by Dash Hoffman
Liam opened his mouth and then closed it, twice. Whatever words he was going to say seemed trapped behind his teeth, and could find no voice to carry them out of his mouth. Finally, his shoulders slumped, he dropped his hands heavily into his pockets, and he grumbled quietly.
“Fine. Read the story to her, but keep it simple. I want her head in the game here. She’s got to focus on healing and recovery. I don’t want her distracted. And no more silly books of that nature after this one. She can have Peter Pan, and that’s it. Nothing more. I’m not opening a door to complete nonsense!”
Joy rose like the dawn of a new day in Callie, bubbling up in every part of her. For a second she almost hugged the father before her, but she thought better of it and only grinned broadly at him. “Thank you, Mr. James, thank you so much. It really is such a treat for her.”
He looked away and nodded. “Just call me Liam.”
“I will, and you can call me Callie.”
“Have a good night then, Callie, and thank you for your time with her today.” He was gruff, but she knew his gratitude was real.
“Absolutely my pleasure.” Callie almost danced out of the ward and into the elevator, she was so happy to have the chance to continue reading to Emma.
She had planned on only going to see the young girl once a week or so, but that night as she slept, visions of Peter and Wendy, of Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys, of Indians and pirates, and the insidious Captain Hook haunted her dreams and called to her to come back to them, and by morning, she was much too impatient to see Emma and finish the story, and as she correctly suspected, Emma felt just the same.
“You came again! Oh thank goodness!” Emma gushed with a thrill when Callie slipped into her room just after lunch. “I have to know what happens next! I almost read it, but then I thought I should wait for you, and the wait was terrible! Please, please keep reading!”
Emma picked the book up off her bedside table and pushed it at Callie. Callie took it almost gleefully. Abbie brought tea for them, and Callie began to read, picking up from where they’d left off the day before. Emma’s eyes were wide as she stared with rapt attention, and every time an illustration appeared in the book, Callie paused in their story and let her examine it all she wanted before going on.
By early evening, they had finished the book, and Callie closed the cover with a very satisfied smile as she read, the end.
Emma sighed blissfully and took the book, holding it in her hands as she gazed at the cover and then the picture of Peter on the first page just inside of it.
“I think this is the best story in the world.” She murmured, running her fingers over the embossed titled.
“I agree, it’s one of the best.” Callie stood, reaching for her bag.
“I wish I could go to the Neverland. What fun that would be. I’d give anything to go.” Emma spoke dreamily, setting the book on the table beside her and shifting her gaze back to Callie.
Callie smiled and reached her hand to Emma’s face, touching her cheek. “You can, sweetie. You just use your imagination, and you can go there anytime you like.”
“I don’t know how to do that very well. Daddy always says that we have to keep our feet on the ground and our heads out of the clouds.” Disappointment tugged at the corners of her mouth.
“I think if you tried, you would find that you could do it.” Callie winked at her encouragingly, and gave her chin a little tweak as she turned to leave.
Emma’s eyes grew heavy as she watched Callie from her deep pillows, and struggled to stay awake. “I will try. Will you please help me?”
Callie returned to her, leaned down, and kissed Emma’s forehead as the little girl began to drift off. “Of course I will.”
Barely a moment later, Emma was fast asleep. Callie watched her for a long minute and gave her head a shake. She thought how horrible it was that anyone would have to go through being so sick, but especially a child, and yet Emma had a positive and natural joy about her, something that could not be repressed by her sickness, or the hospital in which she lived. Callie admired the girl’s strength and courage, and wondered if she could show Emma how to find those things in herself.
Callie thought about it all the way home, and when she got there, she walked into her bedroom and went to her closet.
Biting her lower lip just a little, she reached up onto a shelf and pulled down an old wooden box. It was simple in design, and her name was painted on it in blue and green letters, whimsically drawn in untidy handwriting.
She blew the dust off the top, and sat on her bed, staring at it. With quivering fingers, she reached for the old metal latch and flipped it up. Then, as her heart began to pound, she lifted the lid and a smile crept over her mouth as she looked inside.
“I wonder,” she murmured, reaching in and lifting out a small plastic bag with a zip locked closure, “I wonder if it might still work.”
Chapter Three
Second Star to the Right and Straight on ‘til Morning
A week passed, and Callie went back to the children’s hospital to visit Emma.
The little girl was in her room reading Peter Pan to herself when Callie walked in, and she gasped with delight when she saw her friend come through the door.
“There you are!” She exclaimed with luminous cheer, then added with a note of relief, “I didn’t know if you’d come back.”
Emma leaned over and kissed Callie’s cheek, giving her a hug before she sat down in a chair beside the girl’s bed.
“I will always come back to see you, never you fear.” She winked at Emma, and Emma giggled at her.
“But sometimes people don’t come back.” Emma’s voice grew quiet.
“Sometimes that’s true. Not this time. I will keep coming back to see you. We’re friends, and friends see each other.”
Emma did not reply, but pure joy radiated from her small face.
“You’re reading the book, I see.” Callie indicated the novel in Emma’s hands. Emma nearly bounced where she was sitting.
