A Worthy Opponent. The Real Story of James Hook

I'll Teach that Scurvy Brat a Lesson

James enjoyed the life of a pirate and the crew like him. They nicknamed him lefty because that was the only hand he had but he was more helpful than a boy with two hands could be. He quickly learned to fence, wrestle, shoot, and all the other things pirates know how to do.

One day they raided a village and one of the crew members stole him a gift. It was a crudely made hook that could be strapped to one's arm. James found it very helpful especially in sword fighting and so he earned the name and used it forever afterward: James Hook (or Jas. Hook as he sometimes signed things).

He remained close friends with the old man that had rescued him who was known as Mr. Smee.

I'm going to skip over a few years to the time when he became captain of the Jolly Roger. Now he was a tall strikingly handsome man who had switched out his old hook for a new brass one. He still had the same forget-me-not blue eyes (except when he was plunging his hook into someone than his eyes would turn red), he had long black girls that where sometimes described as looking like black candlesticks and wore a velvet jacket and breeches with gold buttons, black shoes with gold buckles, and a large red velvet hat with a large white feather stuck in it and a gold sword strapped to his waist.

He tried to forget Neverland (except for the occasional cursing of Peter Pan for having taken his hand) had not one day a strange ticking noise filled the air while he was standing on the deck of his ship one silent morning. In dismay Hook looked down and saw a crocodile. The crocodile that had eaten his hand.

"Smee! Smee! He's back to get the rest me! Help me, Smee!"

Smee knew who the crocodile was because Hook had told him the story so he rushed over and shooed the croc away.

"Shoo now! Go away! You're not eating him today you ain't. Now get going before I have to do something nasty."

When they were sure it was gone Hook made orders to sail.

"But to where, Captain?" Mr. Smee asked.

Hook smiled a ruthless smile. "To teach that scurvy brat that cut off my hand a lesson."

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To tell you the truth I lost track of him for a while so I haven't been able to find any other account of him until I consulted Mr. Barrie's book version of his play.

Hook probably would've totally forgotten Peter eventually and left him alone had it not been for the crocodile and Peter's cockiness which Hook could not stand in the least. Hook, in fact, liked his hook so much that he claimed it was better than a hand and that he'd rather have a child with two hooks instead of a child with two hands.

And also please note Hook would not have hated the lost boys but they were connected to Peter so they earned his hate.

Hook made a plan to kill the lost boys by setting out a poisoned cake because Hook knew they would eat it because they didn't have a mother to tell them otherwise. However, this plan was a flop because it so happened that a few days before he had come up with this plan they got a mother. Wendy Angelia Mora Darling.

It was very annoying because right as the boys would nearly touch it Wendy would snatch it away and soon it became too hard for anything except ammunition for the cannon. The cake was thrown overboard, though when Hook tripped over it one night.

But all this is recorded in the book so I might as well skip over all those parts to the beginning of the most important parts (except I want the reader to read the story of how Peter saved Tiger Lily the chief's daughter so that they will know the reason why the Indians were guarding Peter's hideout).

Hook had learned the whereabouts of Peter's hideout and one day decided to attack.

Hook and his crew snuck up on the hiding place and attacked the Indians killing all of them.

The boys and Wendy heard the scuffle and turned to Peter. Peter paused to listen.

"If the Indians win they will beat their tom-toms," Peter said wisely.

The problem with this suggestion was Hook had crept to one of their trees and was listening in and once he had heard this he hissed to Smee who had sat down on one to beat the tom-toms.

Thump-thump.

The lost boys, Wendy, and Peter heard this and celebrated.

What Hook didn't know was that very night Wendy and the boys had decided to go back to London and were about to leave when they heard the scuffle. Now that they thought it was safe they exited out of their various trees.

As they got out of their trees the pirates snatched the boys up, threw them through the air, and tied them up so quickly the boys were too surprised to call out. The only exception to this was when Wendy came up from her tree Hook offered his arm to her. She was too surprised and delighted to refuse it so she was politely led over to the other boys and tied up.

They had trouble tieing up one of the boys because the rope they had for him wouldn't fit because he was bigger than the other boys. Hook looked at him and realized something.

To know why what he realized was so important I'll need to tell you that each of the lost boys was fitted for their tree. Like for a suite but you need to fit the tree not the tree fit you. If you don't fit the tree Peter will alter you. And when Hook looked this lost boy he realized that this boy was growing bigger around so there was no way he could fit his tree unless he had whittled the tree to fit himself making the tree big enough for a grownup Hook's size.

After the pirates led the boys and Wendy away Hook walked to the fat lost boy's tree and mustered up all his courage slipped down the tree. You must understand that this was nerve-racking for anyone because who knows if Peter heard him and was waiting at the bottom to finish him off.

Peter wasn't however. He was in a little bed sleeping.

Hook crept over and looked at his enemy. But he didn't strike. Why didn't he strike? Maybe it was because he was taken by the little scene of Peter half hanging off the bed with his little mouth open showing his teeth. Maybe it was because he felt it was bad form to strike when one's enemy is asleep but was scared to wake him up.

Whatever the reason, he didn't strike. But as he turned to leave his eyes fell on a little cup filled with medicine Wendy had left him (really it was just water). Slowly Hook pulled out a flask of poison he kept at his side and put two drops of it in the little cup then quickly and quietly slipped back up the tree.

When he got out into the open Neverland air he stalked away muttering to himself about what he had done.