Sky Lights

by Barclay Baker

  ‘I always wondered if there was such a thing as fairy dust. Why is it moving? What’s it made of?’ asked Amy, as she rubbed a small amount through her fingers. ‘It tingles.’

  ‘Careful now,’ said Peter. ‘That’s precious stuff. It does amazing things. Don’t spill any on the floor.’

  ‘Well?’ said Shelley, impatiently. ‘Aren’t you going to answer her question?’

  ‘Question? What question?’ asked Peter, frowning.

  ‘What’s it made of?’ repeated Amy. ‘If we could make it we could sell it for loads of money. We’d be rich, rich, rich.’

  Hesitating, Peter finally took a deep breath and announced pompously, ‘I am afraid I cannot tell you what it is made of as that is a Never Land secret I am not at liberty to divulge.’

  Ignoring Amy, he closed the bag and holding it behind his back said, ‘Enough talking now. This is wasting precious time. Are you coming or not?’

  ‘What d’you think Shelley?’ asked Amy. ‘Should we?’

  ‘Do you promise to have us back by morning?’ said Shelley turning to look Peter straight in the eye.

  ‘If that is your choice, then there is no reason why not. You can see a lot of Never Land in a few hours.’ He paused, looking from one to the other. ‘Are you coming then? Is that a yes? Shall we depart?’ said Peter, bouncing impatiently on the balls of his feet. Amy began to giggle.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ asked Peter.

  ‘You are. You look like a boy, but you don’t sound like one.’

  ‘What do you mean? What do I sound like if not a boy?’

  ‘It’s the way you speak, Peter. The words you use and how you say them. You sound like an old man.’

  ‘Well you both sound like silly children. Come on, stop wasting time. Are you coming on the adventure of a lifetime or not?’

  ‘Ok, I will if you will,’ replied Amy turning to Shelley. Shelley nodded, too excited to speak.

  ‘Right then ladies, stand over there by the window and I will sprinkle you with dust. You will immediately feel the tingle and a sense of weightlessness. Go onto your tiptoes, bend your knees, spring forward and follow me. That is all there is to it.’

  ‘Don’t we have to think happy thoughts? The way they did in the book?’ asked Amy.

  ‘What book?’ asked Peter, ‘Do you have a book about flying using fairy dust?’

  ‘No,’ said Amy. ‘The book all about you… and Wendy… and the lost boys…and the pirates.’

  ‘Oh, that book! No, don’t worry about the happy thoughts. Any thoughts will do actually. Just as long as you think about something…anything… the dust will work. Now let’s be on our way.’

  No sooner had Peter started to sprinkle the dust on the girls than there was a knock on the door. Jack stepped into the room saying, ‘Amy, I need to borrow your calculator. My battery is dead and I don’t…….’ There was a pause and a sharp intake of breath, ‘What’s going on? What’re you doing?’

  ‘We’re going to Never Land with Peter Pan, Jack. Don’t try to stop us. We’ll be back before morning,’ said Amy, looking at her watch as she began to rise off the ground. ‘And don’t tell Mum and Dad.’

  ‘Wait…. you can’t! You can’t! Stop! Come back!’ Jack yelled trying to grab hold of his sister’s foot as it disappeared through the window.

  Turning, Peter scattered the last of the fairy dust over Jack’s head and before he knew it, Jack was also rising up through the window and following on behind the others.

  ‘It will be best if we all hold hands,’ said Peter. ‘That way nobody’ll get lost. I can’t guarantee to get you back by morning if one of you gets lost and I have to go searching the galaxy for you. By the way girls, we have just been joined by a lost boy.’

  ‘That’s no lost boy,’ said Amy. ‘That’s my practical, non-believing big brother. Welcome to my world Jack! What do you have to say about it now, eh? Fact or fiction?’ Amy was secretly pleased that Jack had joined them. Although she wouldn’t admit it, she felt safer having him with her.

