Peter Pan to the Rescue

Chapter 3
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Chapter Description: Michael's adventure with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys is over. But isn't Neverland in every child's heart?

Michael awoke, though he could no longer tell the difference between being awake and asleep, no more than he could tell the difference between a fairy-tale and a history-book, only knowing that one was more interesting. Such it was no surprise to him, to see fairies above him. None of them was Tinkerbell and so far, had only served as his mobile instead of flying around, still Michael told them in a baby’s gurgling to say Tink, that he was a big boy today.

Then – to prove it – he turned around.

Definitely a big boy!

Lying on his stomach, Michael noticed his favorite toy lying close by. It was a stick which ended in a set of colorful pieces. It made wonderful sounds, when moved. He could not name the colors, but he knew the toy was called rattle. Another proof how big he was. Proud of himself, Michael grabbed the rattle, shook it a bit and then took it in his toothless mouth to taste the colors.

“Oh, is my little adventurer already up?”

Michael turned on his back again, to see the source of the soft voice. It was mommy, looking down on him with a smile which made him feel all warm. Proudly he shook his rattle and stretched all four limbs to her. Mommy looked so big and clever and beautiful. Sometimes he had the idea, faint as a fairy’s wing, that he had once had a different name for her, but now the one he held in his heart was this.

***

Mary smiled down on Michael in his crib, wearing his pirate-onesie and drooling a bit.

“Did you dream of Neverland again?”

This made the little baby become even more vivid, shaking his rattle, moving and gurgling, as if he wanted to tell her of an adventure. Mary just smiled, picked him up and carried him over to the changing table, feeling the thick diaper at her former husband’s bottom.

“You know,” she told him, as he lay on the changing table. “I was such worried at first, when you began talking of Peter, the Lost Boys and your adventures in Neverland, but I really shouldn’t have been.”

With skilled hands she opened the buttons at the end of his onesie, removed it and revealed the swollen diaper.

“The adventures sounded like so much fun and they made you forget all your worries about shrinking. Which was great, because all these worries didn’t help anyone, really.” Mary removed the diaper, used some wipes to clean the butt and front and put some crème on it. “This is was Peter is for. He helps children to be brave.”

Michael cooed on this, in agreement, or just liking the feeling of a clean butt. His mother smiled and put him in a fresh diaper, before once again taking him up.

“Mommy! Mommy!”

Mary turned around, to see a little girl in a white nightgown with flowers on it, rushing in the nursery.

“Good morning Wendy;” Mary greeted her, smiling down at the five-year-old. “Exciting for the first day of Kindergarten?”

Wendy nodded enthusiastically.

“And what will you tell the teacher?” The grownup asked.

“I am Wendy Moira Angela Darling!“ The girl said proudly.

Mary felt a hint of sadness, she hid behind a proud smile, while looking down at her former friend. Wendy had forgotten her former Kindergarten group already and would forget this one, when they moved on to school, too, while she stayed behind.

“I am John!” A three-year-old blond boy said, as he came in, rubbing his eyes, dressed in a Thomas the Engine-shirt which clearly showed the night-time-training-pants.

“Sure you are dear!” Mary said. “And all dry today.”

Behind the boy, George came in and leaned himself at the door of the former guest room turned nursery. The two grown-ups, now husband and wife, shared a knowing, loving look, reserved for adults and going far above the heads of the children in the room. Children, who in a way, had all found a way to Neverland.

“Who wants to have breakfast?” Mr. Darling asked after a moment and added, when a dog was heard barking: “And to feed Nana?”

Wendy and John cheered, following their father downstairs. Mary was left alone with little Michael.

“Do you want breakfast, too?” She asked him.

She took his cooing as a yes and carried the baby, who still wore only just a diaper, to the rocking chair. Sitting there, she opened her nursing bra and led his toothless mouth in the direction of the nipple. As Michael began sucking, Mary smiled down on the former man and began to caress his soft, brown hair, light as any young baby’s was, reflecting not for the first time, that in a way, this was more intimate than anything they had ever shared as husband and wife.

Michael meanwhile ate hungrily. Unburdened by big thoughts. Unburdened by any past. In the window he noticed something an adult would have thought as the reflection of sunlight, but he saw Tinkerbell, watching smiling. Still drinking, he returned the smile, causing some milk to run down his cheek. Michael didn’t care. Soon he would be big enough for adventures.

The End