THE FOXES ARE COMING!
Every night awaiting Big Ben's iconic chimes at midnight the boys encased in their iron lungs in the polio ward at St Thomas's Hospital would frighten themselves half to death by declaring "The foxes are coming!"
None of them quite knew what it meant exactly but it set all of their imaginations on fire with all sorts of endless possibilities. For some, it was fear, for others adventure.
But for young Peter, it meant the promise of freedom untethered for those foxes were enjoying the privilege of London streets in a way he currently could not given his paralysis.
As he closed his eyes he tried to imagine himself darting through the famous streets of the nation's capital and following the skulk of bounding foxes desperately trying to keep up. For even though he was attempting to imagine a fantasy quite far removed from his own current reality he could remember how it felt to be in motion, to feel the night wind rushing through your hair and forcing you to catch your breath in hurried excitement as you took another diversion.
Running past the golden glow of the Ritz, Savoy, and young lovers holding hands in Berkeley Square the young fox then continued to pass by the iconic Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament. Peter through the guise of his imagined fox found himself reacquainting himself with the city he loved by utilizing the portal of his incredible mind and no longer felt constricted by the leg braces restraining his diseased legs from moving.
It was then he realised that the mind was the most powerful tool available to him and believed that if he could set his consideration to something impossible then his mind would surely overcome it.
Having earlier overheard some of the nurses on the night shift declaring he would never walk again, he now vowed to prove them totally and utterly wrong by using the indefatigable and unbeatable powers of his unique mind, a mind worthy of his favorite comic hero Superman and namesake Peter Pan, and finally walk again.
Not just walk. But run.