AN: Hey all, thanks very much for the reviews! I do appreciate them. Some of you brought up some rather good points and questions. Not to fear, I shall be working to address them as the story permits me to do so.
Also, for those of you who may be confused. I haven't necessarily changed the names of the schools so much as what they are. Upon research on the British school system, I found out how the primary and secondary schools are organized. I'm making Henden House and St. Finbar's secondary schools. The names of the primary schools that the children are attending you will learn as you read the chapter. I will also be fixing the first chapter so as to remain consistent. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Chapter Two
The Days Before
The excitement of the two Pevensies couldn't be contained after they had been sent off to bed. Without even really meaning to, the two elder children woke up Edmund and Lucy. Of course, Edmund and Lucy barely understood the major significance. Lucy was only five-years-old, and Edmund was only seven. They knew of a bad man named Hitler living over in Germany, and how he led a group called the Nazis. The two of them were merely excited to hear that Mr. Berkovich and his wife were going to be adopting children.
"You said the boy wasn't much more older than me?" Edmund asked Peter.
The two brothers shared the same room, but they had separate beds. Model planes hung from the ceiling, the two of them had put them together. Next to the window was a window-seat, in which the two boys placed their toy trains, the tracks that they ran on, as well as several little toy figurines (mainly soldiers, but also firemen and police officers). Over in another corner next to a dresser in which they kept their clothes stood some equipment to play cricket (which all four of the children enjoyed). Next to their closet was a small bookcase with plenty of books. Some younger ones for children for Edmund, ones about bakers and toy-makers. For Peter there were ones about knights, kings, monsters and noble quests.
It was the middle of the night by now, but the youngest Pevensie was too excited to be asleep. He laid awake despite being tucked into warm-gray sheets. His eyes were wide, as if there couldn't possibly be anything else better for them to do at that time. There was barely a night that passed by when the two brothers weren't up to the middle of the night talking anyway. By now Mr. Berkovich had gone home, and their parents had to be well into bed. There was no fear of discovery.
"According to Mr. Berkovich, he's only a year older than you." Peter said this as he rolled over to face his brother. He pushed back his green sheets enough so that he could look over them and see his brother.
Smiling, Edmund said, "He's going to Corner House?"
Peter nodded. "Yeah, you and I will more than likely be seeing him often."
"Will we meet him before then?"
Shrugging, Peter said, "I don't see why not. I imagine that Mr. Berkovich will want us to meet Ansel Schurn soon enough."
"The girl too?" Ed questioned
"Yes. Her too," Peter yawned.
"I wonder what they will be like?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think they'll want to play cricket?"
"I don't know, Ed."
"Do you think-"
"Ed?"
"Yes?"
"I don't know. What I do know is we need to get some sleep."
"Pooh! How can I sleep when I know when we might be making some new friends? I'll be awake for hours thinking about it."
Not even fifteen minutes later, Edmund was fast asleep.
Meanwhile, Susan and Lucy were in their room. Aside for their beds, there were a bunch of small stuffed toys that the girls both loved to play with sitting atop of a window. They also had a dresser in the one corner. They also had a shelf where two dolls rested. One that belonged to Susan (even though she didn't really play with hers anymore) and one that of course belonged to Lucy (which she still chose to play with often).
The two girls laid in their beds. Susan's sheets were a soft purple color. While the ones the youngest Pevensie had on her bed were a soft shade of blue. Lucy held her stuff toy- a little brown dog named Rover (a name inspired by a dog's name that she had heard when she was in the park)with floppy ears and a button nose. The toy clutched under her arm, she turned over so that she was on the side that faced Susan. "Do you think she'll want to play dolls with me?"
Susan- who had been just about to fall asleep- sighed and rolled over. "What did you say, Lu?" she asked.
"The girl who's going to be living with Mr. Berkovich? Do you think she'll want to play with dolls?"
Not knowing how else to respond. Having just turned nine years old, Susan felt that she was starting to outgrow doll playing. Still, since it was one of her sister's favorite activities, she chose to play along. At least until Lucy got bored and they decided to play with something else. "I don't see why not."
"Maybe we can have a tea party!" exclaimed Lucy excitedly. Holding her toy in front of her she said, "You would like that, wouldn't you Rover?" A pause for a few moments. Turning to her sister again, she said, "Rover wants to know if you think the boy would want to play fetch with him?"
"I'm sure we'll all have a lovely time regardless of what we are doing," Susan reassured her sister. Smiling, she said, "It is exciting, isn't it? Mr. Berkovich and his wife taking in children."
"I bet they will make lovely parents."
"They've been longing for children for as long as I can remember. Mum and Dad said that Mr. and Mrs. Berkovich have been trying for years now, but no luck."
"You mean the stork never came?"
"I suppose not."
"Why didn't the stork ever come?"
