Peter Pantomime

The Fairies' Abode

When Gwen was younger, before fairy tales became strictly banned, she used to sit with the older girls and ask them to tell her stories. They had told her all the stories that they judged necessary for a developing young girl to know, with some inventive embellishments of their own, but one memory that stuck with her was of one of their more unorthodox tales.

"Did you know," an older girl had piped up, "that heaven looks like a tree?"

Gwen blinked, somewhat puzzled. "Is that really true?"

"Yes," the girl nodded confidently. "It's like a tree, but you're not allowed to eat the fruit from it. And there are a lot of snakes surrounding it, but if you eat the fruit, you get sent to hell."

"Oh, I see," Gwen blinked, still confused. "What does hell look like?"

The older girl paused. "The Matron's old coat closet."

In the ensuing week, she had told this tale to all the other children until the Matron, furious and angered by all the children who had decided to climb the trees in the garden and sometimes injured themselves, demanded to know who had started the fib. All the other younger kids had pointed to Gwen, resulting in her first and last time being locked up in the dark, musty, cramped old closet. The following week afterwards, they went to church and Gwen learned that the story was really only a mistaken retelling of the Garden of Eden.

Oddly enough, when she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was reddish wood. Gwen blinked again and found she was in some sort of space that resembled a miniature house. There were holes in the sides that served as windows and yellow leaves as blinds. The boards above her head were covered in moss, just like the floor, and there even was a little hole in the roof through which Gwen peeked. It appeared to be a chimney, albeit a very short one, similar to a black hat.

"Well, this certainly doesn't look like a tree, even if it appears to be made out of one," she murmured, feeling slightly dizzy as she peeked out one of the windows.

This was a great mistake, as the instant she glanced out she saw something that made her quite nauseous. She realized, in that brief moment, that the little house she was inside of was perched high above everything in the tree tops.

Gwen shrieked and fell back, panicking for a moment. Steeling her courage, she forced herself to stand up and approached the window more slowly. Peering out, she caught another glimpse of the world outside of the window-mostly leaves and tree boughs. She appeared to be lost in a forest without any nearby village or civilization. She could only faintly see a grassy patch on the ground near some shorter trees which were all clustered together. Oddly enough, there even was a large mushroom the size of a stool from which smoke faintly wafted, sprouting out of the ground. Gwen shook her head, trying to clear it of whatever hallucinations it was creating, but nothing changed.

Desperately she searched for some way to get down, maybe a trapdoor leading to a ladder. But sadly, she could not find one. She did notice, however, a few nests that were carefully tucked into the tree boughs. She could see tiny, glowing lights darting about and vanishing- mauve and white ones, then tinier blue ones. They reminded her faintly of Christmas lights, and she could have sworn she could hear the faint sound of bells. Without any clue regarding what to do, she leaned out of the window and yelled out "Is anyone there?"

The mushroom stopped smoking.

Gwen shook her head. "Is anyone here?"

A strange, dark shape peeked around the cluster of trees. She wondered if it might be a person, but to her horror realized it had the ears, paws and furriness of a bear. Jumping back, she squealed and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. However, when the figure looked up, she saw that it had a human's face. He was only a boy dressed as a bear, and in fact there was another one posted at the other end of the short trees.

"Hello? Can you please help me? I'm stuck in this-this tree house up here!" Gwen yelled.

The boys looked up and blinked, exclaiming something to each other. Gwen waved at them and continued to yell. They suddenly ran off, and appeared once more, surrounded by a group of other boys who also looked up and marveled among themselves.

"Excuse me?" Gwen called out, confused. "Can you please tell me how to get down from here?"

The boys stared up at her. Now that she had a better look at them, she could see that only two of them were really wearing bear pelts. The others seemed to be wearing strange pajamas that made them resemble forest animals.

"That's easy! Just fly down!" a boy wearing a rat costume shouted.

Gwen glared down at him. "Now isn't the time to joke around, I really want to get onto the ground right now. Do you have a ladder, or something?"

The boys turned towards each other. "Perhaps she cannot hear us from here," one suggested. Immediately, another blinked and exclaimed "I'll go get the Noisemaker!"

