by Heidi Schulz
“Snow!” a young woman called. “Get off her. That is no way to treat a friend!”
The wolf pup relinquished its seat on Jocelyn’s chest and moved to stand beside its master.
“What are you doing wandering the woods alone? It’s nearly dark out,” Tiger Lily said. “What would your pirate nursemaid think of this?”
A wise man once said: A full belly diminishes all other problems. That wise man was me.
Though it was true in the case of Jocelyn, diminishing is not the same as removing. Upon hearing that Roger and Evie were out in the woods alone—and without supper—Tiger Lily sent one of her warriors to find them. When they arrived, everyone sat around the fire, eating the wonderfully rich stew. Throughout the meal, Roger refused to look at Jocelyn, which was vexing, mainly because she wanted him to notice that she was not looking at him.
After each bowl was empty—and, in Jocelyn’s case, licked clean—Tiger Lily spread out extra buffalo robes and invited the children to share her camp for the night. Evie and Roger climbed into theirs right away, but Jocelyn stayed near the fire. She found a stick on the ground and used it to poke at the coals, discovering that boys were onto something. It was rather soothing.
She was full and she was warm, but she was not content.
“You look like you could use some company.” Tiger Lily joined the girl, sitting on the ground next to her. “I am surprised to see you out here. Are you searching for the place on your map?”
“No. I found out where the map leads. It’s not even on the Neverland, but we are on the treasure hunt, in a way. What are you doing out here?”
“I have brought my best braves with me on a quest to find a silver grizzly bear. They say those who catch a glimpse of him will have good luck in all the next year’s hunting.”
“You’ll find him. My mo—” Jocelyn looked over at Evie, stretched out on her buffalo bed. “Someone once told me that anything was possible if you first decide what you want, believe you can have it, and don’t let anything stand in your way.”
“That is very good advice.”
“Yes. And it worked when I was hunting the Neverland crocodile, but it’s much harder now. I want to find my father’s treasure. I believe I can. It’s just…” She looked over at Roger. He was lying propped up on his elbows, using a piece of string from his pocket to teach Evie how to make a cat’s cradle design. “What if the thing that is standing in my way are the people that I care about?”
Tiger Lily nodded. “That is difficult. But consider this: If that is the case, perhaps you want the wrong thing. Or you are going about the wrong way of achieving it.” She took up her own stick and stirred the coals. “Sometimes believing in yourself isn’t enough. You have to believe in others as well.” She tossed her stick in the fire and brushed off her hands. “I wish you luck on your journey, wherever it takes you. Good night, young captain.”
Jocelyn said her good nights and joined Roger and Evie, her thoughts all abuzz. Roger rolled over, away from her, though Jocelyn could tell by his breathing that he had not yet fallen asleep.
Evie filled the cracks his silence might have otherwise occupied with her cheerful chatter. The girl lay in her blanket, marveling over the night sky. She praised the stars for their sparkling talent, pointing out her favorites. The stars could not resist such flattery and began to twinkle extra brightly, each hoping to gain her attention.
Even Jocelyn’s spirits were lifted somewhat by the show playing out above her. Orion, the hunter, held his bow steady, flexing his starry muscles. Taurus, the bull, pawed the sky with one cloven hoof, steam twinkling from his nostrils and dissipating into the Milky Way.
“I love the Neverland! There is nothing at all like this in England,” Evie said, turning Jocelyn’s mood sour again.
Younger stars, not attached to any constellations, began to show off, as young things are wont to do. Soon the sky was filled with streaks of light.
“Quick, everyone, make a wish!” Evie said. “What did you wish for, Jocelyn?”
“Wishing on stars is stupid,” she said. “They never come true the way you want them to.”
“I don’t know about that. I think things have a way of working out just the right way, even if we can’t see it when we are in the thick of it.”
Jocelyn hoped that was true, though she couldn’t imagine how. Just then, Orion loosed his arrow. The brightest star the girl had ever seen hurled itself from one end of the sky to the other, and she couldn’t resist: I wish that things would work out in just the right way. And I wish it wouldn’t cost me my friends to make that happen.
