as he lifted her off the ground for the very first time, he fell for her charms and she in turn for his. She escaped to the stars, and became the first lost girl, but time passed by, even in Neverland, and he chose the path our father did many years before.
His son is out there though...flew away to the second star to the right, I hear...but he most likely has not acquired all of his men, so if at night, you hear a crow, and see a flash of gold against the moon glow, your greatest adventure is about to unfold, so run to your window as fast as you can, and wish in your heart with all your might, for a chance for magic, fun, and flight. This is fair warning, for now you are told, of the true story of boy who will never grow old.
Never the End,
Jane Marie Pan Darling