The Neverland Girl

by Dash Hoffman

  “And there aren’t any Lost Girls?” Emma asked with a half-smile.

  Callie shook her head. “No, none at all. Peter told Wendy that it was because girls were much too clever to fall out of their prams and become lost in the first place.”

  Emma laughed softly and watched Callie as she spoke. Callie gazed back at her.

  “Before you go, always remember that everything that happens in the Neverland is a game. The pirates, the Indians, hide and seek, chase and capture, escape, prison, and even death, though that does end the game. Also remember that time passes differently in the Neverland; much slower than in the world here. It’s barely noticeable.”

  Emma took a deep breath. “How do we get there?”

  “Well, you fly of course.” Callie answered thoughtfully.

  Emma’s eyes narrowed. “How does someone fly?”

  Callie leaned closer to her and her voice grew soft. “You just think lovely wonderful thoughts and they lift you up in the air. That’s precisely what Peter told Wendy and the boys. Now, I can talk to you while you’re there. You’ll hear my voice in your mind, but I can’t go. The only adults in the Neverland are pirates.”

  Emma nodded subtly. “Okay. I’m ready to go.” Her voice was soft, but determined, as she held fast to the book and the Neverland Compass.

  Callie’s voice was a fair and quiet whisper on the warm summer wind, almost solely in Emma’s mind.

  “If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see. Then if you squeeze your eyes tighter and think of your happy thought; hold it in your mind, right in the center, and let it light you up, let it lift you…” Callie’s voice grew quieter, and Emma’s body felt light as a feather.

  The Lost Boys

  Chapter Four

  The Neverland

  Emma opened her eyes and saw that she was alone in her room and that the window was open to the city outside.

  “OH!”

  With a gasp and a laugh, she realized that she was floating in the air almost up against the ceiling. “I’m… I’m flying!”

  Excitement shot through her like lightning, and she took a moment to steady herself. With her heart pounding in her chest, she drew in a deep breath and moved her arms and legs a little as if she was swimming through the air. She wobbled a bit at first, nervous and unsure, but she didn’t fall from her lofty place; instead, she moved closer to the open window.

  Reaching for the string around her neck, she held fast to the Neverland Compass, and then she looked out at the wide world before her, just beyond the window pane.

  “I’m going to the Neverland.” She stated with quiet assurance. With a little kick she flew easily from the window, out into the afternoon. The thrill of flying and of adventure coursed through every part of her, making her feel more alive than she ever had.

  Looking back, she saw the hospital behind her with only one open window, gaping like a missing tooth in a smile. She turned her head about, looking wildly at everything around her, until the few nuances of fear left in her melted away, replaced with delight, and excitement for what was to come.

  She looked at the Neverland Compass again, and as the little wooden arrow swung over to the second star, she squealed and looked upward.

  “Second star to the right.” She breathed in amazement. “Here I come.”

  Emma was surprised to see that it took no effort at all to fly, and that it wasn’t her body that did the work, but the happy thought in her mind. The happier she felt, the higher and faster she flew.

  The buildings and busy streets of London grew smaller behind her, fading into not much more than a picture, as the bright sky began to grow darker, and then London disappeared, swallowed by green land and cobalt sea as the dark blue sky around her grew black.

  Stars appeared, though they were always there, even in the daytime when they were hidden in the sunlight.

  “Stars! There are so many stars!” Emma whispered, pausing in her flight to stare around her at the whole universe.

  Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she heard a soft, familiar voice. The voice of a friend. “Follow the stars, Emma. They will lead you. The stars don’t get involved with Peter Pan, or the pirates, or the Lost Boys anymore… a kind of punishment for something they did long ago that even the stars no longer remember, but they did help Peter to know when the Darlings were gone so he could take the children. See them winking? Winking is their language. Now, on you go. Follow the Neverland Compass. Second star to the right…”

  “And straight on ‘til morning.” Emma finished the thought in her mind, which wasn’t really her thought at all, but the distant voice of her friend.

