Leaving home

During the 1940s the World War II was going on and in London people lived in fear. The nightly bombings were regular and because of those, many families were forced to send their children to live into the country side for safety, away from the bombs. And at that very night, the bombing was going on once again and one curious child was watching from the window.

The boy had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He was not short for his age, yet he desired to be taller, at least taller than his older brother, who in his opinion was trying to be their father, who was fighting in the war. Suddenly the boy heard a yell from behind him,

''Edmund! Get away from there! What do you think you're doing? Peter! Amanda!'' His mother Helen yelled as she started dragging him away from the window. Just then two blondes, the eldest of the children, came running to the room. Peter was the oldest, with golden blonde hair and blue eyes and the second oldest was his twin sister Amanda 'Mandi' and she too, like her twin, had blonde hair, only longer, and blue eyes.

''Take him to the shelter Peter. Mandi get your sisters,'' Helen ordered. They all went as they were told. Peter started dragging Edmund to the shelter outside as Amanda started running to her little sister's room, while Helen gathered some supplies to the shelter. Amanda opened her sisters room's door and saw their family's youngest Lucy sitting on her bed, being comforted by their third oldest child Susan as Lucy was terrified of the bombs.

''Lucy! Susan! Come on!'' Amanda yelled from the doorway and Susan immediately helped Lucy out of the bed and they started running out of the room. They all ran after their mother to outside to the yard, as Helen kept rushing them to run faster. The bombs were going off around them as they ran to the shelter. Just when Helen got the shelters door open, Edmund stopped,

''Wait! Dad!'' He yelled and ran back inside.

''Edmund! No!'' Helen yelled to her son, who ignored her call and just kept running back to the house.

''I'll get him!'' Peter assured her as he ran after his little brother. While Peter ran inside to get Edmund, Helen rushed the girls inside the shelter. Lucy immediately ran to the bed and covered herself with a blanket so that only her blue eyes and a small tuft of brown hair was visible and Susan sat next to her so that she could hold her in a comforting manner.

Soon the two boys returned back and jumped inside the shelter. Edmund landed to the bed next to the one Lucy and Susan were sitting on and he had their father's broken picture in his hand, while Peter stood angrily in front of him.

''Why can't you think about anyone but yourself? You're so selfish! You could've got us killed!'' Peter yelled to Edmund. Amanda sat next to Edmund and took his face between her hands so that she could look that he was okay. She then looked her twin with a stern glare.

''Peter, enough! It's over. Let it go,'' she said to him. She always thought that Peter was too hard on his brother and sometimes it seemed that he forgot that he was just their brother, not their father, no matter how much he wished that he was the man he so admired.

''Why can't you just do as you're told?'' Peter finally said as he closed the door.

XXX

That night had made up Helen's mind. No matter how much it hurt her, she had to do it. She was going to send her children to the country for safety. With the war going on around them she just couldn't look after five children on her own.

So the next day she went to the War Safety office in town and registered her children to be send to the country side. At first the officers had told her that they would send the three oldest children to some other house and the remaining two to somewhere else. But Helen wasn't a mother of five for nothing and the officers soon realized that. So Helen demanded that they would find a house big enough to hold all her children.

At first there didn't seem to be any house big enough, but Helen was a stubborn woman and after they checked once again, they found out that Professor Digory Kirke had offered his big house as a safe house for children for the war time. At first the officers hadn't wanted to send any children there, since it was very far away in the country and Professor did have a reputation of being a little careless at times. But the Professor had assured them that he now had a house keeper, who would take care of the children, along with the house. So the officers filled the tickets for the Pevensie children to be sent on the first leaving train to Professor's house.

XXX

So couple days later the Pevensie family was on the train station that was full of teary eyed people. This was the train that would take many children away from their families not knowing whether they would see them ever again.

Helen was kneeling in front of Lucy, who had tears in her eyes as she looked at her sad mother. Helen pinned the ticket to Lucy's coat while keeping the tears from falling to her cheeks,

''You need to keep this on darling, alright. You warm enough?'' Helen asked and Lucy nodded to her, ''Good girl,'' She said and then quickly hugged her youngest. After that she turned to Edmund and pinned the ticket on his coat as well, while the older children did it themselves.

''If Dad were here, he wouldn't make us go,'' Edmund complained.

''If dad were here, it'd mean the war was over and we wouldn't have to go,'' Peter snapped at his brother.

''Peter!'' Amanda hissed sharply to her twin and Peter did have the decency to look a little ashamed for his words.

''You will listen to your brother, won't you Edmund?'' Helen said to him. She then rose from the ground and intended to hug and kiss Edmund goodbye, but Edmund turned his head away, making sad Helen to kiss him lightly to his hair instead.

