by Kiki Thorpe
“That’s where her rope thingy usually is,” Gabby explained. “And it’s not there now.”
“The harness. You’re right!” Mia said. “She must be out deer riding.”
“By herself?” said Kate. “She never goes without Fawn.”
The girls and Prilla looked at each other. “Something is wrong,” Mia said. “Lainey wasn’t really acting like herself today.”
“I noticed that, too,” Kate said. “I wish now I’d asked her why.”
“You don’t think she’s run away, do you?” Prilla asked.
“No,” said Kate. “That’s not like Lainey.”
“She’s not that reckless,” Mia added, but she sounded uncertain.
“I’m sure she’ll be right back,” said Kate. “But let’s check the forest, just to be sure.”
Lainey and the boys walked along single file. The forest seemed denser here than it had near Pixie Hollow. The air was hotter. The insects buzzed louder. Every now and then, an unseen animal screeched. The sounds made Lainey jump each time.
“How much farther is the rhinoceros?” she asked.
“Just a bit,” one of the boys answered.
Lainey swiped a hand across her damp brow. She was starting to believe that the boys had made the whole thing up and that there was no rhinoceros. Then, suddenly, they came into a clearing—and there he was.
Lainey had seen plenty of pictures of rhinos in books, but none had prepared her for the real thing. He was as big as a bull and looked twice as heavy. His cement-gray skin hung like armor. His tiny eyes sat low on his wrinkled head, which seemed weighed down by its enormous horn.
Lainey thought he was magnificent.
The rhino stood in the middle of a patch of tiny purple flowers. His eyes were half closed. He looked as if he might be dozing. On the other side of the clearing, Lainey spotted a tall coconut palm. Coconuts as big as basketballs hung beneath its leaves.
“What’s the plan?” Lainey asked the boys.
From the way they looked at each other, Lainey realized they didn’t have one.
“We could dig a hole in the ground and cover it with branches and leaves,” Cubby suggested. “When the rhinoceros walks across it, he’ll fall in.”
“I thought of that,” said Slightly.
“But that won’t help us get the coconuts,” one of the Twins pointed out. “And besides—”
“Wouldn’t he notice us digging?” finished the other.
“Exactly my thought,” Slightly said, nodding.
“We could light the bushes on fire,” one Twin said.
“And drive the rhino toward the tree!” added the other.
“I was just about to say that,” said Slightly.
“But we might burn down the whole forest. Including ourselves,” Nibs added.
“I knew it wouldn’t work,” Slightly agreed.
“What if you got the rhino to chase you?” Lainey suggested. “Then you could lead him toward the tree so he would knock down the coconuts.”
The boys thought this was a very clever plan. “Who volunteers?” asked Nibs.
They were all quiet a moment. Then Slightly said, “I volunteer Tootles.”
Tootles looked taken aback. He pointed at Cubby.
Then Cubby volunteered Slightly. Slightly volunteered Nibs. And the Twins volunteered each other. Nobody wanted to be the one to rile up the rhino—not even Slightly, who claimed he’d thought of the idea first.
“If Peter were here, he would do it,” said one Twin. Everyone agreed it was a shame Peter wasn’t there.
Finally, Cubby said, “Why doesn’t Lainey do it? After all, she can speak Rhinoceros.”
All the boys looked at Lainey. She suddenly regretted her half-truth—which, now that she thought about it, was really more of a lie. But she didn’t want her new friends to know she’d fibbed. And she didn’t want them to think she was a coward. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
The boys all wanted to give her advice on what to say to make the rhino mad enough to chase her, so it was several more minutes before Lainey crept from their hiding spot in the bushes.
She stepped hesitantly into the clearing. The rhino was still sleeping. The only movement was the occasional twitch of his tail.
Maybe I don’t need to make him mad, she thought. Maybe I could just ask him nicely to knock some coconuts down from the tree.
Lainey inched closer to the rhino. In a voice barely above a whisper, she squeaked in Mouse, “Excuse me.”
