52 pages • 1 hour read
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Ammm tells Molly that her father will arrive the next day, although “the Porpoise language is vague about time” (341). Ammm also tells Molly that a “bad man” has the trunk, who Molly assumes is Black Stache. Ammm offers to lead Molly and the others to the trunk. The group follows Ammm along the shore, but the way is rocky and difficult. Peter separates from the group to find a shortcut over land.
The mermaids return the trunk of starstuff to their lagoon. The lead mermaid, called Teacher by the others, smiles at her group; all the mermaids have human teeth now, due to their prolonged exposure to the starstuff. The mermaids refer to the trunk as their creator. As a huge shadow sweeps overhead, the mermaids scatter; however, Teacher stays with the trunk.
The shadow is Slank and Little Richard flying in the longboat toward the lagoon: Slank’s locket also contains starstuff. Slank knocks Teacher unconscious as they land and pulls her into the longboat. The mermaids attack, trying to protect the trunk and rescue Teacher. In the fight, Teacher slips back into the water and the trunk floats out to sea.
Crenshaw returns from the south path of the crossroad and reports that he saw their longboat flying through the air. Black Stache orders his men to hurry to the lagoon, and they obey reluctantly. As they approach, Black Stache hears Slank and Little Richard fighting with the mermaids. Black Stache decides to wait out the fight and deal with the victors afterwards. The pirates creep up a dune to watch.
Peter reaches the top of the hill and confirms his suspicion: Ammm only led them around the point because the porpoise could not travel over land. Peter sees the lagoon from the top of the hill but cannot make out who is fighting below. He assumes it must be the pirates. Impatient for Molly, Alf, and the boys to join him, Peter starts toward the lagoon to investigate.
The mermaids attack the longboat in their V formation, knocking Slank and Little Richard into the water. The mermaids then leave. Slank walks to shore, following the current to find where the trunk may have washed up.
Heading toward the lagoon, Peter hears a moan and finds Teacher severely injured on the beach. As he removes his shirt to bandage the mermaid’s wounds, Peter realizes that he still has Molly’s locket. He uses the last of the starstuff to heal Teacher. Teacher sits up and smiles at Peter as other mermaids arrive offshore. The mermaids point to the trunk, washed ashore nearby and out of their reach. Peter hurries to the trunk only to be knocked unconscious by Little Richard. Slank and Little Richard take the trunk and leave Peter to drown in the shallows.
Peter has never kissed a girl. He sometimes dreams of being kissed by his mother, though the memory feels “more like a shadow” (368). Recently, Molly has made Peter reconsider kissing. Peter is convinced he must be dreaming now, because a “very beautiful girl” is kissing him (369). In reality, it is Teacher giving Peter mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Little Richard feels euphoric carrying the trunk full of starstuff and nearly floats away. Slank holds onto him until they reach the longboat. Slank tries to bash the trunk lock open, until Black Stache and his pirates attack. Finally in possession of the trunk, Black Stache orders the pirates to head back to the Jolly Roger, leaving Slank and Little Richard tied up on the beach to drown in the tide. Black Stache does not notice the V formation of mermaids following his longboat. Meanwhile, Slank rolls across the sand to a patch of starstuff that leaked from the trunk. Controlling the effects of starstuff on his body, Slank augments his strength to break his bonds. He then cuts Little Richard free. The mermaids capsize the longboat full of pirates and knock the trunk into the water. Black Stache watches furiously as Slank sends Little Richard to collect the trunk.
Molly sees all of this from the cover of palm trees. She decides this is the moment to prove she is a Starcatcher. She, James, and Alf arm themselves with coconuts and attack Slank and Little Richard with Ammm’s help, but the two men fight them off. Slank holds a knife to Molly’s throat and reveals that he is one of the Others. Slank knows that Molly and her father are Starcatchers—he is the one who switched the trunks to trick Leonard Aster into boarding the wrong ship. Before Slank can cut her throat, Peter shouts for his attention—Peter now has the trunk.
Peter and Teacher can communicate telepathically, so they formed a plan to get the trunk while Slank and Little Richard fought Molly, Alf, and James. Slank threatens to kill Molly, so despite Molly’s protests, Peter agrees to trade the trunk for Molly’s life. Slank has several conditions: The mermaids must allow Slank and Little Richard to reach the Jolly Roger safely and Molly will remain a hostage until the trunk is aboard the ship. The mermaids swim the trunk to Slank, who remarks to Molly that though Peter cares for her, he is not too bright.