  The children and Peter were soon soaring high above the rooftops, hand in hand, and to people on the ground they would have looked like a mini-string of Christmas lights floating through the sky. Within a matter of seconds the buildings below had disappeared completely. Looking back they could vaguely see the Scottish coastline, and the occasional sparkle of the North Sea. They appeared to be travelling faster than the speed of light as their view kept changing by the nano-second. A sudden high pitched sound whistled by them followed by a flying flame, so close they could smell burning. ‘Don’t worry,’ said Peter. ‘It’s just a falling satellite. We get a quite few of them these days but they hardly ever hit anyone. It means celestial travel is not as safe as it once was.’

  ‘Bit late to tell us now!’ said Amy. ‘What else could hit us up here?’

  ‘Not much,’ said Peter. ‘We are about to go through a meteor shower but that’s no worse than a rain shower, as long as we avoid the big bits. It will feel warm and at least you won’t get wet.’

  ‘Oh good, I’m glad about that. We left so fast I didn’t have time to grab an umbrella,’ said Jack sarcastically.

  ‘Maybe that’s why John Darling always carried one,’ said Amy. ‘Are you all right Shelley? You are very quiet.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ replied Shelley. ‘I don’t think I have the words to describe what I’m feeling. It seems like a beautiful dream one minute then an awful nightmare the next. I’m happy and scared, I’m excited and worried, I’m .......’ Her next words were lost as they flew into the meteor shower.

  ‘Hold tight,’ called Peter, ‘and keep up with me. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand but some are not. We may be changing direction frequently for the next few seconds as we avoid flying rocks.’

  The children found themselves completely surrounded by a kind of thick silver mist. The visibility was so bad they could no longer see each other or the flying rocks and if they hadn’t been holding hands they might have gone in all different directions. Opening their mouths to speak proved as impossible as speaking underwater. Suddenly it was over as quickly as it had started.

  ‘Almost there,’ shouted Peter. ‘Just the rainbow to go through. Hold tight now, this bit can be turbulent, especially going from one colour to the next.’

  The children all tightened their grip on each other as they flew into the band of scarlet moisture which stretched as far as they could see. The feeling against their skins was lighter than the meteor shower had been and visibility was fine except that they all had a rosy glow. There were definite feelings of stomachs turning over as they bumped into the orange band. ‘I think I am going to throw up!’ yelled Jack from the end of the line. ‘Can you slow down a bit, Peter?’

  ‘Impossible,’ answered Peter. ‘We’ve got to keep up the momentum or we shall start to fall and, trust me…. that would not be a good idea. You won’t throw up. It is a common sensation with the orange band which will disappear as we enter yellow. Here it comes now. Hold tight.’

  The children experienced yet another very bumpy entrance followed by a sense of complete euphoria. To be bathed in yellow light was surreal. And it tickled. It felt as if butterflies were tiptoeing all over their bodies. No sooner had they begun to enjoy the sensation than it ended. The transition from yellow to green did not seem so difficult. Perhaps they were getting used to travelling between the colours of the rainbow, or perhaps yellow to green was always an easy ride. The green band had definite smells of new mown grass, of pine forests, of fresh mint and of fragrant jasmine. The string of celestial travellers flew on through the green and into the blue. It felt like going down a helter-skelter, and plunging into icy water. Blue was definitely colder than the other colours, but sparkling and refreshing at the same time. The darkness of the indigo crept up on them unannounced and once more they could not see each other. They closed their eyes and held on tight wishing that the journey could be over and before they knew it they were flying fast t
hrough violet and hearing Peter call out at the top of his voice,

  ‘Friends of Peter Pan, residents of Never Land, gather round, I have brought some visitors from Scotland. Come and meet them.’

  Opening their eyes, Amy, Shelley and Jack saw that they were hurtling at great speed towards the ground and they braced themselves for a hard landing. They were delighted to find that falling on Never Land was like falling onto a field of marshmallows. They bounced once, like rubber balls, and then came to a standstill.

  At once they were surrounded by the most amazing animals they had ever seen. From the floor of the forests came giraffes striped like zebras, elephants the size of dogs, lions that purred like pussy cats, and camels with wings. From the trees flew tiny sparrows whose plumage looked more like that of macaws, bats with polka dots of every colour, and bees as big as eagles. The fanciful creatures curiously encircled Amy, Shelley and Peter but the children were unafraid. They sensed no threat from any of them.

