by Anna Katmore
When he has enough room to breathe again and lean away, he narrows his eyes at me. “I’m no longer an old man?”
“No, you aren’t.”
“And you did this? You made me younger again?”
“I guess, somehow I did. With the help of a few friends.”
Puzzled as heck, Peter looks around, obviously confused to find all his friends here. Until his gaze lights on the pixie. She’s the first he swoops up in his arms after I release him, making her squeak with surprise. “Sorry about all the things I said to you! I’m so sorry I made you cry,” he tells her. “Please forgive me.”
She nods her curly head and golden dust rains down on her shoulders. But she’s not the only one he begs for forgiveness. Seemingly he has some making up to do with the Lost Boys too. And then of course with Angel. When he hears from the fairy about our deal, he takes Angel aside and embraces her with true sorrow and also gratitude. I catch the words never wanted to hurt you and wish you’ll always be happy at some point, but I don’t want to stand in their way right now, so I turn to the fairies and say goodbye to them.
Stroking Remona’s satiny mane, I glance over her head to Bre’Shun. She seems please with the way today turned out. I’ll miss her and her crazy house. A sudden tightness moves into my throat.
“I sent Smee off with the ship to help me save Angel. Where do I find them?” I ask her to quench the awkward feeling.
“The Jolly Roger still berths at Mermaid Lagoon. For some reason, the men never got the anchor out of the sea.” She winks one shiny turquoise eye at me.
Bracing myself for an ice-cold shock, I walk over to her and take her in my arms. “Thank you, fairy,” I whisper in her ear.
She hugs me back but releases me before I turn into an icicle like Peter had. “You’ve played well in this game. Now go and enjoy the outcome.”
Lacing my fingers with Angel’s when she comes over, I walk out through the gate in the small white picket fence, following the others.
“James.”
At Bre’s gentle voice, I stop and turn around once more. “Hm?”
“The ship needs a captain.”
We look at each other for a couple of seconds, both sporting a smirk now, and I nod. Then we leave the fairy forest—Angel and I for the last time.
With the jolly bunch of boys, the pixie and a flying Peter Pan as company, the journey back to the ship, though it takes hours, seems far too short for me. I finally learn all their names and listen to their many stories. Neverland wouldn’t be the same without any of them. Wondering if one of them thinks the same about me, I only have to look at each of their faces when we arrive at the Jolly Roger and it’s time to say goodbye. So many hugs, so many wishes—heck yeah, I know they’ll be bored to death without me.
Even the pixie flutters up a couple of feet and throws her arms around my neck. “Thank you for saving my Peter!”
Her Peter? The sound of it makes me laugh. I guess, now it’s Peter’s turn to be the big brother to someone. Hopefully he does a better job than I did. When the little thing releases me, I step up to him.
Saying goodbye to Peter is funny. We just stand there and grin at each other. There’s really not much I can say to the bloody scamp.
Peter shoves his hands into his pockets and digs a hole into the dirt with his toe. “We did have some good times, right?”
“We sure had.” I hold out my hand to him. When he takes it, I pull him into me and hug him quickly. “Take care, little brother.”
“You too. Neverland will suck without you, you know.” He grimaces then smirks. “Guess I’ll have to put up with your first mate instead now.”
Oh, Smee will love to hear that. Or maybe he won’t. He doesn’t even know yet I’m leaving.
When Peter and I step apart, Angel comes to say goodbye and holds onto Peter for the longest time. She has a hard time to let him go. After some minutes, Peter wraps his arms tighter around her and flies her up on deck of the Jolly Roger. Her cheerful squeal echoes across the sea. I follow them over the gangplank.
Jack Smee greets me with an arched eyebrow. “What’s this all about?”
After a heavy sigh, I tell him, “In a minute, Jack.”
Ignoring the crew’s curious stares for now, I walk to Angel and put my arms around her, kissing her forehead, then I lift my gaze to Peter, who still hovers above us and grins.