"I can hear you just fine!" Gwen hollered, banging her hands on the sides of the treehouse walls and instantly regretting it when she noted how flimsy they really were. "And please stop playing around, I honestly don't know what to do!"

"You mean…you can't fly?"

"No!" Any person with a logical brain would know that!

The boys stared at her and turned towards each other, nudging one another with their elbows and whispering. Gwen groaned, at her limit. "Are there any other ways you know of to get down? Yes, or no?"

"Maybe if you ask Tinker Bell to help you, she'll show you how to fly!"

"What?"

"I've got the Noisemaker!"

"Hand it here!" The oldest boy grabbed a funnel made out of leaves and, holding it up to his mouth, hollered "Tinker Bell might be able to help you!"

"…Tinker Bell?" Gwen muttered, confused. The name sounded vaguely familiar.

The other boys seemed to like this, apparently assuming that they were already acquainted. "Yes, yes! We can ask Tinker Bell to help us! Quick, get Tink!" Quickly, they pointed and ordered each other about until one of them agreed to carry out the errand. He then ran to a tree with a hole in it, just large enough to fit him.

Before Gwen could guess what was happening, the boy climbed into the hole and vanished. He did not reappear for several minutes, during which Gwen tried to call on the boys again. However, after a while the same boy crawled out of the tree hole, panting and reporting "Tink won't answer to me! She says I'm lying and there's no new mother!"

"How can it be?" the other boys exclaimed, except for the oldest one who started muttering again. By now, Gwen could hear them much better. "Doesn't Tink go with Peter to pick up the mothers?"

"Mothers?" Gwen frowned, confused. All she wanted was to get down on the ground. The boys, however, did not notice her as they were now absorbed into their own conversation. She figured that, much as it drove her crazy, they would not notice her for a while and there was nothing she could do about it.

Gwen impatiently drummed her fingers on the edge of the window, waiting for them to finish. The hole in the side of the treehouse wall was just tiny enough for her to poke her face out and it looked as if it had been very crudely made.

"So, how do I get down now?"

"Just make-believe there is a ladder!"

"Make-believe?" Gwen yelled back. Now this was just getting ridiculous…flying, jumping into holes, and now they were telling her to pretend her problems had been solved? Gwen groaned and stomped around in circles, flinging her arms up. Boys are truly useless, especially the little ones. She should have just died after jumping off that balcony and gone straight to tree-heaven or closet-hell, whichever one would have gladly accepted her.

To her surprise, despite the mean trick they had been playing on her, she could still hear the boys trying and coax her out.

"Dodger! Isn't that a wonderful rope ladder we've put there?" The oldest boy, who appeared to be about twelve years old turned and yelled at the one next to him.

"Aye, that's a marvelous ladder!" A boy wearing a mask and pajamas that made him resemble a raccoon yelled back. "Looks like the most solid and er, sturdy ladder I've ever seen."

Gwen crossed her arms and decided to finally put them in their place. She had had enough of playing games with them. "Look, I don't understand how pretending there's a ladder is supposed to-"

"But there is one! See, just look!"

"Just stop trying to trick me! I'm tired of it! See, there's absolutely nothing, you're just a bunch of little liars, there's nothing and there will never be anything-"

"Look!"

A cluster of ropes hung on the tree's trunk, partially woven together. They had certainly not been there before. Gwen had opened her mouth to scream at the boys, but it now hung open like a dead fish's. She opened and closed it for a few seconds, unable to breathe.

"How is this possible? That shouldn't-that wasn't there!"

Although they probably had not heard her from down below, the boys seemed to have understood what she had said and were used to her reaction.

"It's such a good thing that the rope ladder goes all the way to the bottom of the tree, isn't it, Twins?" the boy with the raccoon clothes piped up.

The two dark-haired boys who were wearing the same bear pelts nodded and looked at each other, replying "Yes" somewhat out of sync. Strangely enough, they did not really appear to be identical twins.

