Never Moon

part 21.5

Dreams were a funny thing. They weren't quite real enough to touch, but still real enough to change us. 

Once, a woman had a very strange dream and had woken up changed indeed. 

Even now, two years later, with her textbooks crushed to her chest and her head bowed against the vicious London wind and her mind aching from her college finals, she could recall it with unusual clarity. Though the faces were blurred and the names had slipped her mind, she knew that it had been an adventure, that it had taught her about growing up and being brave, and that adults certainly did not know everything, but neither did children. 

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she fished it out, taking cover in a Starbucks crushed between a bookstore and an Indian restaurant. Her brother had texted her--he had stopped by the grocery store with Leo--whom they both affectionately called Strings. 

"Shit," Wendy Denham said aloud, combing her fingers through her hair--short now, the ends just barely peeking out from underneath her hat. "I totally forgot. It's their date night tonight." 

But instead of pouting or whining like she normally would have done, Wendy sent a brief reply before stepping back out into the cold. She could just eat dinner with her mother, who, after both of her children moved out, had relocated to a little flat on the outskirts of the city. 

Both parents had taken the return of both their children quite well. Their father had stayed for a few months more, catching up with the both of them before returning to Los Angeles, promising jobs should anyone ever need one. 

Wendy made a left and walked for a bit more, picking up the pace as night fell, so early due to winter's fast approach. She counted down the houses until she got to her mother's, ringing the doorbell. 

Something flickered in the corner of her eye just then--a bird, maybe, or an airplane? There was something so achingly familiar about the shape--something that made her heart ache and a dormant piece of her sing a song she'd thought she'd forgotten. 

The shape grew closer, and she could see now: it was a boy, suspended in the air, defying gravity itself. He landed on the roof across the street and watched her, a smile pulling at his lips. 

Wendy found herself unsurprised. A name hovered on the tip of her tongue, her mind straining to put the puzzle-piece face together. The song grew louder in her ears and the bottom of her coat strained upwards like it, too, wanted to join the boy in the air. 

"Char?" 

The sound of her old nickname pulled her eyes away from the boy and to her mother, grey but no less beautiful, standing in the doorway of the house. "Are you quite all right?" 

Wendy blinked, shaking her head. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah. I just...I thought I saw something." 

Her mother had a kind look on her face, watching as her daughter turned back around, her eyes misting over and fixing on the empty roofs of the houses across the street. "It reminded me of a dream I had, long ago," Wendy said absentmindedly. "A dream about flying, and an island, and a boy who refused to grow up." 

"Dreams are just dreams, love," her mother reminded her quietly, pulling Wendy into the house. Wendy laughed, shaking her head. 

"Of course, Mom. Just dreams." 

But if you head straight up, past the second star to the right and straight on 'till morning, you'll find a boy who flies and an island that continues to sing. 

****

and that is the end to never moon. 

I didn't think I could do it, honestly. I've tossed so many stories aside that this wouldn't be the first. but I love Peter Pan so much and I wanted to pay tribute to it in the best way I could, so I hope you've all enjoyed it! 

love, 

lucy.