Never is an Awfully Long Time

Free Falling

Wendy

It was hard for Wendy to keep a steady pace but she knew that if she stopped to rest, someone would most likely catch up to her.

The air was crisp and nippy and the wind blew past her with such velocity, she was surprised she didn’t freeze or tip over in the least. How she wished she would have grabbed her coat on the way out but as she pondered that thought, she realized that there was no way she would have made it out in time if she did. Oh well, the faster she ran the faster she would be submitted to warm air.

Somehow, the sky had gotten darker over the course of the evening but luckily for Wendy, she knew these streets like the back of her hand and she easily located her home after several minutes of non-stop running. Just a little further, just a little further, she thought to herself. She had never been so grateful to see her house and she was even more so when she opened the door and was immediately met with comforting heat. Her skin tingled as she adjusted to the new temperature.

Even though she was the only one in the house, Wendy had no intentions of being within reaching distance when her family decided to return. Without hesitation, she slammed the door shut and reached the stairs, taking them two at a time until she arrived at the top hall. Her bedroom was at the far end, but it took only mere seconds for Wendy to reach it and lock in door in one fluid motion. Her room was the only place in the whole house where she could be alone in complete peace. To her surprise, Nana had been asleep on her bed but now held a look of concern and curiosity at the amount of noise Wendy had been making.

Wendy knelt down until she was eye level with Nana, and put her forehead on her dog’s while cupping her ears with her hands. “Sorry Nana.” It wasn’t the dog’s fault that Wendy was upset and Wendy felt bad for alarming her. She scruffed Nana’s head and gave her a kiss on the nose before standing upright.

Looking around the room, she was glad to see that everything was exactly as she left it even though she did not know why she thought it wouldn’t be. Deciding that she would no longer be needing her dreadful shoes, she slipped them off and was appalled to see that her feet had suffered from the night’s activities. On both sides of her small feet, a line of blisters had started to form and blood had even begun to spot on her soles and on the backs of her ankles. Her shoes held the same evidence, for there were bloodstains where her feet had just been only seconds earlier. Perfect.

Knowing that Mother would want a full explanation as to why there was blood on the carpet, Wendy cascaded to her desk and pulled out a roll of bandages that she always kept handy. She then proceeded to sit on the edge of her bed and wrap her bloody feet before any more of a mess could be made on her floor. Once her feet no longer looked grotesque, she returned to her desk and put the bandages back in their rightful place in the third drawer on the left. It had been awhile since Wendy had been through her desk. She usually only used it for writing stories but lately, she hadn’t seen the need to document any of her thoughts; they were all the same.

As she closed the drawer, from the corner of her eye, she saw something flutter in the air and silently land on the ground. Without putting any pressure on her aching feet, she bent down to retrieve the item and decided it was best to sit in the desk chair, seeing as she didn’t want to further damage her limbs. Once she was comfortable, she examined the object and saw that it was a photo. There her family sat, beautiful in every context, surrounded by more love than that small photo could ever hold. She looked at all the faces and tried to go back to the time when her family was complete; a time when she still had her lost boys.

The five beautiful boys that graced her family on the night of Wendy, John, and Michael’s arrival back home, were a dominant part of the Darling family’s happiness. Father enjoyed having more boys around the house and Mother was beyond thrilled to have more children to nurture and take care of. John and Michael laughed more when The Lost Boys were around than Wendy had ever heard them laugh in their entire lives.