Peter and Me

Chapter Three: Stranger

I woke up to find Peter still asleep next to me. Usually he’ll wake up in the middle of the night and walk to his “chambers” to go to his own bed. But this time he stayed. I looked down to my hand and see Peter’s still clasped tightly around it. I saw his eyes squeezed shut like and oyster, sweat covered his forehead.

 “No…no.” he murmured. I cock my head and sit up. I place my palm on his cheek. Peter startled awake, His hand slapped against my knuckles.

 “Peter its ok…It’s me, Pam.” I cooed. Peter gulped, then relaxed. He closed his eyes and almost pressed his face into my palm-which was weird.

 “You ok? It seemed you were having a nightmare.” I say and get up to comb my hair out of its tangles. I pause and see Peter’s face. It was red with sweat and he gasped for breath.

 “Um…Pam,” Peter murmured. I look over at him. “Can you leave your hair down for today? Just to see how it looks.”

I nod and place the cloth down. He smiles and rubs his face with his hands. I walk up and grab a shell to fill with water.

 “Here,” I say handing it to Peter. “It’ll help with the nerves.” He smiles and sips from the shell. I take a banana from a basket and peel the yellow skin, then take a bite. Peter wipes his mouth and stands up.

 “Want go see the Story Teller tonight?” Peter asks. I shrug,

 “I don’t know, I thought we were doing the Mermaid Lagoon trip today,” I say and take out a pack made from wide leaves and cloths I found. “Tiger and Cuddles were really excited I take them today.” Peter nods,

 “I’ll tell you the new story when I get back.” Peter says and runs towards the entrance. I wave goodbye and strap the pack to my back, and place my dagger at the hip. I go into the forest of hammocks and find Cuddles’. I poke at it; all I hear is a groan. I roll my eyes and shove the hammock’s dent. Cuddles almost screams and falls to the dirty ground. He stands up, looking horrified. I go to him and brush of the dirt from his pants and chest.

 “You ok, Cuddles?” I ask. He then smiles-which is weird since I just shoved him from his hammock- and runs to Slighty’s slumber. He pokes and shoves it till he falls out. Slightly groans while Cuddles pulls him to his feet.

 “Come on Slightly, were going to Mermaid Lagoon!” Cuddles whispers loudly. Slightly immediately gets up and races Cuddles to the entrance.

 “Hey! What about me?” I hear Tiger complain and stumble from his hammock. I walk over and pick him up.

 “You’re coming to.” I say. Tiger smiles and races his brother to the entrance where they wait for me. I offered Tink to come with us but she said no and followed Peter to the mainland-that’s what we call the world outside Neverland. I see Cuddles and slightly wait for me outside, using sticks as swords. The sticks spread splinters when they smack into each other. I break them apart and we walk into the direction of Mermaid Lagoon.

*          *          *

It’s not a long walk but we get their when the sun is in midday. The crystal clear water sparkled in the afternoon sun. Rocks jut out from the water’s depts and make boulders. I spread out the large blanket of a sail from Peter’s recent battles. Cuddles and Slightly cannibal into the Lagoon. I told the mermaids yesterday if we could spend the day here in peace, thankfully they allowed. Tiger stayed on the blanket with me. I took out my book and sat in the shade to read. Cuddles and Slightly splashed and play “King of the Mountain” on the boulders.

 “What you doing, Pam?” says Cuddles dripping wet from the water.

 “Reading.” I say.

 “What’s that?”

 I think of a good definition of reading for them. Then I thought the simplest determine.

 “It’s when you basically read words on pages,” I explain,          “they make a story.”

 “Stories,” Tiger echoes, “tell us one!” I roll my eyes and flip through the fragile pages. Then I stop at a chapter, the caption read: Sleeping Beauty. Cuddles and Tiger sat next to me on my left while Slightly sits on my right. I swallowed and began to read the passage.

“Once Upon a time, there was a King and Queen. They ruled a peaceful village. The King and Queen then had a child, her name was Princess Aurora. King John, the King’s best friend, had his son: Prince Phillip, to merry the Princess when she got older.”

I paused to swallow and catch my breath, and then continued.

“But a sorcerer, named Maleficent, put a curse on the Princess saying on her sixteenth birthday she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die.” I heard Cuddles gasp with fright.

 “Die? Isn’t that a little harsh? Why can’t she just wish her eternal sleep?” Tiger says.

 “Well, that’s what happens. There are three fairies that give Aurora gifts. The first was an old lady with the dress of green; she gave Aurora the gift of beauty. The second which was a madden of red gave her the gift of wisdom. But the third’s gift was important. The third was a madden of blue, her gift was that when she pricked her finger on the spinning wheel, she wouldn’t die but fall into a deep sleep. She would awaken by a true love’s kiss.”

 “I remember kisses.” Slightly says. I nod, I remembered them too from my mother and father, but I forgot how they look and work. The sun lowered in the horizon so the sky was a light pink. We gathered up the sail and filled the pack back up to journey back home.

*          *          *

Peter wasn’t back yet, so the lost boys went out to look for him. I put Slightly in charge and handed him my telescope. He smiled and they ran out from sight. I roll my eyes and crawl into my hammock to brush my hair from its tangles so it’s soft and a dark red. When I was finished, I put the comb away and pick up a rock to sharpen my dagger- it was a little numb I should say. I scraped the rock against the metal’s edge in the process.

 Usually it takes a pretty long time to sharpen my dagger.    It seemed like hours before the Lost boys returned. I expected the boy’s calls but they air was silent. All I could hear was the trap door opening then closing. I raised my eyes up and looked around the common room.

  Nothing.

I raise my dagger’s point to the entrance of the slide. My feet tip toe over to the entrance. A scream splits the air; it was quiet at first then grew louder. Whoever it was, it was not any one I knew. My fingers shook slightly on the handle, my knuckles turned white. The screaming grew very loudly. Something white flashed past my legs, I jerked and fell backwards in shock. I stared at the figure that flew past me. It was a person by the looks of it; I crept over and saw it was a girl with brown hair and in a white night gown.

The Story Teller.