3 Peter Pan - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Peter Pan, written by J.M. Barrie, is a classic children's novel first published in the early 20th century. The story revolves around the beloved character Peter Pan and follows his adventures in the fantastical Neverland, along with a young girl named Wendy Darling and her brothers, John and Michael.

In this episode, Mr. and Mrs. Darling reminisce.

Transcript

Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,

Your go-to podcast that offers you a calm and relaxing transition into a great night's sleep.

It is time to relax and fully let go.

There is nothing you need to be doing now,

And nowhere you need to go.

Close your eyes and feel yourself sink into the support beneath you and let all the worries of the day drift away.

This is your time and your space.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.

There is nothing you need to be doing now,

And nowhere you need to go.

Happy listening.

Chapter 2 Mrs Darling and all the children were asleep.

While Mrs Darling slept,

She had a dream.

She dreamt that the Neverland had come too near and a strange boy had broken through from it.

He did not alarm her,

For she thought she had seen him before in the faces of many women who have no children.

Perhaps he is to be found in the faces of some mothers also,

But in her dream he had rent the film that obscures the Neverland and she saw Michael,

Wendy and John peeping through the gap.

The dream by itself would have been a trifle,

But while Mrs Darling was dreaming,

The window of the nursery blew open and an actual boy did drop onto the floor.

He was accompanied by a strange light no bigger than your fist,

Which darted about the room like a living thing.

I think it must have been this light that wakened Mrs Darling.

She started up with a cry and saw the boy and somehow knew at once that he was Peter Pan.

If you or I or Wendy had been there,

We should have seen he was very like Mrs Darling's kiss.

He was a lovely boy,

Clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees,

But the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all his first teeth.

When he saw she was a grown-up,

He gnashed the little pearls at her.

Mrs Darling screamed and,

As if in answer to a bell,

The door opened and Nana entered,

Returning from her evening out.

She growled and sprang at the boy,

Who leapt lightly through the window,

And again Mrs Darling screamed,

This time in distress for him,

For she thought he was killed.

She ran down into the street to look for his little body,

But it was not there.

She looked up and,

In the black night,

She could see nothing but what she thought was a shooting star.

She returned to the nursery and found Nana with something in her mouth,

Which proved to be the boy's shadow.

As he leapt at the window,

Nana closed it quickly,

But too late to catch him.

His shadow had not time to get out though,

And slam went the window and snapped it off.

You may be sure Mrs Darling examined the shadow carefully,

But it was quite the ordinary kind.

Nana had no doubt of what was the best thing to do.

She hung it out of the window.

He's sure to come back for it.

Let us put it where we can get it easily without disturbing the children,

She said.

But unfortunately Mrs Darling could not leave it hanging out of the window.

It looked so like the washing,

And it lowered the whole tone of the house.

She had thought of showing it to Mr Darling,

But he was totting up winter greatcoats for John and Michael,

With a wet towel around his head to keep his brain clear.

It seemed a shame to trouble him,

She thought.

Besides,

She knew exactly what he would say.

It all comes of having a dog for a nurse.

She decided to roll the shadow up and put it away carefully in a drawer,

Until a fitting opportunity came for telling her husband.

The opportunity came a week later on that never-to-be-forgotten Friday.

Of course it was a Friday.

I ought to have been specially careful on a Friday,

She used to say afterwards to her husband,

While perhaps Nana was on the other side of her holding her hand.

No,

No,

Mr Darling said,

I'm responsible for it all.

I,

George Darling,

Did it.

They thus sat night after night recording the fatal Friday,

Till every detail was stamped on their brains and came through on the other side like the faces on a bad coinage.

If only I'd not accepted that invitation to dine at twenty-seven,

Mrs Darling said.

If only I'd not poured my medicine into Nana's bowl,

Said Mr Darling.

If only I'd pretended to like the medicine,

Was what Nana's wet eye said.

They always sat there in the empty nursery recalling fondly every smallest detail of that dreadful evening.

It had begun so uneventfully,

So precisely like a hundred other evenings,

With Nana putting on the water for Michael's bath and carrying him to it on her back.

I won't go to bed,

Shouted Michael.

I won't,

I won't.

It isn't six o'clock yet,

Nana.

I shan't love you any more,

Nana.

I tell you I won't be bathed,

I won't.

Then Mrs Darling had come in wearing her white evening gown.

She had dressed early because Wendy so loved to see her in her evening gown with the necklace George had given her.

She was wearing Wendy's bracelet on her arm.

She had asked for the loan of it.

Wendy so loved to lend her bracelet to her mother.

She had found her two older children playing at being herself and father on the occasion of Wendy's birth,

And John was saying,

I am happy to inform you,

Mrs Darling,

You are now a mother,

In such a tone as Mr Darling himself might have used on the real occasion.

Wendy then danced with joy,

Just as the real Mrs Darling must have done.

And at that point,

John was born,

With the extra pleasure of being a mother.

That he conceived due to the birth of a male.

And Michael came from his bath to ask to be born also,

But John said brutally they did not want any more.

At that point,

Michael nearly cried.

Nobody ever wants me,

He said.

And then,

Of course,

The lady in the evening dress could not stand that.

I do,

She said.

I so want a third child.

Boy or girl,

Asked Michael,

Not too hopefully.

Boy,

Then he leapt into his mother's arms.

Such a little thing for Mr and Mrs Darling and Nana to recall now,

But not so little if that was to be Michael's last night in the nursery.

It was then I rushed in like a tornado,

Wasn't it,

Mr Darling would say.

Perhaps there was some excuse for him.

He,

Too,

Had been dressing for the party and all had gone well until he came to his tie.

It's an astounding thing to have to tell,

But this man,

Though he knew all about stocks and shares,

Had no real mastery of his tie.

The tie will not tie,

He said,

Now becoming dangerously sarcastic.

Not round my neck,

Round the bedpost.

Oh,

Yes,

20 times I've made it round the bedpost,

But round my neck,

No.

He thought Mrs Darling was not sufficiently impressed and he went on.

I warn you of this,

Mother,

That unless this ties round my neck,

We don't go out to dinner tonight.

And even if I don't go out to dinner tonight,

I never go to the office again.

If I don't go to the office again,

You and I will starve and our children be flung out onto the streets.

Let me try,

Dear,

Said Mrs Darling.

Indeed,

That was what he had come to ask her to do,

And with her nice cool hands,

She tied his tie for him.

How wildly we romped in those days,

Said Mrs Darling,

Recalling it.

Our last romp,

Mr Darling groaned.

George,

Do you remember Michael suddenly said to me,

How did you get to know me,

Mother?

I remember,

Dear.

They were rather sweet,

Don't you think,

George?

And they were ours.

And now they are gone.

The romp around the room with Michael on his shoulders ended with the appearance of Nana and most unluckily,

Mr Darling collided against her,

Covering his trousers with hairs.

They were not only new trousers,

But they were the first he'd ever had with braid on them.

Nana is a treasure,

George,

Said Mrs Darling,

Brushing him down.

And as they went to leave for the party,

A nameless fear clutched at her heart and made her cry.

Oh,

How I wish I wasn't going to a party tonight.

Michael,

Now already half asleep,

Knew she was perturbed and asked,

Can anything harm us,

Mother,

After the night lights are lit and we go to bed?

Nothing precious,

She said.

They are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children.

Then she went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them and little Michael flung his arms around her.

I'm glad of you,

Mother,

He cried.

Those were the last words she was to hear from him for a very long time.