“Until we meet again, Hook!” he shouts down and laughs. Then he somersaults in the air and flies away to the others.
Angel and I stand by the railing and gaze after the merry group long after they’ve been out of sight.
“Cap’n?” Smee says next to me. Uncertainty has crept in his voice.
Clearing my throat, I face him. There’s a lot to explain.
Chapter 14
WE REACH LONDON by night. Everything is dark and quiet. Angel’s balcony door is still open and light burns in her room. It looks exactly the way it had when she came out to me after the ball.
“Do you think we came back at the same night we left?” she asks me.
Tilting her chin up with my knuckle, I kiss her on the lips. “I guess we’re going to find out.”
On the journey from Neverland to London, I had enough time to fill Smee in on everything that happened after I left the ship to save Angel. It surprised me how little it surprised him that I was ready to settle down in Angel’s world. The bilge rat even had the cheek to tell me he saw it coming from the day that I started jumping off the ship’s mast. Bloody bastard!
Well, I guess it’s been a given all along.
After a final detour to the boot, where I picked a last souvenir—a diamond the size of a pixie’s tear—I walk out on deck and say goodbye to my crew. The pirates take off their hats and press a fist to their hearts. They are good men. We’ve had great times together. Hopefully, their new captain can handle them as well as I did.
That reminds me… Walking up to Jack Smee, I take off my hat with the big, black feather and put it on his head.
“What the hell—” he growls, quirking his brows in protest.
I shrug. “The Jolly Roger needs a captain. Take care of her.”
His chest swelling with pride, Jack straightens and grows a couple of inches. “Consider her in good hands.” He grins and we embrace quickly, smacking each other on the back for luck.
Angel must have said goodbye to everyone while I was under deck, because she’s waiting by the railing where the men fastened the rope on which we’re supposed to climb down into her garden. With a diamond in my pocket and the hourglass in my hand, I nod at them all then start sliding down the rope first.
There’s still the small heap of my treasure in the grass, and the coins clink under my shoes when I jump down the last couple of meters. Moments later, Angel follows me. It’s definitely something she hasn’t done often. The way she clings to the rope for dear life makes me laugh. Until she loses her grip halfway and falls, shrieking. Dropping the hourglass, I catch her in my arms.
The air pushes out of Angel’s lungs, then she smiles. “You look beautiful when you’re happy,” I tell her. That gives her cheeks an adorable rosy flush.
Setting her to her feet, I’m just about to kiss her when something black glides down from the sky, catching my attention. It’s my hat that lands on the hive of gold.
“This ship will always have a captain!” Jack’s voice drifts on the wind, followed by a hearty laugh.
Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I envision for the last time how the crew draws anchor and sets sail under my command. Being a pirate was all I’ve ever known. The thought of fitting into a strange new world fills me with more anxiety than I care to admit, but there’s also a swell of anticipation taking over. I’ll be in this world with the girl I love. Nothing can take that away from me.
With Angel’s hand in mine, I walk over to pick up my hat, then I sit under a tree and pull her into my lap. Her legs tucked under the fine blue dress she’s still wearing, she nestles against
my chest, shapes her soft palm to my cheek, and mumbles, “I can’t believe we’re finally here.”
Yeah, tell me about it. I nuzzle the side of her face and breathe a kiss to her brow. “Can I ask you something?” I whisper.
“Anything.”
“What did you trade off to the fairy for me?”
The way she stiffens and falls silent makes my uneasiness grow. “Angel?” I prompt her.
She sucks in a breath through her teeth, then exhales in a long blow. “When she told me there was a price to pay, the first thing that came to my mind was the firstborn.”
“What?” The thought was so absurd it made me laugh. We’ve been back together for only a few days, and this is clearly far too early to think about having children. But even if we do—one day—how could she trade off our baby?