  She flew for a long time, past comets and planets, and nebulas and galaxies, past everything imaginable and even some things she never could have dreamed. Sometimes she felt a warm wind around her, carrying her, and she rested on it and let it take her a good way.

  At last she saw an ocean, dark blue at the edges, which changed to emerald greens and turquoise and crystalline blues as it skirted itself around land.

  Emma blinked and gasped. “Neverland! It’s the Neverland!” She saw the fantastic island from the skies, which were dotted about with puffy pink clouds in various shapes. Some were ships and some were sea creatures. Other clouds were animals and still others were toys. It was as if the dreams of every child had popped up all over the heavens above the Neverland taking countless forms of pink fluff.

  The island was breathtaking. Just off center of the small mass of land, to the northeast of it, was a tall mountain. The top of it was covered in brilliant white snow which drifted a third of the distance down the sloping sides, giving way to a temperate climate in the middle, and a warm environment around the somewhat narrow base, which was thick with tropical greens in the forms of trees, bushes, vines and flowers of every color.

  The northeast side of the mountain dropped sharply into a deep chasm of fresh water, forming a dramatic fjord with waterfalls spilling off of mountain peak cliffs and billowing in misty clouds as it reached the lake at the bottom.

  Around the base of the mountain, foothills ranged in various sizes, all of them covered in tropical forests and natural growth. The hills descended into several bays and beaches which were awash in glistening seas. Dotted around the Neverland were seven smaller islands in a range of sizes; each of them with a slightly different environment.

  Two were covered in black rock and boulders, two were blanketed with verdant green hills and sprinkled randomly with pockets of tall trees, two others had waterfalls, streams, and ponds. The smallest was nothing more than a desert island of sand with a few palm trees stretched tall, rattling and shifting their fronds in the ocean breeze.

  On the northwest end of the Neverland, there were three big sand dunes that reached from the foothills of the mountain to the beaches at the sea. One was gold sand, one was pink, and the one closest to the water was blue and purple.

  Around the southern edge of the island were several bays and inlets, a large forest, and rocky outcroppings; monoliths just off of the land, standing sentry in the sea.

  Hanging low in the sky was a big full moon, right in the middle of day, shining and shimmering silvery against the deep blue sky.

  Emma paused in her flight when she saw it. The face that is the man in the moon looked at her, and he winked. She gasped and held her hands to her mouth for a moment, staring at him.

  She had known him a long time; he was her most frequent friend at the children’s hospital, sailing silently through the dark sky past her window most nights, peeking in to check on her and watch over her. She waved at him and he smiled.

  Astonished at the wonder around her, she turned her gaze to the island just below her. She had flown down out of the clouds enough that she could see everything much clearer, and a thrill zipped through her when she saw a small, green, sandy beach spooned around an emerald and aquamarine lagoon.

  Jumbles of large rocks framed the sides of it. Trees and jungle forest lay just b
eyond the swath of olive green sand.

  With a grin on her face, Emma sank slowly to the beach; her pretty pink nightgown billowing out around her and swirling against her legs.

  As her bare toes touched the warm sand, she laughed out loud and held her arms out, looking down. Wriggling her toes in it, she felt the sand shift up and around, embracing her feet as if in a happy welcome.

  “This is magical!” She whispered.

  Holding the Neverland Compass in her hand, Emma looked at it to compare the Neversand in it with the green sand she stood in on the beach. It was exactly the same.

  “I’m here!” She squealed, then looked up and turned in a circle, taking it all in.

  The trees at the back of the beach were much taller and wider than they had seemed from the air. The light in the forest was soft, and faintly glowing from the leaves filtering the sunshine.

  A hush of waves washing up on the shore reached her ears, and she turned to look at the beautiful lagoon. “Oh!” She grinned. “It’s even lovelier than I thought it could be!”

