by Shari Arnold
“Surprise,” Echo says softly and I realize that every other child has grown quiet. Through my tears I start to laugh. It bubbles up from inside of me and once I start, I can’t stop. Soon Jenna is laughing with me. She is holding my hands, gripping them tightly in her own, and I am crying all over the both of us.
“You’re here,” she whispers against my cheek before pulling away to look at me.
Her eyes are different. Older, I think. I’m not used to seeing her cheeks so pink and full.
“I don’t understand any of this,” I tell her, but I’m still laughing so she laughs with me. I pull her close and against her hair I whisper, “Please don’t wake up. Please, Jenna, please don’t let me wake up.”
“You’re not dreaming,” she tells me. She’s brushing the tears away from my face. But I just keep making more.
Her words should mean something to me but I’m still pleading with God or anyone to keep me in this dream.
Please don’t wake up.
Please don’t wake up.
I turn and look at Meyer.
Please.
Meyer is watching us. I have never seen him so happy. I want to smile back, but instead I just keep crying. Jenna is in my arms now and I can’t stop touching her. I don’t think I’ll ever let her go.
“Why are you here? What happened to you?” Jenna asks. With her face pressed to my shoulder, I can hear the concern in her voice.
“Livy is just visiting,” Meyer tells her.
“Visiting?” I ask him. What does that even mean?
“Visiting?” a child near me says. The children are circling us now. They can’t quite decide what to make of us, but they’re curious just the same.
“No one has ever just visited before.”
“You’re right,” Meyer says. “Just Livy.”
“But I don’t understand how you got here?” Jenna glances over at Meyer, and so do I.
Meyer shrugs without making eye contact. He looks down at the ground and I find this very interesting considering he seems to know every other child’s reason for being in Neverland.
“Is mom here? Or dad?” Jenna asks. “Did they come with you?”
I open my mouth to answer and then shake my head. I don’t want to disappoint her. It’s funny how that never goes away.
Jenna’s eyes are concerned. They stand out against the backdrop of happy, smiling children. “How long—?”
“As long as she wants,” Meyer answers, his gaze finally meeting mine. He nods his head once, wanting me to believe it. And I want to believe it too, especially now that Jenna’s smile is back.
I run to him and throw my arms around him, nearly knocking him off his feet.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “Thank you for…” I shake my head, unable to finish. My words are too raw. “I don’t know who you are,” I force out. “Or how you’ve done this—”
“You do know me,” Meyer interrupts. He pulls away slightly, a hint of desperation in his eyes. “Don’t ever say that you don’t.”
“Livy.” The children are whispering my name, trying it on.
“Isn’t that…?”
“Isn’t she…?
“Sisters!”
“Jenna’s sister!”
“Yes,” Jenna says, still beaming at me. “She’s my sister. The one I told you about.”
“Where’s my sister?” a little blonde girls says, tugging on Jenna’s sleeve.
“I have a brother. Are brothers okay?” the boy next to her asks.
They’re all around Meyer now, their questions insistent, until he has no choice but to let out a loud whistle. And then they all stop.
“Livy is my friend,” he tells them, his eyes moving over me before quickly slipping away. “She’s just visiting.”
“Unless she decides to stay,” Jane adds.
Echo crosses his arms. “That’s right. Unless she decides to stay.”
Meyer is quiet. He stands there towering over the children and they watch him, waiting on his next word. “This has never happened before,” he tells them, all the while focused on me. “We will welcome her and show her around.” His gaze intensifies and then rather quickly he looks away. “She’s here to visit her sister.”
With a rush of air I let out a breath. I’m not sure why I was holding it.
“But now!” he shouts. “It’s time to make an island!”
“An island!” the children erupt. Some roar, some crow, but they are all cheering. They jump up and down and run around. It is a miracle no one gets hurt.
“Jeremy!” Meyer yells over the crowd. “Are you ready?”
“I am!” Jeremy yells back. He flaps his arms and shoots himself into the sky. His laughter spills over us, spreading through the crowd. He lands back on the ground in a perch. He is a fast learner, this flyer. He takes his place next to Meyer, and that Neverland glow is nearly shooting off of him.
Alice shyly approaches Jeremy. “What about you?” she asks softly, reaching for his hand. He takes it, somewhat hesitantly. “How did you get here?”
“I…” Jeremy loses some of his glow and his smile drops off. “I…I got lost,” he says. He inches closer to Meyer, dragging along the little girl. “But Meyer told me everything is better now. And I believe him.” He says this last part with a nod of his head and I smile because he looks just like Meyer when he does this.
“Everything is always better in Neverland,” Alice says, turning in my direction.
“Yes. I believe it,” I say.
She tugs on Jeremy’s hand, gifting him her biggest smile. “I’m Alice. And that,” she points at my sister, “that’s Jenna. She’s my best friend. And we live here, on the sparkly islands.”
“Oh,” says Jeremy.
She moves closer to him, her steps so confident. “You can come visit us if you want. We have lots of dances every day.”
“Sure,” Jeremy says, looking up at Meyer and then down at the ground. “But. I have to build my island first, right Meyer?”
