PAN 25
Long, long, ago...
She was falling,
and she was scared.
Suddenly everything around her just,
changed.
And there she was.
In the mortal world.
The last stop before...
The mortal world was bright and fine.
She felt the sun on her face.
Strong and true.
But, it didn't make her happy.
Didn't help.
She was still falling.
***
The Jolly Rodger
Smee's heart was beating in his chest.
The Captain and the boy were standing on the plank out over the water.
Pan hands were tied and the noose was around his neck.
Was this it?
Was it finally over?
Was this the last day?
All around they crowed the deck.
No one spoke.
No one dared.
They all just stood and watched.
Next to him was Jon-Jon, he was the youngest crew member.
The capatain had found him some time ago.
He was young, but that didn't mean he didn't know.
Didn't understand.
Was it really going to happen?
Jon-Jon thought.
No it had to happen for Marcie.
All eyes were fixed on the Captain.
He was standing on the Gang plank streached out over the open sea.
Dressed in Officer finerery of velvet violet and black, he stood stiff, stern, and strong.
Unforgiving.
But as striking a sight as he was, he was not the center of attention.
Oh, No.
That honor belonged to him.
The boy.
The blight.
The devil's favorite son.
Pan.
Peter. Pan.
Hook and Peter were facing each other. Hook turned and stared at the crew, but mostly at Smee and Jon-Jon. Hook nodded his head.
With a snap and a salute Jon-Jon turned and handed him the wooden drumsticks.
Smee returned the salute, took the sticks and began the slow rhythmic drumroll.
Over the ocean Hook looked Pan. The boy looked up his green eyes shining. Then for a second over top of both their heads, he caught a glimpse of something. Almost like a silver green shooting star against the afternoon sky.
Hook's mind wandered back...
The battle had been fierice.
It had started in the lagoon, the mermaids luring both groups to the water so that the vixens could taunt, promise, provoke, and watch for their own wicked plesures. But once engaged the two groups discovered that their greatest passions lay in the final demise of the other. So they fought.
Fought at the lagoon.
Fought through the forrest.
Fought on the shore.
Fought at the islands edge as the tide rolled in.
Fought in the sea.
And finally on the deck of the 'Rodger' itself.
And in the end,they had lost many a crew mate but they had given back as much as they took, perhaps, even more.
In the end,
As the Sun hung low in the sky.
In the end,
on the deck of the 'Jolly Rodger.
Surrounded by the dead.
The last few dregs, of what was left of the lost boys crawled away.
But, Pan stood alone.
Alone and proud.
And Hook, torn and bloody.
Just the two.
Pan and Hook.
Alone.
Like gunfighters.
Like eniemies.
Like legends.
“Just you and me, Hook.” Pan grinned.
Hook returned the smile and lit the stub of his smoke still clenched in his teeth.
“Aye, boy. Just you and me...” his leer broadened, his eyes shone.
“Actually, No. Boys!”
And they were upon him. They had played chicken. For every two that fell. One had feined and while still alive had fell also. Holding back, and following the fight, hiding in the brush and helping the crew who could be helped, and ending the lost boys who fell behind, and waiting. Wating, for the captain to give the signal for the bushwack.
Before Peter could blink, they were upon him. They fell upon him like a wave of vengence, for all they had suffered from him. As they attacked every man, every single one of them to a pirate heard the voice of a sister, a daughter, a niece, a friend, a piece of their hearts and souls, Eve's virgin voice screaming for retribution, for justice, for respect. Wanting to know why.
Why he had singled them out? To tease, taunt, and take them. To look them in the eye, to hear their fantasies and fears, to understand their declarations and dreams, the secrets they had never told. Their happily ever after.
Just to not care.
Just in the end to grow bored, and ignore them, and toss them away, as they were no longer special.
These were the questions that cried out in to the soul of each and every member of the crew, as they lay their tired and bloody hands upon him. And today Peter Pan would anwer to them.
Or so they thought.
But not without a fight. At first the atvantage was theirs. Their fists found him, blows knocked him down.
But then...
It was like someone had opened up a can of thunder and Pan was the lightining.
He was fast.
He was quick.
He was sharp as a razor.
For every blow they struck, Peter gave, two, four, five!
But the pirates pressed on, even as they fell they pressed on.
As the sun set in the sky, they pressed on harder.
In the end he finally fell.
Those that were grabbed him, held him. He snarled, twisted, and fought trying to free himself That alone sent five men to meet their maker. But then under a pale half moon they had him, finally.
As Hook clicked the lock on the tiny cage that would hold him, he grinned, blood running from the corner of his mouth. “Yer, Mine! Peter, yer mine.”
Peter stared back, caged and cornered, blood also on his chin.
“We'll see.”
***
At first he sat in the cage and talked to no one.
They dressed their wounds and buried their dead.
They buried their own. But as they moved across the island, seeing the bodies big and small, their hearts changed. And so they buried the boys also.
In the end daughters and sons the heart makes no prejudice.
But Pan said nothing.
Ate nothing.
Then, one day Hook came to the brig. He dismissed them all, and closed the door, and they were alone.
After 3 hours he came out, made two plates for dinner, and walked back into the brig.
This went on for six days.
On the evening of the sixth day he came up onto the deck.
He said:
“Tomorrow he hangs, see to preparations Mr. Smee.”
And he went back to his cabin for the first time.
***