  Then her breath caught, for there on a big rock in the water, not ten feet from her, were three mermaids. One had lavender hair with a blue and purple iridescent tail, one had yellow-green hair, and a tail that faded from light green to dark green, and the last had orange hair the color of a Tuscan sun setting in the evening, and her tail was dark red and burnt orange.

  Emma stared for a long moment and they peered back at her curiously. One of them flipped her blue and purple tail, and Emma realized that she should do something, so she lifted her hand and waved. The mermaids all smiled and waved back at her, and then resumed talking and gossiping amongst themselves.

  Emma stopped short and looked at her hand. It wasn’t the same as it had been back in London at the children’s hospital. It was fatter and fleshier, and she realized her arm was that way as well. Both hands and both arms were, she noticed, and then she looked down at her ankles and feet. They too were changed.

  She closed her fingers over the fabric of her nightgown and pulled it up to her knees, examining her legs. They were strong and healthy looking, just like all the rest of her that she could see.

  She blinked and stepped over to the water’s edge, looking down into it to see her reflection. Her cheeks were round and healthy, and her brown eyes were framed in thick dark eyelashes. More than all of that, on her head, all over her normally-bare scalp, was a thick crop of short, dark hair, in chunky curls.

  Emma reached up disbelievingly to touch it, feeling the softness of the locks in between her fingers.

  “I’m… I’m not sick anymore!” She pressed both of her palms against her rounded cheeks to feel them. They felt strange, but good.

  Staring at her reflection, she pushed her hands hard against her cheeks again, smooshing them and making her lips poke out. The silliness of it made her laugh. She dropped her hands and threw her head back, spinning around in a circle in the sand and laughing out loud.

  When she grew dizzy and the clouds began to dance and blur, she stopped and caught her breath, blinking and gazing about. The mermaids were laughing at her, and waved again. She waved back. They leapt from the rock then, slipping into the water and disappearing.

  “Mermaids!” Emma whispered and shook her head in amazement.

  The voice from her memory, somewhere in the back of her mind, spoke faintly, and she heard it clearly. “Is it quiet? Do you see anyone or hear anything?”

  “No, there isn’t anyone here. It’s quiet.” Emma replied, remembering her friend’s face that matched the voice.

  “Then Peter is not in the Neverland, for in Peter’s absence, things are normally quiet on the island. Fairies take an hour longer in the morning, beasts attend to their young, Indians feast heavily, and when Pirates and Lost Boys meet, they bite thumbs at each other. Such is the way in the Neverland.” The voice filled Emma’s mind. She remembered these things from a story she had heard once upon a time.

  She frowned slightly. “Beasts? What kind of beasts?”

  “Lions, tigers, bears, wolves, and all smaller things, and last of all, the crocodile; she is always there, always looking for the wicked Captain Hook.”

  Emma lifted her chin and drew in a big breath. “Then I shall be on watch for them.”

  Feeling a mingling of fear and excitement, which she knew to be the best kind of excitement, Emma decided to go and look for the Lost Boys.

  She walked along the shoreline for a fair distance, noticing that the color of the water and the sand changed somewhat from beach to beach, and sometimes the sand was gone altogether and it was a rocky shoreline, or the trees went right up to the water and she walked through the forest at the water’s edge.

  After a long while she wondered if she was going to circumnavigate the entire island, when she came to the edge of a pretty cove where the sand was black and fine, and soft and hot from the sun. It was surrounded on both sides by massive black rocks.

  She stopped short suddenly and tilted her head a little. “Wait!” She whispered. “I hear something!”

  “What is it that you hear?” The voice in her mind asked.

  “It’s… it’s men’s voices! It’s a song!” She craned her neck and listened closer, repeating the verses quietly.

  “Avast belay, yo ho, heave to

  A pirating we go,

  And if we’re parted by a shot

  We’re sure to meet below!”

  “Yoho, Yoho, the Pirate life

  The flag ‘o skull and bones

  A merry hour, a hempen rope,

  And hey for Davy Jones”

  “Ah, that is the Always Pirate Song. Be wary, there are pirates nearby!” The voice in her thoughts cautioned her. Emma realized that the song was almost familiar to her, as if she had heard it before long ago, or read it in a book somewhere.

