Forever Young

A Surprise

"I'm home!" Jake yells as I finish washing a plate. He eyes me, but I turn, and put on the biggest smile I had. Jake put down his things and placed two large bear furs on the table. "Two bears today, Lex. They were massive." I set down the plate, waiting for Jake to go on. "Not only that, we saw the mermaids doing some sort of feast preperation of some sort."

I lean on the counter and smile. "Sounds like fun." I sigh and walk over to the table and pick up the furs, soft to the touch. "I'm glad you had fun."

Jake nods, his blue eyes focusing on me. "What did you do while I was gone?"

I shrug. "Nothing, really. I cleaned, took naps, read, ate." I pause and look up at him. "And I stayed away." I whisper as I put away the dishes. Jake mumbles something and walked out of the room, leaving me to silence. I bit my lip at the thought of what had happened yesterday in Peter's hut. It was magic, nothing like before.

Suddenly, my stomach hitches and I lean forward over the sink, making my breakfast come up. Jake runs into the room and holds my hair back, rubbing my back. When I was finished, I sat down at the dinner table, my head in my hands.

"Are you okay?" Jake asks as he dabs the corners of my mouth. I nod. He stands and looks at me. "You might have ate something bad. You should stay in bed for the day and I will get a healer to come by." I nod again. Jake opens a window in the kitchen to get the awfull stench out and did a bird call. Withen minutes a blue bird flies into the kitchen and lands on my finger. Jake tells the bird to get a healer, and sends the bird off. When Jake turns to face me again, a frown has taken over. "You've never gotten sick before."

I stand slowly, afraid to upset my stomach more. "I'm going to go lay down." Jake nods as he picks up the furs and place them on me as I got under my covers. I grab his hand. "It's going to be fine."

Jake nods, but I know I didnt convince him. When he leaves, he shuts the door all the way. I look out my window, but the clouds are hanging low today, so I dont have a veiw of Never Lake. I sigh as I close my eyes, but soon distrupted by a knocking on my door. I mumble for them to come in as Jake and a healer, whose hair is pure white. She smiles at me.

I smile back. "I'm sorry but you must leave." The healer says to Jake. he turns and leaves. She turns back to me. "How are you?"

"Good."

"Can you tell me what is the matter?"

I look out the window again. "I don't know. I just feel kind of sick."

The woman nods and pulls out a flat stick. "I will take a blood sample." She reaches back into bag and pulls out a small needle.

"Whats that?" I point into her bag at a white stick that has a positive and negative sign on it.

She laughs at my curiosity. "Oh, I got this in a store on the Mainland. It;s supposed to tell a woman if she's going to have a child or not."

I couldnt help but ask. "Can I have them?"

"I guess. Nothing can be born here. Neverland is frozen in time." She hands me the plastic container of the white sticks. She sticks the needle into my leg, causing me to flinch. I watch closely as she puts the sample on the flat stick. We sit for a couple minutes, talking about cleaning and gardening. When she looks back at the stick, she smiles. "Lucky, girl. There seems to be nothing wrong with you. But, just in case something happens, call me via bird." We both stand and shake hands. 

"Anything?" Jake appears out of his bedroom. I shake my head no. He smiles and nods. Suddenly, I remember the bag of white sticks. I run back into my room and grab them, making sure to keep them hidden from Jake as I made my way to the bathroom. I sit on the toilet seat, reading the instruction. After the second time reading, I do exactly as it said with all of the sticks. When i'm done, I wait a couple minutes, like the instructions said, for the results to appear. Finally, I look, filled with eagerness to discover. Instead, I gasp and drop the sticks on the floor, tears forming in my eyes.

I run outside and do a bird call. As soon as the bird came I told it to go get the healer quick. When she arrives, fear flashes in her eyes. I grab her hand, pulling her into the bathroom and locking the door behind us.

"What is it, child?" I show her the sticks. She gasps in horror, then looks over at me, both hands covering her mouth, eyes as wide as plates. She points a shaky finger at me. "You.... You.... You carry something that can't be possible here.." She swallows, hard. I do the same. "W-who is the father?"

"Peter Pan."

A shrill cry comes from her. "The demon boy?" She spits at my shoes. "You carry a demon in your body."