You know that place between sleep and awake?
The sounds filters in first, slowly. Wendy can hear John snoring on the other side of the room and the soft whining sound of Michael breathing into his pillow. She can hear the faint twinkling sound of the bell around Nana’s collar, in the distance. She’s aware of the morning light on her eyelids and face, warming the tops of her cheeks and dipping down until the heavy blanket she sleeps with stops it. She knows in a few moments, Nana will come through the door with slow, steady footsteps, nudging her with a morning-cool nose until she sits up and rubs her eyes and let’s the room come into focus. Mrs. Darling will slip into the room and Michael will be next, grumbling and shaking his head until Nana tugs his teddy bear from under his arm. John will be awake before Nana gets to his bedside but not a morning before. They’ll wake and dress and Mr. Darling will tell them to behave and not to have too much fun, a strange twinkle in his eye. Mrs. Darling will shush him and usher the children to the garden. Every day is the same since they returned. Not a single children out from under the watchful eye of Mrs. Darling from sun up to sun down.
But for now, with Nana in the kitchen, so far away, the darkness behind Wendy’s eyelids is fading away a faraway land: mermaids and pirates, a tiny girl with a feathered headdress and a boy, crouched above the windowsill, his smirk stretched from one ear to the other, a small shadow of light flitting from one shoulder to the other as he hovers over the landing.
“Come with me, Wendy,” he says, his arm outstretched towards her.
Nana always nudges her awake before she can reach his hand, but she’ll keep trying until the night Peter comes back and she knows she won’t miss then.
And sometimes I wonder if John and Michael waited too.
Like, can’t you just picture them at the window with Wendy, scanning the night sky, wondering when they could get back to Neverland and fight the pirates and sleep in the underground house with The Lost Boys? Can’t you just see Wendy trying to explain to them that Peter probably just forgot and he’d be back the next night. Or the next night. Or the next night after that.
In my head, Wendy grew up the night she had to tell Michael and John that Peter probably wasn’t ever coming back.
The saddest thing in the world is when
Peter goes back to get Wendy. Except, Wendy is a grown woman and she simply can’t leave.
But Peter just doesn’t understand.
Oh, the cleverness of me!Peter Pan
Accent theme by Handsome Code
"... And in that moment, I swear we were infinite. " - The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
IN THE WORDS OF SOMEONE ELSE...
"shorter than jack, you're fairly calm until you hang out with your roommates, you're a brunette, you are FINALLY over 21 years old, you are in a relationship with caffeine, you are pretty fucking gay, you can be lazy but you get pretty bouncy after your fifth cup of coffee, you are a big dreamer and a microplanner, you also just wear anything that is clean, you prefer converses, and your hair is in a ponytail forever so no one knows, also sleep in the dark but when do you sleep?"