“I am! I’ve read it almost seven times now! It’s my favorite.” She sighed and hugged the book to her heart. “I wish so much that I could go to the Neverland. I want to see it all and fly with Tinkerbell and fight that awful Captain Hook, and I want so much to go on adventures with the Lost Boys, and most of all I want to be friends with Peter Pan.” She sighed with a smile.
Callie raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you now?” She asked curiously, and she lifted the bag she had carried in with her, and set it on the table beside Emma’s bed.
“Well,” she began as Emma’s warm brown eyes grew big, “I may have just the thing for you!”
“You do?” whispered Emma, staring at the bag in wonder.
Together they emptied out its contents onto the table-on-wheels that stretched over Emma’s bed, and Callie showed her what she’d brought.
“This is a clear plastic circular tray with a screw on lid. Kind of a shallow pot, if you will. Next we have this thick circle of paper with these pictures on it.” She handed the paper circle about the size of a large coin to Emma, and the girl studied it.
“What are these pictures?” She asked, turning the paper in her thin fingers.
“Well those,” Callie leaned close, touching them lightly with the tip of her fingernail, “are stars. See there’s one at the top of the circle where north goes, and then there’s another one just to the right of it, where the number two would be on a clock, and then on the bottom where south is, there’s a big old tree with branches and roots stretching out. Then over here on the left where a number nine would be on a clock, there’s a comet that’s flying down toward the tree.”
Emma frowned and looked up at Callie in puzzlement. “What’s it for?”
“What’s it for! My darling girl, we’re going to make a very special tool for you. Let’s look at the rest of these things and we’ll see if you can figure out what you and I are going to make today.”
She reached onto the table and pic
ked up a small wooden arrow with a circle in the center of it, and she gave it to Emma.
“This is an arrow.” Emma murmured, and she looked at the clear plastic tray with the screw on lid, and then back at the circle of paper with the pictures on it.
“Well, if this had letters on it, N, S, W, and E, then I would say that maybe we were making a compass, but it has pictures on it, so I’m not sure what we’re making.” She looked up at Callie expectantly.
Callie gave her a mysterious grin. “Oh you are a clever young lady! We are indeed making a compass, but it is a very special compass.”
Emma frowned again. “How can it be a compass if it doesn’t have directions on it?”
Callie leveled her eyes at the girl with a serious expression. “Not all compasses point north, south, east, or west. No… this compass is a special one; a unique one. Or rather, it’s a copy of a one of a kind compass that leads its holder to the Neverland. Now, Neverland isn’t found by going north, south, east, or west. You’ve read the story. How do the Darling children and Peter get to the Neverland?”
Emma’s eyes grew wide again and she spoke in a hallowed tone. “Second star to the right, and straight on ‘til morning!” She looked down at the thick circle of paper. “Second star to the right…” She whispered, tracing her finger from the star at the top of the circle to the second star just off to the right of it.
Callie grinned. “That’s exactly right! Just so. Now, let’s put this together.”
Callie unscrewed the lid from the shallow plastic tub and gave the bottom half to Emma. “We’ll call this our housing, as it will house the rest of the gear. If you would please, push the wooden arrow through that circle of paper.”
Emma tilted her head curiously. “Aren’t compasses made with metal arrows?”
Callie chuckled. “You really are so clever! I’m sure you’re leagues ahead of the other kids your age in school. Yes. Magnetic compasses are made with metal arrows, but that’s to find true magnetic north, isn’t it! We aren’t looking for magnetic north, are we? We’re looking for the Neverland, and to find it, we need just the right combination of tools, put together in just the right way.”
Emma bit gently at her lower lip in deep concentration, and carefully pushed the small stub poking out of the center of the arrow into the center of the paper circle. She smiled and looked up at Callie. “Done!”
Callie nodded. “Good! Now, let’s set that part into the bottom of our housing, with the arrow facing upward.”
Emma meticulously fitted the circle of paper into the bottom half of the plastic tray, then she looked up at Callie again.
“Wonderful!” Callie beamed. “Now… there’s one more thing we’re going to need to add before we close this up.”
“What’s that?” Emma breathed in fascination.
Callie reached into the bag and pulled out a tiny plastic bag with a zip lock on it. Inside were miniscule grains of green sand. It was barely more than a pinch-worth.
She looked at the girl seriously again. “Here’s another important question for you about the book. How do the children and Peter fly to the Neverland?”
Emma’s eyebrows rose. “Pixie dust?” She asked with confidence.
Callie smiled at her. “Pixie dust. Unfortunately, we do not have a pixie here. As luck would have it though, I do have this.” She handed the tiny baggie to Emma, and the girl examined it, staring wide eyed at the crystals of green sand.
“Please be very careful with that, it’s all I have; there isn’t any more of it.” She leaned close, her eyes locked on Emma’s, and spoke quietly.
“Now that is a little bit of Neversand, and it so happens that this Neversand has a bit of pixie dust in it from a fairy named Tinkerbell, who played on the beach in the Mermaid Lagoon where the green sand comes from. It isn’t pure pixie dust, but it will do in a pinch, and it should be enough to take you there.”
