Free Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey Page A

was quickly pocketed.
    On the walk back home, I tried to tell him that not one of us had been born in May as he admired the shining green fake emerald right in the middle. He turned and, with a look that reminded me how inappropriate it was for me to be questioning my Sir, said, “Green is my favourite colour. That stone is for me.”
    When we got back to Neverland, Wendi was unloading sacks of food into our cupboards. Curly rudely asked how she’d paid for it all, but Wendi just winked. Later, I heard her tell Pan that she’d taken the Darlings’ food stamp card when she ran away and maxed it out. Pan had been panicked that they would trace the card, but Wendi said not to worry, and that she’d thrown the card into a dumpster on her way back to Neverland. “Besides, they got that food money to feed me and John Michael, I was only helping myself to what I was entitled to.” Pan then laughed and kissed her.
    We ate so well that night. Wendi cooked us spaghetti. Itwas the best spaghetti that I’d ever tasted. She cooked it in a big pot that I didn’t even remember we had. Before the water was boiling enough for the noodles, Wendi let Pan remove the leather cuff from her wrist and tie a lacy mint-green apron tight and naughty around her waist. Wendi poured blood-red sauce over the noodles and served it to us with French bread to mop up the extra sauce. As she did, us bois noticed that around her neck, swinging against her breasts, she wore eight key-shaped charms that hung from eights pieces of mint-green ribbon, which I recognized immediately from the flea market. The top part of the keys were heart-shaped.
    â€œDo you think they’re for us?” Slightly whispered.
    â€œI hope not,” replied Nibs.
    We ate dinner out of chipped coffee cups. Even Nibs, who returned that evening, got one. The little Formica table didn’t have enough room for us, so Wendi had us sit in a circle on the floor. She got all excited when she finally served up her own cup of pasta and joined us. Wendi seemed so proud of herself when she gave us permission to begin eating. She explained that this was our first family dinner, and this was how she expected us to eat each night. After dinner, we actually had to do the dishes. Wendi told us that never again would there be stacks of crusted, moldy plates like the ones she’d cleaned that afternoon. Nibs rolled his eyes and Pan stood up, about to punch Nibs right in his disrespectful face, but Wendi reached up and grabbed Pan’s arm, shaking her head. I couldn’t believe that Pan sat down, that he took orders from Mommy.
    Nibs stood up and chucked his cup in the sink. Bits of pasta sauce hit the wall. I thought for sure Pan would go after him then, but he didn’t. He obeyed Mommy and continued eating his supper. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Mommy heaped seconds into our cups.
    That was the night she stopped being Pan’s fantasy story and became our real Mommy. After the dinner dishes were done, we all sat together. Pan kept wiping his sweaty palms against the knees of his jeans. Finally, he stood and walked to Wendi, then got down on his knees and held out the birthstone ring to her.
    â€œWendi, this is for you, as a token of our family.”
    Wendi later told me that she mistook Pan going down on his knees in submission as a marriage proposal. But he did kneel before her, and Wendi covered her face with her hands, tears filling her eyes.
    â€œOh sweet, sweet boi, “she said. “Yes, of course, I shall take and wear your ring.” She held out the fourth finger on her left hand for him to place the ring on. Pan hadn’t given any thought to what finger she would wear the ring on; for him, a finger was a finger.
    Then, so as not to make the rest of us bois feel left out, she called us to her. We fell to our knees next to Pan. Even Nibs knelt, and I saw a smile cross Pan’s face. Wendi untied the eight