Peter’s mom will never let him hear the end of it.
She was so angry, he thought she could have summoned the lava from the center of the earth. But there was still one thing that bothered him.
The weird starstuff (a horribly lame name) felt so familiar even though he never heard of it before.
Where have I had this starstuff before?
The question that bothered him more then the strange history of the Haddock family.
He felt like he was connected to this Starcatcher business, but he just couldn’t place it.
Peter moaned in frustration as he face planted on his bed, overwhelmed by all his thinking.
This is too much! He yelled over and over in his mind.
He didn’t car if his street clothes were still on, he fell into a deep sleep.
------------------------------------------------------------
“Molly,” said Peter, exasperated. “Just tell me.”
“All right,”she said. She took a deep breathe. “Peter, have you ever seen a shooting star?”
“Yes,” said Peter.
“Do you know what they are?” said Molly.
“They’re rocks,” said Peter. “That fall from the heavens.”
“That’s true of most of them,”said Molly. “Almost all of them, in fact. But not quite all.”
“What do you mean?” said Peter.
“I mean some shooting stars are not rocks. Some - and very few - are made of something quite different. It’s called starstuff. At least that’s what we call it.”
“Starstuff? You mean pieces that fell from a star?”
“We don’t know what it is, truthfully,”said Molly. “But it’s not rocks, and it comes to Earth. And when it does, we have to find it, before the Others do.”
Peter shook his head. “Who d’you mean by ‘we’?” he said. “Who are the others? What does this have to do with . . .”
“Please, Peter,”she said. “I’m explaining it as best as I can.”
“Sorry,” he said. “Go on.”
“All right. First, what I mean by ‘we’. Peter, I’m part of a group, a small group of people. Well, mostly people. We’re called,” Molly’s hand went to the gold chain around her neck”--- the Starcatchers.”
“Starcatchers.”
“Yes. My father is one, as was his mother, and so on. Most of us are descended from Starcatchers, but not all. There have been Starcatchers on Earth for centuries, Peter. Even we don’t know how long. But our task is always the same: to watch for the starstuff, and to get to it, and return it, before it falls into the hands of the Others.”
“Return it where?”
“That’s . . . difficult to explain.”
“That’s . . . difficult to explain.”
“Well, then, who are the ‘Others’?”
“They’re . . . people, too, or most of them are. And they’ve also been around for a long time. They are out --- that is the Starcatcher’s --- enemy. No, that’s not quite right: we oppose them, but in truth they are mankind’s enemy.”
“Why? What do they do?”
“They use the power. They take it, and they . . .”Molly saw the puzzlement on Peter’s face. “But you don’t know what I mean do you? I need to explain, about the starstuff.”
“Is that’s what’s in the trunk,”said Peter.
“Yes,” said Molly. “That’s what’s in the trunk. It has amazing power, Peter. Wonderful power. Terrible power. It . . ., it lets you do things.” “What kind of things?”
“Well, that’s one of the mysteries. It’s not the same for everybody. And it’s not the same for animals as for people.”
“The rat,” said Peter. “The flying rat.”
“Yes,”said Molly. “That’s one of the powers it can give. Flight.”
----------------------------------------------------------
What’s happening to me?
Peter felt his body rising with the swell of the wave, and then, as the wave receded, he felt himself rise out of the wave, all the way out, back into the wind.
I’m . . . like the rat. Like Molly.
He twisted around and saw that he was several feet above the water now, drifting across the tops of the waves, the wind pushing him away from the Never Land. He heard an odd sound beneath him, looked down, saw the familiar rounded snout.
The porpoise. It pushed me up out of the sea.
It was chittering at him, but he had no idea what is was saying. Peter was sure it was the large porpoise, the one Molly had been talking to.
Ammm, that’s what she called him.
The porpoise began to swim toward the Neverland, now receding in the distance, then back toward Peter, then toward the ship again, then back. More chittering.
He wants me to follow.
Tentatively, Peter waved his arms; the wind was carrying him away, but he found that his arm motion had him turn his body, so that he was horizontal with his head pointing toward the ship. He waved his arms some more, nothing. Then he heard Ammm squeaking urgently, now directly under him. Peter looked down.
Whoa.
His body suddenly swooped forward, against the wind, gaining speed . . .
I’m going into the sea!
