Maggie's lip was trembling. "That's not true." Her voice lowered. "You're a liar!"

Hook backed away instantly, hand and hook clasped to his heart. "Me? Lie? Never!" His smile was bright and hard. "The truth is way too much fun, my dear."

He assumed a look of tragic resignation. "Before you were born, they would stay up all night long just to watch the sunrise. Then they would sleep until noon. They did silly things for no reason. They laughed very loud. They played all sorts of games and sang all sorts of songs. None of which they do now, do they?"

He paused. "Before you were bom"-he sighed longingly-"they were so much happier." He glanced quickly at Smee. "Am I right?"

"Happy as flappin' flounders in the deep blue sea, Cap'n," Smee agreed.

Both children shuddered with recognition of the possibility that it was true. Hook was exceedingly pleased.

"Can't you see what you've done to them?" he demanded, a pleading look on his face. "You've given them responsibility! You've made Mommy and Daddy grow up! How could they possibly love you for that?"

A knock on the door brought them all about. Hook muttered something unintelligible, and the pirate Tickles stuck his head through hurriedly.

"Cap'n?" he ventured hesitantly.

"Yes, what is it, Pickles?" Smee rushed forward to whisper hurriedly in his ear. "Very well!" stormed Hook. "What is it, Tickles!"

The pirate cringed. "Cap'n, it's time to give the order for the firing squad!"

Hook brushed him back with a casual wave. Sauntering over to the door, he opened it wide and bellowed, "FIRE!"

Flintlocks crashed from somewhere outside and then there was silence. Jack sat rigid in his chair. Maggie sat with her eyes closed.

Tickles tried sneaking back through the door without being seen and came right up against Hook. Belly to belly, they faced each other.

Hook sniffed. His nose wrinkled in distaste. "It's a bath for you tonight, Tickles," he hissed, and booted the pirate back the way he had come.

Hook closed the door without having ever once looked through it and returned to stand in front of the chalkboard.

"Time for the dreaded pop quiz," he announced.

He spun the board once more and this time when it stopped, he wrote the words "I LOVE YOU." He turned to face the children, waiting until Smee had completed handing out blank sheets of paper. This was really going quite well, he thought delightedly.

"Are we ready, now?" he asked. "All right. What do your parents really mean when they say, 'I love you'?"

Maggie raised her hand excitedly, forgetting momentarily that she had decided she didn't like any of this and wasn't going to play the game. "I know! I know!" She took a deep breath. "They mean we make them really, really, really happy all the time!"

Hook shook his head. "Really, really, really wrong! Sorry, you flunk." He turned to Smee. "Give her an F."

Smee took a quill with red ink and marked a huge F on Maggie's blank sheet of paper.

"Hand me Pan's dossier, Smee," ordered Hook, ignoring the stricken look on her face.

Maggie's face crumpled. "He gave me an F. I never got an F before on anything?"

"Stop complaining," muttered Jack.

Hook was paging through a thick folder that Smee had handed him, shaking his head. "What do we have here? Broken promise after broken promise. What sort of father is he, Jack?" He watched Jack's eyes snap up. "Your father went to little Maggot's school play, didn't he? But did he go to your baseball game? No, of course not. He missed the most important event in your young life, didn't he?"

Maggie surged to her feet, screaming. "This isn't a real school! You're not a real teacher! You can't give me an F! You let us go home!"

She charged around the desk and threw herself on Hook, tugging and pulling at his coat.

"Maggie, stop it!" cried Jack, appalled. "Let go of him! He'll just lock you up again! What are you doing?"

"Smee!" Hook shouted, trying unsuccessfully to hold Maggie at arm's length. "Get this little…" Words failed him. "Just take her outside for recess, Smee. Let her play with the keelhaul ropes or the gaff hooks or something. Shoo, shoo."

Smee pulled Maggie off the captain, kicking and screaming. "Mustn't depress the cap'n," he advised.

"He loved my school play!" Maggie howled as she was hauled through the cabin door, punching at Smee. "I was terrific! Don't listen to him, Jack! He hates Mommy and Daddy! He wants us to hate them, too! He wants us to forget about them! You've got to always remember, Jack, because Neverland makes you forget! Don't do it! Don't…"

And then the cabin door slammed shut and there was absolute silence.

Hook and Jack faced each other wordlessly. Hook smiled. Time to turn up the charm a notch now that the girl was gone. A disruptive influence if ever there was one and of nowhere near as much use as the boy. There was a look in the boy's eyes that Hook recognized.

He bent close. "Well, Jack?"

Jack shifted in his seat. "How did you know about the game?" he muttered.

Hook smiled mysteriously. "I have a very good spyglass. '' He moved over to Jack's side so that they were both facing the chalkboard. "WHY PARENTS HATE THEIR CHILDREN" faced back at them.

"He's missed every important moment in your life for years, hasn't he, Jack?" Hook said softly, cajolingly. "He's got an excuse for everything, but the fact remains, he's never there. Your sister is too young to realize the truth, but you're not. If he really loved you, wouldn't he be there for you when it counted?"

The room was so quiet Hook could hear the boy breathing. His face was lowered into his chest, his lank brown hair shadowing his elfin features.

Hook placed a hand on his shoulder. "They tell us they love us, Jack, but the proof is in the pudding. Do they show it as well? Are they there when they should be?" He paused, sighed. "It's all so clear, really, when you think it through."

There was a barely perceptible nod. "Jack, Jack." Hook seized on it. "I think you and I have a lot in common." The boy's head lifted, astonishment in his eyes. "Wait, now-don't be too quick to judge. Hear me out. You look like a boy with pluck in him. Tell me-is it true what I see in your eyes?"

He lifted Jack out of his seat and steered him across the room to a large, iron-bound chest. He turned Jack about, stepped back in a swagger, cocked his head, and slurred, "Didst y'ever wish to be a pirate, me hearty?"

Jack's eyes were wide now, but no longer simply with astonishment. There was longing there as well, a need to be accepted, a hunger to belong.

"No," he whispered, "just a baseball player."

"Ah, baseball!" breathed Hook.

Reaching down dramatically, he flipped back the lid of the chest. Inside were thousands of baseball cards.

Jack gasped. "I never saw so many cards!" he whispered.

Hook bent close. "Take a few, why don't you." He waited as Jack filled both hands. "You see, Jack, you can be anything you want on my team. It's all up to you."

And he put his arm about the boy and gave him a possessive pirate squeeze.

Think Happy Thoughts

That same morning found Peter Banning becoming reac-quainted with his body. It was not a pleasant experience. Too many places sagged, pouched, jiggled, and otherwise stuck out in some inappropriate or embarrassing manner. Too many parts simply didn't work. For countless months he had been telling himself that he needed to get in shape, that he had to start exercising. And now the moment of truth had finally arrived.

It was all Tink's doing. "If you want to get your kids back," she had announced, rousting him from his tree branch at sunrise with Pockets, Latchboy, Too Small, No Nap, Ace, Don't Ask, and Thud Butt looking on, "you have to be ready for Hook. You can't face him looking like this. We have to get the old Pan back."