Black Stache and the pirates hang onto the capsized longboat, desperate not to be swept out to sea. Black Stache demands that they abandon five men so they can right the boat, at which point the pirates realize they are in shallow water and can simply walk to shore.
Slank intends to double-cross Peter and take Molly with him to Rundoon, sure that King Zarboff III will reward him for capturing a member of a legendary Starcatcher order. Slank tells Molly again that Peter is a “fool”, but she insists that Peter is “a good person” (397), something Slank can’t understand.
Black Stache convinces the pirates that if he had not tried to abandon them, then they would not have discovered that they were in shallow water, and so he actually saved their lives. The dim-witted pirates are confused but agree to follow Black Stache back to the beach and try to take the trunk back again.
Slank taunts Molly as Little Richard rows them to the Jolly Roger. Molly keeps Slank talking to distract him from Peter flying low over the water toward them. Peter catches up and yells for Molly to jump from the boat. Peter touches Molly’s hand briefly before she falls into the water. Slank, livid, decides to use the starstuff in the trunk immediately.
In the water, Molly’s hand tingles where Peter touched her and she realizes that he was not trying to catch her, but instead gave her a bit of starstuff. Molly flies out of the water and Peter catches her hand just as Slank grabs onto her legs. Molly kicks Slank in the face and frees herself.
Molly thanks Peter for saving her life but is distraught that Peter let Slank have the trunk. But when Slank breaks the trunk open, there is nothing inside. With “a scream of inhuman rage” (408), Slank throws his knife at Peter. However, the starstuff has enhanced Peter’s senses and he catches the blade easily. Peter and Molly fly away as the mermaids push Slank and Little Richard out to sea. Slank looks back at “the boy and the girl who had somehow defeated him” (409).
Peter explains everything to Molly as they fly. Molly is shocked to hear Peter gave the last of her locket starstuff to Teacher, and is a little jealous that Peter thinks Teacher is beautiful. While Molly, James, and Alf were fighting Little Richard and Slank on the beach, Peter and Teacher took the trunk, removed the gold box of starstuff, and hid it in the rocks. Then, Peter traded the empty trunk to Slank in exchange for Molly’s life.
Back on the beach, Peter introduces Molly to Teacher. Molly and Teacher are both jealous of Peter’s attention. Peter shows Molly the gold box of starstuff, and she despairs over what to do next. Suddenly, a longboat nears toward shore. Accompanied by Ammm, Leonard Aster shouts a greeting.
Leonard Aster and a team of Starcatchers wear suits made of gold to transfer the starstuff to another container. Since “gold [can] contain the power of starstuff” (418), when Leonard did not sense starstuff on board the Wasp, he assumed it was because the starstuff was properly sealed in a gold box. However, the Others’ had made their gold container faulty, which is why the real trunk leaked so much. Leonard praises Molly for defeating Slank, but Molly insists “it was mostly Peter” (419). To Leonard’s amazement, Peter explains how he removed the box of starstuff from the trunk to trick Slank; Peter’s exposure to starstuff should have been fatal. Instead, the starstuff transformed Peter, who can now fly at will. Leonard tells Peter that due to his exposure, Peter also will likely never age.
Leonard invites Peter and his friends to return to England with the Starcatchers. The British Navy will escort the Jolly Roger back to England as well. The group prepares to leave, when a spear flies through the air and lands in the longboat. Fighting Prawn and the Mollusks have arrived, heavily armed.
Fighting Prawn demands the starstuff and that Peter teach him how to use it. Leonard, seeing that the Starcatchers are outnumbered, allows Peter to escort Fighting Prawn to the starstuff while the rest of them remain under Mollusk guard. Peter pleads with Fighting Prawn to allow the Starcatchers to leave the island and take the starstuff with them. Fighting Prawn refuses. Black Stache and the pirates storm the beach.
The pirates quickly jump into the longboat and push it out to sea with Fighting Prawn, Peter, and the starstuff still on board. Black Stache tries to stab Peter, but Peter flies out of the way and Black Stache stabs Fighting Prawn instead.