“Calm down,” she tells me and strokes her fingers along my arm. “Bre said someone has to take your place one day. I’m sure she’s not stealing our child out of the cradle.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because she made me see images in my mind. Pictures of a young woman. She will want to go to Neverland, Jamie. And all it needs is my approval, you heard that.”
I hear Angel’s voice, but the meaning doesn’t sink in because my mind got stuck on one word. Finding her eyes with mine, I lick my bottom lip. A smile tugs on the corners of my mouth.
“What?” she demands, a little nervous now.
“We’ll have a girl.”
Angel takes a second to contemplate what I said, then she starts smiling too. “I guess that’s right.”
I don’t know why this makes me so happy when the thought of having a family never occurred to me before. Maybe it’s the certainty that I’m going to be a much better father than the one Peter and I had. At least I’ll work hard on it.
Angel snuggles up to me and rests her head under my chin. After some time she heaves a sigh full of nostalgia. “It’s really over, isn’t it? Our adventure in Neverland, I mean.”
My glance sweeps over the treasure and lands on the hourglass with the golden sand. It’s standing upside down. When it slipped from my hand, time started running.
“Or,” I whisper back, “it’s the beginning of eighty fantastic years.”
*
A twinkle of sunlight tickles my nose and I blink my eyes open. Neither of us wanted to go inside last night, so Angel and I just sat under that tree in her garden until we fell asleep in each other’s arms. Not a bad place to spend the night.
With my thumb and forefinger, I rub my eyes then rake my hand through my hair. The hat has fallen off my head while I slept and is resting on Angel’s bent knees now. I watch her happy face for a moment, her eyes still closed peacefully.
Last night we made plans for our future together. Angel is set on telling her family who I really am, even though I don’t think this is the best idea she ever had. Considering the hard time I had convincing her of me being real, what will her parents say?
But it’s her world. She knows best. I’m just happy to be here with her.
Sighing into her soft hair, I brush a few stray wisps behind her ear. Angel stirs against me, but she doesn’t wake yet. Even though my body is stiff from sitting against the tree all night, I decide to give her a few more minutes.
From the direction of the house, the sound of two excited voices drifts to us. Straining my neck, I try to catch a glimpse over my shoulder, around the tree, but I have to wait until they lope over and stop right in front of me. It’s two little girls. They must be the notorious twins. When they find us sitting in an embrace on the ground, one sucks in her breath and claps her hands over her mouth. The other, wrapped in a purple dress, waves her wand at my face and pulls her brows to a tiny V.
“Who. Are. You?” she exclaims.
Angel’s extra minutes are over. At the shocked voice of the dwarf that I assume is called Brittney Renae, she jerks awake and straightens in my lap. “Huh? What?”
“Angel! Why are you sleeping in the garden?” the other half of the twin couple demands, then she snickers. “Is this your boyfriend?”
“I—uh…” Angel rubs her eyes then her temples.
Now I’m dying to hear her answer. Smirking, I give her a sideways glance. “Tell your sister. Am I?”
She laughs and pokes me in the ribs. I guess that’s a yes.
After shooting a volley of questions about why there’s suddenly so much money in their garden and why Angel is wearing this funny dress, which Brittney Renae actually loves but Paulina not so much, the girls have to break for a breath and that’s when I casually tell them, “Hi. I’m James Hook.”
The name immediately rings a bell with them. Their eyes grow wide and their tiny mouths hang open. “No way!” says Paulina and pulls on the two ponytails that are framing her heart-shaped face. “You can’t be him. He’s from a fairy tale.” She claims not to believe me, but mentioning my name made both girls back away a tiny step. It’s hilarious.
“Are you sure?” I tease them and put my hat on, remembering perfectly well what kind of reaction it provoked the first time from Angel. The twins don’t disappoint. Full of wonder, they stare at me.
Then suddenly the one Angel kept calling the fairy bug in her stories runs at me and smacks me hard on the head with her star-tipped wand. “Let go of our sister, you thief! You will not take her away to your ship!”
