“Hold tight, all!” Smee calls from his place at the wheel.
The pirates hunker down, and Hook grips me more tightly as the ship shudders, then continues gliding forward until it comes to a stop.
“Not bad at all.” I suppose I’m used to far more violent maneuvers at this point.
“We’re aground lads! Throw out the lines and get ready to heave until your backs give out.” Hook unties the rope around us, then rises with me in his arms.
“Back on the island.” I stare out at the low cliffs that overhang this section of shoreline.
“The good news is, this is a decent spot to set up camp.” Hook strides to the front of the ship as his crew tosses ropes out into the water. “The stone walls will keep us sheltered from the land, and the narrow shore should give us a good vantage point.”
“So what’s the bad news?”
Several sailors have already jumped into the water and are swimming toward the shore, taking the rope with them.
“Surely, they can’t pull this entire ship?”
“They can, and they will, lass.” He sets me inside the rowboat and pulls on the pulley overhead to lift it over the side. Once it’s in the water, he climbs down the rope ladder and jumps in. “Once we’ve got it good and beached, we’ll wait for the tide to go out. Then we can repair the hull and the keel, dependingon where she’s damaged. Cecco is already working on the bilge pump.”
“Sounds like you’ve done this before.” I watch as he begins to row, his strong back making easy work of the oars.
“Many a time. We’ve had our fair share of skirmishes, though I haven’t had a run-in with the kraken in ages.” He smiles somewhat wistfully. “Brings back old times.”
“Exactly how long have you been a pirate?”
“No idea.” He turns and yells, “Smee, get a move on!”
“Yes, Captain. Now heave, you scurvy lot!” Smee yells at the crew who all begin to pull the huge ship even farther toward shore.
“You have to have some memory. You said you were at Eton. I don’t know when that school even started. Like the 1700s maybe? You don’t remember what year you were born?”
“No.” He stops rowing. “I wonder about that sometimes.”
“About when you were born?”
“No. More like, I wonder if the island made me do all the forgetting or if I did it myself. I remember my sister, bits and pieces of my mother, and just a feeling when I think of my father. A raw sort of anger. But I can’t recall detail. I don’t know when I first left the mainland. Even if I try to recall it, it’s not there anymore.” He taps his temple. “It could’ve been yesterday or 1,000 years ago—either way, it’s not real to me anymore.”
“I think that’s it.”
“What’s that, lass?”
“It isn’trealto you. That’s why it slips through your fingertips. Like when children stop believing in the tooth fairy or Santa or even Neverland—that’s when it’s not real for them. When it all starts to fade away. Make believe and magic—all gone. But for you, it was the opposite. The world you knew isn’t your reality anymore. This world is.” I look up at the moon that’s partly hidden behind fat clouds. “The one where there is no sun and the kraken lives in the sea and fairies have dust that makes them fly.”
“Perhaps.” He continues rowing. “Perhaps that’s what it is.”
I know that has to be the truth, especially when I can’t remember how long I’ve been here. How many days or nights? What was so important for me on the mainland? I don’t know. That realization scares me. I’m becoming untethered, Neverland drawing me closer with each swirl of a second, dance of a minute, and flourish of an hour.
The rowboat slides into the sand, and Hook helps me from it and onto the shore. We’re both soaked, and the sea breeze sends a chill through me as I rub my arms.
“Skylights, Starkey, gather driftwood!” Hook yells to them. “I want three lookouts at the top of the cliffs! If anyone so much as gets a tickle that there’s a Lost Boy nearby, I want you to send a signal immediately. We take no chances with these cunts!”
“Aye, Captain!” The entire crew chimes in.
Some of them let go of their ropes and splash through the surf before taking off down the beach.
“I’ll have you warmed up in no time, lass.” He wraps his arm around my shoulders and leads me away from the water and tothe stone wall. “There.” He points to a slight indentation in the chalky cliffs.
When I stumble, he scoops me up again.
