Happy Thoughts || Peter Pan

Chapter 8

Avery opened her eyes. A little disoriented, she stared at the empty hammock that gently rocked above her. It took her a few moments to realise where she was before she shot upright. The fireflies were still shining their golden lights across the room. Soft light from the rising sun broke through the narrow cracks of the branches of the Nest. She didn't dream it.

Avery climbed out of the hammock. She opened the small wooden door and stepped outside, where the warm sun welcomed her. She took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. It almost felt like she was on holiday. She peered over the valley at the foot of the mountain. The grass was so green that it almost seemed as if these had been carefully painted with the greenest colour she had ever seen. The sky was clear blue, very different from London where exhaust fumes and smog polluted the air and could even restrict your view. For once, she breathed in nothing but oxygen.

Here she could see so much; the birds high in the sky, the fish in the river below and if she tried her best she could see the mighty sea stirring in the distance, half hidden behind the mountains. A flight of colourful birds flew rakishly past the mountain as they took off towards the forests, squawking loudly. Avery had never seen anything so beautiful, and although she knew she had been thinking this incessantly for the past few hours, this view surpassed everything.

'Did you miss me?'

Peter's head suddenly loomed before her eyes and Avery flinched, as a cry left her throat and she stumbled across the floor. She barely managed to grab onto the doorframe to avoid falling over.

Peter landed on the platform and set the basket he was carrying on the ground. 'You get startled faster than Hook when he heard a clock ticking.' He put his hand into the basket and pulled out a large trout. 'Hungry?'

Avery nodded in bewilderment and watched the boy as he walked past her and flicked the fish onto the small table. He put his knife in its body and threw the severed fish head out through a hole in the Nest. 'Do you prefer it fried or raw?'

Avery looked at the fish head and then turned her gaze back to Peter. 'Fried, please, I'm not so into sushi.'

'What's sushi?' Peter asked, but Avery waved it away. Peter stuck a stake through the fish and stood back up. He walked towards Avery. 'Hold on tight,' he said and she thought he was talking about the fish he just pressed into her hands, but then he bent down and threw her over his shoulders.

 'Peter, nó..-' She hadn't even finished her sentence before the boy jumped off the platform. Avery held on to the stake of fish so tightly that she was about to break it in two. He made a sharp turn, causing his shoulder to push painfully into her belly, and then he calmly flew towards the valley. She loved flying, but she couldn't get used to the fact that this also made her dependent on this reckless boy. Why couldn't he make sure she could fly herself? Surely that would be much easier?

Then something came to mind. Where was Peter's eternally ringing companion, Tinkerbell? He hadn't dropped her name yet, and wasn't she was always supposed to be with him?

When her feet finally touched the ground, she was able to relax again. She was now standing in the middle of the green valley, by the little water she had been watching from metres high earlier. She pulled up her nose when she suddenly smelt the fish she held in her hands and wanted nothing more than to wash herself in that river. Even though the water would surely be stone cold.

Peter piled pieces of wood onto an old campfire, which looked like it had been used for a long time because of the scorched ground. When he had finally lit the fire, he held out his hand to her. She reached out to hand him the fish.

'I'll prepare your breakfast. You go for a swim,' he said.

Avery looked at him in astonishment. 'I didn't bring any swimming clothes.'

Peter turned around with a grin on his face and winked at her. 'You don't need those here, do you?'

Avery frowned. Did he really just say that? He started laughing. 'Go on. I may be older, but I still have manners. I solemnly swear to stay here, out of sight.' He raised a hand as if taking an oath, but his mischievous grin kept her suspicious. 'All right, but if I even get the idea that j-'

'Go now!' he growled impatiently, waving his hand towards the river.

Avery turned around, cast one last glance at the boy and then walked down the river a bit until she came across a nice spot to wash up. Although she looked around nervously a hundred times while undressing, somehow  she loved walking around buck naked in the middle of nature. It gave her a sense of freedom and self-confidence that even flying had not yet given her.

Her suspicions proved correct when she felt the water on her feet; it was freezing cold. Within five minutes, Avery came out of the water shivering.  It would be a hard task if she had to wash herself in the freezing water every day. Only now it occurred to her that she didn't have a towel. Swearing, she sat her wet buttocks down in the grass and waited patiently for the sun to dry her. Each gust of wind that licked her skin made her shiver from head to toe. 

Bored, she drew little figures in the sand. Above her, a huge bird of prey hovered screeching through the valley. She listened in silence to the lapping of the water and the whistling of the birds. It was so soothing. No honking cars, no ambulances or noisy music. She couldn't actually imagine this being the paradise she was allowed to visit. And she couldn't imagine ever leaving it either.

When she finally dried up, she was actually looking forward to the next time she could take a dip so she could drown herself in the beauty of nature again. She shot into her clothes and quickly ran back to Peter, filling her empty stomach with a delicious fried trout.