  “I want to see them!” Emma breathed quick with wide eyes and a pounding heart. She tip-toed silently, heading closer to the sound of song.

  Captain Hook

  There, beyond the giant black rocks, just off of the beach at a slight distance, was a great sailing ship; a pirate ship, with a big black flag flying, emblazoned with the skull and cross bones. It was the Jolly Roger.

  White sails were tied down, and a dozen men moved about the deck. All of them worked and toiled, dressed in worn and faded clothes. All but one.

  That one stood proudly on the quarterdeck, dressed in shining black boots, black pants, and a blood red coat with gold embroidery and golden buttons on it. Atop his head of long, glossy, black ringlets of hair, he wore a great feathered hat. His mouth, sporting a commanding moustache, was pinched in a grimace, as his piercing blue eyes scanned the skies above the ship.

  “Captain Hook!” Emma drew in a sharp breath and clamped her hand over her mouth. She watched him and stepped as close to the edge of the beach as she dared.

  Stealing behind a pile of big rocks and crouching low, she could see him much better and hear him as his cold, deep voice rang out across the deck of the grand vessel.

  “Smee! This is an ingenious plan! I amaze myself sometimes with my own brilliance. He’s been gone too long. If nothing else brings Peter Pan back to Neverland, this will, for reasons of good form! Capturing those rotten Lost Boys and holding them captive will be enough. He will come, he will try to save them, and then I will kill him! Finally! I’ll be rid of that wretched boy once and for all!” A gleeful twinkle shone in his icy, glittering eyes.

  “You have an Indian in the mix as well, Captain! That ain’t going to hurt your chances of catching Pan none!” Smee beamed as he waddled about the deck, tending to the captain.

  “That was an inadvertent boon, Smee. Peter Pan will come for them all, and I will bury my hook in him and be done with him forever! The rest of those despicable boys will be made to walk the plank. It will be finished!” He grinned and hoisted his sharp, silver hook into the air with a flourish. Sunlight gleamed off of it, and Emma’s mouth fell open.

 
“He’s going to kill Peter Pan!” She whispered worriedly. It was then that she saw the trap which the dastardly Captain Hook had laid for Peter.

  On a wooden arm reaching out from the ship, hung a large net made of thick stringy rope, and piled all together inside of the net, were several boys. All of them howled and shook their fists at Hook, tossing insults at him and telling him off.

  The captain ignored them and fixed his gaze on the skies again, searching for a flying boy in green clothes.

  “He has the Lost Boys, and an Indian!” Emma whispered, staring at them.

  The voice sounded in the back of her mind again. It seemed like her friend from some far away world; speaking thoughts she could hear. “The Indians have killed both Lost Boys and Pirates. They are sometimes friend and sometimes foe. Most of them are of the Piccaninny tribe, though there are also the soft-hearted Delawares, or the Hurons. Of all the Indians, Great Big Little Panther is the killingest. If Hook has him, he will have a deadly fight on his hands. The same could be said for Tiger Lily. She is a princess and chief of the tribe, who forwent the wedding altar for a hatchet. She will fight Captain Hook as well, to the death if need be.”

  Emma pressed her lips into a thin line of determination. “Well, they all need saving. I can’t just let them hang there in that net, waiting for that evil Captain Hook to do his worst. I don’t know if Peter is coming or not, but I refuse to leave those boys up there alone with no help. I’m going to save them!”

  She looked back to the deck and saw that the other pirates and the captain had gone, and only Smee was left, sitting at the bracket for the wooden arm that held the boys in their net. His head drooped down, and his chin rested on his chest. Soon enough, he was snoring. Emma smiled mischievously.

  “This is my chance!” She whispered, rubbing her hands together. “Now… how do I save them?” She asked herself, looking around. There was nothing near her but sea and rocks. “How do I save them?” She wondered again, growing worried.