"I think it's because the stork gets very confused trying to keep a list of all the people who want children and the ones who don't. Sometimes the people get mixed together and sometimes people who don't want children end up having them delivered, and the ones who do get passed by. So instead it drops multiple ones off and doesn't ever deliver to others."
"I'm glad the stork had time to leave me here," Lucy said, a huge smile on her face. "I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Mummy and Daddy."
Susan shook her head. "I don't know either. It must be sad, not having a Mum and Dad."
"What do you mean?" asked Lucy. "How come the children don't have a Mum and Dad?"
"I don't know. Mum and Dad and Mr. Berkovich said that the girl and boy are from an orphanage in Berlin."
"What's an orphanage?"
"It's where they put children who don't have parents to take care of them."
"No Mums and Dads?"
"Nope."
"No grandparents?"
"Nope."
"Not even godparents?"
"Not even godparents."
"That's so sad. Susan, how come there are children who have people who take care of them, and there are people who don't have anyone to take care of them? Why are there people like Mr. and Mrs. Berkovich who don't have children to take care of and yet there are children who don't have families?"
Susan didn't know the answer. "You should try and get some sleep, Lu."
"But why? Susan?"
"I don't know. I'm tired Lucy. We have school tomorrow. Go to sleep."
Silence fell over the room as Susan closed her eyes. She started to relax, her breathing became softer.
"Susan?"
Susan's eyes fluttered open. The eldest Pevensie daughter was agitated. Yet she still managed to keep her voice even when she asked, "Yes Lucy?"
"I know someday there will be a home for all children who need them."
Susan's agitation subsided. When one hears a younger sibling say with such confidence that they were sure something would happen- even despite the impossibilities- you couldn't just break the horrible news to them.
No response came from Lucy. Susan waited for a few moments...wondering why her sister had fallen silent. However, when her sister's breathing started to lighten, the oldest Pevensie daughter realized that her sister had fallen asleep.
Later that night Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie decided to turn into bed. The only light that they had came from a little green lamp. The rest of the room consisted of the bed that they shared, a shelf where the Pevensie parents kept their reading materials, a dresser in which they placed their clothes and on top of which sat a mirror. As John finished undressing, he slipped on a pair of blue jim-jams and a blue nightshirt with white buttons. Helen meanwhile had already slipped on a tan-brown nightgown. She was at work cleaning the lipstick from her mouth and removing the makeup she had applied earlier in the evening before Mr. Berkovich had arrived. Once she had finished, she proceeded to remove her jewelery- which included a beautiful heart necklace her mother had given her when she had turned eighteen, her wedding band, and a watch that Mr. Pevensie had given her as a birthday gift last year (she had refused to get any bracelets. She didn't want it getting lost while she was working around the house.) Finally she got up from her seat in front of a small mirror and walked over to the bed. Crawling in, Mr. Pevensie held his arms wide for her and embraced her. They kissed once she had settled down into the red sheets. They both smiled at one another.
"Tonight went rather well," John said as he took his wife's hand in his own.
Helen nodded and gently took her husband's other hand in hers. "It's so wonderful to hear that Otto and Elsa are finally going to be able to bring in foster children. They've tried for so many years. Poor Elsa kept telling me it broke her heart every time they tried and they had no luck. Sometimes whenever I had one of the children with me, I could always see a mournful gaze in her eyes."
"I'm glad Peter and Susan agreed that they would be willing to reach out to the children once they've arrived."
"They have good hearts."
"Thanks to you," Mr. Pevensie said.
Helen smiled. "Come now, you had a hand in it as well. Lord knows that I'm not capable of being kind all the time."
"We both came a long way," Mr. Pevensie said. "We were both rather different people then what we used to be. When I was growing up, my family grew up being very anti-Semitic. I remember when I was in school, I grew up alongside boys who would use all sorts of anti-Semitic slurs and I'd join them. Some of my classmates were Jewish and I remember while I didn't necessarily join in the teasing, I didn't step in to stop it. Then again, I didn't disagree with them back then."
Helen nodded. "When I was a little girl in school, I never met any Jews until I was about sixteen. A couple of them moved into my neighborhood. I remember people were rather beastly to them. I wasn't exactly kind to them at all either. I'd just ignore them and pretend that they weren't there. I think I only ever talked to them once, and that was just to say excuse me as I made my way through the grocer's and I accidentally bumped into one of them."
"It wasn't until I finally met them and actually got to learn about them and their culture that I finally came to realize how awful I had truly been," John recalled. "I was in a class, and one of my classmates and I were the ones who did the best in it. I worked alongside him in our group coursework. I didn't realize that he was Jewish until a few months after I met him- and by then we had already drunk together several times and had shared many memories. After I've been friends with him for so long, I couldn't just turn my nose and look the other way. I learned more about Jews and I eventually warmed up to them, and now look at me. I'm one of their more vocal supporters and now one of my best friends is a Jew!"
"I started warming up to them after the Great War," Helen recounted her tale. "After my father got back from the service (God bless his soul) he came home with stories about how Jewish men had saved his life in the trenches and he had gotten severely wounded."
