Lost in the Never Woods(27)

With a sigh, she tossed them in the hamper.

What was she supposed to do now? How was she supposed to explain any of this—Peter, his shadow—to anyone?

Oh, yes, I almost ran a boy over with my truck last night. Turns out, he claims to be a character from stories my mom made up! Did I mention he doesn’t have a shadow? Like, literally. And he needs my help to find it!

Wendy scowled. Logically, it didn’t make any sense, but she had seen with her own eyes that his shadow was missing. There was no denying who he was any longer.

Wendy tried to organize her thoughts. What did she know?

She knew he was the boy she had been subconsciously drawing. He was her daydreams come to life, even if he was a bit older than the Peter in her mother’s stories. He’d definitely heard her tell stories before, but more important, he knew her brothers. In the middle of all the wild coincidences and impossible things like missing shadows, Peter knowing John and Michael was the most unsettling.

Wendy dried off and changed into an oversized sleep shirt. She crept to her dresser and pulled out of the small jewelry box the one thing she had always associated with her lost memory: the acorn. She sat in the middle of her bed and stared at the acorn, balancing it in the center of her palm.

Peter knew things that she couldn’t remember. He was the key. If he could fill in the chunks of memories that had been ripped from her mind, then she could figure out what happened. She could find her brothers and get them back. It felt like an invasion of privacy—the idea that Peter knew something about what had happened to her. That he held the secret to those missing months. That this could mean Wendy finding the answer to the questions that had been eating her alive for years.

And at the center of all this was the question: Was he really Peter Pan?

Wendy dug into her small trash can and uncrumpled one of the many drawings she’d made of Peter Pan’s face. She lay on top of the blankets because it was still too hot to sleep under them, then sighed and tried to force herself to calm down. Counting the fairy lights around her window and rolling the acorn between her thumb and index finger, Wendy drifted off to sleep.

Wendy sat on a fallen log in the middle of a mass of trees, but not like the woods behind her house back home. The log was covered in vines as thick as rope. The bark under her hands was wet and smooth. Dark green giants with shiny leaves shot up into the sky. Sunlight filtered through a covering of palm fronds. Palm trees rose from white sand, bowed with coconuts. She was under a lush canopy of gleaming leaves.

Even though Wendy had never been away from the Pacific Northwest, she knew this had to be a jungle. Colorful parrots with vibrant red, blue, and yellow feathers called from nearby branches. In the distance, there was a soft thump of overripe fruit dropping to the ground. There must have been a beach nearby. Wendy could recognize the rhythmic song of waves crashing on the shore as it filtered through the jungle. The air was warm and heavy. Her skin felt sticky and she could taste salt on her lips.

Wendy looked down at herself. She wasn’t in the same bulky swimmer’s body she’d grown into over the last several years. This one was small, skinny, that of a child. She wore a pair of white leggings with lace hems and a white buttoned blouse with flowy sleeves. Even though they were smudged with dirt, she instantly recognized them as the clothes she had gone missing in.

Wendy’s heart pounded in her chest, but she couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t make herself get up or move. She had no control over her body. The sound of an owl drew her attention. That was when her head turned and she saw a young boy sitting next to her, his hands cupped around his mouth. He had a shock of wild auburn hair and dazzling eyes, all the more radiant in the sunshine.

A giggle escaped her own lips. The boy dropped his hands to his side and grinned at her. He had that same small chip in his front tooth.

Wendy’s throat felt tight, but she heard herself say, “You’re so good at that, Peter! Will you teach me how to do it?”

Of course it was Peter. This was the Peter she always pictured in her head. Much younger than he had been last night, but unquestionably him. Undoubtedly the same.

“Sure!” His voice was higher and it squeaked with his enthusiasm, but the self-assured tone was still there. “I can do this, too.” Peter pursed his lips and made a medley of cricket chirps. The same sounds he had made last night in the woods.

The sense that she had lived this scene before was painfully strong. It was more than déjà vu, it was a memory .

“Oh, I love crickets!” said her much younger voice again.

Peter grinned and scooted a bit closer, dangling his skinny legs over the log next to hers. “I know,” he said, knocking his bare foot into hers.

“Wendy! Peter!”

The breath she sucked in ripped her chest open.

“Wendy, where are you!”

She would have recognized those voices anywhere.

Peter scrambled away from Wendy. She heard herself giggle again, but she strained to hear the voices of John and Michael calling for her.

“We’re over here!” Peter called back.

She could hear both sets of their feet thumping through sand. The slap of lush undergrowth as they ran through it. She could hear John laugh while Michael whined, “Wait for me!”

They were right there, just behind that set of trees. At any moment, they would come into view and she would see her brothers again.