Peter by day, Pan by night

Chapter 8

        He never meant for me to find out.

        Oh, Felix must have, since he encouraged me to climb up and figure out the truth. But Peter didn’t want this to happen.

        I was supposed to be the lost girl who briefly visited Neverland before disappearing back into London. I would have returned without knowing the truth, without being haunted by a boy with green eyes and a mystery that wasn’t mine to solve.

        But now it was too late for that.

        Peter’s words echo around us. The blue sky beckons me and this time I accept its freedom. Peter watches me as I slowly drift away from him and his secrets. I know I should stay and try to fix it, try to understand. But in the end, I won’t be able to help him.

        He doesn’t wave or smirk. He doesn’t tilt an imaginary hat or bow at the waist like a proper English gentleman. He just watches me like the lost boy he is. And then he kneels down and begins to clean up the mess he has made.

        I should join him, but I don’t. Instead I fly away into the Neverland sky.

        And don’t look back.

**

        “Hey, Wendy. What have you done all morning?” Bert swoops next to me, dodging a large bird. It squawks at the laughing boy.

        I smile, some of the seriousness drifting away from me. The heaviness is gone too. I feel as light as the clouds next to us. Flying really can cure almost anything. I will miss this most of all.

        “Not much. What about you?”

        Bert flips onto his back as if floating in a lake. “Ah, just a few scrimmages. We finally caught up with the mean old bear over on Peak’s hill. Kelvin even helped us. A little clumsy with a dagger at first, but he has talent. He was the one who downed the beast. He earned his nickname.”

        “Nickname?” I ask, trying to shake the image of Kelvin throwing a dagger around. I’ve never been able to grab a knife, but there were times when I needed one, times when it was a good thing I was a fast runner.

        “Yep, Kelvin is our brother now, our Shadow. The mighty bear slayer.”

        I groan. “Oh, please, no. Besides, nicknames are silly. And meaningless.”

        Bert tugs on one of my blonde curls. “Well, Wendy-bird, if you say so.”

        “Wendy-bird?” I laugh. Before I can ask why, I remember that I am floating miles above the ground. Yes, I guess in a way I am a bird, no longer caged by gravity and logic-at least for one more magical day.

        “You know, Wendy,” the smile fades from Bert’s eyes. “Not all nicknames are meaningless. Some of them tell the truth about a person, the truth that no one else will admit out loud.”

        “That Kelvin likes to melt into the shadows? That I like to fly?”

        Bert shakes his head. “You are looking at the facts, not the reasons. Kelvin is stealthy because he has learned to blend in and hide what he is feeling. And you fly because you have been imprisoned all your life…by poverty and gray sky. You love the sky because it gives you a taste of freedom you believe you’ll never really get. But bear slayers don’t belong in the shadows. And birds belong in the sky, not in cages.”

        I fight back tears. I stretch out my arms and feel the wind rush through my fingers. This moment is so perfect, but it will end. All of this will. It’ll fade into a dream that was too good to be real. I think of broken glass, and remembered that there is evil and sadness in this world too. Maybe England and Neverland aren’t that different-if you didn’t count the magic.