Happy Thoughts || Peter Pan

Chapter 16

The thud behind her in the sand stiffened her. With a jolt, Avery turned around and looked at the boy who was gawping her with wide eyes. Time froze and for a moment there was no sound but the lapping water slapping against Avery's belly. She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. 'Peter.'

His eyes shot up to her face and when their gazes met, he turned around, wimpering all kind of apologetic words. Avery sprinted to her towel and carefully wrapped it around her body. She grabbed her underwear off the ground and once again cursed the monkey for his dirty trick.

'You screamed,' Peter said with flushed ears. 'I thought something had happened.'

'It did,' Avery replied, 'A monkey stole all my clothes.' Still dripping with water, she tried to put on her underwear and turned back to Peter. He hadn't moved an inch and stood huddled and with his eyes rigidly closed. Avery chuckled, 'The coast is clear. I'm all covered up.'

Hesitantly Peter turned and floated toward her when he saw she was covered. 'Which way did he go?' He didn't dare look straight at her. Would he know how red his head was now? Her head probably looked the same.

'He's probably already gone,' she sighed. 'What am I going to do now, Peter? I can't keep walking around in a towel all day, can I?'

Peter picked his chin and shook his head. 'No, you can't, but I may have a solution.' He pressed his sword into her hands and shot into the air. 'Keep that with you. I'll be right back.' He disappeared from sight. There she stood. Naked except for the thin cloth around her body that she had to keep holding with one hand and in her other hand Peter's sword. She made a quick prayer there was no mountain lion nearby. Worst of all, it took quite a while for Peter to finally return. Her hair had dried by now. She had sat down, still clutching the towel tightly to her chest. In his hands, Peter had a cloth and a few thin pieces of rope. Avery could guess what his idea was and she didn't like it.

'Here. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.' He pressed it into her hands and turned away so Avery could get dressed. She looked at the cloth in her hands. It was firm material, yet soft. A treated animal skin perhaps? She didn't really know what to do with it. Her eye fell on the dagger Peter wore around his hip. 'May I borrow your dagger?'

Peter blindly groped for the weapon and with one hand still in front of his eyes, he thrusted it in her direction. 'Thank you.' She smiled at the sight. She cut an opening in the middle of the fabric for her head and two more for her arms. She definitly looked like a sack of potatoes, but at least it covered her body. She tied the rope around her waist to create a bit of a waist and cut off the rest of the fabric, leaving only a dress.

 'How does it look?' she asked and Peter turned around. He studied her briefly and then smiled not too convincingly. 'That'll work,' he replied; a safe answer. Avery knew it probably looked terriblet, but she didn't want to think about it too much. Many a tramp would be happy with it.

'Where did you get this so quickly?' she asked, picking up the cut-up rags of fabric from the ground. It was good quality fabric. Very different from the thin shirts she had in her closet. Almost leathery. 

'The Indian camp,' Peter replied. 'I cut it out of one of the old tents.'

Avery looked at him. She had been expecting this answer. It was exactly that quality she had expected in a tent camp. She slowly rose to her feet. She had thought about it many, many times. It's impossible to leave Neverland, at least not without fairydust. The Indians were still here, in hiding perhaps, even hidden from Peter. So why hadn't Peter found them yet?

Peter wanted to take her hand, but she pulled back and looked at him. 'Peter, I want to go look for the Indians.'

Peter stared at her distraught, his hand still held out to her. 'Why would you?'

'Because I'm sure they must be here somewhere.'

Peter shook his head dejectedly. 'I've already tried, Avery, I know this island like the back of my hand.' He held up his hand dramatically, but Avery was not so easily persuaded. 'They can help us take Jacob down and free Tinkerbell. We have to try. We -'

'Tink is dead, Avery.'

The words came out of his mouth so sharply that they seemed to startle him himself. He averted his gaze. The muscles in his jaws tightened. She couldn't believe what he said, she didn't want to believe it. She had absolutely no connection with the fairy and didn't know her personally, but she couldn't just stand by and watch one of her favorite characters from her youth have to wear away her life in captivity. Peter might have given up, but she hadn't. 'You don't know that,' Avery persisted.

'Stop it, Avery,' he snarled, 'Jacob told me himself. She tried to escape, but failed.' Now he looked at her sternly. 'That's why I came to get you. I can't be alone without my Tinkerbell.'

His dark eyes stared straight into hers. Avery struggled to breathe, as if an invisible hand was pressing on her chest. Her heart pounded in her chest, it resonated throughout her body. 'Is that the reason you came to get me?'

He nodded. 'At least then, we could be alone together.' His eyes released hers again.

Sadness rippled through her. It was the saddest sentence she had heard in a long time. For a second she thought about home and how miserable she felt there, how alone. If only she had known that someone had been with her every day....

'He could have lied about it,' she persisted. 'He could have - '

Peter merely shook his head. When he looked at her again, she was startled by the glint she saw in his eyes. She felt how a grieved emptiness seeped through her stomach, dragging her whole body into those desolate depths. It seemed as if all of Neverland sympathized with her, as the sun disappeared behind the clouds and Neverland became gray and swallowed by a dejected sight. Sadness could be tasted in the air and Avery understood that these were Peter's deepest feelings all along; the sun shining was just a facade, to pretend to himself that he was happy, when in essence he was desperate and miserable. Without thinking about it, she ran to him and hugged him tight. That's all it took to put Peter over the edge, but with the rain pouring down from the clouds, Avery didn't know whose tears belonged to who.