“The cowboys are more the bad guys than the Indians, though neither of them are really bad,” Peter elaborated. “The cowboys came Here because they unintentionally harmed a child. This is sort of a waiting place for them to learn to understand children better. Some of them weren’t paying attention and ran over a kid with their car, a few of them were told by a child that something bad was happening and ignored it. They come Here when it’s their time, but they go to the After like everyone else, they’re not that bad, they didn’t do anything bad on purpose. The Indians are more the good guys, they’re Here because they helped children in some special way. They’re Here to be with us, to understand the goodness, the happiness of children, before going to the After. They win more wars than the cowboys.”
Preston turned and watched an Indian. This one didn’t look like the Indians he’d seen in books and movies, he had short brown hair and pale skin, but he was dressed like the Indians in the old Westerns his father sometimes watched with him. As this Indian stuck a twig into the fire Preston saw a flash of that man inside his head like he was watching from behind a video screen. He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and he was in a driveway like the one at Preston’s house. He saw the Indian run across the driveway and pick up a little boy just before a car crashed into the side of a house.
“Why do they have to come Here at all?” Preston asked, scratching his head as he watched an Indian, who didn’t really look like an Indian, talking to a cowboy. Preston watched the cowboy closely and could see everything that needed to be seen. He saw a flash of white and there was the cowboy driving a car, talking on his phone and not looking at the road. Preston heard a car screech, the driver (the cowboy, though he looked like a man in a business suit) turned the wheel and felt a thud that caused his heart to sink. He saw the cowboy waiting at a hospital, shaking his head as a doctor told him something. He saw the cowboy in a black suit at a funeral, looking down at a tiny coffin, then there was the cowboy with a yellowish drink in his hand, downing it with a bunch of pills, over and over again until he fell to the ground and woke up Here.
“I can see them, what was that?” Preston asked and Peter, who‘d been watching him very closely, nodded.
“Only the kids can do that. You know where everyone has been, who everyone is. It’s for the best that you know. You don’t have to see it, you can look away, but this is another reason why you shouldn’t visit the pirates,” Peter explained. “You see,” he went on as Starky and Dilweed ran off to play, “There are certain things about growing up that we as children should understand. Growing up is about five things. Number one is emotions, having and understanding feelings; number two is intellectual, it’s about getting smart and understanding the world around you; number three is about something called society, like your friends and the people around you, and how you act around them; number four is physical; and number five is about cruelty, like Boxwood, like the pirates. It’s so much more than that, but that’s basically what it means to grow up and we have it Here, and we can watch it even if we won’t ever be it. Though some of the grownups in the Before, although they are adults, have never grown up. And for them it’s very hard, they never really fit in with the child world, nor do they fit with adults. A lot of them end up Here.”
Preston nodded at Peter, who seemed to make sense, though the explanation had been so long winded, he wasn’t sure where the speech had started or ended. There was something about Peter, even with his childish manner, that seemed not grown up, but almost, like he was trying very hard to understand growing up, it was on the tip of his tongue, but he just wasn’t there. And what was worse, it seemed as if he knew he’d never get there.
“It looks like the fight is over,” Starky said a little disappointedly. “Let’s show him the fairies.”
“Can we see the fairies?” Preston asked and the leader shook his head yes.
“We can look over their part of the forest, but we can’t go into the fairy world.”
“Why?” Preston asked. “I thought this place was for us.”
“There are kids there and we’re not allowed to meet those kids yet. Some kids have to go to the fairies first, before they can play with us, so we can’t bother the fairies; they come to us whenever they’re ready.”
“What about when there aren’t any kids for the fairies?” Preston asked.
“I wish there was a time when there weren’t any kids for the fairies, it would be much better,” Peter said sadly. “Let’s go,” he went on, that impish smile returning as he lifted off the ground and started flying, Starky and Dilweed following closely behind.
They flew over the trees, hovering just above where they started flowering. The new green leaves looked as if they were stoking a great fire and Peter whistled as he glanced down, bobbing like a mermaid in water as he hovered. A few white lights flew up to them, twirling around Peter, and the boy laughed hysterically as if they were tickling him. When Peter caught his breath, he pointed to Preston and one of the lights landed on his arm. Preston could feel it, it was bright, but soft and silky; he tried to look into it, but the light was too intense and all he could see was yellow-white glowing so brightly as if he were looking into the sun.
Peter whistled again and all the fairies dispersed except one, who hovered on his shoulder as if it were about to touch his face. “This is my friend Tinkerbelle. I found her when the fairies came and she’s been Here ever since,” Peter explained and the light flickered on and off as if it were speaking. “Oh stop that, you,” he said at the ball of light before turning to Preston and explaining. “She gets terribly jealous.”
“What did she say?” Preston asked.
“Oh, you wouldn’t want to know,” Peter replied.
“The new boys are almost ready, Peter, they’re almost cured,” Starky said, lifting himself further into the air.
“Shh…hush you,” Dilweed cried, clocking Starky on the arm as Peter stood listening to the Tinkerbelle fairy buzz in his ear.
“Do they live here?” Preston asked and Peter shook his head no.
“This is an outpost, they live in the Fairy Forest, but we don’t go there,” Peter explained as Tinkerbelle hovered around him.
“So what are the fairies?” Preston asked. “The cowboys are people and the mermaids and Indians are too, but what are the fairies? Are they people?”
“Do they look like people?” Dilweed remarked as if Preston had just asked a very silly question.
“They’re not human,” Peter elaborated more patiently. “They came after me. There was me and then there were the fairies and I spent a lot of time playing with them before the cowboys and Indians, before the children showed up.”
“What are they?” Preston asked again.
“The story is true I assure you. ‘When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they became fairies,’” Peter explained as if he were reciting. “That’s from the book. And after the first baby laughed the fairies came Here. And they do a little more than keep us company,” Peter explained, looking down at the trees that twinkled as if they were touched by tiny shards of the sun and moon. “They help kids who come to us, or if the pirates come. . .but they’ve kept their distance for a while.”
“I thought kids fought pirates?” Preston asked. He’d been so good about not mentioning pirates, but now that Peter had brought them up they seemed like fair game.
“I don’t know how he got out that time, or why she told them that. He wasn’t very nice to her,” Peter thought out loud. Preston glanced over at Dilweed, who was looking right through Peter as if he wanted to slug him like he slugged Starky whenever he said something he shouldn’t have, but Peter was Peter and didn’t get slugged. “I’m sorry,” he went on, shaking his head as if freeing himself from a trance. “It’s just that you’re here and you came the same way and it has