  A dozen or more mermaids pulled themselves up onto the rocks along the coastline beyond the forest and waved to Peter and the children. ‘Welcome to Never Land,’ they called. ‘Come for a swim. The water is lovely. It is a long time since Peter brought us any visitors.’

  A school of dolphins began a display of acrobatics behind the mermaids as if to say, ‘Want to play?’ Just as Jack was about to ask Peter if they could go for a swim, they heard a great whooping and drumming off to their left. From the direction of a mountain, came a group of people dressed in leather and feathers, all chanting in a language unknown to the Scottish children.

  ‘How!’ said Peter stepping forward and holding his flat open palm towards the American Indians. ‘Come and meet my visitors from Scotland. Remember Wendy? They are from Wendy’s family.’

  ‘Ah, so Peter will get his house cleaned again? Good. It is about time too,’ laughed the Chief of the Indians.

  Forgetting her shyness for a moment, Amy spoke up, ‘Oh no, that’s not why we are here. We are on an adventure. And we can’t stay very long.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Hold on, that’s impossible!’

  ‘What is?’ asked Jack looking at Amy’s watch over her shoulder.

  ‘When we left Edinburgh it was 25 past 10. I looked at my watch just as you came into my room, Jack. And now it’s just coming up to 10.26. We can’t have come all this way in less than one minute.’

  ‘Remember?’ said Peter. ‘I told you we would be in Never Land in no time. And so we were. The journey took no time at all. You have now been on the ground here for one minute. The return journey will be the same so you can stay at least 6 or 7 hours before we have to go back. So shall we have some fun? What would you like to do first?’

  No sooner were these words out of Peter’s mouth than there was a faint tinkling of bells in the distance growing louder and louder by the second. A throng of fairies, waving their arms as if in a panic, descended from the clouds. The leader, the tiniest but feistiest of them all, landed on Peter’s shoulder.

  ‘Don’t start getting jealous again Tinks, or you will be banished for the night!’ said Peter good humouredly. The fairy shook her head from side to side and spoke right into his ear.

  The smile disappeared from Peter’s face as he listened intently to what Tinker Bell was telling him. ‘Oh no,’ he said at last. ‘What awful news. And what bad timing! What really terrible timing.’

  ‘What’s up Peter?’ asked Amy.

  ‘What’s the awful news?’ said Shelley.

  ‘It’s the supply of fairy dust. Two days ago while I was off exploring your world the fairies’ nests were ransacked and the last of the dust stolen by pirates,’ answered Peter.

  ‘I thought you told us there weren’t pirates any more,’ said Shelley.

  ‘I said there were not many, which is true. But it seems a few of them wanted to fly to your country and they needed some fairy dust. They found the secret supply and instead of taking just enough for the journey they took the whole lot. What I can’t understand is why the pirates wanted to go to Scotland.’

  Tinker Bell again whispered in Peter’s ear. ‘She says they were talking about kidnapping a scientist and killing Captain Hook. But Captain Hook has been dead for a long time so that’s a load of nonsense,’ said Peter screwing up his nose. ‘I don’t understand what’s going on.’

  ‘What did you mean when you said it was bad timing Peter?’ asked Jack.

  ‘Because my dear friends, we need fairy dust to get you back home. I used almost all of mine just getting you all here. We can make more but it will take us longer than all night to do it. There is no way that I can get you home by morning!’

  ‘Now we really are in trouble!’ said Amy almost in tears.

  ‘My mum will be so mad at me,’ screeched Shelley. ‘You promised us Peter. Remember? You promised we’d be back by morning.’

  ‘I know,’ replied Peter calmly, ‘but how was I to know there would be a fairy dust heist? It’s never happened before. I shouldn’t have stayed in Edinburgh so long. It’s your fault really, Amy. If you had agreed to meet me earlier, I would have been back here sooner.’

  Amy’s lip quivered. ‘That’s not fair Peter. We didn’t ask you to come. It was all your idea.’

  ‘Well?’ said Jack trying to hide the panic that he felt. ‘Never mind that now. How will we ever get home again without the fairy dust?’