Gwen gawked at the rope ladder once more, unable to believe what had just happened. It looked real. She reached out and touched it and yanked on one of its ropes. It looked sturdy enough to support her weight. She could hear faint bells tinkling as she held it in her hands, considering what to do.

Still somewhat doubtful but faced with no other choices, she searched for a door to let her out. There was one in the front of the house. Opening it, she looked down below her, grabbed the rope ladder hanging on the window sill and tied one end to a branch supporting the entire little house's weight.

Just as she was about to step down and put her feet on it, one of the mauve lights suddenly flew in her face.

"Some-some insect just flew into my face!" The boys did not respond. Gwen shrieked, immediately jumping back into the treehouse. "It looked like a person and it glows!"

"That's probably a baby fairy, then!" the fox boy yelled back.

"What?" Gwen screeched.

"A fairy! The little ones like to nest high up in the treetops!" He added as an afterthought.

Once the light had gotten within three inches of her face, she could faintly see an outline and realized it looked like a tiny boy with wings, not even larger than a hummingbird.

Suddenly, the variously-colored lights had a new meaning. Climbing out of the many nests that she had assumed to belong to birds, they now flew at her and became a multicolored cloud. Tiny little fairy girls who flew at her, glowing a bright white light like she had never heard before. More mauve fairy boys, who stuck their tongues out her, and blue ones who didn't seem to be quite either. They all came to take a good look at her, but quickly drew back hissing and retreated to their nests before she could ask them a question or reach out to touch them.

It was a shame because they were all quite lovely, but fairies are after all known to dislike most humans. Gwen was mystified by the apparition and almost wanted to remain a little longer, begging them to come back out. However, the boys on the ground looked rather impatient, and she herself did not want to be in the same treehouse once the sun set. Thus, Gwen steeled her courage and gingerly set her foot on the rope ladder to test it once more. It seemed as if it could take her weight quite easily.

From then on, it was a terrifying journey during which she tried hard not to look at the ground and climbed slowly, feeling the odd boys' stares on her back. She finally reached the ground after what seemed like an eternity and immediately sat down in place. She was in no hurry to get up, and after all that climbing, everything seemed to sort of sway. She laid down on her side. The boys continued to stare at her.

"Are you really not our new mother?" a boy with a raccoon mask asked.

The oldest boy who wore a hooded pajama with felt fox ears and a tail glared at him. "Maybe she doesn't want to be our mother, you know, Dodger."

"Aye, of course I knew, I was just asking," Dodger replied, fixing his mask.

"Then," another boy began, "what are you? Are you a Jane or a Margaret?" He himself was dressed up like a mouse, or so Gwen thought. He had a long tail, two felt ears that were constantly falling over, and whiskers that had been painted onto his cheeks.

Gwen realized he had been addressing her. "Er-I-I'm not sure. In my old orphanage, they did call me Gwennie, but-"

"A Wendy?" all five boys piped up, their eyes wide.

"No, Gwennie-"

"Wake up Tink!" The boy dressed up like a fox ordered. The boy with the mouse tail made a dash for a tree which also happened to have a hole. Gwen opened her mouth to ask a question.

"Actually, we should just bring you to them," the fox boy reflected. "Perhaps you should come with us. Rug Rat!" The little boy froze in his tracks yet somehow managed to still run headfirst into his tree. "Rug Rat, where's the tree for Wendy?" Gwen resisted the urge to correct him.

Rug Rat blinked and squinted. "I think Peter said there used to be an old tree that nobody used and that he was planning to plug it up about ten Tuesdays ago."

"Couldn't she simply use one of our trees?" Dodger piped up.

"Of course she can't, Dodger, only we can fit our trees," the fox boy replied in a chastising tone, but he did not sound mean. He only appeared to have grown accustomed to scolding Dodger, something Gwen did not doubt happened fairly often.

"Aye, of course, obviously I knew that, I was just asking because it seemed easier," Dodger muttered to himself. "I think that tree was somewhere back here."

