The Vault: Peter Pan--Orphan and A Ship Away

Whelp, I was expecting to be able to do something last week but things caught up on me. Maybe this double feature will help things? Anyway, it's time for....

Today's edition of THE VAULT took a lot of consideration. I have a lot of works. A lot of unnamed works and a lot of uncompleted works. Not that the latter of which counts.  

Normally, I don't do this but, seeing as they're all the same topic and rewrites of each other, I figured I'd lump them all together into one. They aren't not another Zelda fan fiction (I never did end up completing that anyway... it was going to be a trilogy... with dragons). They're actually Peter Pan fan fiction. Two of four actually. Sadly, I'll only be looking at two. I have a physical copy of the first one and I can't remember where I saved the latest. I wrote the first one by hand in fifth or sixth grade. It was my first story I wrote that wasn't for school. I also have no idea where that went. 

Anyway, the first Peter Pan fiction was about an orphan named Molly (coincidentally, this name would follow just about every Peter Pan fanfic until I learned about Peter and the Starcatchers female lead was named Molly). Molly lives in turn-of-the-century London with her mother and her father isn't around. I had never really gotten into where her father was, just that it didn't matter that he was gone. Her mother falls down the stairs.... Actually, this sounds a lot like the first three chapters of the original... 

Anyway! Molly's mother falls down the stairs and dies. boo hoo! Molly is shipped off to an orphanage where, eight years later (at what I would assume is the ripe age of thirteen), our story begins. Molly is now living in an orphanage with an abusive caretaker (Hello Mrs. Hannigan) by the name of Mrs. Goodrich.

I find that my younger self was quite good at picking SOME names. Not all but some. I think I took Goodrich from an ad somewhere in the paper and it fits her character ironically well. Goodrich is neither good nor rich... hence why she's abusive.

In the orphanage, Goodrich wakes up her children in a drunken stupor all hours of the day to have them clean the house. Molly is a avid storyteller and has gained quite the following at the orphanage for her rendition of fairy tales and her own work.

After they start to clean, a few of the kids request that Molly start telling them the story of Peter Pan, one she heard from her mother (Wendy from the original Peter Pan) and Goodrich stumbles into the room. Molly and another girl take her into her room and are stopped by Goodrich's cruel son, Walter. She punches him in the face and they return to do chores. Molly starts telling the story of Peter Pan and the window flies open before Goodrich punishes her by stuffing her into this nasty little shed out back. On her way out, she sees a strange shadow on the rooftops. 

The next morning she happens upon a male calico kitten and the orphanage is talking about her. First let me address the bold words before we continue. At the time, I didn't know calicoes were only female and the male ones are extremely rare and often infertile. I didn't do as much research into it and I'm kicking myself now.

Onwards, the other orphans are actually talking about this strange and cute boy who wanted to hear her stories. Later that night she gets kicked out again and acts like a smart ass. She puts cotton in her ears as a way to ignore Goodrich and is shoved into the shack. Again. Where she meets the male calico she dubs 'Sunny.' 

The next chapter takes up with Peter and Tink and their attempts to save her from the shack and take her away to Neverland. The end of the chapter isn't finished and, from what is there, they're still trying to get her out. 

The second, dubbed 'A Ship Away,' was originally in my Legend of Zelda folder and is about a girl (Molly) who, along with her two brothers, Noah and William, are taken to Neverland. Before I continue with content of the story, I'd like to say: WHY ON EARTH DID I CHOOSE COMIC SANS AS A CHAPTER HEADER?

My elder self just wants to slap my younger self. Seriously? Comic Sans? That aside, I'm glad it was only a fraction of the work that was in the dreaded font. Everything else was in Book Antiqua... Now I remember why I liked that font [Book Antiqua]. It's so pretty. And not Times New Roman.

Anyway, the story beings with Jane--Wendy's daughter--asking her two younger children where her eldest child is. They answer with a simple 'I don't know' and are described as 'looking like their father.' Ugh. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE when authors describe their characters as looking like their parents. I've been told by many a person I'm almost a mirror image of my mother but, for the love of Tolkien, describe what the parent looks like AFTER describing the character (or before if they happen before the characters).

Ugh. Anyway, I also found it quite witty to name my main characters the 'Pardon' family. Darling to Pardon...Granted it's been a few generations. Anyway, the Pardons live in World War II era London (I'm going to assume) and Molly is rushing through crowds with a grocery bag filled with the name sake. 

I also am kicking myself for this. For some reason, I did next to no research at the time. To me, I didn't care and saw no need to. Ugh. Now, at least seven years after writing this, I make sure to research my work. It helps make it believable. Tamora Pierce, my favourite author--next to Rowling--when I was a kid, has admitted to researching for her fantasy novels. 

If I had done the research, I would likely have known that Germans/Nazis weren't going to be in London in World War II (aside from bomber planes) and the reason families were shipping their children to the countryside was to avoid their deaths in the major cities, which were being targeted by bomber planes at the time. But back to my craptastic story, Molly manages to kick two of the four German soldiers in the groin and make a run for it. She gets home safely and is told she's going to be shipped to a 'Patch of Haven' Orphanage.

Did I mean 'Heaven' by the name? Can't remember. Sounds weird the way it is... 

Her father acts much like Mr. Darling in that he scolds her for her obsession with stories and Peter Pan. She tells him Pan's real and talks about his arch nemesis, Hook, which inspires her father to want to hear one of the stories during bed time. 

They sleep in the bomb shed out back and the next morning, Molly's jewish friend, Sophia, comes over. This is the first hint of any kind of religion in my novels and even then it just seems like a brand to slap on the characters to make them 'special.' It added nothing to the plot.

Sophia leaves and Pan comes in and the two converse for a bit. Molly tells him she's going to grow up and go to Little Patch of Heaven (HA! It was heaven) and she'll think about reconsidering growing up.

Chapter two starts with Molly being woken up by her brothers and transported on a train called 'Midnight Beauty.' This I remember I got from my cat at the time, Midnight, and a book that was nearby, Black Beauty. They have fifteen minutes to get to the station yet get there in an hour. LOGIC? Flawed. Also, at the station, their father officially becomes drafted and I write probably one of the most religiously offensive things ever. I'm not going to write it. I'm glad this didn't get on the internet. 

Also, had I researched, I probably would have known that children weren't segregated based on religion. Anyway, Molly kicks some ass and they land in Lynn station before progressing to the orphanage.

The next chapter she makes it to the orphanage and Goodrich makes a comeback and is just as mean. Forced into scrubbing the house, Molly and her friend, Sophia, spend the day doing their indoor chores and the boys have chores spent on the exterior. Later that night Molly tells the story of Peter Pan and eventually taken to Neverland by Hook. Peter saves Molly and the twins yet leaves Sophia.

That is the end... Or at least what I have. 

I think I was going to have some betrayal go on between Molly and Sophia yet I stopped writing before that happened. It's done and I'm definitely not going to continue this. 

Always, 

Ali

Update 8.21.2016: Retroactively adding pieces to FF/FP and adding links. Sadly, this novel made it to the chopping block and is therefore unavailable.