The Adventure of Peter Pan

I'm back! 

And it's only been a week!

Be proud!

As before mentioned I have been writing every day and I said I would put some different short stories on here. So here we go!

I might be a fairy tale believer, and some of you already know this. 

So it probably won't be a shock about the subject of this next story!

                                           Never Grow Up

            “ ‘All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again’.” I breathed, mustering up every ounce of enchantment in my voice.

            “I’m pretty sure this has never happened before.” My friend, Julie scoffed, her sarcasm covering my darkened backyard.

            “Now, missy, is that any kind of attitude to have?” I demanded as I closed my well-worn copy of Peter Pan and put away my story-telling voice.

            Her sigh winged its way over to me through the darkness. “And what exactly is the attitude I’m supposed to have? Why did you even bring that old book out here? It’s too dark to read.”

            I snuggled deeper inside the blanket covering my shoulders, “Yeah, because that’s what I was doing…reading it…not reciting it from memory.”           

            “You have Peter Pan memorized?” Her disbelief covered me more than my blanket.

            I reached for my binoculars. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

            “It’s not…if you’re ten! It’s the eve of your eighteenth birthday!”

            I looked through the binoculars, searching behind every star. “Your point? And, where are your binoculars? You’re supposed to be watching the roof!”

            With a groan, I heard Julie fidget with her own binoculars before she continued. “We should be doing something adventurous. But no, we are out here sitting in the cold, catching pneumonia like two old ninnies.”

            I dropped my binoculars in my lap. “Hey! Don’t make me any older than I already am.”

            Julie looked over at me, her binoculars reflecting off the moonlight, her eyes taking on the glow of fairy dust. “Speaking of ‘older’, don’t you think you are just a bit too old for this?”

            I leaned back and took in the show of the night sky, complete with shooting stars. “ ‘This’ being?”

            “Jane! You are turning eighteen tomorrow, and we are looking for Peter Pan!”

            I smiled at the sparkling night, “I fail to see the problem here.”

            “And that’s what scares me.”

            I tucked my arm behind me, turning it into a pillow. “The only thing scaring me is the possibility of missing Peter, because you keep forgetting to watch the roof!”

            “Jane!”

            “And as for you, the only thing you should be scared about are pirates, especially Captain Hook.”

            Julie threw herself down on the ground by me and peered over me, her face blocking my view. “Jane, listen to me. Peter Pan and Captain Hook aren’t real.”

            I shoved her away. “Excuse me please. You are blocking my view. Sounds to me that you need a little more faith, trust and…”

            “No! Don’t even say it!” She completely collapsed onto the ground and rolled over onto her back.

            “Pixie dust!” I finished, my storyteller voice in full effect.

            “I can just see us now. We are going to be old ninnies with pneumonia in wheelchairs still looking for Peter Pan.”

            I blinked the stars from my vision and sat up. “No…no that won’t be us.”

            Julie sat up, her binoculars still glued to her face. “Why not?”

            My sigh shot across my backyard like the shooting stars in the sky. “Because, by then we will be grown up.”

            Julie put her binoculars down. “Oh.”

            “Yep. Once you’re grown up, you can’t ever go to Never land.”

            “Is that what this is all about?”

            I hid behind my binoculars. “I turn eighteen tomorrow. It’s my last chance to go to Never land and not grow up.”

            “What’s so bad about growing up?”

            “I forgot. You’re already eighteen.” I threw my head back searching for the second star to the right.

            “What does that have to do with anything?” Julie joined me in looking, following my gaze.

            “Because you’ve already forgotten!”

            “Forgotten what?”

            I threw my binoculars down. “What its like to be young! To have dreams. Not get caught up in the way the rest of the world is.”

            Julie picked up my binoculars. “What are you talking about Jane?”

            “Every one always has dreams. But they all end up settling and then the next thing they know, life has passed them by and everything they wanted is out of their reach. People forget what it’s like to have a young and hopeful heart.”

            “You think that’s going to happen to you?”

            “It’s what happens to everyone.” I played with the unraveling fabric on my blanket.

            Julie handed me back my binoculars. “I don’t think that’s going to happen to you.”

            “How?”

            “Because you won’t ever be like those people.”

            I looked back at the sky. “How do you know that?”

            “Because I don’t think any of those other people have the faith like you do.”

            I smiled at the moon. “Really?”

            “Would anyone else be sitting outside waiting for Peter Pan?”

            I replied with picking my binoculars back up and searching the skies.

            Julie laughed as she followed pursuit. “You know, if Peter Pan does indeed show up tonight, I have a bone to pick with him?”

            “And what would that be?”

            “He didn’t come to take me away to Never land.”

            I almost dropped my binoculars again. “Is that right?”

            Julie tightened her grip on her binoculars. “You’re not the only one who has Peter Pan memorized.”

            I shrugged. “Well just keep thinking happy thoughts. He will show up.”

            “How can you be so sure?”

            I cleared my throat. “ ‘All of this has happened before and it will happen again.’”