Considering how much younger all of the boys were, Gwen seriously doubted that she would fit any tree that was only large enough for them to slide down and climb up. Looking over their shoulders and waving makeshift daggers out of sharpened stone, they led her to a tree that was somewhat further back and began to examine it. Wondering what threat they might be dreading, she waited patiently as they glanced down the ancient trunk and yelled just to see how far their voices would echo. She waited for a few more minutes as they somewhat forgot themselves and grew fascinated with the sound of their own voices echoing.

"I daresay, it sure sounds like it isn't plugged up at all!" Rug Rat declared gleefully.

"Indeed," the fox boy nodded, peering down it. "It appears to be in working condition."

"Come see it, Wendy! You should really. It looks like it should fit you!"

Gwen took this with some surprise, but decided not to contradict him and peered down first. "It looks somewhat dark," she faltered, feeling a little nervous.

"It's alright, ma'am, we promise there'll be light at the end," the fox boy said kindly. The bear-fur boys nodded, one after the other, and Rug Rat tried to look confident and trustworthy. Filled with too many questions but still curious as to what lay at the end, Gwen gingerly slipped one foot then another into the hole. Just then, she realized there truly was nothing for her to support herself with.

"Is this really alright?" she asked the boys, half of her body still sticking out of the tree.

"You'll be just fine," the fox boy spoke confidently. "Trust us."

Apparently, she did, for Gwen found herself slowly lowering her body down the hole. For a moment, she scrambled for a stronger handhold, then lost her grip and plunged downwards. Her terrified scream was swallowed by the darkness and she found herself tumbling downwards, her vision turning into a blur.

The next thing she knew, she was sliding down a slightly slanted tunnel and gasping for breath as the inky darkness slowly transformed into light. A moment later, she popped out of the hole and onto a hard earthen floor. Dazed, she stood up and looked around her.

She was in some sort of underground space. There was nothing except for a tree stump in the middle of the room and a small curtain to the side, concealing what Gwen assumed to be a window. She wonder why there would be a window underground and felt further mystified by the fact that she could see actual light emanating from it. Before she could further question this, however, she turned and noticed even more inexplicable marvels- large toadstools the size of small stools surrounding the stump, and an enormous hole dug into one side of the room.

Upon further investigation, she realized that this little hole was actually a fireplace. Having patiently waited for her, Rug Rat and Foxface now explained that they usually used a large mushroom to cover up the chimney and hide the smoke coming from it. Gwen watched fascinated as they relit the pile of logs, noticing a small stool and basket full of dirty clothes right next to it. There was also a string that served as a laundry line hanging across the fireplace and a large cooking pot (which appeared to have been scraped rather than washed clean) sitting patiently on the embers. Lastly, in a corner a bed leaned against the wall, most likely since it would fill most of the room once lowered. Above it hung a large basket that Gwen figured she could use as a perambulator.

As she stared at all this, her mind wandered back to the strange window and she wondered where the light illuminating the enormous underground room could possibly come from. She finally noticed it was a combination of both the strange window and a number of small lamps lying on the ground.

"I do wonder…."

Before she knew it, she was drawing closer to the curtained window.

"Don't touch it!"

Startled, Gwen drew back.

"That's Tink's room and she doesn't like to be disturbed!" Dodger hissed, running towards her and pushing her back fervently. Gwen felt a faint spike of annoyance, but it was quickly overtaken by a wave of awe.

"That is….a room…that belongs…to Tinker Bell?"

"Yes," Rug Rat replied in a hushed voice. "But, you mustn't bother her! She gets awful angry."

As if in response, the sound of faintly tinkling bells came from behind the curtain. The entrancing glow grew in intensity, reminding Gwen of the night lights back at the orphanage.

"What a beautiful sound…"

"She just said "silly ass", I think."

"Dodger! Not in front of the lady," the fox boy snapped.

"Was that…her speaking?" Gwen blinked.

"Yes," Rug Rat nodded. "After a while you might be able to understand fairy language. It's quite simple."

"How wonderful…I wish I could speak to others like that, I'd never shut up. Or I'd just talk to myself for hours. It must be the most incredible feeling in the world to be able to understand it."

"Oh, no, she just says "silly ass" a lot," Dodger replied.