Peter calls telepathically to Teacher, and the mermaids tow the longboat back to the shallows, although they cannot drag it on shore. Fighting Prawn is still alive, though grievously injured, and Black Stache threatens to kill him if anyone approaches. Peter swoops through the air, catching Black Stache off guard. Peter uses Slank’s dagger to cut off Black Stache’s left hand.
Teacher sends Peter a telepathic warning about something in the lagoon. The Mollusks chase all the pirates except for Smee abandon Black Stache, herding them towards Mr. Grin, who emerges from the jungle. Smee drags Black Stache to shore. Peter takes Leonard’s locket of starstuff to heal Fighting Prawn, who agrees to let Peter’s friends go in exchange for saving his life. As Black Stache watches in horror, Mr. Grin finds his severed hand in the surf and eats it. Smee and Black Stache hurry after the pirates, who flee the beach. Mr. Grin lumbers slowly after Black Stache, “as if he knew he had all the time in the world” (439).
The Mollusks host a celebratory feast. Afterwards, everyone except Peter prepares to leave. Leonard offers Peter and the boys a home with him and Molly. Peter is moved, but declines; he feels too changed by the starstuff to return to England. When Peter decides to stay on the island and live freely, Molly weeps. James, Prentiss, Thomas, and Tubby Ted also decide to stay with Peter on the island; Fighting Prawn promises they will be under the protection of the Mollusks. Alf hugs Peter goodbye. Leonard gives Peter a locket of starstuff, telling him to “Keep it with you always, and use it wisely” (446). Reluctant to leave Peter behind, Leonard uses starstuff to transform a green bird into a fairy to watch over Peter. The fairy talks in bell sounds, which only Peter can understand. The fairy is jealous of Peter’s obvious feelings for Molly.
Molly and Peter say goodbye. Peter suggests that he will fly to visit her in England someday soon, before she gets too much older than him. They hug for “the last moment they would ever have when they were both the same age” (450). Molly and the Starcatchers depart.
Fighting Prawn tells Peter to gather driftwood so the Mollusks can build the boys a home. Peter finds a piece of the Never Land with the ship’s name painted on it and says, “That’s exactly where I am” (451).
The climactic, action-packed final chapters of the novel feature a rapid succession of confrontations among all the groups vying for control of the starstuff. Peter’s compassion, confidence, and new abilities prove to be the key to victory in every case. Peter’s compassion to the wounded Teacher earns the help of the mermaids, who are essential in tricking Slank and preventing Black Stache’s escape. Peter’s confidence enables him to bluff Slank, bargaining for Molly’s life with an empty trunk. Peter’s heightened senses and flying powers allow him to defeat the experienced fighter Black Stache and to earn Fighting Prawn’s respect when he saves the older man’s life. Over the course of the novel, Peter has grown from a precocious but scared boy into a skilled adventurer. Coming-of-age story arcs are common in children’s literature, but in choosing for their protagonist a version of Peter Pan, Barry and Pearson avoid typical features of the genre such as the loss of innocence or transition to adulthood—Tropes the Peter Pan story specifically avoids by freezing Peter forever on the cusp of puberty.
Peter emotionally matures without losing his essential childishness, which suggests that the boundaries between adulthood and childhood are not set in stone. Even after Leonard Aster arrives with his Starcatcher team, Peter secures the victory and saves the starstuff from falling to the pirates. Molly similarly grows into her Starcatcher role, proving that she can be brave and decisive when circumstances require and assuming responsibility toward others. She attacks Slank on the beach without hesitation, though her nature is to act cautiously; later, she can’t “bring herself to abandon” the boys on the rocky beach because the “strange and scary island required everyone to stick together” (366). Molly now understands that helping her friends serves her greater goal, even when it feels counterintuitive.
Though the Starcatchers triumph over the Others with Peter’s help, the novel’s falling action resolves ambivalently in the final chapter. Peter is thrilled with his new ability to fly but fears a future in which he watches people change around him while remaining the same. He and Molly share a tearful goodbye, knowing that they will never be the same age again. Still, Peter is able to recognize the potential for fun and adventure on the island, even coming to appreciate the ship that brought him there—a ship he did not want to board in the first place.
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