“Right. Island first. Dancing after.” Meyer winks at me, and I don’t know why but I immediately feel heat rise to my cheeks. A few of the little girls around me start to giggle, nudging Jenna. But Jenna simply smiles.
“I told you he’s nice,” she tells me.
“You what?” I push her hair back behind her ear, the way I always did. I can’t stop touching her.
“I told you, right before I came here. I told you he was nice and that you’d like him.”
“I don’t…” I shake my head, trying to focus on her words. She looks so serious. She looks so alive. “What are you talking about, Jenna?”
She blinks up at me, waiting, and all at once there’s this feeling in my chest. I remember. I remember this conversation.
“I told you his eyes were green and that they —”
“Sparkled,” I turn and glance back at Meyer.
“Like he’s winking,” Jenna says.
“Winking?”
“Yeah, like Santa does,” Jenna explains.
“Ho ho ho!” Meyer belts out while rubbing his belly, and the children break into fits of laughter.
When I laugh Meyer winks again and Jenna claps her hands and yells, “See!”
“I do remember that.” My voice is soft against the growing excitement of the children, but she still hears me. They’re all swarming Meyer, their voices competing against one another, desperate for his attention.
“So you saw him too,” I whisper, and she nods her head enthusiastically. “Right before you came here.”
“He visited me. He sat with me in the hospital and told me a story about Neverland, just like you used to.”
“But I don’t understand. Does that mean…?” My chest is tightening up again. The colors around me begin to swirl. “What happened to me? Am I—?”
“You’re just visiting.” Jenna is holding my hand now and I’m glad for it. I need her to keep it from trembling. She looks so calm, so grown up. For a minute there she could be my mo
ther, the way she rubs my hand and speaks softly. “You’re just fine, Livy,” she tells me. “You’re safe.”
“Safe,” I repeat, feeling like Echo. But how am I here?
“If you’re all…” I stop myself, still unable to say the word.
Jenna nods in understanding.
“Then that means…” I look to Meyer, knowing he’s the only one who can clear this up for me. And he’s watching me. Rather closely, actually.
“An island!” he calls out, breaking through the sudden haze around me.
“An island!” they yell back.
And then the children of Neverland are marching, lining up in rows of three and four, chanting, “an island!” as they move up to the highest point of Jenna’s island.
“I knew he would bring you.” Jenna is the only child who hasn’t joined them yet. I look down at her, still at my side. I can’t get over how mature she seems. “I asked him to keep an eye on you,” she says with a giggle. The joke is hers and hers alone. “But I think he did a whole lot more than that, Livy.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Meyer stops once he’s reached the edge of the island. The children fill in around him.
“Are you coming?” he calls down to us. “You won’t want to miss this, Livy.”
“It really is amazing. I’ve seen it a hundred times before, but I still love to watch.” Jenna’s feet rise off the ground. She is hovering just over me. “Don’t you love flying? It’s my favorite part.”
“Jenna,” I whisper, feeling overwhelmed in this moment.
“Yes?”
With her pink satin dress flowing all around her and her long, thick hair, Jenna is part of the magic. She is a breathtaking piece of Neverland, like the mermaids or the golden sun.
I shake my head, unsure if I can say what I’m actually feeling. It’s all too much.
She tilts her head slightly and her blue eyes sparkle like the water behind her. “Aren’t you coming?” She tugs on my hand, nearly lifting me off the ground. “Come on, Livy. I want you to see!”
“Livy! Jenna!” Meyer is chanting.
“Livy! Jenna!” the children repeat.
I laugh, raising my face up to the sky. With a little leap I take off. I’m flying with Jenna, soaring back to the top of Sunset Hill.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” Jenna whispers, her words floating upon the air, over to me. “I wished it the first day I got here, but Meyer said we couldn’t wish for people, only things.”
“I wished it too,” I tell her. “I wished to be with you every day you were gone.” I’m still wishing it, afraid that if I stop, she’ll slip away.
The children clear a spot for us to land right next to Meyer and Jeremy. Echo and Jane move up beside me, looking strangely smug for two people so young.
“Are you ready?” Meyer asks Jeremy, even though it’s obvious from his excitement that he is.
“Close your eyes,” he tells him. “Tight.” And Jeremy listens. I almost do too.
“Imagine it in your mind. Every color, every shape. Do you see it?”
“I see it,” Jeremy whispers. He reaches his hand out as though it’s so real he can almost touch it.
The children around me draw in a breath and I drag my attention away from Jeremy and gaze out over the side of Sunset Hill.
The water below us is moving. It swells and buckles and then something breaks free, surging up and out. The creature opens its mouth, letting out a cry that should terrify the children, but instead they just inch closer. Some run down the hill to get a better look, while others clap their hands and dance around. All the while Jeremy’s eyes are still closed.
The creature’s head swivels around, pushing its body toward the surface. And then another head emerges. And another.
“What else do you see?” Meyer whispers. His arm is wrapped around Jeremy’s shoulders, their faces close.
“I see trees and birds and tall cliffs the birds can soar from.”
As he speaks the words, each thing appears, thrusting up through the water, until every piece is in place, and Jeremy’s island is complete.