Peter raised his head; instantly, his body swooped upward, into a vertical position. He stopped moving forward and fond himself again being carried back by the wind. More squeaking from below. Tentatively, Peter leaned his body toward the horizontal again, and again he started moving forward, more slowly this time.
Ammm is teaching me to fly.
------------------------------------------------
“So you picked up the golden box?”Leonard asked Peter.
“I did,”said Peter.
“And how long did you hold it?”
“I don’t know,”said Peter. “A few seconds, I think. I can’t say for sure. As I told Molly, I almost fainted.”
“You almost did far worse than that,”said Leonard, but softly to himself.
“What did you say?”said Molly.
“Nothing,”said Leonard. “Molly, did you pick up the box?”
“Only for the briefest instant,”said Molly. “I had to pull my hand away. I don’t know how Peter managed to pick it up.”
“Nor do I,”said Leonard, studying Peter now with an intensity that Peter found disconcerting. “Nor do I. Tell me, Peter,”he said. “How did you fly out to rescue Molly from Slank?”
“I used the loose starstuff,”said Peter. “I poured it out of the trunk and scooped some into my hand.”
“I see,”said Leonard. “And you gave some to Molly, so she could fly back with you, is that right?”
“Yes,”said Peter.
“Molly,”said Leonard. “Can you fly now?”
Molly closed her eyes, concentrating.
“No,”she said, after a few moments. “It’s worn off.”
“Peter,”said Leonard. “Can you fly?
Peter’s body immediately started to rise.
“That’s odd,”he said, hovering a few feet off the ground.“Usually I have to try, but this time . . . I just thought about it, and here I am!” He floated gently back down.
“I see,”said Leonard, his expression grave.
“Father,”said Molly. “What is it? Is something wrong with Peter?”
“Not wrong, no,”said Leonard. “Not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”said Molly and Peter together.
“I mean,”said Aster,”that the starstuff may have changed Peter. Just as it changed the fish in the lagoon”---he gestured to the mermaids ---”it can change people too, if there’s enough of it.”
Peter was pale. “How did it change me? I don’t feel any different.”
“Fly,”said Leonard.
Immediately, Peter rose again.
“That’s how,”said Leonard.
“You mean . . . you mean I can just . . . fly now? Without needing more starstuff?”
“Yes,”said Leonard.
“And it’s permanent,”said Peter. “I’ll always be able to fly?”
“I believe so,”said Leonard.
“But that’s wonderful!”said Peter grinning happily, still floating just off the ground. “I can fly!”
“But, Father,”said Molly. “If that’s so, why don’t all the Starcatchers do what Peter did? Why don’t we expose ourselves to enough starstuff that we can always fly as well?”
“For two reasons,”said Leonard. “One is that the concentration of starstuff required for the transformation is ordinarily fatal, even for a Starcatcher, let alone a normal person. Peter is very, very lucky; he must have an extra ordinary tolerance for starstuff. Most people who picked up that leaking box would have died; in fact, we understand that several did die when that box was filled.”
“What’s the other reason?”said Peter.
“The other reason.”said Leonard,”is that the starstuff, in that concentration, causes other changes in humans, beyond just enabling them to fly.”
“What do you mean?”said Peter. “What other changes?”
“I don’t know frankly,”said Leonard. “There are few cases like yours of a person surviving the exposure, and each one is unique, but it’s possible that . . . that you . . .”
Leonard hesitated.
“That I what?”pressed Peter.
“That you won’t get any older.”
“What?”said Peter.
“That you’ll stay as you are,”said Leonard.”A boy. Forever.”
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Never Land
Peter looked at it. And then looked around him, at the lagoon; at the rock where the mermaids lounged; at the palm fringed beach; at the tinkling fairy flitting over his head; at his new friends the Mollusks; at the jungle-covered, pirate-infested mountains looming over it all.
Then he looked at the board again, and he laughed out loud.
“That’s exactly where I am,”he said.
-------------------------------------
Peter abruptly arose from his head in a cold sweat, his breathe coming out as shallow pants.
What was that?
The entire dreams, they seemed so real. He felt like he was the one named Peter.
Who was this Peter? He knew that he was related to the Starcatchers and could fly.
In the midst of his thinking, he realized a big factor.
The board that had the name “Neverland”, a flying boy, tinkling fairy . . . that could only mean one thing.
Peter Pan.
But . . . am I . . . Peter Pan?
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