"Well then, no need to translate!" The fox boy snapped. "I'm sorry, miss. I really apologize for our rudeness. We should have introduced ourselves to you first. I'm Foxface."

"I'm Rug Rat," the youngest boy grinned from ear-to-ear and bowed politely, his felt costume ears falling into his eyes. Gwen wanted to continue talking about Tinker Bell, but decided to go along with it.

"And who are you?" She smiled politely at the two bear-fur boys.

"We're the Twins," they replied, just a few beats apart.

"Aye, that's why they're wearing the same clothes," Dodger added, proud of himself.

"Oh, are you fraternal twins? You don't appear to be identical, as far as I can tell," Gwen blinked.

The Twins looked at each other. One spoke up nervously.

"We don't know…" He quickly nudged the other, as if it were a routine they both had a hard time remembering.

His other counterpart tried his best to finish. "…What that means. We don't know what that is."

"Yeah," the first one nodded, "we're not supposed to know anything Peter doesn't, so we don't know what we are, but he says that we're supposed to be twins so that's how things are."

"How curious," Gwen decided not to think much of their odd make-believe game. "And you, my dear?" she turned towards Dodger, whose name she obviously knew but was only asking for politely.

Dodger grinned mischievously as if he had been waiting for this. "I'm a Michael!" he declared.

"You're not a Michael! You're Dodger!" Rug Rat frowned. "Michael's not here, he went hunting with Peter and the rest!"

Once they had finished with introductions, Gwen walked up to the bed and turned towards them, asking, "Is this where you all sleep?"

"Yes, yes," Rug Rat nodded. "Except for Michael. He always sleeps in the basket."

"In the basket," Gwen blinked. "He must be rather small."

"Oh, yes. They all have to fit in the basket, you see. If a boy wants to be Michael, but he's too heavy or too tall, then he can't. If there's a boy who wants to be Nibbles but he can sleep in the basket, then he becomes Michael," Dodger replied. Foxface sent him a warning glance but said nothing.

"And this stump here?" Gwen asked. Curiously enough, it seemed to be just a little taller.

"It's usually tall enough for us to use it as a table for afternoon tea."

"If you say so," Gwen blinked, espying a long wooden board leaning against a corner. She suspected that it could be put on top of the stump to serve as a tabletop. "Are you saying that there are more of you?"

The boys turned towards each other before Foxface answered "Yes, there's more of us. Quite a few. The number changes from time to time, but right now we have filled out most of the positions, I believe."

"Positions?" Gwen furrowed her brow.

"Yes! We have a Michael and John and Nibbles," Dodger piped up. "We thought maybe you had come because we don't have a mother right now-"

Just then, they heard loud yells and exclamations from above them.

"What is that?" Gwen asked fearfully.

"Maybe it's the Redskins," Dodger smirked.

"Margaret told us not to call them that!" Rug Rat frowned.

"No, that's Peter and the rest of the Lost Boys," Foxface replied calmly. "You'd best prepare yourself for an introduction," he nodded at Gwen.

"Good heavens, if he's also nine to twelve years old, that should be no problem," Gwen replied. None the less, she did try to brush out the wrinkles in her dress and put her hair into place.

Honestly, I have no idea what this person could possibly be like…

"Hurry up men, I've got a surprise for you!" A voice called out.

Suddenly a boy jumped and practically flew out of one of the tunnel holes in the wall.

Gwen shrieked and backed away as three other boys came tumbling clumsily out of their own tunnels, laughing and pretending to threaten each other. Immediately they ran towards the first boy, who somehow floated around the room as if he was made out of feathers. Smirking at the other boys when they demanded to know what the surprise was, he pretended to consider revealing the secret, until one noticed Gwen standing in the corner next to Foxface and Rug Rat. Instantly, they all began to yell loudly and jump with excitement and thank him. Genuinely surprised and wondering what they could possibly be referring to, he turned around. Only to find himself face-to-face with a bewildered Gwen. Grinning from ear to ear, he took a step forward and held out his hand.

Peter Pan was a living, breathing, flying thirteen year old boy.