CHAPTER ONE
The Darlings
he Darling family was a family full of love. When they were very young George Darling met and fell in love with the woman who became his wife. Their wedding was just like one from a wonderful book about young love. At their wedding Mrs Darling was wearing a beautiful white dress and Mr Darling was wearing a handsome black coat.
As time moved on they had three children. The oldest was their daughter Wendy, then their first son John, and then Michael. Mr and Mrs Darling loved their daughter and sons very much and they were very devoted to them.
Still, Mr Darling often worried about the family's money. The Darlings' were not a rich family; now they were just a very normal family. With three kids to feed Mr Darling worried about the cost of everything he bought, even such common things as bread and eggs.
Their neighbors could all afford to hire nurses to take care of their children. The Darling family however, could not afford a normal nurse. Instead they had to "hire" a different kind of nurse. The Darlings bought a large dog named Nana, and Nana was as good as human nurse. Nana helped to bath the children and get their clothes ready. She would comfort them when they had bad dreams in the nights. She even walked with them to school in the mornings, helping them cross the streets and carrying an umbrella in her mouth when it rained.
Every night, when Wendy, John, and Michael were going to bed, Nana would turn on a small night light, because the children were all afraid of the Neverland. They worried that the Neverland was always hiding outside and would come and capture them if they were not careful. The children did not know what the Neverland was like, and each child had different ideas about what the people who lived there were like and about what things that happened there. In fact, the Neverland didn't feel very scary. The children were only scared because they worried about losing their family and going to a world where anything could happen.
Some of the children's dreams about the Neverland were similar. This was because they were all in the same family and they had all heard the same stories from their mother. Many stories talked about a boy named Peter Pan. Peter Pan lived in Neverland with the fairies and he could fly. Wendy especially believed in Peter Pan. Even Mrs Darling remembered stories about a boy named Peter Pan from when she was a child.
"Peter Pan must be an old man now," joked Mrs Darling to Wendy.
"No, mom!" cried Wendy, "Peter will never grow up. He will always be a boy about the same age and height as me!"
Mr Darling laughed when Wendy spoke about Peter Pan. He did not believe in Peter Pan or the Neverland.
"Nana probably made the children believe in Peter Pan," Mr Darling told his wife. "Dogs always have very crazy ideas! I'm sure that Wendy will soon forget about Peter Pan!"
But Peter Pan did not want the children to forget him. So that same night he came to the Darlings' house. He whispered dreams of the Neverland into their ears while they were sleeping. Wendy had a wonderful dream about the Neverland that night.
Wendy had a wonderful dream that night.
The next day Wendy saw that the window was open and knew that Peter Pan had come to visit. "Look!" she yelled to her mother. "There are tree leaves on the floor and he forgot to clean his shoes!"
"Who forgot to clean his shoes?" asked Mrs Darling.
"Peter Pan, of course!"
"How could Peter Pan come into the house without first knocking at the door?" asked her mother, "The door is always locked."
"He flew in through our window! Go upstairs and look! The tree leaves are next to the window!"
Mrs Darling did not want to tell Wendy that Neverland and Peter Pan were just a dream and make her daughter sad. So she walked upstairs after breakfast and examined some of the leaves. She was surprised to see that they didn't look like the leaves that grew on the trees next to the house!