Morning sunlight squeezed between Jocelyn’s lids and poked her in the eye. She sat up, blinking in the dazzling light of day. Tiger Lily and her warriors were gone, off to find their silver bear. A ceiling of clear blue sky hung above, and Craggy Peak loomed directly over her. The Neverland had done some rearranging when they weren’t looking.
The three quietly munched on a breakfast of nuts and dried berries, left for them by Tiger Lily, then neatly piled their buffalo robes in a place where she would be able to find them when she came back through. Once that act of housekeeping was finished, they started up the path. Roger walked ahead and Jocelyn let him, unsure of how to approach the boy. Evie strode along next to her. Every few moments she patted her dress pockets as if she were searching for something.
“What is the matter?” Jocelyn asked.
Evie drew her eyebrows together, concentrating. “I have that unsettling feeling that I have lost or forgotten something. I don’t know what.” She shook her head. “Never mind, it will come to me, I’m sure.”
Jocelyn felt a stab of concern over Evie’s forgetfulness. “If you were at home right now, what would you be doing?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Evie asked with a frown. “I am home.”
“I don’t mean this home,” Jocelyn said. “I mean where you live with your father, Sir Charles. You do remember him, don’t you?”
Evie lowered her eyebrows, concentrating. After a moment she shook her head. “Perhaps I have had too much sun. I nearly forgot my own father! But my life there seems so far away, like a dream.”
“Maybe it would help if we talked about it,” Jocelyn said. They spent the next half hour chatting about Hopewell Manor—Evie’s favorite places to hide from her governess, her ongoing war with the manor cat, and her fears that she would never live up to her father’s expectations. Jocelyn had not known how many things she and her mother had in common. Now that she did, it felt even more important that Evie not forget them.
“You need to be careful here,” Jocelyn said. “The Neverland can take all your memories of home if you let it. And home helps you remember who you are.”
“I suppose.” Evie sighed. “But I don’t think I want to be who I was when I lived there.”
Jocelyn frowned. Maybe Roger had been right to suggest she should tell Evie what she knew, or at least in part. She decided to share what the harbormaster had said about those who forget their homes, leaving out only that which concerned the true nature of their relationship. “…so you see,” she finished, “if you become untethered—if you forget—you will be miserable.”
Evie bit her lip, thinking. “I don’t know. Tiger Lily and her people aren’t from here, but they seem fine to me.”
Jocelyn was surprised. “They aren’t? Where are they from?”
“A woman sang their history at the feast that first night we met them. It must have been while you were getting some air. Tiger Lily’s great-grandfather led his people here from the Americas, through a passage they found while fleeing from a warring tribe. They haven’t become ‘untethered’ in all their time here, and”—Evie turned to look at Jocelyn—“neither have you. You’ve been on the Neverland ages longer than I have.”
“Tiger Lily’s people remember who they are. They keep that memory alive in the songs they sing and stories they tell. As for me, maybe I remember because no matter what happens, I sti
ll want to be myself.” She shrugged. “I guess my home is a big part of that.” Jocelyn was silent for a moment, then added, “I hope to go back one day.”
Evie threaded her arm though Jocelyn’s. “Well, I hope that’s not for a long time. I’d miss you. As for this untethering business, is that the reason you’ve been trying to get me to leave the Neverland?”
Jocelyn nodded.
“I’m glad to know it. I thought you were angry that Roger and I had become friends. I was worried you didn’t know how special you are to him.”
“I don’t know about that…” Jocelyn said, looking ahead to where Roger walked alone.
“Oh, pishposh. You two will be over this ridiculous quarrel of yours in no time. I’m sure that whatever it’s about is of less importance than your friendship.” She nudged Jocelyn with her elbow, eliciting a small smile. “And while we are talking of ridiculous things, what about this harbormaster of yours? What makes him such an expert on the ways of the Neverland? Adults are wrong all the time. I’m sure I’ll find a way around this untethering business.”
For the first time, Jocelyn felt a flicker of doubt. What if the harbormaster was wrong and Evie could be perfectly happy in the Neverland?