Angel and I look at each other, then we both burst out laughing at the same time. So the convincing-part is done. Now it’s time to explain why I’m holding their sister in my arms.
We have them sitting on the ground with us and Angel starts her tale with the night she fell off the balcony. The girls listen with awe-filled faces. There’s not one moment when they doubt even a single word of what she tells them. And I enjoy hearing it all again.
We made it almost to the end when a woman’s gentle voice calls the three girls. Apparently, it’s breakfast time in London. Angel smiles at me. “Are you ready to meet the rest of my family?”
I’m a pirate. I haven’t been scared of many things in my life. But when Angel rises to her feet and holds out her hand to me, I hesitate.
“Come on, Jamie,” she says. “They will like you.”
“You really think they will let me move in with you once they know who I am?” Given that they’ll believe me as easily as the twins, that is.
“Of course. They will understand how important this is to me. And if not, well”—she bends down and picks up a handful of coins—“take three of these and you can buy any house in this street you like.”
The thought of having a house to my own where I can take Angel to appeals to me far more than moving in with strange people. Well, at least this way we have a backup plan. I let her and the twins pull me to my feet. Brittney Renae skips excitedly ahead, while Paulina slips her tiny hand into mine and walks with me and Angel over to the big house at the other end of the garden.
My heart pounds a wild beat. It seems like the real adventure begins now.
Angelina
Ten years later…
I’M CHOPPING tomatoes and cucumber for a salad. A deliciously smelling roast pork cooks in the oven, a strawberry cream cake sits in the fridge and waits to be cut later after dinner. I like busying myself in the kitchen. It’s the sunniest place in our house in Fairy Cross.
“When will Jamie be home?” Paulina asks me as she takes out four plates from the cupboard and puts them together with some glasses and the cutlery on a tray to carry outside into the garden.
After a quick glance at the clock above the wide archway that leads to the dining room, I tell her, “In about an hour. He said he’ll try to be here no later than seven.” And then I sigh—for the thirty-fifth time in the past forty minutes. I miss him and can’t wait until he comes back from his biking tour with the guys. Three days away? That’s just too long.
On the other hand, I’m more than glad that Jamie made such good friends in our new hometown. The way he suf
fered the first few months after he’d left Neverland, the ship with his crew and of course Peter behind, tugged on my heartstrings. That my parents never believed us where he really came from and called him a kid with serious issues when he struggled so hard to cope with the change didn’t make it any better.
Instead of moving in with us, Jamie bought the house in our street where Peter had made himself comfortable for a while, but not even there he seemed to be happy. It wasn’t until three years later, when we made a trip to South-West-England, just the two of us, and found this beautiful house in a dreamy town called Fairy Cross, that he appeared to find his spark again. It didn’t take him more than twenty seconds to convince me to buy the property and settle down here.
Not for a minute in my life did I regret that decision.
“Angel? Are you in Neverland again?”
I jerk around and stare at Paulina’s questioning eyes. My cheeks warm over as I rub my hands at the back of my cut-off jeans. “Not in Neverland, no.”
“You looked a little lost for a moment.”
Unfortunately, that is one thing that happens to me quite often. Ever since I came back from Neverland, I kept having moments where my thoughts suck me into short time-outs. It’s okay for me. I just don’t like it when others catch me lost in memories. “I’m fine.” Taking a step toward Paulina, I shape my palm to her cheek. “Just thinking about how happy I am to have you girls here with us.”
A brief glimmer of sadness crosses her face, but it disappears fast and she smiles again. “Okay, I’ll set the table and then read a little outside. Call me if you need me to help with anything.”
I nod and watch her carry the tray out onto the terrace, her plaid skirt swaying around her bare knees. She’s become a pretty young girl. Both the twins have. Every time I look at them or run my fingers through their soft strawberry blond hair, I’m reminded of my mother. They look so much like her, especially on the day I saw her and my father for the last time.