Narnia – Hope

By Allyson

(A/n – C. S. Lewis owns the characters of Narnia)

They'd had another horrible argument which resulted in Lucy feeling absolutely miserable and Susan leaving to visit one of her friend's parties. Their disagreements about Narnia always started with an innocent comment but the resultant angry responses were becoming more frequent. This time it happened while Lucy and Susan were home alone without their brothers to intervene and smooth over any ruffled feelings.

Slamming her bedroom door shut, Lucy flopped down onto her bed, dashing away the tears on her cheeks. It wasn't fair – why couldn't everything be just as it were before their second trip to Narnia? Lucy resented the face that she and Susan were growing apart while Peter and Edmund were getting along better than ever. Despite her mother's and Peter's reassurances that it was a part of growing up, Lucy knew things would never be the same again. How could they when Susan had completely rejected Narnia?

Sighing loudly to herself, Lucy lifted her head up just enough to scrape some hair away from her face. It was then, when her eyes idly moved over to Susan's side of the room, that she noticed something partially tucked away under her sister's pillow. Curious, Lucy sat up and cautiously glanced towards the still closed bedroom door. Even though she knew she was the only one still in the house, a feeling of being watched made her nervous.

Normally, she wouldn't dream of disturbing her older sister's privacy, but she still felt upset over their earlier argument. A voice in her head, sounding suspiciously like Edmund, pointed out that a tiny look couldn't hurt. After all, who would know?

Stealthily, Lucy got off her bed, skipped over the squeaky floorboard, and made her way furtively next to her sister's bed. Gently lifting up the pillow, Lucy found Susan's diary lying open with a pen lying in the crease of the spine. Lucy got the impression that Susan had been interrupted while writing an entry in the diary and had hastily tried to hide the book away.

Curiosity washed away any remaining qualms she felt about disturbing her sister's privacy. Angling her head to read her sister's handwriting without touching the page, Lucy's breath caught in her throat. On the page was written:

Not

All

Real

Not

Imagined

Alone

A smile of hope flickered across Lucy's face. Maybe her sister wasn't as lost to her as she thought.

The End