As though it were a living, breathing thing, Neverland seemed to sense that Peter was almost home.
Like a puppy, it strained and wiggled to meet him at the door.
Whenever Peter went away, the island slowed.
The fairies slept late.
The wild animals nursed their babies.
The pirates and the lost boys and the Indians stopped fighting wars and just called one another names instead.
With his return, however, the whole place started to rumble as if a train were coming.
The lost boys set out to find Peter.
The pirates started looking for the lost boys, the Indians began looking for the pirates and the wild animals started looking for the Indians.
All of them went around and around the island, but at the same speed, so they never met.
Let us take a moment to examine each group as it passes.
The first to come our way are the lost boys.
The number of lost boys varies.
If someone grows up, which is against the rules, he is kicked out.
Right now there are six.
They wear bearskins and carry daggers and they creep through the bushes like soldiers in a single file.
Leading the group is Tootles.
Tootles has bad luck.
The biggest adventures always seem to happen whenever he steps around the corner for a snack.
When he returns, he inevitably finds the boys putting on bandages after a brilliant and bloody fight.
He could be bitter about it, but Tootles is the sweetest and humblest lost boy.
Next comes Nibs, the best-dressed of the Lost Boys, followed by Slightly, who can carve whistles out of wood and dances to his own tunes.
Slightly is also the most arrogant Lost Boy.
He sticks up his nose at everyone so much that sometimes you can see right up inside.
Curly is the fourth boy.
He is always getting into trouble, and he has grown accustomed to taking the blame even for things he didn't do.
Last are the twins.
We will not describe them because no one can ever tell them apart anyway.
Instead, let's move on to the pirates, close behind on the boys' trail.
They are a scary-looking bunch.
Leading their ragged group is the handsome Italian pirate Kecko, who carved his name in blood on the back of the warden of the prison from which he had escaped.
Behind him is the giant tattooed Bill Jukes, who once took six bullets before dropping the bag of gold pieces he'd been stealing.
Next are Cookson and Gentleman Starkey.
Starkey is the most polite of the pirates.
He always apologizes before stabbing anyone with his sword.
Then comes the Irish pirate, Smee, and Noodler, followed by a few more ruffians.
Somewhere in the middle of this dark and dangerous group is James Hook, the most feared pirate of them all.
His hair is styled in long, shiny black curls, framing a sternly handsome face.
His eyes are deep and black and dead, unless he is plunging his hook into someone, in which case his eyes sparkle a bright and happy red.
Hook is a different breed of pirate from the rest of his crew.
Except at the sight of his own blood, he is courageous.
He is a master storyteller.
He speaks beautifully and softly even when he is swearing, and is never more sinister than when he is being polite.
After the pirates come the Indians.
Creeping quietly like shadows, they carry tomahawks and knives.
Among them is Tiger Lily, the beautiful Indian princess, whom none dare approach for fear that she will raise her hatchet to them.
Behind the Indians creep the beasts, lions, tigers, bears, and other animals.
The beasts are so hungry that their tongues are hanging out.
There comes a giant crocodile.
He is hungry too, but not for just any meat.
No, he has a craving for something, or rather someone very specific.
The boys stop first.
They are getting tired.
I wish Peter would get home already and tell us how Cinderella ends, slightly said, out of breath.
Tootles was about to respond when the boys heard the pirates walking and singing in the distance.
The lost boys had stopped, but the pirates were still coming.
Peter had trained the boys well, and they knew exactly what to do.
In a flash, they each ran to a nearby tree.
Instead of climbing up, however, the boys went down.
The trees were hollow, each with a hole in it exactly as big as one of the boys, and all leading to the same underground cave.
Hook had heard about these tree doors and thought it silly that each boy had his own tree.
For his purposes, however, it suited him just fine.
Seven trees should be easier to find than one.
The pirates soon arrived in the clearing where the lost boys had just been.
While the others fanned out to continue their search, Hook and Smee stayed behind.
I think I spotted that nibs boy, Captain, Smee said.
Shall I run after him?
I could tickle him with my sword.
No, Hook said.
I want them all, especially their captain, Peter Pan.
He cut off my arm and threw it to a passing crocodile.
He waved his iron claw in the air.
One of these days, I'm going to shake his hand with this.
Is that why you fear crocodiles?
Smee asked.
Not all crocodiles, Hook replied.
Just that one.
It thought my arm was so tasty that it has followed me ever since, licking its lips, just waiting to eat the rest of me.
The only reason it has not caught me yet is that it swallowed a clock, which ticks inside it.
I always hear the beast coming and run away.
One day that clock's battery will die, Smee pointed out.
The ticking will stop.
I, Hook agreed darkly, sitting down on a mushroom.
It was a strangely warm mushroom, Hook thought.
Standing up, he pulled at the mushroom and discovered that its top easily came off.
The headless mushroom then started to smoke.
Why, it wasn't a mushroom at all.
It was a chimney.
Down the chimney, Hook heard voices.
It was the Lost Boys.
He had found their cave.
Looking around now, he could also see the holes in seven of the nearby trees.
The entrances.
"'I heard them say that Peter is away,' Smee whispered.
Hook smiled and nodded.
He carefully replaced the mushroom top.
He had a plan.
"'Let's return to the ship,'
Hook said.
We will bake a cake for them and leave it on Marooner's Rock in the Mermaid Lagoon.
The boys are sure to find it and gobble it up, and it will make them sick so that we can more easily capture them.
Oh, how Hook and Smee laughed as they walked back to the boat.
Soon, however, another sound replaced their laughter.
It was the sound of ticking.
Hook stopped short, shuddering.
Run, yelled Smee, but Hook was already gone.