Jocelyn grew colder as they climbed, both inside and out. Roger’s mutiny left her feeling hollow. She filled the space with grim determination, marching through knee-high snowdrifts and wading through icy streams. He wasn’t speaking to her, but he wasn’t speaking to Evie, either. He plodded along ahead, looking every bit as miserable as Jocelyn felt.
At length they came to an ice bridge spanning a deep crevasse. How Jocelyn wished they could simply fly over it. She missed Meriwether, and not just for his supply of fairy dust. If he had been there, he would have been certain to do something to make them all laugh and break the tension.
Jocelyn didn’t know how things had gone so terribly wrong, but she knew that finding the Jolly Roger would be a start to setting them right. The key to the treasure map’s code would be on her father’s portrait, just as Smee suspected. It had to be! And they’d have the ship, giving them the means to finally defeat Krueger. She would rescue Meriwether and get her map back. She didn’t know what might happen after that, but she believed that everything would work out, just as it was supposed to. She only had to stay the course.
At long last, they scaled a steep incline and it came into view: the Jolly Roger. Seeing it took her breath away. She hadn’t really thought about what it would be like to stand in its presence at last. Her father’s ship! And soon it would be hers. A lump formed in her throat. Jocelyn wondered how he would feel about her taking the helm. She hoped she was pirate enough to deserve it.
“Oh, Jocelyn, it’s magnificent!” Evie said.
The ship sat low in the snow, looking for all the world as if it were cruising on an ocean of white. The mountain rose for some ways behind it, like a great ice-covered wave, frozen in time. Jocelyn shivered at the thought of that wave crashing on the deck.
“But,” Evie continued, “how will we get her down to the sea?”
Jocelyn stopped short. Her thoughts had been so consumed by finding the Jolly Roger, and by her other problems, she hadn’t even considered that.
Roger consulted his map and finally broke his silence. “The mountain butts right up to the ocean,” he told Evie. “If we weigh the anchor, I think we could ride her down the slope like a great sled.”
Evie giggled. “And why not? Snow is nothing more than frozen water. We’ll sail her right down to the sea!”
Finding the ship had lifted both Jocelyn’s hopes and her spirits. She had been waiting so long to find the key to breaking the treasure map’s code, and finally it was within her grasp. She brushed aside the problems of not actually having the map in her possession and the situation with Evie. It would work out. There in the shadow of the Jolly Roger, anything seemed possible—even making up with Roger.
She caught his eye and gave him a small smile. He didn’t quite return it, but he didn’t scowl, either. That was something, at least.
They hurried as best as they could through the deep drifts. Here, the top layer of the Neverland’s peculiar snow was as warm as fresh baked bread, not yet having had time to cool. Jocelyn grabbed fistfuls as she walked, warming her cold hands.
She reached the Jolly Roger first. There was no gangplank, but a rope ladder hung over the side where Peter Pan must have left it when he abandoned the ship. He probably sailed a new mother here in it, Jocelyn thought with a snort. Or a load of new lost boys. He does seem to have trouble hanging on to his friends.
Jocelyn didn’t want to be like that. She waited for Roger and Evie to catch up, and tried to thaw the ice between them. “Roger, meet your namesake,” she said with a grin. “You have always been the jolliest person I know, and I’m happy we are friends. I’m sorry I gave you cause to feel otherwise. As a way of apology, I’d like to give you the honor of going first.”
Roger said nothing, but he gave her a half smile and a tiny salute before climbing the rope.
Evie flashed her dimples. “Oh, Jocelyn, I’m so glad we found it. Let’s get up there and find the key to your map. Then we’ll sail it down to the sea, find and gut that awful Krueger, and get your pirate gold!” She giggled. “I never would have had a chance to say something like that at home. I wonder what Miss Eliza would think.”
Jocelyn grinned, both at the thought of Miss Eliza’s reaction and that Evie was thinking of home. “I’m sure she would find that to be quite exceptional.”
Evie’s eyebrows contracted and she stared at Jocelyn. She took a breath as if she were about to say something, but Jocelyn cut her off.
