leaves come from Mrs Darling realized leaves like that didn’t exist in England In the end she decided that Wendy must have been dreaming But Wendy wasn’t dreaming The very next night proved to be the beginning of Wendy John and Michael’s adventures On this particular night Nana had the evening off Mrs Darling bathed the children told them stories and watched them drift off to sleep It wasn’t long before Mrs Darling fell asleep too While she slept she dreamed that the children had gone to the Neverland and were peering down on her The dream itself wasn’t dreary but she awoke to a light flickering in the room Next to the light she discovered a boy and knew at once it was Peter Pan Then Peter Pan spied Mrs Darling When he realized she was a grown-up he gnashed his little teeth at her 10
chapter 2 The Shadow Mrs Darling screamed Nana returning from her evening out walked in the room and jumped toward the boy It was too late The boy had leaped through the open window Mrs Darling screamed once more Surely a boy couldn’t survive the fall to the ground below She ran down to the street and searched for him His little body wasn’t there As she looked up at the window she noticed a shooting star in the sky When she returned to the nursery she saw Nana holding the boy’s shadow in her mouth It hadn’t had time to escape through the window and had snapped off 11
Mrs Darling examined the shadow She hung it out the window He’s sure to come back for it I’ll put it where he can easily get it without disturbing the children But Mrs Darling knew she couldn’t leave it there If Mr Darling saw it he would think it was laundry He didn’t like to hang laundry in plain sight of anyone So she rolled the shadow up and put it in a drawer When the time was right she’d tell her husband about it He’d blame it all on Nana The best opportunity to tell Mr Darling came a week later on that never-to-be-forgotten Friday Mr and Mrs Darling had accepted an invitation to dine at a neighbor’s house The evening started like any other Nana was getting Michael ready for his bath when he shouted I won’t go to bed It’s not even six o’clock yet I won’t I won’t I won’t Mrs Darling came in to see what all the fuss was about She had dressed early because 12
Wendy loved to see her fancied up Mrs Darling watched her two older children playing together as Mr Darling rushed in like a tornado with his tie crumpled in his hand Mother unless you can tie this properly we won’t be going out tonight he declared Mrs Darling had no trouble tying the tie Soon all was peaceful once again Mr Darling danced around the room with Michael on his back The dance ended when Nana came into the room Mr Darling collided against her and almost ruined his pants Dog hair was stuck everywhere He brushed it off but immediately began to question the wisdom of having a dog as their nanny George said Mrs Darling Nana is a treasure No doubt said Mr Darling But at times I have the feeling she looks at the children as if they were puppies 13