Quickly, she stepped back, ready to run. But the rhino didn’t move.
“Sounds more like a mouse than a rhino,” Slightly remarked from the bushes.
“I don’t think he heard you,” Cubby called to Lainey. “Louder!”
“And maybe less squeaky,” Nibs added.
Lainey’s palms were sweating. This time, she lowered her voice to a husky squeak. “Hello there!” Her mouth was so dry she had to say it twice.
The rhino snoozed on.
Lainey relaxed. Either the rhino couldn’t understand her, or he was sleeping too deeply to care. Showing off a little, she called, “Hey, you with the big beak!” She didn’t know how to say “horn” in Mouse.
The rhino didn’t even twitch an ear.
Lainey walked back to the boys’ hiding spot. “It’s no use,” she told them. “I think he might be deaf.”
The boys didn’t reply. They were looking past Lainey with wide eyes. She spun around. The rhinoceros was awake—and he was looking right at her!
For a moment they stared at each other. Lainey took a step backward. The rhino took a step forward.
Lainey bolted—and the rhino charged! She could hear him thundering after her. For such a large animal, he was surprisingly fast.
The boys stood by, cheering like kids at a soccer game.
“Thataway, Lainey!”
“Faster, faster!”
“He’s right behind you!”
“HELP!” Lainey yelled.
Then something amazing happened. Tootles leaped from his hiding spot. He began to swing his skunk tail and dance around.
The rhino stopped. It turned from Lainey and began to chase Tootles.
“Hey, you, you big lump! Over here!” This time it was Cubby yelling. The rhino started to chase him instead. Then Slightly jumped in to save Cubby. The Twins jumped in to save Slightly. Nibs jumped in to save the Twins.
The rhino was getting confused. The more confused he became, the madder he seemed to get. Nibs wasn’t far from the coconut tree. But the rhino was quickly closing the space between them.
“He’s not going to make it!” Lainey cried, covering her eyes.
The sound of the rhino’s horn striking wood rang out across the forest. Lainey peeped through her fingers. Then she lowered her hands in amazement.
Nibs was sitting high up in the coconut tree, while the rhino circled below. How did he get there so fast? Lainey wondered.
The rhino plowed into the trunk again. The tree swayed. The coconuts trembled. Nibs hung on for dear life.
With a third hit, a single coconut dropped to the ground.
The rhino seemed to feel he’d made his point. He turned and wandered into the forest without a backward glance.
When he was gone, the boys whooped and hollered and slapped each other on the back. Lainey couldn’t even smile. It gave her goose bumps to think what a narrow scrape they’d had. She looked at the coconut on the ground. “All that for one lousy coconut?”
“Is that what’s bothering you?” Cubby asked. “Don’t worry. Nibs will take care of it.”
Sure enough, Nibs was picking coconuts and hurling them to the ground. Then he leaped from the tree. He swooped down as gracefully as a bird and landed next to Lainey.
“You can fly?” she asked.
“Oh sure,” Nibs replied cheerily. “We all can.”
“When we’ve got fairy dust, that is,” Cubby added. “Sometimes it runs out. Then we have to wait for Peter to
ask the fairies for more. But he left us with plenty.”
Lainey couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Why did we risk our lives with the rhinoceros when any of you could have just flown up and picked the coconuts?”
The boys looked surprised. “What would be the fun in that?” asked Nibs.
Lainey stared at him. Then she started to laugh. “You’re crazy,” she said.
The boys laughed, too. Then they all sat down for lunch. It turned out to be quite a feast, for there is nothing like being chased by a rhino to work up your appetite. They ate three coconuts apiece.
They sat in the sun, patting their full bellies and talking about who had looked the funniest being chased.
For the first time all day, Lainey felt truly happy.
“What should we do now?” asked Slightly.
Lainey and the boys were lying in the grass at the base of the coconut tree. They were all feeling sleepy from the sunshine and their big meal.
“How about a swim in the Mermaid Lagoon?” suggested Cubby.
