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“Wh-where are my parents?” Barrie stammered, feeling alarmed. “Where’s my sister? What did you do with them?”
“Do with them?” she asked with a frown. “Why, whatever do you mean?”
“The Darlings,” Barrie said, plowing ahe
ad. “This is our house! Where are they?”
“Oh, that name does ring a bell,” she said with a curt nod. “We bought the house from them. But that was ages ago—”
“No…that’s impossible,” Barrie said. “I was here earlier today! My family lives here. This is our house!”
“Well, there must be some mistake,” she said, pursing her lips. “The Darlings haven’t lived here in a very long time.”
“Wait…what do you mean?” Barrie said, his mind reeling and struggling to process what she was saying.
“I believe they moved into the retirement community across town,” she went on. “The nice one across from the park. I heard their daughter married a local fellow and lives in another state with her husband and kids. Let me see what was his name? Oh, Ted…or Todd…something like that. You know how these real estate agents love to gossip—”
“Retirement community?” Barrie said, realizing what this meant—his parents had grown old. “Rita? Married? Kids?”
The horror of that struck him like a dagger to the heart.
“Come to think of it, there was this local tragedy a while back,” the woman continued with a sad shake of her head. “Read about it in the papers long before we bought the house from them. They had a son. He was about your age, I reckon.”
“A son?” Barrie choked out. Tears pricked his eyes.
“Yeah, he went missing down at the marina during a bad storm,” she said. “But that was a few decades ago.”
“He went missing?” Barrie repeated, his brain reeling from the information. Suddenly, he remembered what the security guard had said about the marina being dangerous for lost boys.
“Yup, he surely did,” the woman said. “His name was…Barrie. Yes, that’s it. Barrie…Darling. It was an awfully long time ago. But you don’t forget something like that. Terrible tragedy, that was.”
“They never found him?” Barrie said, the words coming out in barely a whisper.
She shook her head. “Nope, they never did find him. Not even a body. They think he must’ve fallen into the ocean and drowned. Awful, just an awful tragedy.”
“No…he’s alive,” Barrie gasped. The words were almost inaudible. “He didn’t die…he just got a little lost…but he came home…”
“What was that, son?” the woman said, squinting at him suspiciously. She opened the door more to see him better. “Wait, what did you say your name was again?”
But Barrie could barely hear what she was saying. His ears were ringing from shock, drowning out her voice. Before she could interrogate him further, he bolted off down the street, heading for Michael’s house, even though he feared what he would find there.
He cut through to the backyard and peered through the bedroom window, but there was no video game console or outer space comforter or skateboard lying by the door.
Instead, the bedroom was decorated with every shade of pink imaginable. A little girl with blond curls lay in the bed in a pale blue nightgown. Her father was perched on the edge, tucking her in. He had a receding hairline and wore glasses, but his face looked vaguely familiar.
“Daddy, tell me the one about Captain Hook and the Lost Boys again,” she said, her curls bouncing angelically around her face. “That one’s my favorite.”
The father looked sad. “Once upon a time, my best friend Barrie found a rusty old pirate hook on a ship and made a wish to never grow up…”
Michael? Barrie stared at the middle-aged man in shock. That was his best friend?
Unable to believe his eyes, Barrie backed away from the window. The horror of it rushed through him. He looked down at his still child-sized hands. Even though it felt like he was only gone for a short time, decades had passed.
Michael had grown up and had a family of his own now, while Barrie hadn’t aged a day. His parents were elderly and lived in a retirement community, while his sister was married with kids. In fact, everyone in his life had grown up, all while he was held captive on Captain Hook’s ship. His wish to never grow truly had been a terrible curse. This was Hook’s final revenge.