“And dinosaurs,” he whispers reverently. “Lots and lots of dinosaurs. Are they here yet?”
“Open your eyes and see for yourself,” Meyer tells him, positioning him just right so that when he opens his eyes he’ll have the best view.
Jeremy peeks through his fingers, slowly at first, as though he’s afraid its all a big trick, and his island will forever remain inside his imagination. But then his eyes widen, and his hands drop to his sides. His mouth opens up and one word slips out. It’s the same word the rest of us are thinking: “Amazing!”
“Amazing is right,” Meyer laughs. “You’ve done a great job, Jeremy. Dinosaurs are just what Neverland needs.”
“Am I the first?” he drags his eyes away from the view in front of him just long enough to glance up at Meyer.
“Hmm…” Meyer tilts his head, considering this, his thumb pressed against his bottom lip. “I wouldn’t say you’re the first. But it’s been a while since we’ve had such a variety of dinosaurs. That’s for sure.”
Jeremy is beaming now, his hands rubbing together with anticipation. “Don’t worry, I didn’t make any theropods. Just sauropods.”
“Thero-what?” Jane asks.
“Theropods,” Meyer answers. “Carnivores.”
“Gross,” Jane says with a shudder. “Meat-eaters. That’s disgusting.”
Jenna scoots closer to me and I wrap my arm around her, protecting her. But when I look down at her there is nothing but excitement in her eyes. She is not afraid, only curious. “So that means they’re friendly, right? Sauropods?”
“Why, of course.” Meyer is gazing out over the island. “There’s no fear, remember? Nothing here can harm you.”
Nothing here can harm you. Nothing to fear.
These words of his rush through my memory so clearly, taking me back to an adventure-filled night at the carnival. When he turns and looks over at me his expression is dark and serious. He must remember as well.
“Most of the dinosaurs are from the Late Jurassic period,” Jeremy tells us. “But I snuck in a Plateosaurus. They’re my favorite.”
“Jurassa-what?” Echo says, throwing up his hands in bewilderment.
“Do you know what he’s talking about?” he whispers to Jenna.
“Dinosaurs?” she answers with a laugh.
Echo nudges her playfully. “That much I know.”
“Dinosaurs roamed the Earth during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods,” Meyer explains.
“Meyer knows everything,” Echo tells me, grinning from ear to ear.
“Really,” I say.
“You’re not the only one who reads,” he says with a wink.
“Go ahead,” Echo continues. “Ask him anything.”
“Anything?” I say.
“Anything.”
“Well then.” I move a bit closer to Meyer. “If I can ask anything…”
Meyer’s arms are crossed, his shoulders back. When he lifts an eyebrow at me I almost laugh. He is exactly what I imagined he’d be.
“I used to dream about you,” I say before I can stop myself. “I used to wonder what you’d be like if you were real.”
My words knock that smug expression right off his face. His eyes widen with surprise and then blink back at me.
“I guess that’s why Peter Pan was always my favorite story to read.”
“Mine too,” he tells me, without a trace of presumption. “But I’m not him. It’s just a story.”
“But you’re real, aren’t you? And all of this?” I sweep my hand out, gesturing toward the islands. He’s so close my fingers brush against his arm before falling back to my side.
Meyer stares down at the place where I’ve just touched him as if he doesn’t recognize his own skin. His hair has fallen across his forehead, nearly covering his left eye. I reach up to brush it back, and then stop myself. What am I thinki
ng, touching him? He isn’t mine to touch. Not like that. He belongs here with these children.
I clear my throat, and take a step away from him. He watches me do it without stopping me. There’s a trace of sadness in his expression that wasn’t there before.
“I have my question,” I tell him, barely above a whisper. “When it’s time I’ll ask it, and you must promise to answer.”
“I promise,” he says with a nod of his head. His voice so soft, it’s almost haunting.
“Is it done?” Jeremy squeals, jumping up and down. “Can I go now? Can I see it?” His enthusiasm has shattered the mood wrapped around Meyer and myself. For a moment there I’d forgotten there was anyone else around.
Jeremy lifts off into the air without waiting for an answer. He circles his island, taking it all in, and then he spins in the air with a peal of laughter.
The dinosaurs move toward him, their footsteps so heavy they shake the ground. They stretch their necks out in his direction. Their eyes and mouths are bigger than Jeremy’s head, and when they breathe him in his hair flutters across his face, much to his delight. He laughs and flips upside down in the air, while the dinosaurs reach up to the trees, plucking and nipping at the leaves.
I glance over at Meyer. The sadness is gone now. His eyes are back to sparkling.
“It’s smooth!” Jeremy cries out, tentatively touching the first dinosaur’s neck. “And rough at the same time! Just like I always thought.” He flies down the length of the dinosaur’s neck to the belly. “Do you think he’d let me ride him, Meyer?”
“Maybe if you ask him,” he laughs.
Jeremy flies back up so that he and the dinosaur are face to face. “If I promise not to kick my feet, will you let me ride you?”
The dinosaur’s dark eyes blink back at Jeremy. I hold my breath, waiting to see what happens next.
“Do you think he’ll let him, Jenna?” I’m worrying my lip, afraid to look, and yet finding it impossible to look away.