“He saved me.”
“Oh?”
Tam directed his next words to the ocean. “Peter started acting weird shortly after you and the boys joined us.”
Wendy finished her pastry quietly and stared at the water, giving him the space he needed to share.
“One day, he asked me to jump off the cliff on the north side, but I didn’t want to.” Tam’s voice lacked emotion. “He told me that being a Lost Boy meant obeying the leader. But the cliff was too high; I was scared.”
Wendy shifted closer to him and let the pressure of her arm against his provide reassurance that he was here now.
Tam took a deep breath. “He asked me again. I said no. Then . . . he pushed me off.”
She added a lightness to her voice. “Clearly you missed the rocks.”
“Heh.” Tam shook his head. “Yeah, but then he called for the mermaids and told them they could have me.”
Wendy shuddered theatrically. “Yuck. I never liked those mermaids.”
“And they never liked you,” Tam laughed.
“What happened next? How did Hook save you?” She poked his side and he giggled. “Or do you just look really good for being dead?”
Tam became animated. He pantomimed paddling with his hands. “I started swimming as fast as I could. But I didn’t know where to go! Then there was shouting, and theJolly Rogercame ’round from outtanowhere.”
“My goodness,” she replied at the right time.
“Cap’n ordered the crew to shoot harpoons into the water. They’re really good!” Excitement lit his eyes as he recalled what was obviously the best part of the rescue. “The mermaids were screaming, and Peter was yelling. Then the cap’n got in the yawl with some of the others and came and pulled me out of the water. Those mermaids never stood a chance.”
“That’s very exciting. What made you decide to join his crew?”
Tam shrugged as he leaned back, returning to his good-natured calm. “Got no parents. Cap’n saved me, and I’ll be here to help him stop Peter one day.”
Her companion accepted the notion that Hook would remedy all ills as fact. Given his ordeal and subsequent rescue, she couldn’t blame him. It did make her curious about the rest of the crew, though.
“How did Davi join Hook’s crew?”
Tam scrunched his nose and stuck out his tongue. “Peter’s shadow almost got him.”
“What do you mean?” Wendy asked intently.
“Oh, you know,” he sighed. “When Peter’s loaded up enough, he can fly and his shadow can act for itself.”
“What . . . ‘loads’ Peter up?”
“Uh, I don’t know exactly.” He scratched his knee through a growing rip in his trousers. Wendy made a mental note to mend it later. “Cap’n says it’s something about worship. Or being worshipped?” He concluded with an “I dunno” sound in the back of his throat.
“Hmm.” Wendy set that aside to consider at another time. “How did Peter’s shadow almost get Davi?”
“That was before me,” Tam dismissed. “I just know that the shadow killed Davi’s sick mom so he could bring Davi to Neverland. But Cap’n James swooped in and saved him.”
Wendy resolved to ask Hook about that, too. “Were any of the others saved by H—your captain?”
“Oh yeah, lots of ’em!” Tam sat up as tall as he could and scanned the deck. He shook his head a few times, then dropped his head back to look straight up. “Phillip, of course.” The mousy looking boy who could have originated anywhere along the western part of the continent was familiar to Wendy. “He has a thing for horses.”
“Then why does he sail with you?” she asked, unable to keep all of the laughter out of her words.
Tam shrugged again. “You’d have to ask him. Cap’n brought him aboard a few years ago. He was the new guy until me.”