Helen then turned to Peter and hugged him, which he returned full heartedly.

''Promise me you'll look after the others,'' Helen whispered to Peter.

''I will, mum,'' Peter responded with a broken voice.

''Good man,'' she praised. Helen then hugged her oldest daughter and she hugged back while feeling the unshed tears in her eyes.

''Amanda, take care of Peter and your siblings,'' she said.

''Of course, mum,'' Amanda said tearfully. Helen then moved to hug Susan.

''Susan...be a big girl,'' she said as Susan shed a few tears while they hugged. ''Alright, off you go,'' Helen finally said. The children then gathered their suitcases and bags, and started walking towards the train, leaving their mother behind them. Amanda took one of the suitcases and a hold of Susan hand, and Susan had her backpack as she took a hold of very reluctant Edmund's hand, who had another suitcase in his hand. Peter was holding Lucy's hand and one of the other suitcases and Lucy had her own small suitcase.

As they got to the lady who checked the tickets Peter got distracted by passing soldiers, wishing that he was old enough to join them, making him lost to the real world for a moment.

''May I have your ticket please? Tickets please!'' The lady says to Amanda.

''Peter!'' Amanda snapped and snatched the tickets from Peter's hand, waking him from his wishful dream while Amanda gave the train tickets to the lady. The lady smiled warmly to the children and motioned them to continue to go into the train.

Lucy was starting to stall a little trying to see their mother from the crowd of people.

''Come on Lucy, we have to stick together now. Everything's going to be alright. It's going to be fine,'' Peter encouraged the crying Lucy as they continued to walk towards the train. They got in and immediately found free window and started to look for their mother.

They found her in the front of the crowd and started waving at her and crying their goodbyes as she waved back at them trying to keep herself from crying as the train started moving. Soon they were out of the station and they couldn't see their mother anymore.

They moved away from the window and started to look for a compartment to sit in. They found one where two other children were in. They got in and while Lucy took a seat and Susan and Edmund sat on both her sides, Peter and Amanda placed their suitcases to the top shelf and then they too sat down. Amanda sat next to Susan by the door while Peter sat across her on the other seat next to the unfamiliar children.

The train ride was long and tiresome and during it Amanda was trying to entertain Lucy by reading their old Storybook she had brought with her, knowing how the train ride would be very boring to Lucy. And even though Amanda didn't voice it, she could see from the corner of her eye how the two children on the other seat were listening too and Edmund was looking at her and the book time to time, so he must have listened too.

Soon she had read almost half of the book and her throat was feeling so dry that she had to stop. She closed the book and put it away, making Lucy and Edmund, along with the two children, to lose interest in her. Sometime after that they came to the first station. A small little thing in the middle of nowhere. Some children, including the two from their compartment, got out at that station and left with their guardians, but the Pevensies knew that their station was still much further away.

They didn't stay at the station very long and soon they were continuing their trip. Now that they had more room in the compartment, Amanda moved from her seat to the one Peter was sitting on to make more room for the other three children on the seat. Soon tired Lucy had placed her head on Susan's shoulder, while Susan was hugging her with one arm and reading a book by herself. Bored Edmund just kept looking out of the window the ever changing view.

Long time went by in the boredom of the train, until they heard a call to their station. They quickly gathered their things and got out of the train. But back when they had thought that the first station was small, this one couldn't even be called a station. It was just a small platform with a sign that said Coombe Halt.

They heard a car horn and quickly picked their belongings and ran down the steps from the platform. But the car just drove past them.

''The Professor knew we were coming?'' Susan asked unsurely as they looked the empty road.

''Perhaps we've been incorrectly labeled,'' Edmund suggested as he looked his ticket.

''I don't think so,'' Amanda said, feeling just as confused as the rest of them. But then they heard sound of horse hoofs and a woman's voice. Soon they saw a white horse pulling a cart behind it and a middle aged lady holding the bridles and a long birch.

The lady stopped the cart in front of them and looked at them. They looked at her for a moment and were a bit uncomfortable under her stare. She had a strict look on her face and she looked like a woman you don't want to gross. She had her hair in a tight bun on the back of her neck and she had small spectacles on her nose. Her posture told about her strict upbringing and that she was a woman who doesn't stand any tricks children might play.

''Mrs. Macready?'' Peter asked little unsurely.

''I'm afraid so…Is this it then? Haven't you brought anything else?'' Mrs. Macready asked sternly.

''No, ma'am. It's just us,'' Peter said to her.

''Small favors,'' she then said and motioned the children to climb in. They went to the back of the cart and climbed in. Amanda had to help Lucy climb in to the cart, since she was little too short to climb all by herself. Mrs. Macready then whipped her birch and the horse started moving again.

