Peter Pantomime

Soup Stories

"How frustrating," Gwen muttered to herself while washing the last of the dishes, "To think that not only do I have to take care of even more children than before, but I'm also being ordered around by a boy who isn't even older than me. This world just seems like a cruel retribution from heaven for wanting to die ahead of time."

"Yes, ma'am," a boy named Nibbles replied meekly, as he helped her dry off the plate she handed him. "Shall I check on the cooking-pot, now?"

"Please do. Also, make sure it hasn't boiled over," Gwen frowned. "And make sure you don't lift the pot lid and stick your face right over it-"

Just then Nibbles clumsily lifted the lid and fell back, rubbing his eyes and declaring he'd been "stung." Gwen sighed and picked up the pot lid, asking him to show her his eyes. They seemed to be fine, but she relieved him of his duty in favor of Dodger, who seemed eager to take the position if only so he could be closer to the cooking pot.

"Don't you think the soup is a little too hot?" he asked. "I'm very prone to sunburns, you know, I shouldn't like to think what might happen if the soup is too hot. I might scald my tongue and have nightmares and never be able to eat soup again, all because it was too hot."

"That does sound concerning," Gwen remarked. "I suppose we can simply serve you last, that way the soup will have cooled down by then."

Dodger contemplated this, then came up with another idea. "You know, perhaps if we put some more water in the soup, then it will not be as hot."

"Oh, I don't know," Gwen muttered, trying to cut up the vegetables she had asked Rug Rat and Foxface to make-believe into existence for her. Rug Rat appeared to believe that vegetables were flowers and Foxface appeared to dislike them, as Gwen had to request carrots and spinach from him specifically. She had diced up the carrots into small cubes already, put the flowers in the sewing basket, and was now contemplating how to peel the potatoes. "At any rate, there's no soup in the pot right now, just water."

"Aye, I see that," Dodger nodded, peering closer.

Gwen then added the soup ingredients and wondered whether she could make-believe some cream or stock into existence. However, she either lacked imagination or needed more practice, as it did not seem to work.

"Sometimes, it doesn't really work," Dodger admitted, "but Peter will get mad if we slip up while we're make-believing, so we have to pretend it worked anyway."

"What a strange place this is," Gwen muttered. She asked Foxface if there were any mushrooms he could find for her and wished out loud that she had some fish or porridge.

"We can help with that!" Nibbles suddenly perked up. "We can go fishing at the Lagoon!"

The Lost Boys all stood up from their toadstools and began to beg Gwen to let them go fishing.

"I do apologize," Gwen tried to calm them down. "But I don't think we should go without Peter. After all, he knows where everything is and I've just barely arrived…" She paused. "Why don't you sit down and tell me more about this place while I finish cooking dinner?"

The Lost Boys looked at each other. They told her a few things that sounded too strange to be true- like stories of a wolf who accompanied the mothers while they played, or a fearsome pirate named Captain Hook who they liked to cross swords with on Tuesdays (though, quite dreadfully, only Foxface seemed to know the days of the week accurately). They also warned her about the tribe of people who they were not allowed to call Redskins but lacked the creativity to name otherwise, and how the mermaids in their lagoon would play with bubbles whenever a rainbow came out.

Personally, Gwen felt more intrigued by the idea of "mothers" before her and how so many poor, strangely uneducated boys had ended up together. This, however, appeared to be a difficult topic for the boys.

"You've mentioned a Jane and a Margaret. How were they like?" Gwen asked, pursing her lip.

Nibbles and Rug Rat looked at each other.

"I wouldn't know," Rug Rat said shyly. "I haven't been here that long..."

"Aye, I know!" Dodger piped up. "Margaret used to live with an evil stepmother who made her clean the fireplace, and at midnight she turned into a glass slipper but then a prince ate a poisoned apple and died so she turned into a pumpkin instead and woke up because of true love's kiss!"

"That's a fairy tale, Dodger," Fox Face said quietly, "Well, a whole bunch mixed together really, but that wasn't Margaret."

"Oh," Dodger said disappointed. "I could have sworn-"

"No swearing!" Rug Rat and Nibbles insisted immediately. Dodger took off his raccoon cap and sat down on the floor, twiddling it between his hands with a puzzled look on his face.

"You have talked with the mothers before, correct?" Gwen asked eagerly, but nobody was able to answer. She frowned, frustrated, and turned towards Michael and John. "What about you two?"

"Well, I was told that the John before me used to know the Margaret, but he was too stupid to be John so Peter got rid of him," John replied, his face strangely emotionless for his age.

"What?" Gwen asked alarmed.

"The next day, he came with Tink to my dorm window and asked me whether I was smart and if I knew the capital of Oslo. Therefore, I told him Oslo is the capital of Norway already and used to be called Christiania, so he asked me if I was bored and unhappy and I said yes and he carried me over to Neverland."

"He carried you? You hardly look any younger than him!" Gwen remarked.

"Fairy dust can make even an elefunt weigh as much as a feather," Rug Rat piped up.

"Besides," John replied, his face not moving an inch, "Peter is almost fourteen, you know." He then turned around and walked away, as if he had no other business with Gwen, which was slightly rude but she decided she did not want to deal with him anymore either.

"Well," Gwen asked, "What about you, Foxface?"

Foxface looked down at the ground and began to draw circles into the dirt with his foot. "I only heard about them from the Lost Boys before me, and they are long gone now," he replied curtly.

Gwen frowned, but that was all he would tell her.

"Well then," she cleared her throat, "In that case I would highly appreciate it if one of you could magick some stock into existence for me."

Dodger immediately volunteered, though unfortunately Gwen realized quickly that he had no idea what stocks were, only that his father used to talk a lot about them. He did, however, claim to more about stocks than any of his other companions. Gwen only smiled wryly in response.

"Well then," she said, "How about soup?"

If Foxface knew what soup was, he did not feel like helping her out, as he merely began to pick up the Lost Boys' clothes and walk around cleaning up their mess, so as not to answer her.

"I suppose we'll just have to do with vegetable hot water," Gwen sighed.

"Will dinner be ready soon?" Nibbles asked meekly.

"Yes, but I suppose we should wait for Peter," Gwen replied dryly. "If that really is his name."

Dodger frowned. "Of course his name is Peter. What else would it be?"

Gwen shrugged, then walked over to stir up the soup to make sure it would not burn the bottom of the pot.

"Well," she cleared her throat, "In the meantime, why don't you tell me some more about how you met Peter?"