Wendy didn't know what to do with herself. She walked through Mrs. Nancy's Home for Boys again and tried to make herself useful, but it seemed that there was nothing to be done. Half of the boys were at school, and the rest were reading or quietly working on projects. She had already cleaned the kitchen and the bathrooms, vacuumed the floors, dusted the main rooms and taken Nana out. It seemed odd for everything to be this calm, and it made time go by so very slowly. Mrs. Nancy had stayed in her room all morning and Wendy didn't want to bother her, but she did need to request some time off. She decided to tidy up the file cabinet in the hallway outside of Mrs. Nancy's room, hoping that would draw her out. After a few minutes of bustling around in the cabinet, Mrs. Nancy poked her head out of her door.
"Ah! Miss Darling! I have something to show you!"
Mrs. Nancy grabbed Wendy by the arm and pulled her into her room. Wendy had to hold her breath until her senses adjusted. She rarely went into Mrs. Nancy's room, but every time she did, it was a shock to the system. A heavy scent of lilac permeated the space, mixed with a trace of disinfectant. The walls were covered with awful purple and lime green polka dot wallpaper, and a dozen wind chimes hung from the ceiling which would sound intermittently when they were hit by the air from a large, oscillating fan in the corner. Mrs. Nancy led Wendy over to her desk by the window and pointed to a colorful notebook laying open on it.
"I've been working on this all morning to help me remember my trip!" Mrs. Nancy gushed.
Wendy picked up the scrapbook and turned the carefully crafted pages, looking at pictures and notes from Mrs. Nancy's recent cruise to Norway. Her heart tightened as she took in familiar sights and scenes, places she had visited with her family right before she had lost her father and brothers. Before she could stop herself, a tear ran down her cheek.
"Oh yes," Mrs. Nancy said sympathetically, "some of that scenery moved me to tears as well."
Wendy closed the scrapbook and blinked the tears out of her eyes. "Yes, it's very inspiring," she lied. "But I had actually wanted to ask you about having this Friday off to take a trip of my own."
Mrs. Nancy blinked rapidly. Some of the wind chimes tinkled. Finally, she spoke. "Friday? This Friday? It's a little late to be asking for time off, but I suppose I should let you have it since you hardly ever take time off."
"Thank you. I'll be back again on Monday."
"Good, good. Where are you going?"
Wendy hesitated. She wasn't really keen on telling Mrs. Nancy she was dating Ethan, but she figured the woman would find out soon anyway.
"I'm going to Manchester for the weekend to visit Ethan's parents."
"Ethan?"
"Yes. Ethan Pollard."
"Oh! Fran's nephew! Of course! Are the two of you...?" A slow smile spread across Mrs. Nancy's face. "It seems some wonderful things happened while I was away."
Wendy raised her eyebrows, considering everything that had occurred in the last couple weeks. Half of the boys at the children's home had been sick and the stress of it all had nearly driven Wendy insane, she had had a falling out with Peter and would probably never see him again, and she had almost been killed in Neverland while it was being destroyed. She wouldn't really describe any of those things as 'wonderful,' but she supposed that Ethan was a bright spot in the midst of all that.
"Ethan is a lovely young man," Mrs. Nancy continued, "although I do hope he has grown out of his childish ways. Once when I was staying with Fran he stole all my underpants and fed them to the dog."
Before Wendy could reply, there was a crash from the kitchen, followed by loud shouts and Nana's barking. She turned and rushed out of the room, glad to escape that conversation with Mrs. Nancy, and also relieved that something was happening in the house that required her attention. She winced at the second thought, wondering why she preferred chaos over calm.
Wendy ran into the kitchen, surveyed the mess, and immediately guessed what had happened. A shattered glass pan of leftover brownies littered the floor, and Zachary, Duke and Nana were all scrambling to pick up or eat the pieces. A contraption that looked like a broom and a rake tied together with clothing lay abandoned in the corner.
"Zachary! Duke!"
The boys froze when they saw they'd been discovered, and Nana took advantage of their distraction to gobble up a huge chunk of brownie.
"Those brownies were for everyone!" Wendy reprimanded. "Getting them down from the cabinet was selfish and dangerous! It's a wonder nobody got hurt. Zachary, take Nana outside. Duke, get a broom and help me clean this up."
The boys obeyed. Mrs. Nancy came in to shake her head and give additional scolding, but then she went back upstairs, probably to do more scrapbooking. When the mess was cleaned up, Wendy went to look for Trevor, who was usually at the center of mischief like this. She found him on the floor of his room, quietly constructing a tower out of all of the boys' toothbrushes.
"Hello Miss Wendy," Trevor said without looking up.
Wendy sat down next to the red-haired boy.
"What have you been doing this morning, Trevor?"
"Nothing much. What have you been doing?"
Wendy smiled hesitantly at the boy's odd attitude. "I've been cleaning up Duke and Zachary's brownie mess in the kitchen."
"Yeah, they asked me to help them get those down, but I told them no."
"Good for you."
Trevor poked at his toothbrush tower. "I'm trying to stay out of trouble. I don't want to be kicked out of the house."
Wendy's eyebrows shot up. "Trevor! You won't be kicked out! Why would you say that?"
"Arthur told me that if I keep doing so many disruptive things Mrs. Nancy will put me in another home."
"That is absolutely not true. You might be a handful once in a while, but we love having you here."
Trevor looked at Wendy with sad eyes.
"No, I see how much it upsets you and Mrs. Nancy when I get into things and take the electronics apart. It's time for me to be normal like everyone else."
Wendy was about to protest, but she heard Mrs. Nancy yelling for her to come upstairs. She gave Trevor's shoulder a comforting squeeze and left the room shaking her head at the confusing behavior of the somber five-year-old.