Tiger Lily (32 page)

Authors: Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fairy Tales & Folklore, #Adaptations, #Girls & Women, #Fantasy & Magic

There is one more thing I’ll give you. One more piece of their story. And Tiger Lily didn’t tell it to me. I discovered it myself.

I said I never saw Peter again. But I did hear of him, or from him in a way, one night years later, while chasing a moth that had somehow managed to wedge itself into the folds under Tiger Lily’s bedroll. That was when I found the last words I’d ever get from Peter. The envelope was covered in stamps, and wrinkled, warped from water, crinkly and wavy like the sea that countless ships had carried it across. The letter had been folded and unfolded so many times that it had gotten soft as velvet. She had managed to keep it a secret even from me, who listened to her head on a daily basis.

It wasn’t surprising that he had learned to write. But here is some of what it said:

Did you know I always thought you were braver than me? Did you ever guess that that was why I was so afraid? It wasn’t that I only loved some of you. But I wondered if you could ever love more than some of me
.

I knew I’d miss you. But the surprising thing is, you never leave me. I never forget a thing. Every kind of love, it seems, is the only one. It doesn’t happen twice. And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn’t seem broken at all. I know young people look at me and think my youth seems so far away. But it’s all around me, and you’re all around me. Tiger Lily, do you think magic exists if it can be explained? I can explain why I loved you, I can explain the theory of evolution that tells me why mermaids live in Neverland and nowhere else. But it still feels magic
.

The lost boys all stood at our wedding. Does it seem odd to you that they could have stood at a wedding that wasn’t yours and mine? It does to me. And I’m sorry for it, and for a lot, and I also wouldn’t change it
.

It is so quiet here. Even with all the trains and the streets and the people. It’s nothing like the jungle. The boys have grown. Everything has grown. Do you think you will ever grow? I hope not. I like to think that even if I change and fade away, some other people won’t
.

I like to think that one day after I die, at least one small particle of me—of all the particles that will spread everywhere—will float all the way to Neverland, and be part of a flower or something like that, like that poet said, the one that your Tik Tok loved. I like to think that nothing’s final, and that everyone gets to be together even when it looks like they don’t, that it all works out even when all the evidence seems to say something else, that you and I are always young in the woods, and that I’ll see you sometime again, even if it’s not with any kind of eyes I know of or understand. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the way things go after all—that all things end happy. Even for you and Tik Tok. And for you and me
.

Always
,

Your Peter

P.S. Please give my love to Tink. She was always such a funny little bug
.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Sarah Landis, Kari Sutherland, and Zareen Jaffrey for being so elegantly intelligent as they nurtured this book, to Melinda Weigel for giving it her careful attention, and to all the folks at Harper for always treating me so nicely. Thank you to Tara and Misha, who were early to encourage me to keep thinking about Tiger Lily and Peter; Rosemary Stimola for always putting the important things first; Liesa and James, Ben Cawood, and Maria Bejarano for all sorts of grounding and encouragement; my family for their limitless enthusiasm; and Mark for his faith in me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JODI LYNN ANDERSON
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
PEACHES, THE SECRETS OF PEACHES, LOVE AND PEACHES
, and the popular May Bird trilogy. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and an endless parade of stray pets.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
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OTHER WORKS

Also by
JODI LYNN ANDERSON

Peaches

The Secrets of Peaches

Love and Peaches

CREDITS

Cover art and design by Oceana Garceau

COPYRIGHT

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Tiger Lily

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Anderson, Jodi Lynn.

Tiger Lily / Jodi Lynn Anderson—1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily receives special protections from the spiritual forces of Neverland, but then she meets her tribe’s most dangerous enemy—Peter Pan—and falls in love with him.

ISBN 978-0-06-200325-6

EPub Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN 9780062114617

[1. Fairies—Fiction. 2. Love—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction.] I. Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew), 1860—1937. Peter Pan. II. Title.