Peter Pan - Hello, my name is Peter

By Robert Steiner

Sixty years after the original story, Wendy must face her fears and weaknesses and return to Neverland to rescue Peter from certain doom in this final and most touching chapter of the ever youthful legend of Peter Pan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Steiner
• Release date: Nov 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9788822872272

Book preview

1. Wendy

Hello, my name is Peter.

Wendy Moira Angela Darling pushed her wheelchair back and let the gentleman in. He was a young lad in his late twenties, very tall, skinny and shy looking. His slow and clumsy movements were a clear sign that this chap must be at his first experience.

Good, she thought, maybe this time I won’t get bored to tears during the trip.

The young man picked up the old lady’s things and pushed her wheelchair to the door. The luggage got caught in the doorway and he clumsily pushed it past the frame, flattening one of the old suitcases’ corners. Wendy caught that with the corner of her eye and chuckled as she realized he was trying to look as if he had full control of the situation. Sure enough, as she had foreseen, as soon as they reached the veranda, the lad and the luggage collapsed to the floor.

I take it you don’t have much experience at this?

"No ma’am, it’s my first day…and last, I hope. I usually drive the ambulance, I don’t handle patients directly. I’m only substituting a friend who got injured on the job."

"If you’re not careful, you’ll have to call him back to substitute you."

Their eyes crossed for a brief moment as he was picking up her personal belongings, which were now all over the veranda. That brief moment of embarrassment was now broken and they both burst out laughing.

Although life had not been kind to her, Wendy had always remained a positive thinker. Deep inside her she knew that a smile can clear away the darkest clouds and a good laugh can even heal wounds. Unfortunately, all of the smiles in the world could not cure the illness that was slowly but surely dragging her away from the living world. Five years in and out of hospitals had weakened her physically, but her smile could never be erased.

Sooner or later, the Great Landlord will ask us to leave the flat we occupy, she would tell her niece and nephew, Johnny and Margaret. He’s not mean, he’s just being fair. ‘You’ve occupied it for a long time now’, he’ll say, ‘and now it is time for someone else to move in’.

The younglings of course didn’t grasp the meaning of those words, but they knew she was old and wise and thus, had to be taken seriously. At six and seven life is but a game and the landlord has not even come to claim the first month’s rent yet. Wendy on the other hand, knew her movers were just around the corner, but it didn’t scare her. She wouldn’t put up any resistance when the time came.

She sat back on the bed as the chemo fluids started flooding her veins. Today, the needle didn’t hurt going in, but then again, she had grown immune to pain. Time and time again her skin had been pricked by a needle: during therapy, during labour pains when she gave birth to her only child, Jane, and before that…no, some things are better forgotten. And yet, the feelings such memories evoked! What an incredible power they had over her. Her strong personality, her incredible sense of humour was bent by those sad reminiscences, the only thing in the world powerful enough to erase the smile from her face.

The clouded memories of that hospital slowly seeped back and filled her heart with darkness. All that suffering, the tears, the years, the medicines could never erase what she didn’t want to forget, what she fought to keep alive inside her…that name: Peter.

Often, when people don’t want to face a problem, they simply remove it. If it’s a bad memory, they hide it in some distant corner of their mind. If it’s a person, they lock him or her away, far from sight. That’s what they had done with her after her last return from Neverland.

She suffered a severe trauma during her abduction and her child’s psyche has transformed her captor into a flying boy, explained the child psychologists to her parents, and now she believes he comes and takes her away every spring. That explains why she runs away. This is a serious form of schizophrenia which must be treated medically in order for her to be properly reintegrated into society. This was their way of denying she had actually been there, much like they had when they were her age. Instead, they preferred to believe she was kidnapped and had gone bananas! So they locked her up and filled her with drugs for five endless years.

Little did they know that all that time in a hospital bed and all that therapy had only engraved that name deeper into her soul. Peter, that wonderful name, that wonderful boy who took her places she’d never been before. Why did he never come back to save her whenever she screamed his name?

Grandma! Grandma!, shouted Margaret as she burst through the door followed by her mother, Jane.

Jane had always had a hard time controlling her children. She just couldn’t tame their wild spirits. Wendy saw much of herself in them, especially Margaret with whom she had a very close relationship.

Marg, leave your grandmother alone. Can’t you see she’s got a needle in her arm?. The child managed to climb onto the bed and Wendy wrapped her free arm around her to protect her from Jane, whom in the meantime had caught up and wanted to take her away.

No Jane, she’s not bothering me. It takes more than a little child to remove these needles. My skin has hardened so much over the years that it would take a jackhammer to tear them out. Let her be. Jane retreated to a chair to dry off some sweat as William entered carrying John in one arm and a bag of goodies in the other.

Hello all. Look who’s here ma? It’s Johnny! Seeing his grandmother, Johnny stretched out his arms to hug her, but Jane intercepted her son.

No Johnny. Can’t you see your grandma has her arms full already? You’ll embrace her later.

C’mon dear, they only get to see their grandmother once a month. William was the pacifier of the group, always intervening to soothe his overly apprehensive wife and his overly permissive mother-in-law and mediate between two very strong personalities, which rarely saw eye to eye.

Come to grandma, Johnny.

Grandma! Johnny jumped up onto the bed and crouched next to Wendy.

You’ll end up spoiling them if you always let them have their way. They have to grow up and learn to take ‘no’ for an answer!, squealed Jane.