Becoming Peter

Chapter 20

I was silent through the entire tale. Nodding here and there, I listened to his life story. Thirteen years in an orphanage. Another three trapped on an island.

I only interrupted once. "You didn't have a last name? Did you ever think to make one up?"

He scrunched up his face. "That never occurred to me."

"Well, go ahead. It could be whatever you want.

Peter thought for a few minutes. I could almost see his brain go through each possibility. "How about Panington?" He finally answered.

"Peter Panington... Definitely unique. How did you come up with it?"

"It was my friend's last name. His dad wasn't so great though... I don't want the first thing to come to mind be him."

"Hmm... You could shorten it to Paning. Or Pan."

He smiled. "Peter Pan. I like it."

"Now back to the story!"

We walked down the beach as he spoke. Not long before noon, the sun shone brightly. Too brightly to match Peter's words. Often, Peter broached to change the subject. To diverge to another unrelated topic, like asking if I was hungry or that a flower looked mighty pretty in this lighting. But I kept him on track. We were nearly to the end. After Peter had cut off his shadow and hid the dagger in a knothole in the Dead Man's Tree. Right when he was approaching the Natives with the black mass trailing behind him. They screamed and shouted at him to leave. To take that pure evil thing with him

"Do you see that?" Peter asked. I thought he was just changing the subject again, but I looked up to see a blue light getting bigger. We backed up a few paces as I gasped.

"What? What is it?" Peter scrambled to stand in front of me.

"It's the Blue Fairy." I said as she appeared in human form in front of us.

"Tinkerbell." She spoke as her entire being twinkled like starlight. The Blue Fairy always looked like a true fairytale to me. Short and dark blue hair with a sky dress. It changed to match the colors above. She was older with wrinkles in the corners of her eyes and above her nose. The scent of the ocean followed her.

I began to play with my fingers and tried to find something interesting on the ground.

"You have failed your mission, Tinkerbell. How did you end up here?" She looked around, unimpressed by the sight.

"It's a bit of a long story." I mumbled, refusing to meet her eyes.

"It's my fault." Peter admitted. My shadow stole her dust stuff and she followed it here to get it back. But I didn't let her have it."

As if on cue, the shadow made its presence known. It lingered off to Peter's side, floating a few feet off the ground.

"Did you fi-" She stopped herself short. "That thing is the definition of evil. Once severed, it is all the evil its owner is capable of. Only when connected is that evil contained and you've let it loose." She scolded.

"I didn't kno-" Peter shut his mouth as the woman held up a hand.

"Enough. I will not accept excuses. Tinkerbell, you must come home now. Return with me to DreamWork." She looked straight into my eyes.

"I can't. Not yet." I scrambled for the words to form. "I still need to get the Dream Dust back! And I will. I just need a little more time-"

"You can have it."

"What?" I turned towards Peter. His cheeks were red hot.

"I said you can have it. It's behind my chair back at the Dean Man's Tree. Take it and go home." Peter straightened his spine.