Before the “Once upon a time” you know, life was different. There was no Peter Pan. No lost boys. No Captain Hook. They appear eventually, but Pan never talks about how they appear. Nor does he discuss why he can’t stand Hook or why he has such a problem with growing up. Somehow he manages to avoid these topics and for the longest time people forgot that there may be a reason. Pan likes it this way. It allows for him to push the past to the farthest corner of his mind. Why? You wouldn’t want to relive your pain like a movie either if you didn’t have to.

Confused? That’s why he says nothing. That’s why he keeps the tears inside. The longer he hides his secrets, the more people he can make happy. The more children he can show that someone loves them and that they don’t have to grow up to be like everyone else. That’s why he encourages staying like a child. To teach you to never let the world take hold of you and turn you into the person you never wanted to be.

Peter Pan’s real name is not Peter Pan. It’s Tobias. And Tobias was murdered when he was 12 years old.

Let me start from the beginning. Tobias lived in London, just like Wendy and her family. Tobias was the son of an inventor, who was known well in his community for honesty and having a good heart. His mother was a beautiful, soft-spoken woman who worked closely with her husband. The three of them were not wealthy with money, but in happiness. Most of the time, the inventions they worked on failed, but, loving what they did, their persistence never ceased to revolutionize London.

One day, it finally worked! Their hard-work paid off and the electric telegraph was born! Everyone wanted one and the family became richer than ever. However, selfishness set in the father’s heart. “More telegraphs,” he would scream at Tobias and his mother, “We need more or I can’t buy that new suit I saw today!” Objects and money become the world to him. His family worked days in a row with no sleep because he didn’t want to hire people for he would have to pay them. Most of the house fell apart: the roof leaked, the floor broke, the walls caught on fire and the cold got it. Except in the father’s workshop, where he spent most of his days. Winter came and his mother passed. Tobias’s only friend died from frostbite one night when the door broke into two, letting the snow in. His father threw her out to be eaten by pigs and beat Tobias for letting one of his workers die. From then on, as punishment, Tobias built every telegraph and got kicked in the back if he fell behind. Tobias built beautiful telegraphs and the people got greedy for them. He could never keep up, so he ran away.

His father hired a detective to find Tobias. The chase lasted for weeks. Several times the detective would get close, but Tobias was quick and smart. However, one day he slipped up. The detective chased Tobias through the woods and onto a frozen lake. The two abruptly halted as the realized what they had done. The detective was close to the edge and managed to get back to land, but Tobias was in the middle of the lake and could not retreat. A gun was suddenly being pointed at him. “Walk slowly this way or I will shoot your arm.” He figured a wound would scare Tobias into giving up. “I’ll never come to you! I would rather die in this lake,” he screamed. Frustrated and exhausted, a shot was fired, missing Tobias and hitting the ice. Tobias fell into the lake and died of hypothermia.

The detective went back to the father and recalled what happened. Infuriated by what happened, he screamed, “I told you I wanted him ALIVE!” “I’m sorry, I gave it the best I could and missed,” the detective pleaded. “You should have tried harder.” And with a single shot to the forehead, the detective was gone.

The father hired other boys to work for him, but they did not have the stamina of Tobias and often died with the extreme workload. The bodies were thrown in the same lake that Tobias froze in.

So, you see, what Peter Pan doesn’t tell you is that Neverland is Heaven. The lost boys are the workers his father killed. Captain Hook is the detective, still determined to capture Tobias. He hates grown-ups because every one he saw was greedy and cruel and selfish. The whole thing is a cover up to give the boys a second chance at life. One they deserved and his father took from them. That’s why he took Wendy and her brothers. They encountered a near-death experience and he gave them a chance to live a (what he thought to be) better life. They never did “fly.” They actually fell out of the window. They woke up the next morning in their beds very sore and with some serious internal injuries that they didn’t find until later. That’s how the story really ended. The way Peter Pan tells it is far from the truth.