“After you, Evie.” She motioned to the rope ladder.
Evie blinked, shook her head, and began to climb.
Jocelyn did not follow right away. She touched her forehead to the rough wood planking on the hull and closed her eyes. Finding the Jolly Roger had felt impossible, as impossible as all the other problems Jocelyn was struggling with. But she had done it. Standing here at the ship—her father’s ship—gave her hope. She remembered what the harbormaster had said: The Neverland is full of impossible things. This ship was proof. In a place filled with impossible things, anything was possible, wasn’t it?
Jocelyn opened her eyes, grabbed the rope, and began to climb. Hand over hand, higher and higher she rose. Her arms burned and the ladder swayed a bit beneath her, but she cared little. Everything she wanted was within her grasp. She could feel it.
The girl reached the railing and climbed over, her feet solid on her father’s ship. She stood there a moment, looking out over the snowy sea. Jocelyn felt nearly as much triumph in that moment as when she slew the crocodile. She turned slowly, with a smile on her face. “Let’s go find that key.”
“Yes. Let’s.”
But it wasn’t Roger or Evie who replied. That would have proven difficult for either, as they were bound and gagged, captive at the feet of Captain Krueger.
This world is filled with terrible things—insects that bite and sting, debt collectors, diminutive monsters that whine and beg for stories—but perhaps the worst of all is the face of someone you trusted right after you discover they have stabbed you in the back. I mean that in the figurative sense, though the face of someone who has literally stabbed you is not much nicer to behold.
At first, Jocelyn wasn’t sure what had happened. How had Krueger found them? Then she noticed Dirty Bob standing nearby, a surly smirk on his face. “How dare you!” she shouted at him, but Krueger silenced her by pulling his blade and pointing it at Roger. He paced up and down the deck, always moving, and Jocelyn was once again struck by the waves of malevolence that seemed to emanate from him.
“I’ll be doing the talking here, girlie, if you don’t mind.” His black, pupil-less eyes bored into her. “I believe you still have something I want. You may have given me the map, but it’s unreadable without the key. Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you
are talking about,” Jocelyn growled.
“I think you do. See, Dirty Bob here told me all about it, didn’t you, Bob?”
Bob spat over the railing. “Aye. The key is here somewhere. They planned to find it, then use this ship and its extra-powerful cannon to attack you and take back the map and that fairy.”
Krueger pulled the silver flask from his pocket and shook it. It made a dull, metallic clunk. “This fairy? I think I’ll hang on to him for a while.” He pasted a smile across his face, but having failed kindergarten, his pasting skills were limited. This left him with a crooked grin that peeled up at the edges. “However,” he went on, “once you tell me where the key is, I’ll set him free. In fact, I’ll let you all go.” The smile fell from his face. “But if you don’t, I’ll kill each and every one of you. Now, what will it be? Life or death?”
Jocelyn stuck out her chin, trying to look brave. “How do I know you won’t kill us anyway?”
Captain Krueger laughed then, hard and full of spite. “You don’t. But if you fail to give me what I want, you can be certain that I will. Slowly. And with great pleasure.” He pulled his sword from his scabbard and caressed it. Krueger may not have had pasting skills, but he was excellent at cutting. Anyone could tell that, simply by looking at him.
Jocelyn felt herself go pale. “You are a monster.”
“And you are a spoiled child. But I won’t force an answer tonight. Why don’t you spend a night in the bilge and think it over? In the morning, if you make the correct choice, I’ll be kind to you. If not, you will stay locked up until there’s not enough meat on your bones to even entice the rats. That is, after you watch me pluck the wings from your fairy and”—he pointed his blade at Roger, tapping him lightly on the arm—“do a little carving on your friend here.” Krueger pulled the boy roughly to his feet. “Tie him to the mast and throw the girls below. Let’s hope those rats aren’t too hungry.”
A ship’s bilge is not a pleasant place. It’s dark and dank and foul, filled with stagnant water, sewage and whatever else might wash down from the upper decks, mold, and rats. It is a place unfit for human habitation, as filled with despair as it is with filth. Oh, how I would enjoy giving you a tour of one.