Emma gaped.
Callie grinned.
“Go on, pour it into the tray on top of the compass, and be mindful you don’t spill any of it.” She watched silently as Emma focused all of her attention on the delicate task at hand.
“This is really real Neversand with pixie dust?” She murmured in awe.
“Yes, it is.” Callie spoke earnestly.
Emma took a deep breath, held it, and gently opened the little bag, tipping it slowly over the tray and spilling the green sand onto the paper and the arrow, until not one grain was left in the bag. She let out a sigh of relief then, and looked up reverently at Callie.
Callie gave her a wink and handed her a piece of thick string. “You hold the bottom part of the housing, and I’ll tie this string around the threads where the lid goes on, and knot it tightly, so that you can wear it around your neck.” They worked together, and a moment later the half-compass looked like the pendant of a necklace.
“Now, we’re going to paint some glue on to hold this together and make certain that it doesn’t ever come apart.” Callie handed a small bottle of glue gel to Emma. Emma unscrewed it and, using the brush connected to the lid, coated the rings around the tray, making the string stick to it. Callie put the glue away and then gave the top plastic piece of the housing to Emma.
“Here you go. Twist this on firmly and you’ll be all set.”
Emma took the lid and screwed it on, sealing it shut tight, and when she had, she sighed again in absolute bliss.
“Give it a shake, and see if it works.” Callie told her quietly.
Emma chewed a bit at her lower lip again, and hesitantly shook the compass. Olive green sand scattered and danced all over the paper inside, and the arrow turned toward the second star to the right.
Callie laughed softly, and Emma gasped loudly; her mouth falling open as she turned and blinked at Callie.
“It… it works? It really works?”
“I believe it does.”
Emma turned it in her fingers and studied it. “The sand is so pretty! I wish I could see the Mermaid Lagoon where it came from. What about these other markings? The tree, and the comet going counter-clockwise toward the tree… what are those for?”
“They go to other places; to other worlds that branch out. Stories can take us anywhere we want them to, when we use our imagination.” Callie gave Emma’s arm a meaningful pat.
Emma frowned. “You said that this is a copy of another compass. What did you mean?”
Callie sat back in the chair beside the bed and gazed at Emma. “Well, there’s a real compass that looks just like that, only much prettier, and it isn’t made of plastic and paper. That compass was lost in the Neverland a very long time ago.”
Emma held the Neverland Compass in her small hand very tightly. “Do you really think this will take me to the Neverland?”
“I believe if you hold on to it, and you use your imagination, you can go to the Neverland anytime you want to.”
Emma’s eyes welled up with tears in the space of a single moment. “Oh thank you! I want to go so badly. I… I want to see the beautiful island and the fairies, and the pirates and mermaids, the Indians and Captain Hook, and the Lost Boys, and most of all I would really love to see Peter Pan!”
Callie’s heart caught in her throat as she watched the girl, and she swallowed hard. Emma slipped the string of the Neverland Compass around her neck and held the piece in her hand looking down at it. Then she reached for the book, pressed it to her chest, and laid back against her pillows. With her eyes on Callie, she smiled widely.
“Tell me about the Neverland! Help me go there!” She pleaded. Then she reached her frail hand up to the crown of her head and lightly ran her fingers over the bare skin there.
Callie took a deep breath and made herself comfortable in her chair. “The Neverland is a mind map in a child’s head. It is a small, snug, compact island, particular to each child. Mr. Barrie said that the Neverland is made of all the things the children dream of and play at and imagine are there: The lagoon, turtles burying eggs in sand, John’s fla
mingo with the broken leg, Michael’s cave, Wendy’s wolf welp, Michael’s boat which was burned, John’s Indians, and the Mysterious River.”
She turned her head then, and looked out of the window as she spoke, almost seeing a faraway place that was a distant memory to her.
“Only children can find it though, or be found by it. In the book it says that when Wendy and Michael and John went to it, the island of Neverland was looking for them. That is how the Darling children found it with Peter. It is only thus that anyone may sight those magic shores. It’s all there because the children dreamed it up; they imagined it, just as you can imagine your very own parts of the Neverland, and discover and create things in it.”
“But do I have to imagine?” Emma whispered worriedly. I don’t know if I can. It’s so very big to think of the Neverland.”
Callie blinked, and looked back at her with a smile. Of course you can. You’d be amazed what you can think of. To Peter, make believe and true are exactly the same, and that is one of the reasons that imagination works so well in the Neverland.”
Emma’s eyes grew wide. “If I can imagine it, will I see Peter Pan? Will I meet him?”
Callie’s mouth twisted thoughtfully. “I don’t know if you’ll see him. It depends on if he’s there. You see, Peter still likes to live in Kensington Gardens sometimes too, or so the book says.”
“Will I see the Lost Boys from the story?”
“All the boys change out as they grow up or get killed, and the book was written a very long time ago, so I think that all of the first Lost Boys; Tootles, Nibs, Curly, Slightly, and the Twins, they wouldn’t be there, but there will always be new Lost Boys in the Neverland. I am certain you’ll find them.”