CHAPTER TWO

Seeing Peter Pan

One night Mrs Darling was putting her children into beds, because it was Nana's night to rest. She washed her children and sang them songs as they fell to sleep. She decided to sit in the nursery for a while as her children slept and soon she also fell asleep.

She had a dream that the Neverland came close to the nursery and that a strange boy came into the room and stared at Wendy, John, and Michael. While she was dreaming, a boy really did come into the room through the open window! He was wearing clothes made out of tree leaves, and he was holding a small light. He flew around the nursery quietly looking at Wendy. Then he dropped to the ground next to her bed without making a sound. The light in his hand woke Mrs Darling. She opened her eyes and screamed in fear, knowing immediately that the boy was Peter Pan!

Nana heard Mrs Darling scream and ran into the room. When she saw Peter Pan she jumped at him, but he quickly flew out the window and disappeared into the night.

Nana closed the window just as Peter was flying out the window. She was too late to catch Peter, but she caught his shadow. His shadow was now free and it danced around the room. Each time Nana jumped at it, it would jump away. Finally Nana caught it. The dog then hung the shadow outside of the window. She knew that Peter would come back later to get it, and she didn't want him to awake the children.

The next day, Mrs Darling saw the shadow outside the window and decided that it looked bad hanging on the house. She didn't want the people in the neighborhood to be angry at her. So she pulled it off the window and put it into a drawer in the nursery. It stayed in that drawer until the next Friday night.

The Darlings went to a party that Friday night. It would be a long time before the Darlings could forget that night. Whenever Mrs Darling thought about this terrible Friday evening she would cry, "I wish I hadn't gone to dinner at the neighbor that night!"

"I wish I hadn't poured my medicine into Nana's water bowl!" cried Mr Darling.

That Friday evening had both started and ended badly. First, John refused to wash and kept climbing off Nana's back and running upstairs when she would try and carry him to the bath. Then, as Nana was running after John, she pressed against Mr Darling and got dog hairs all over his new suit. Finally, Michael refused to take his medicine. Nana held a spoon full of medicine in her mouth, but Michael would not take it.

"Be a man, Michael! Be brave!" said his father, "When I was young, I always took my medicine!"

"Why don't you take your medicine now?" suggested John.

"But that medicine tastes terrible!" cried Mr Darling.

"It can't taste as bad as mine does!" cried Michael.

"It's even worse!" answered his father.

"I have a good idea!" said Wendy. "You can both take your medicines at the same time?" Before Mr Darling could speak, Wendy ran to the bathroom and got her father's medicine and a spoon.

"Now both of you can take your medicine at the same time!" she said.

Michael quickly drank his medicine, but Mr Darling tried to hide his medicine behind his back.

"Drink your medicine, father!" yelled all three children.

Mr Darling was embarrassed that his little son had taken his medicine before he did, so Mr Darling tried to make the children think about something else.

"I have an idea!" he said, "I think that Nana needs some medicine, I'll pour some into her bowl, and she'll think it's just milk."

He poured some medicine into Nana's bowl and mixed it with some milk. Just then, Mrs Darling and Nana came into the room.

"Come here, Nana and drink some milk!" Mr Darling said. The children stared angrily at their father but did not dare to scold him.

Nana quickly drank all the milk in her bowl. After a moment she began to let out a painful cry and she walked slowly to her doghouse. The children all started to cry.

"You all care more about that dog than you care about me!" Mr Darling yelled at them, "It was good for her to take some medicine. I'm tired of her being the boss of the family. I won't let her stay in the nursery any more; I'm putting her outside." He grasped the dog and pulled her outside into the yard, and tied her to the big tree next to the house. When he came back inside he did not dare to look at his children. He felt bad after doing this terrible thing to their kind dog.

Before going out for dinner Mrs Darling put her children into bed and turned on the small night light. She was about to leave the room, when Nana started barking outside.

"Nana is so unhappy," said Michael.

"No. That's not the sound of her unhappy bark," Wendy told him, "She barks that way when she smells danger!"

Mrs Darling went over to the window and looked outside nervously. The window was locked, but she felt very afraid. She was afraid that Peter Pan would come back.

"I wish I hadn't agreed to go to this dinner party tonight!" she thought.

The children could feel their mother's fear. They hid under their blankets.

"Can anything hurt us when the night light is on?" asked Michael.

"No, my son," she answered, "Night lights are the same as mothers' eyes; they guard children when mothers' go to bed."

Michael wrapped his little arms around his mother's neck. "I love you, mommy!" he said. Mrs Darling did not know this now, but these would be the last words that she would hear any of her children say for a very long time.

Mr and Mrs Darling left the house and walked to the party. The sky was filled with bright stars. They worried that Peter Pan was planning to come to see their kids again. They knew that he was just waiting for the adults to leave. Peter Pan hated adults!

The stars watched Mr and Mrs Darling leave the house. The smallest star whispered "Let the fun begin, Peter!" as Mr and Mrs Darling entered their neighbor's house.