Becoming Peter Pan

Chapter 4: Selecting

I bet you really love the endings of these upbeat and inspiring chapters. (wink, wink)

So hold tight because the exciting parts are yet to come.

Pete, Pan, and Tink flew away from Pete's house.

It was nice. The sun was just coming up, and the morning air was sweet and brisk. "Shouldn't we be careful?" Pete asked, "I mean someone could see us."

Pan and Tink looked at Pete pityingly. Tink spoke up, "See the thing is, we no longer have to worry about that,"

"Well why not?" Pete asked.

"No one ever sees us any more."

"What does that mean?"

"People are so obsessed with themselves, their phones, and their own lives they never notice the amazing things around them. They never notice the little things. Like when a baby laughs for the first time, when a flower blooms, the shapes the clouds make, and how in the fall all the leaves turn different colors and look like a mosaic. The few people who do notice those things never notice us because they are post pictures of the things the notice on social media. The only people who really see us and the wonders in the world around us, are children. They see the wonders in this world for what they really are. Little glimpses of magic that flit in through the cracks of this world from the next."

Tink stopped and flew towards a house. When Pete got closer to the home, she realized, with a start, that it was Pasty's. Patsy came out of the house with out much convincing when she saw Pete.

"So," began Patsy, "Where is this rendezvous  point you speak of?"

"Not Far." replied Tink

"I can't believe it," Patsy looked at Pete with an excited gleam in her eye. "We are either flying with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell or I am having the weirdest dream in the history of weird dreams."

"If you two are actually Peter Pan and Tinker Bell," Pete began, "Then Wendy, Captain Hook, Smee, The Indians, and the Lost boys all exist?"

"Yep." Says Pan. "And they are meeting us at the rendezvous point to take everyone we have selected to Neverland."

"Who is 'we'? Is this the royal 'we'?" Pete said.

"'We' is everyone that was ever in my story." explained Pan.

"What is the deal with the whole selecting thing?"

"You will find out soon enough." Pan then muttered under his breath: "Girls are so pushy."

"I am so sorry?" Tink asked, "What did you just say, Peter Pan?"

Pan held up both hands defensively, "Nothing!"

They flew in silence until they reached the harbor where a pirate ship was anchored. It was a large ship which was chestnut colored and glistened in the rising sun. It was triple masted and had fifty cannons. There were about a hundred people roaming around on the top deck.

Up at the wheel of the ship, Pete saw that Jamie was tied to a barrel near the wheel and was yelling at the man at the wheel.

The man at the wheel was tall and whiskered. He was probably handsome to some women, but not to Pete. He yelled back at Jamie. He seemed not to concerned with whatever it was Jamie was yelling at him.

Jamie on the other hand was completely disheveled. His long, wavy hair was messed up. He seemed to be in pain from his hands tied so tightly behind him. Although his shirt wasn't torn, he was covered in dirt as if he had fought against someone. His shirt was matted with sweat and mud onto his chiseled body. Jamie was livid with rage. He seemed angry with the man at the wheel.

As Pete, Patsy, Pan, and Tink flew onto the ship, Jamie looked up at them and his face drained of all color. He began to try to yell something to Pete, but a wiry boy shoved a gag into Jamie's mouth.

Pan and the Man at the wheel strode towards each other. They shook hands and turned towards the crowd of people that had gathered when they saw Pan and the man who was at the wheel draw together to shake hands.

"People of Neverland!" Said the man who had been behind the wheel, "I am happy to say that the selecting is done!"

A rapturous applause broke out.

He waited for it to calm down and then he continued, "For those of you who don't know, I am Captain James Hook. I am so excited to be passing the legacy of the legend of Peter Pan down to the next generation of young people. All of you new people probably have many questions, so look to the person who brought you here."

I looked at Pan and he looked at me.

"You are going to replace that person in Neverland."

A boy with blond curly hair looked from a girl with long blond curly hair to Captain Hook.

"What if we don't want to go to Neverland?" The boy asked nervously.

"Who are you replacing, Boy?"

"Wendy Darling."

"What is your name?"

"Wendell."

"Well, Wendell, you don't have a choice."