Pan 20
One month ago...
Jessie lay in her room, on her bed in the dark. She had stopped crying sometime ago, not that she felt any better.
She knew she had hurt her father.
Just like she wanted to.
Just like he deserved.
So why did she feel so bad about it?
More likely because he hadn’t deserved it.
Maybe.
Probably.
It just wasn’t fair! They never let her do anything. It made her so mad, and then on top of all that he came in there and started acting like it was all her fault.
Her fault, for trying to trick her dad into saying yes.
Cause she knew her mother would say no.
She just didn’t figure that her Mom would be so ticked off she’d yell at her Dad.
And then her Dad would yell at her.
Then that they’d have that Big fight, and that she’d get so mad that she’d.
Yeah well…
You know if they’d just let her go to dance none of this would have happened.
And it’s not like she’d have to be out the whole night!
They could have let her go for an hour or two.
She could have told everybody that she had to go somewhere the next day so she had to leave early.
But no, they always had to have the last word.
And that word was always no.
Jessie could feel the lump in her throat, and the tears in her eyes were starting to come again.
They made her so mad. She sniffed to keep from crying.
She sniffed again.
She smelled something.
She smelled smoke.
Not burning house smoke, tobacco smoke.
It was coming from outside.
Oh No! It was probably her Dad.
His Den was just on the other side of the house from her room, and they both had balconies. Had she made him so mad he started to smoke again?
Oh she hoped not, he had worked so hard to quit.
And now he had started again,
She knew her Mom would blame in on her.
She say it was all her fault.
She got out of her bed and moved across her room.
She followed the scent out of her room and onto her balcony.
And then she saw him. And it wasn’t her Dad.
He was sitting on the rail with his back to her. His body silhouetted against the night, buildings framed him on each side, the stars and night sky in the center and him in the center of it all.
It was him, she could tell by the spiky hair, the cigarette smoke hanging in the air. He turned his head and smiled.
“Hey there Jessie girl.”
“How’d you know my name? how’d you get in my house? Who are you.”
The boy smiled, “Well, when you and your dad we’re yelling at each other you used it a lot, I thought it was better to call you than baby, don’t you think?”
“you’re not a baby Jessie, you’re not. But…” He turned his head and looked away, “You’re not a grown up either, but that’s good.”
The boy put his hands on the railing and pushed with his arms and feet launching in the air, Suddenly he was standing on the railing facing her. “I hate grown ups.”
Jessie gasped, He was crazy, he was standing on a railing at least 45 stories up in the air.
And he was staring at her smiling. He didn’t care, he looked like he loved it.
“Watch out!: Jessie said, “You’ll fall, be careful.”
“Be careful?” the boy said, He grinned and spun on the rail on one foot. Then he did a cartwheel on the rail to other side of it, like a tightrope walker. “Careful’s boring.”
Jessie was flabbergasted, how was this even happening?
“Who are you? How’d you get up here?”
The boy looked down at her and smiled, he took a drag off his cigarette.
“ Peter Pan, and I flew up here.” The smoke rolled out of his mouth as he spoke framing his face.
He was a very bad boy.
Jessie backed away, her eyes locked on the him. “Liar..” she whispered.
Peter looked at her, he rolled his eyes, and took another drag on his cigarette, and tossed it into the night. “Girls!” He sighed.
He spread his arms out at his sides looked up,
And dropped backwards off the railing.
Jessie’s heart stopped.
Clapping her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming she stood there wild eyed. Then she rushed forward to the railing, ‘Oh my god, oh my god oh my god.’
She had just watched someone kill himself. Then she looked over the railing, and knew she had lost her mind.
He floated up towards her. Lighting another smoke, it was like he was standing in an invisible elevator. They were face to face, the railing between them. Her standing on the balcony. Him standing in mid air.
“I’m Peter Pan, I don‘t lie Jessie.” He smiled, that crooked smile, “Much.”
“Why are you here?” Jessie said, “Why…”
A tiny green spark shot up between them. It spun around Jessie’s head and them hovered above her darting quickly back and forth.
“What is that?” Jessie Whispered, startled. Things were getting too weird, too strange, and it was happening too fast.
The spark flew around peter, leaving Tiny sparks about him and then back to Jessie again, up, down, and then back to hover with Peter again.
“Tink,” Peter said, looking at the spark. “Cut it out.”
‘Tink, Tinkerbell?’, Jessie thought,
Way too weird, way too fast.
Peter had sat back on the railing now.
“Oh, now I get it.” Jessie said, “Now I understand.”
“You do?” Peter said, his face brightening, “Cool, you’re a lot quicker than the others. So you ready to go? Cause the sooner we get going the sooner we get..”
“Where are the cameras?” Jessie said looking around, “Oh, and you can stop filming, there’s no way I’m going to be on tv looking this dumb..”
Peter sighed, “Ok, I’ll give it to you Jess, that’s one’s new. Tink?”
The spark hovered.
Dumb Peter, stupid big girl.
The spark shot toward Jessie. She wondered what kind of laser they were using for the effect.
And then…
Jessie was staring at the tiniest person she had ever seen.
She had strawberry blonde hair, all dressed in green and tiny sparkles, and she had wings, tiny little wings that looked like they were made from spun candyfloss.
Tinkerbell.
“Oh my goodness.” Jessie said. Looked back and forth between the boy and the pixie.
“You,” she said pointing at him, the she pointed at the flying spark, “And you, you’re Peter Pan & Tinkerbell!”
Peter spun around in the air and sat on the railing of the balcony again, he turned his head toward her, “I gotta tell you, Jess, I’m starting to have second thoughts about this..”
“About what?” Jessie said, looking at him.
“What do you think?” he looked at her like he didn’t think she was very bright.
Tink started buzzing around her head again. The pixie stopped right in front of her face and stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes at her, laughed, and flew back to Peter’s side.
Dumb big girl.
Jessie didn’t like that at all. “Hey what’s that all about? What’s she mean by that!”
Jessie crossed the balcony quickly and was now leaning over the railing to give the tiny sprite a withering look.
Tink hid behind Peter’s head.
Jessie climbed on the railing sitting on it just as Peter had done earlier.
“Oh is that how she deals with things?” Jessie said an edge in her voice, “She’s all big and bad..”
“Actually she’s not that big.”
“you know what I mean.”
Peter sighed, then he leaned closer to her.
Their faces were almost touching.
Tink started to fly around their heads leaving tiny green sparkes everywhere.
All Jessie could see was Tinkers fire reflected in Peter’s green eyes.
The crooked smile played across his face.
“So,” he whispered softly, “You coming?”
Jessie mouth went dry, her head felt light, her heart beating so hard she knew he could hear it.
“Neverland?” she whispered back.
Peter stood up, again he was floating on air. He started to move away from her, out in the air backwards then turned and moved back to her, He looked like he was skating on an ice rink that wasn’t there. The pixe behind him leaving a trail of sparks behind him.
He stooped about four feet in front of her. Close, but not close enough that she could reach him.
He held out his hand to her.
“Come on Jessie,” Peter said standing in mid air, the pixie floating next to him. “You can do it..”
She looked down at the city below, the air feeling warm and friendly on her skin.
“Come with me,” he said “ Come on, jump.”
She looked at him.
He smiled at her the wind tossing his red hair around.
“Come on Jessie,
"Trust me."
You can fly
And she jumped into the night air.
***
END OF BOOK ONE.
copyright fmyates 2008 all rights reserved.