Page 176 of Johnny

“But hold on,” I say. “I’m not done yet. Because I still remember a time when I was more than that.

I still remember the boy who played space pirates. I still have his dreams locked deep inside this

head of mine. They’re there. Somewhere. Filed away in one of my old, tattered folders. And meeting

you was an unexpected surprise. Because for one moment down in that dungeon I wasn’t Captain

Hook. I was Peter Pan. And you were… Wendy, I guess.” I grin at that. “Not really the best analogy.”

“I’ll take Wendy,” Megan whispers.

“Yeah, because Wendy, she’s bossy and sure of herself. Trying to make Peter grow up and stay with

her. And you’re definitely a bossy girl.”

“I’m glad you’re not Peter Pan,” she says, her voice low and serious.

“How come?”

She shakes her head. “Peter didn’t love her back. Not the way she loved him.”

“He never grew up,” I say. “Can’t blame him.”

“I know,” Megan says. She smiles at me and leans her forehead against the yacht’s handrail.

“I don’t mind if you’re Hook. He was callous and bloodthirsty.”

“Yeah.” I laugh. “That’s me, all right.”

“But he was a magnificent pirate, don’t you think?”

I grin at her, then look down at the sea. “Obviously, one of the best.”

“So he was heroic in his own way.”

“How do you figure?”

“He was a boy once.”

“Weren’t we all?” I ask. “Is that enough to make us heroes?”

“No, but once a boy, always a boy.” She scoots closer to me, looks at me with an almost shy

innocence and then slips her hand behind my back, her fingertips swiping along the bare skin under

my shirt until her palm finally comes to rest on my hip. And then she leans her head on my shoulder

and sighs. “Maybe you just need to find that boy again?”

I can’t see her face, obviously. So I can’t know for sure. But I think I feel her close her eyes. And

then a wave crashes against the bow and lifts us up, and down, and up again.

This motion jerks me back into the present. What I’m doing here with her. What needs to be done

tomorrow.

But it also spins me back in time…