"And Hook fell of the plank and into the water where the ticking crocodile ate him whole. Then, his crew became so scared of Pan that they jumped off the ship where the evil mermaids pulled them under, drowning them." Phoebe gasped as she sat in her sister, Lexi's lap.
"Then what happened?" asked Jake. He was laying on his stomach on the ground; his head in his hands and kicking his feet.
"Then, the fairy sprinkled her dust over the ship and it started to fly."
"What about Wendy? Did her and Pan get married?" Jake laughed and Phoebe gave him a hateful look.
"She died with the pirates." Lexi kicked his arm and gave him the same look.
"No," She answered Phoebe's question. "Pan brought her back home along with her brothers. They never saw each other again after that."
"That is the worst ending to a story I've ever heard. You're supposed to say they lived happily ever after." Phoebe got off of her sister's lap and walked to her bed.
"Then you tell the story." Lexi got up and tucked her little sister in.
"I can't tell it as good as you can. You should write a book." Phoebe sat up in her bed and Lexi gently pushed her back down. She kissed her forehead and turned off the lamp by her bed.
"Mom wouldn't like that," she laughed. She walked towards the dresser, taking out a shirt and shorts for her to change into to go to sleep.
"Aren't you gunna kiss me goodnight, too?" Jake said sarcastically from his bed across the room.
"I think you're old enough to tuck yourself in Jake." They both laughed and Lexi turned off the lamp next to his bed. "Don't let the pirates get you," she whispered. She chuckled to herself and walked to the bathroom. She changed and brushed her teeth, then walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
"Why are you still up?" Lexi turned and saw her mom standing by the stairs and staring at her. "Have you been telling more of your stupid stories? You're 15. Enough with those. You're giving your siblings ideas and dreams that will never come true."
"I'm giving them what I never got," she mumbled.
"Did you know that Jake got detention at his school for having a 'sword fight' with another student, and that Phoebe does nothing but draw fairies and things in her class. She doesn't interact with anyone else. You're putting stupid little things in their heads that they don't need."
"They love my stories and it helps them go to sleep. It gives them something to dream about."
"Jake is ten. He doesn't need to be told stories before bed."
"So? It helps him to be creative. If I tell him a story before he goes to bed then when he dreams at night, he can create his own story."
"What about your sister? She comes to me crying at night that pirates and mermaids are going to kill her. She wouldn't think these things if you wouldn't tell her stories."
"She cried once and she came to me, not you. And I helped her by telling her another story, one with a happy ending."
"Where do you get these ideas? I never did anything of the sort to you."
Lexi laughed. "Exactly! You never did anything for me! And you're still not doing anything! I take more care of your kids than you do and I'm one of them! What kind of mother are you? You won't let you kids have any imagination! Where will they go and what will they do with their lives? Every job in the world has to use imagination or creativity!" She started to walk away towards the stairs to go to her room but her mother caught her wrist.
"How dare you talk to me this way! Your father would never approve!" Lexi stopped and turned, staring into her mother's black eyes.
"Well, then it's a good thing he's not here." She wrenched her hands free and ran up the stairs into her and her siblings room. She locked the door and opened her window. She looked out into the night sky, her mocha hair swaying with the wind that came through. "Oh take me away from this awful place," she whispered to the wind. Her eyes started to water and she put her head down on the rail of the window.
"Why are you crying?" Lexi's head sprang up and turned. She looked at the half naked boy standing in front of her. She looked at him from head to toe. His shorts were made of grass and leaves, his blonde hair was dirty, and so was the rest of his muscled body. She looked around the room and ran to her brother's bedside, grabbing the wooden baseball bat and holding it out in front of her.
"Who are you? And what the hell are you doing in my room?" She stepped closer to the boy, holding the bat as if it were a sword.
He took out a knife and walked backwards towards the open window. She noticed that he was her age from the light. He smiled at her crookedly. "Of all people, you should know who I am. You tell stories about me."
"I tell a lot of stories." He stopped backing up when he was against the wall. She put the tip of the bat against his bare chest and looked at his knife.
"But most of them are about me." She tilted her head and looked at him confused. He sighed and handed her his silver knife. She took it and looked at the handle. There was a crocodile and a name: Pan. She dropped the bat and the knife.
"Really. Who are you?"
"I'm Peter Pan. Can't you read?"
"There is no such thing as Peter Pan. That is just a story that someone made up and wrote books and made movies about." The boy smiled again and Lexi found herself having to look up higher and higher at him.
"No such thing," he laughed. She could completely see his whole body now, on the ceiling.
"What? How is that pos-" Lexi started to feel lightheaded and her eyes started to close. She could feel herself starting to fall backwards but she never hit the floor.
"Now do you believe I'm Pan?" She opened her eyes again and found herself in the boy's arms.
She stood up and backed away from him. "No. I'm dreaming."
"No, you're not. I'm Peter Pan. I can fly. I fight with pirates. I live in Neverland. I even have a fairy." He stopped and looked around the room. "Tink?"
"Are you serious?" She laughed to herself and sat on her bed. "I'm insane. I am completely insane. I'm having hallucinations."
"Tink?" He kept whispering the name as he flew around the room, going form one thing to another, opening drawers and looking under the rug. "Tink?"
"I'm losing my mind. There's a flying person in my room looking for a fairy."
"Tink?" Pan flew towards Lexi, picking her up and moving her. He threw the covers of her bed on the floor and messed up her pillows. "Tink? Where are you? I'm going to leave you here."
"It's obviously not here."
"She is around here somewhere." He turned and looked around the room one more time. He stopped when he saw the dollhouse next to Phoebe's bed. He smiled and flew to it, sitting in front of it. He opened it and smiled to himself. Lexi walked behind him and looked into the dollhouse. There was something glowing in the Barbie bed. "Tink? Wake up." Pan poked the little fairy on her back and she fell out of the bed. She stood up and put her hands on her hips. Her lips started to move but all Lexi could hear was a loud tinkering of bells. She started to feel lightheaded again. She could feel herself falling again but never reaching the ground. "You fall a lot." Lexi opened her eyes again and all she saw were dark blue eyes, almost grey, staring at her. She was in her bed and Peter was floating above her.
"Alexia Bernadette! What was that noise?" Lexi heard her mother say from the other side of the door.
"Shit!" she whispered.
"I must go." Peter grabbed Tink from the dollhouse and flew to the window. He took one last look at Lexi and smiled, then flew out of the window. Lexi closed her eyes once again that night and this time fell asleep.