“A swim? Oh no! We can’t!” Lainey exclaimed.
“Why not?” asked Nibs.
Lainey thought quickly. “It’s just that…you can’t swim for an hour after you eat.”
Cubby frowned. “Says who?”
“Says my mom,” said Lainey. “But everybody knows that. Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to go swimming right after lunch?”
“Haven’t got a mother,” Cubby told her.
“Well, what about your dad?” asked Lainey.
“Haven’t got one of those, either,” said Slightly. “None of us do.”
Lainey propped herself up on her elbows. “Then who looks after you? Your grandparents?”
“We look after each other,” Nibs said.
“I don’t mean here,” Lainey said. “I mean when you go to your real homes.”
The boys looked at her blankly. “But this is our home,” Nibs said at last.
Suddenly, Lainey understood. The boys didn’t travel back and forth through a magical portal. They lived in Never Land all the time.
“So you mean,” she said slowly, “that you can do whatever you want? And there are no grown-ups to tell you what to do?”
“That’s right,” said Nibs. “Whatever we want. Whenever we want.”
How wonderful! Lainey thought. No rules or bedtimes. No “dinner before you eat dessert” or “chores before you go out to play.” It seemed like the perfect life. How could you ever have a bad day?
“Peter says that grown-ups are like flies on a cake. They just buzz around and spoil the fun,” Cubby remarked.
Peter again! Lainey was getting more and more curious about him. “Where is Peter, anyway? Wasn’t he supposed to be back in time for lunch?” she asked.
“He did say he’d be back for lunch,” Nibs replied. “Though now that I think of it, he didn’t say which day.”
Even though they’d just eaten, the boys decided to swim anyway. They weren’t inclined to listen to the advice of mothers, Lainey’s or anyone else’s. Lainey felt a knot in her stomach as they walked to the lagoon. She was sure they would laugh her right off the island when they saw what a terrible swimmer she was.
The lagoon was a white sand cove. Big rocks jutted out of the turquoise blue water. Lainey stood on the beach, toeing the sand, as the boys splashed into the waves. She tried to think of some reason why she couldn’t go swimming.
I can say my stomach hurts, she thought. Or my foot has a cramp. Or I’m allergic to water…
Just then, she noticed something. Every boy was dog-paddling. Not one of them had his face in the water.
“What are you waiting for?” Cubby called.
“Come on, Lainey!” Slightly added. “The water’s great!”
Lainey kicked off her shoes and waded in up to her ankles. The lagoon was warm as bathwater. With a joyful shout, she splashed in.
They took turns jumping off the rocks and seeing who could make the biggest splash. When they grew tired of that, they played a long game of keep-away with a sea sponge, tossing it back and forth like a football.
As Lainey dove for a wide throw from Tootles, she suddenly found her head underwater.
She scrambled up to the surface, gasping. Then she paused for a moment, treading water. In the brief seconds she’d been under, she’d caught a glimpse of something amazing.
Did she dare look again?
Screwing up all her courage, Lainey took a big breath and stuck her face into the water. Far out in the lagoon, on the sea floor, was a brilliantly colored coral castle. It had sea-fan curtains and arched doorways. Large fish swam in and out of its open windows.
Lainey was entranced. She lifted her head out of the water, took a breath, then plunged back under to look again.
Nibs paddled over to Lainey to see what she was doing.
“What is that down there?” she asked him.
“Oh, you mean the castle? It’s where the mermaids live,” he replied.
Lainey realized they hadn’t seen a single mermaid the whole time they’d been there.
“Where are they all?” she asked Nibs.
“They hide when we come swimming,” he replied. “They’re snobs that way. Peter’s the only one they talk to.”
Lainey was disappointed, until she found a starfish on one of the rocks. It was an especially pretty one—purple with green spots. Slightly was sure that a mermaid had worn it in her hair.
“Do you really think so?” Lainey asked, turning it over.
“Sure,” said Slightly. “Mermaids always pick the best starfish for their hair. She probably left it behind when she was sunbathing.”
