The Heart of Neverland

"What did you just say?" I asked, my voice rising and my mind reeling from Peter's incomprehensible words.  "What do you mean it was all my fault?"

"Please Wendy, don't get get so excited and let me expl....ouch!" He yelped, and I realized that in my temporary daze I had stabbed Peter's heel with my sewing needle. However, I didn't feel at all sorry.

"That's what you get for shocking me like that," I told him as he cradled his injured foot in his hand. 

"Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best way to bring it up,"

"You decide that now?" I put in, cutting him off.

He gave me a look that was almost a glare and continued. "Listen Wendy, I'm sorry, but now you've got to let me  you've got to let me explain what I meant with out asking questions," I opened my mouth to object and he rested a single finger gently upon my open lips. Instantly I lost everything that I had wanted to say.

Removing his hand from my mouth and taking my hands in them instead, he began to explain by saying, "Now Wendy, when I said it was all your fault I didn't mean that it was directly your fault. No, it's more your fault in a very...round about sort of way.

"Now I want you to imagine Neverland as a living, breathing, feeling creature. Can you picture that?" He asked, and I nodded for him to continue. "So because Neverland is living, it must have a heart.

"This heart is not like the conventional human heart, no, it does not do ordinary functions such as pumping blood or keeping the body alive. Hearts of places hold the spirit and memories of where ever it is. They are as ancient as creation itself, and it becomes the central part of any place. 

"The heart of Neverland, however is very different. No one knows how, but for whatever strange reason, the heart transplanted itself into a another creature, a creature it held very dear."

"That creature was you," I guessed, and Peter wrinkled his nose at me. 

"That was the good part of the story," he said, offended that I had stollen his thunder. "And yes, as you already guessed, Neverland gave it's heart to me."

"Sorry," I said, noticing for the first time since Peter had started his story how tight his grip on my hands had become. The feeling wasn't uncomfortable,  no, I instead thought them desperate, as if they were crying out for me to help them. "Peter, what has Neverland's heart, your heart, have anything to do with the disasters that have befallen your poor little island?"

"It has everything to do with it. Because Wendy, Neverland's heart has been gone for nearly four years. In fact, it's not only gone it was stolen."

"But Peter," I objected, "if Neverland's heart was is your heart, how could it possibly have been stolen, or even just gone? It's impossible, your still living."

Peter released my hands and stood on the window seat. Looking down at me with the saddest of eyes, he answered, "Because Wendy, someone stole it, someone who used the strongest force of all..."

All at once the house shook and although I managed to hang on to the cushion I was sitting on Peter tumbled off the window seat and crashed onto the floor. 

"Wendy, was that an earthquake?" Peter asked, sounding very unsure. 

"An earthquake? In London?" I shook my head.

"Then perhaps and explosion?" he guessed again as he picked him self off the floor.

"I'm not sure, and Peter, how is it that you know all about explosions and earthquakes?"

"I'm getting older remember?" he leaned against the wall, still shaking from the fall.

Suddenly the door burst open and as it slammed violently against the bedroom wall I watched my little brother as he hobbled into the room. "Jon," I said cautiously as I ran to him, and although he wasn't much smaller than me I managed to catch him as he fell into my arms. "Jon, what has happened."

"Oh Wendy," he cried, "the most terrible of nightmares has returned." 

"Jon, what are you talking about," I demanded, looking into my brother's honest eyes. 

A single, hopeless tear slipped down his cheek as he swallowed and said, "Hook's returned, and he's kidnapped Michael."