The elderly man was bent over at the waist. His crooked left arm held the inside of the door he had just opened to the two strangers. His left hand kept the door open and himself upright. Standing a foot above us, straining his neck, the man was able to look us in the eyes. I'd guess his age to be 86 to 100.
Pheasant hunting was the reason for our visit. The topic of discussion became harvesting corn, broke down machinery, and a then the man's son. The son was 65 when he died last year. After eight years "...four more than doctors had given him" the son died of the disease and the father grew older. At the first mention of the son, the father dropped his head, his hand shook, and his voice quivered. When he raised his head again, watery eyes looked back at us. "Tired?" was my only word. In a way another sad Dad might relate, I felt what I was seeing and the word just came out--Tired. Tired of crying. Tired of trying. Tired of missing. Tired of hurting. Tired of being without his son.
The sequel to Peter Pan was recently written. A story that seemed to not need "TO BE CONTENUED" would be an important read for Aaron today. The Air Bear was Peter Pan's biggest fan in the late 80's early '90's. He watched more than one version of the classic story. Aaron played Hook, Pan, the Lost Boys ---all of them, John...and Cathy was Wendy or Tinkerbell. Home with the boys, Cathy did more takes than Mary Martin or Mary Margin as Aaron called the actress. My role was always Hook. Patrick likely had many roles under Aaron's direction.Pixie Dust was in abundant supply in Aaron's imagination.
The story of Neverland is about magic, heros, bad guys, family, temptation, danger, love, bonding with guys, overcoming evil, and the virtue of happy thoughts... surely there's more. In the mind of a Peter Pan person, anything is possible and tragedy is improbable.
As I understand the sequel, Peter Pan grows up, gets married, and wishes to return to Neverland. I saw Aaron as the boy who didn't want to grow up. Neverland is full of life and adventure. Aaron as Pan had an imagination that would wear out his Mom. I don't know if the crock always got Hook in the end of Aaron's Pan adventures. I will guess Aaron had his own version of how the story should end. Playing Pan would eventually tire out our little Aaron. I arrived home often to find a tired Aaron sleeping sound on the couch. With an eye patch and a Cutlass nearby--his work of saving the lost boys, Wendy, and Tinkerbell was done.
The new book would have been an ideal Christmas gift for Aaron.
Rural Iowa has few blacktop roads. It's a world of thousands of miles of crushed limestone and dirt. Lots of white dust. None of it Pixie.
Where's the magic?
Tom
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I remember clearly the day Aaron came home from kindergarten and we were down by the swing set swinging. He told me that he figured out that he will never be able to fly like Peter Pan...he said no one can. He was very serious and sad about it. My heart broke for him in that moment...in all the role playing that we did, I didn't realize that when he would make me close my eyes really hard and wish "good thoughts" that he actually thought that they could really make him fly in real life. I wonder if something had happened that day at school to make him realize that. For the record, he thought I was a better Wendy than Tinkerbell! Tink wasn't exactly his favorite character.
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