Lainey put the starfish back on the rock so the mermaid would find it when she returned. She couldn’t help thinking how much Mia would have liked to see the mermaids’ castle.
After they’d finished swimming, everyone lay on the sun-warmed rocks to dry off. Nibs went up the beach into the forest and returned with a four-foot stick of sugarcane. He used his sword to cut off pieces, which he handed out.
“Can I see your sword?” Lainey asked as they chewed their sugarcane.
Nibs handed it over. The handle was made of brass and shaped like a dragon. “Where did you get it?” she said.
“From a pirate,” Nibs replied.
Lainey raised her eyebrows. “A real pirate?”
“Of course!”
“He gave it to you?”
“Not exactly,” said Nibs. “I won it in battle.”
“Are there many pirates here?” Lainey asked.
“Sometimes,” he replied. “They come and go. Right now they’re off the island. Looting ships on the high seas, probably.”
A shiver went down Lainey’s spine. She wished Kate were there. She knew how much Kate would like seeing a real pirate’s sword.
The truth was, Lainey missed her friends. But she was so much better off here. Here she wasn’t Lainey-who-always-lost-her-glasses or Lainey-who-made-everyone-wait. And she certainly wasn’t the “clumsiest Clumsy who ever lived.” She was clever. She was brave. She had faced down a raging rhino and gone swimming in a mermaid lagoon and held a real pirate’s sword. She was a girl who could do anything.
“I’m never going back,” Lainey said to herself. “Not ever.”
Purple clouds streaked the sky as Prilla, Kate, Mia, and Gabby made their way through the forest outside Pixie Hollow. They had been following the deer trail for some time. But now that the sun had set, the path was harder to spot. No matter how she tried, Prilla couldn’t glow much more than a firefly. She wished she’d thought to ask a light-talent fairy to come with them and brighten the way.
To keep their spirits up, Kate began to whistle. Mia joined in. Gabby couldn’t whistle, so she sang. Prilla didn’t know the girls’ songs, so she clapped. Along they went through the darkening forest, walking in single file with Prilla darting among them. Despite the gloom, they made quite a merry little band.
They had jus
t finished “The Hokey Pokey” and were starting on “Jingle Bells” when they heard a low growl.
The girls stopped walking. “What was that?” Mia asked.
Kate looked around. “Probably just a dog or something.”
“The dogs in our neighborhood don’t sound like that,” said Gabby, huddling close to her sister.
“Prilla, are there dangerous animals on Never Land?” asked Kate.
“There are hawks and snakes, of course. And outside Pixie Hollow the crickets can be real brutes.” Prilla shuddered. “No dogs that I know of, though.”
“What about anything…bigger?” asked Kate.
“You mean like bears and wolves and crocodiles?” said Prilla.
“There are crocodiles?” Mia cried, putting an arm around Gabby.
“Just one,” said Prilla. “Though he’s pretty big.”
“I wish we could go back to Pixie Hollow,” said Gabby.
“But we can’t,” Kate replied, saying what they were all thinking. “Not until we find Lainey.”
They went on. Kate began to whistle again, but no one joined her this time.
A sudden rustling in the leaves overhead made the girls jump. They stopped and peered up into the trees.
“At least we know that’s not the crocodile,” Kate said, trying to be cheerful. “That wouldn’t be in a tree.”
“It could be a panther,” Prilla said. “I forgot about the panthers.”
“Let’s keep going,” Mia said. “The sooner we find Lainey, the sooner we can get out of here.”
They hurried along as quickly as they could, which wasn’t very fast at all, since the forest was now quite dark. To lift their mood, Kate said, “Remember Lainey’s dog treat stand? It was like a lemonade stand, except she was selling dog biscuits.”
“I remember that!” Mia said. “No one in the neighborhood wanted to buy biscuits for their dogs. But Lainey didn’t care at all. She just kept giving them away for free.”
“She didn’t make any money. But she made a lot of doggy friends,” Kate said, smiling.
Mia smiled, too. “That’s Lainey for you.”