  ‘As I said, I can make more,’ answered Peter. ‘But it will take time and it does require courage. It will take me at least two days to gather enough of the ingredients to fly us all back.’ Peter looked thoughtful. Suddenly he smiled and clapped his hands. ‘I know,’ he announced. ‘If you all agree to help me, perhaps we can do it quicker. Maybe I can get you home before nightfall.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Amy. ‘We’ll all help. But what about our parents? They are going to be so worried when we are not in our beds in the morning.’

  ‘We shall send them an email!’ said Peter gleefully.

  ‘Email? Can you email from here in Never Land?’ asked Jack.

  ‘Of course. How do you think I found you all? Remember I was searching online for Wendy’s family? Not everything in the Never Land is the same as it was a century ago. We shall send an email straight away and at least stop them worrying!’

  ‘Oh yeah, sure,’ said Jack sarcastically. ‘And do you think they are going to believe it? That we are here in Never Land with Peter Pan, having flown through the night sky covered in fairy dust? Anyway, they won’t even think about going online when they find us gone. They’ll be busy phoning the police and calling all our friends’ parents, and crying, and ….’

  ‘Well, what harm can it do to send an email? It’s better than doing nothing,’ said Amy. ‘Somebody will see it eventually.’

  ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ interrupted Shelley. ‘Let’s send a message to Jody too. She is always online and is bound to read it. She can phone our parents to tell them we are ok and get them to check their emails.’

  ‘So that’s what we’ll do,’ said Peter. ‘Tinks! Take Jack to my computer and he can send the message. Girls you come with me to sign the Fairy Dust Seeker’s Agreement and then we shall begin the work at once.’

  Following Peter, Amy and Shelley looked at each other and mouthed the words, ‘Fairy dust seeker’s agreement?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ said Peter, as if he had heard them. ‘The ‘Fairy Dust Seeker’s Agreement’ is a most important document and everybody who seeks for dust must sign it first. It is the law.’

  Peter snapped his fingers and another fairy, quite different from Tinker Bell, suddenly appeared and landed on his shoulder. This creature had a more greyish complexion and looked a lot older than Tinker Bell. She held a very tiny scroll which, as she passed it to Peter, grew bigger and bigger until it was the width of a normal sheet of paper.

  ‘This is Duster Bell, the keeper of the agreement,’ said Peter, unrolling the scroll. Handing it to Amy, he said, ‘Here, read it yourself. Read it aloud.’
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br />   CHAPTER 5

  Mission Accomplished

  While Jukes and Noddler stayed behind in Never Land to search for more fairy dust, the other four pushed on through the night sky towards Scotland, unaware that two of the original six were missing. They travelled in silence throughout the nerve wracking journey, each keeping one travelling companion in sight at all times. Peter had often said to the lost boys that the journey to ‘the other world’ took no time at all and it seemed that way when Skylights suddenly called out, ‘Look, me messmates. There it is! There’s Edinburgh Castle. Let’s swoop down. No one should see us at this time of night.’

  The pirates slowed as they prepared to land. A passerby looked up from Princes Street and saw the silhouettes of four strangely dressed grown men flying through the sky with no visible sign of support; no hot air balloon, no parachute, no hang glider, not so much as a kite. Thinking he had had too much of the hard stuff he hurried off home, swearing not to touch another drop.

  One by one, the pirates alighted on the ramparts and jumped down out of sight into a vast courtyard. ‘Now then me hearties, that wasn’t so bad was it?’ asked Skylights, in a very good humour now that he was one step closer to fulfilling his dream.

  ‘Not bad at all,’ answered Fitzsmee. ‘I wish I had tried that fairy dust years ago. I might have done a bit more travelling in my time.’

  ‘Hey, whaur’s Jukes and Noddler?’ asked MacStarkey. ‘What’s keepin’ them?’

  ‘Split me infinitives, trust them to keep us waiting,’ answered Skylights. ‘We’ll give those slow coaches five minutes, me messmates. There’s work to be done and most of it needs to be done under cover of darkness. We have places to go and people to find before the sun comes up. Then, when it gets dark again, we’ll be ready to put our plans into action.’

  ‘Fellows,’ whispered O’Mullins, ‘I don’t like it.’

  ‘Don’t like what?’ asked Fitzsmee.