The Way to Believe

“Sami!” I hugged my friend.

“Where’ve you been?” She looked at Hunter, “Who’s that?”

“Err,” I stuttered, “Um.”

“I’m Hunter.”

I looked around, “Err, can we go somewhere else?”

“Why?” Sami looked at with her brown eyes. She had dyed the ends of her short black hair green. And the polish on her nails matched the green to a tee. She had on a baggy black sweater and green skinny jeans.

“Important information.” I grimaced.

“You’re really botching this up.” Hunter whispered to me.

I stuck my tongue out at her, “Can we just go for a walk?”

“Yeah, okay.” Sami turned in the doorway and yelled, “Mum I’m going out with Iris!”

“Oh! Is she here?” Came a disembodied voice from the kitchen. “Was she sick?”

Was I sick? No my mum died. You’d have thought that would have been in the papers. Mother Crashes; Daughter Disappears.

“Um something like that. Bye!”

“Bye Honey.”

We left her house and walked down the alley between the houses.

“So, where’ve you been?”

I gulped, “Okay, here goes. I was in Neverland.”

Sami stopped and sputtered, “What? Neverland. You’ve been in Neverland.”

“Err, yeah.” I grimaced.

“You expect me to believe that? Are you smoking something?”

I looked at Hunter; she just rolled her eyes, “I told you she’d take it like this.”

“You don’t even know her.”

“You don’t even know me.”

We looked at each other and smiled, in unison. Like always.

“Yeah, but every one takes it like this.” Hunter growled.

I stared at her, “But you said-”

“Doesn’t mean people haven’t tried.” She grinned at me, “It’s never really happened, because of this. Nobody ever believes.”

“But that’s the magic of it, you have to believe.”

“They don’t know that. At least not yet.”

“Well they should. I knew. Even before Neverland.”

“Of course you did, but no one else does.”

“Did you?”

“Yes.”

Sami interrupted us, “I’m confused, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Neverland and it’s magic.” I told her.

“Yes I garnered that myself. Are you really telling me that Neverland exists? And Peter Pan and Tinkerbell? And the Lost Boys? And Wendy?”

“Well, Wendy and the Lost Boys are dead.” Hunter said matter-of-factly “But yeah, everyone else is still there.”

“Wendy’s dead?” Sami looked worried.

“Yeah, well she didn’t stay in Neverland. She wanted to grow up.” Hunter growled, “Stupid her.”

“Stupid her? Don’t you want to grow up? And do things you can’t do now? Like drive and drink. I wouldn’t want to be under the control of my parents forever.”

“Well that’s the beauty of Neverland.” Hunter smirked, “You don’t have parents.”

“Didn’t Peter Pan want a mother?”

“Just to tell stories. Not to actually mother him.” She grinned, “He would hate that.”

“He’s a free soul that one.” I added.