It didn't take long for them to get to the house. Good thing too since the cart was so small they were sitting very closely each other and their suitcases were pushed between their legs. When they saw the house they were amazed. It was a big sturdy mansion that had a beautiful large garden and it was surrounded by big lush green trees.

They got out of the cart and followed Mrs. Macready to the house.

''Professor Kirke is not accustomed to having children in his house. And as such, there are a few rules we need to follow:…'' Mrs. Macready told them as they followed her around the house, ''…There will be no shouting…or running. No improper use of the dumbwaiter…'' Mrs. Macready said as she turned around and saw how Susan was about to touch one of the marble statues,

''NO touching of the historical artifacts! And above all, there shall be no disturbing of the Professor,'' she said as she pointed a closed door, that apparently was the Professor's study.

Mrs. Macready then guided them to their rooms upstairs. Since there was so many of them they had their own rooms. Or at least almost. Lucy and Edmund were sharing one, as were Amanda and Susan, but Peter had his own room.

They all separated and went into their rooms and started unpacking their suitcases and bags they had brought with them. Amanda put her travel coat into the small closet and quickly smoothed her old brown knee-high dress to straighten it. The dress had sleeves that got to her forearms, modest V-neckline and a small brown belt and it had been comfortable to wear during their trip. She then unpacked her clothes to the closet and placed the suitcase to the floor in the closet as did Susan, who had put her coat next to Amanda's and was now wearing her pink blouse and checkered skirt with some black flats and stockings.

Amanda then noticed some mud and dust on the tip of her light cream heels. After noticing this she walked to the bathroom and took a wet towel and wiped the mud away so that the floor would not get dirty. These shoes had been the last thing her mother had gotten to her. It had been her sixteenth birthday present and she had been eyeing these shoes for a while and finally Helen had agreed to buy them. After wiping the shoes and the strap, that went around her ankle and connected to the middle of the shoe, Amanda washed the towel and put it to dry out so that Mrs. Macready didn't have anything to complain about.

They then went to Lucy's and Edmund's room and saw that Peter had already gotten in there and was listening the radio by the window. After some time they had all found something to do. Amanda had brought the Storybook with her and was now finishing it with Lucy, who was already sitting on the bed. Edmund was just sitting in a chair in one corner while Peter and Susan were listening the radio. But after a long time of listening the news about the war, Susan shut the radio.

After hearing the radio go down, Amanda put the storybook away and rose from Lucy's bed. She walked next to Peter and looked at him making sure he was still okay after hearing the news that had noting good to tell. Peter gave her a small smile to tell her that he was just fine.

''The sheets feel scratchy,'' Lucy suddenly said from the bed. They all looked at her and walked next to her. Susan and Peter both sat on her bed while Amanda stood next to Peter.

''Wars don't last forever, Lucy. We'll be home soon,'' Susan comforted her.

''If home's still there,'' Edmund said bitterly.

''Ed, just go to bed,'' Amanda said to him. She had the policy that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything.

''Yes, mom,'' Edmund mocked.

''Ed!'' Peter scolded. He would have probably said something else if Amanda had not put her hand on Peter's shoulder to make him stop. After seeing that Edmund did go to his bed and was quiet Peter turned to look Lucy, ''You saw the outside. This place is huge. We can do whatever we want here. Tomorrow's going to be great…really,'' he said to her making her smile a little.

They all moved to go to their own rooms, until Lucy called after them,

''Mandi.'' Amanda turned around and looked at her.

''Yes Lucy,'' she asked

''Can you sing to me. Please,'' Lucy asked. Amanda motioned that Peter and Susan went to bed ahead and that she would go soon too.

''Of course I can,'' Amanda said to Lucy. She sat down at Lucy's bed and tugged her in and shut the lamp next to the bed while Lucy snuggled into the warm bed.

''Come stop your crying it'll be alright

Just take my hand, hold it tight.

I will protect from all around you,

I will be here don't you cry.'' Amanda sang in her soft voice. She reached and brushed some of Lucy's hair away from her face.

''For one so small, you seem so strong.

My arms will hold you keep you safe and warm,

This bond between us can't be broken,

I will be here don't you cry,'' Amanda placed her warm hand to Lucy's cheek and in her sleep Lucy automatically draw closer into the warm hand.

''Cause you'll be in my heart,

Yes you'll be in my heart,

From this day on now and forevermore,'' Amanda pulled her hand away from Lucy's cheek and rose from the bed, making sure Lucy was still warmly tugged in. She then tip toed to the door and looked at the two sleeping forms in the room.

''You'll be in my heart,

No matter what they say,

You'll be here in my heart,

Always.'' She whispered and closed the door behind her, leaving the two tired children to their dreamland.