“I’ve been scouting out a new home,” Peter said. “I’ve found a much better tree closer to the plains.”
“There’s nothing wrong with this tree,” I said. I didn’t like to contradict him so sharply, but moving closer to the plains and the Many-Eyed did not seem like an excellent notion to me. “We’ve lived in this tree ever since we came here.”
“But there are so few of us now,” Peter said. “And I’m not allowed to get any more boys because you’re so boring, Jamie.”
The other four gave me curious looks at this. I hadn’t mentioned to anyone, of course, that I’d argued with Peter about bringing in new boys. I kept my disagreements with Peter to myself if I could.
The truth was that Peter could have gone off and collected new boys while he was missing for so many days. There was nothing I could have done about it if I didn’t like it. But he hadn’t, and then he’d come straight in and complained that I was stopping him from gathering new playmates, and I wondered why.
I didn’t like the way my thoughts tended. It seemed to me that maybe Peter wanted a clean slate, and that he’d rid himself of all the boys (and that troublesome girl too) by feeding them to the Many-Eyed. Then he would tell me he had to go off and find new boys because all the others were eaten.
“We’re not moving closer to the plains,” I said. “It’s too close to the Many-Eyed and too close to the pirates.”
“Well, the pirates have shown they’re willing to go anywhere on the island to get at us, so I don’t see that counting. I’ve been surprised at their spirit, you know, Jamie? I didn’t think they had it in them, but I guess that old fat Captain was holding them back. When they attacked on the mountain I was really shocked. Though once the shock was over it was sort of nice to have a fight that wasn’t planned by us. Those raids were getting so predictable.”
Nod moved before I had a chance to do a single thing. One second he was next to me, and the next he wasn’t, and Peter had no chance to defend himself, none at all.
I always thought of Peter as a smart and capable fighter, but watching Nod pound him I wondered why I thought this. He always beat the pirates, but then, he almost always fought pirates who were older and slower than he. It was me that fought the young ones, the dangerous ones.
Peter never scrapped with the other boys at all. He watched at Battle, and none of them would dare pick a fight with him because they all adored him.
Or rather, they used to. Now most of them were gone and those who were left didn’t adore him anymore.
Nod had knocked Peter down and was pummeling his face over and over. This was Nod’s way—to get on top of the other boy and hit him until he didn’t know which way was up. Peter was too astonished to fight back, I think.
I dragged Nod off Peter, his fists flailing, his legs kicking out.
“Don’t, Jamie! Don’t! I’m going to kill him! I’m going to kill him!”
Peter’s nose was bloody. He touched it gingerly, like he couldn’t believe he was hurt.
I don’t think I’d ever seen Peter hurt before. Somehow he never got a scrape, even when we fought the pirates. I might have a list of scars to remember all our battles by, but he didn’t.
It was strange that I never noticed this, in all those years. In my defense I was usually patching up another boy, or myself, and had no time to consider Peter’s injuries nor the lack of them.
“Nod,” Peter said, and he sounded so hurt that Nod stopped shouting and kicking. “Why did you do that?”
Nod seemed to wither under Peter’s sad look, as if he was remembering all the fun they’d once had together. I didn’t dare put him down yet, though. If Peter said something thoughtless, he might set Nod off again.
“You didn’t . . . You said . . . the pirates,” Nod said.
“What about the pirates?” Peter asked. I didn’t know if he cared so little that he was genuinely puzzled or if he did the best innocent act in the world.
“The pirates killed Fog, and you were talking about it like it was fun,” Nod said. His body drooped more after he said this. It seemed to take a lot out of him to admit out loud that Peter wasn’t wonderful and perfect.
I knew how he felt. It was why I always found myself making excuses for him, defending Peter even when he was awful.
That was the power he had over us.
“Well, it is fun, isn’t it? Killing the pirates is some of the best fun in the world,” Peter said.
“Not when my brother dies!” Nod screamed.
It was a good thing that I had a tight grip on Nod, else he would have launched at Peter again. My arm was around his waist and his limbs flailed in front of him, trying to reach Peter.
Peter lifted his shoulders. “Lots of boys die, Nod. It never troubled you before.”
“It wasn’t my brother!” Nod said, and he let out a long and terrible howl.
The storm burst then, all at once. He stopped kicking and punching and suddenly slumped over my arm. I felt his chest heaving and his tears splashing on my skin.
Sal was up in an instant, prying me away from Nod and putting her arms around him. Nod collapsed on her, weeping into her shoulder.
Peter sniffed at this behavior. He never cried himself, so he didn’t see why anyone else should.
“I’m going to the mermaid lagoon, since none of you want to see the marvelous tree I’ve chosen for us,” he said.
“Nobody’s moving to that tree, Peter,” I said.
“Oh, I see,” Peter said, his eyes narrowing at me. “I’ve been gone too long, is it? Now they’re Jamie’s boys on Jamie’s island.”
“No,” I said. “It’s not that way. There’s no reason to leave this tree, and it’s safer here.”
“Well,” Peter said, his voice silky and dangerous. “It seems that way. It seems that they’re all following you now. What’s to stop me from collecting a new band of boys from the Other Place so I’ll have some boys to follow me?”
“You promised, Peter,” I said. “We made a bargain.”
“The bargain was that you would play with me,” Peter said.
“And I have. For many days I have been only with you, just the two of us as you wanted, roaming the island,” I said. “I kept my word. So you must keep yours.”
“If you don’t go with me to the mermaid lagoon, then you’re not keeping your word,” Peter said. “I want to play and I want somebody to play with. If you won’t do it, then I’ll have to find another boy.”
My eyes met Sal’s over Nod’s shoulder. She gave a tiny nod, to show that she understood.
“Watch out for Charlie,” I told Crow.
Crow nodded. He’d been taking in all of this with wide eyes. I wondered what he thought of Peter at that moment. I wondered if Peter realized that he was losing them all because of what he did, not because of what I did.
Peter clapped his hands when I joined him. The blood around his nose had dried already. He was lucky, as his nose hadn’t swelled at all. He didn’t seem to notice that I had no enthusiasm for his game. He was simply happy that I was going with him, and that he’d gotten his way.
I trudged beside him through the clearing, hearing him chatter happily about this and that and all the things he’d been doing while he was away—how he’d found this new tree, and also how he’d played some tricks on the pirates who were back at camp so they would think the island was haunted, the way they used to long ago.
“I don’t think you should bother the pirates anymore, Peter,” I said. “Haven’t you made them angry enough?”