“Identify?” Michael asked.
“I mean that she’s empathizing with him. I don’t know why. He must have told her something that made her trust him. Probably some sob story or something.”
“Hook told Wendy a sad story so that she would agree to meet him every night on deck for sword lessons?”
“Well. . . . ” John stammered, “I mean. . . .” He seemed a bit befuddled for a moment and then he blew out a frustrated sigh. “Never mind.” He shook his head. “Besides,” he started over. “I think Wendy’s just doing it to get good enough that she can beat Hook if she has to. She doesn’t talk to him at any other time. She stays in the barracks with us and she works on deck with us all day, even though Hook doesn’t seem too pleased about it.”
Hook suddenly advanced and Wendy expertly counter-attacked, managing to knock his sword to the side. Even from their distance, they could hear Hook commend her emphatically. And even from their distance they, too, could see Wendy’s smile.
Without looking up at his older brother, Michael changed the subject. “When will we get to Neverland?”
“Soon, I think. The pirates are beginning to get restless. I overheard Starkey saying that Neverland was ‘a breath away.’”
“Feels like it’s been years. How do you know we’re not there already and we’re just flying over the ocean below us?”
“The night and day are coming at regular intervals,” John told him. “In Neverland, it would take a literal year before night would fall.” He shook his head. “We aren’t there yet.”
Michael sighed. He tore his eyes off of the sister he loved and the pirate he hated and turned to look out over the black vastness of space once more. “I saw a shooting star earlier.”
“That’s impossible,” John said. “Shooting stars are really meteors that burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. We aren’t on Earth any longer, and so there’s no atmosphere for meteors to burn up in.” Of course, right after he said it, he realized the error of his statement. After all, by that reasoning, day and night shouldn’t have existed either.
Michael said softly, “I made a wish.”
John was silent for a long time before, quietly, he asked, “What did you wish for?”
“Can’t tell you. Then it won’t come true.”
“Captain!” came a call behind them. The two boys spun around to find Smee climbing down the futtock shrouds from the Crow’s Nest. He leapt onto the deck, one hand holding his glasses on his face, the other hand pulling his red hat straight on his head. “Captain!” he repeated.
Hook straightened and sheathed his sword. Wendy stepped back away from him and did the same as Smee came running up to salute his captain. “What is it, Smee?”
“Land below, Captain.” His smile was miles wide. “We’ve reached Neverland.” He was breathless as he relayed this. Wendy’s eyes grew wide.
“Neverland. . . .” she whispered. Then she ran to the side of the ship and bent over the railing, peering into the darkness below. It was very dark and she could see nothing.
“You’ll need this, Wendy.” Hook was beside her, having moved as quietly as a cat across the ship’s deck. He held out his telescope, long and lean. He was smiling, and for once, the smile seemed to reach the blue of his eyes.
She took the looking glass from his hand, hesitantly at first, and then excitedly. In a moment, John and Michael were both beside Wendy, each wanting to look through the glass as well. But she held them back as she adjusted the lenses, concentrating on the darkness below her.
“I… don’t… see…” and then, suddenly, there it was. A black outline of mountain and shore against a deep, dark, troubled sea. “Wait – there it is!”
At this point, John literally ripped the telescope from her hands and scrambled to peer through it himself. Wendy scowled at him. He didn’t seem to notice.
“You’re right. There it is.” He frowned and removed the lens, handing it in turn to Michael, who took it greedily. “But it certainly is dark.”
Michael stood on his tip toes, leaned carefully over the railing, and put the glass to his eyes.
“Where are the Piccadilly tribe’s camp fires?” John asked. “And the lights from the pixies’ trees? And the blue glow from the underwater lamps at Mermaid Lagoon?”
To this, Hook took a very deep breath. His expression was contemplative. “Neverland, it would seem,” he began carefully, “is… different these days.” He turned around and paced a few steps away, his gaze locking on something far across the distance of night – something that no one else could see.