"Are you referring to how he got his limp?"
"The exact one. He's lucky that he only got a limp and didn't have to lose his leg. He had only been shot and lying in agony for an hour before a Jewish man had come across him. At the time my father hadn't seen what he was- he was just desperate to get medical help. The man had heard him and somehow, he decided to help my father. When my father woke up in a bed, he learned that he had a limp. However, his leg had been saved. It was a Jewish man who had helped bring him to the medical tents, and a Jewish doctor who had operated on him. Ever since, my father spoke very highly of the Jews. I remember it knocked my mother and sister in a spiral, because they were (and are as you are very well aware) still very anti-Semitic. I however found myself drawn to my father's stories and became inspired to learn more about them. I poured over textbooks and spoke to actual Jews as they were coming back from a synagogue. Finally, I realized that anti-Semitism is nothing more than a prejudice and isn't based on a reality. Anti-Semitism was no longer something I could partake in.
"I'm quite glad that I decided to put it behind me. Elsa and Otto Berkovich are two of my good friends and I can't imagine life without them in it."
"Ever since good old Professor Kirke retired, I haven't had too many friends," agreed John. "Otto to this day remains one of my greatest friends that I've ever had."
"I just hope that the foster children and our children will be able to become friends too," Helen sighed.
"We all made it clear that they didn't have to be the best of friends. We just asked Peter and Susan to be there to help them when they need it. You can't force friendship. All you can do is hope that there's a spark."
"Every day when they get home from school, I hope and pray that they won't come back filled with the same kind of hatred that seems to permeate with the rest of the world."
"Well if they start, we'll just have to keep reiterating the right direction."
"I imagine it will be hard for all of them," Helen said. "Corner House and St. Mary's are schools with children from many walks of life. The people there are more likely to walk roads where there's plenty of hatred. Not just to Jews, but to all kinds of people. With these foster children being Jewish, German immigrants who probably know very little English...and the fact that the children probably have very anti-Semitic classmates, what are the chances that they will become friends, let alone remain so?
"We can only hope," agreed Mr. Pevensie. "Let's not be so ready to worry just yet. Both Peter and Susan have good heads on their shoulders, and Edmund and Lucy are developing them. Time will tell, and even then there's still a chance. Right now, Otto and Elsa need our support. We'll take things as they come."
Helen nodded and smiled. "As each day demands."
John kissed her temple. Then her lips. "Right."
Helen reached over and turned out the light. They took a couple of moments to utter silent prayers. Then the Pevensie couple kissed one another on the lips, and wished one another goodnight. For like their children, there was much that they would have to do.
A few weeks passed without any mention of Mr. Berkovich or the two children coming from Germany. Yet all four of the Pevensies knew it would be a matter of time before they did arrive. Life went on as usual. The Pevensies went to and from their respective schools. Mr. Pevensie went to work, and Mrs. Pevensie stayed home to take care of the house chores while everyone else was left. Occasionally going out so that she could do some grocery shopping or else to have a lovely morning stroll with Mrs. Berkovich- who was nearly more excited about the arrival of the children than her husband.
"Once they arrive, I'm going to take them shopping and we're going to pick out some clothes for them. They will need something, I would imagine. I don't know how many clothes they have, what with them being from an orphanage that burned down."
"Sounds like a wonderful idea," Mrs. Pevensie smiled.
"We're also going to take them to the schools and have the Headmaster and Headmistress show them around. I'm hoping that they do love it there."
"I'm sure they'll like them well enough. Just don't be surprised if they aren't absolutely thrilled. It's typical for children of school-age not to be. Of all my children, Susan seems to be the only one who really enjoys it. Peter and Edmund would rather be running about, and while Lucy loves having stories read to her, she would just as much like to join them in their adventures."
"How strange," remarked Mrs. Berkovich. "They do know that their father is a university professor?"
Mrs. Pevensie chuckled. "Elsa, there's something you will find quickly once you start taking care of the children. They will have their own minds. Their own thoughts and opinions. All you can do is hope to point them in the right direction. I remember when I was Lucy's age, I had little interest in school."
"I'm kind of worried about our foster children's education. Otto and I are wondering if we should have them get some lessons to help make up for any gaps that there could be."
"Was proper education given to them?"
"I don't know to be honest. With everything that's happening over in Germany right now, I'm hoping that they have gotten at least some decent education. That they can at least read and write and speak at a level that is appropriate for their age."
"How about their English? Do they know any?"
"Otto and I will have to see how much they may know. To be honest, I have a feeling that they may not know any. Which is fine, Otto and I converse with one another in German when we are at home unless we have guests over who speak English. German will always be our mother-language. Learning English will definitely be on the list of things we tutor them in on the side."
"I'm sure they will do fine, Elsa. Don't forget, they have you and your husband to help them along."
"How is it that you have more confidence in our ability than we do in our own?"
Mrs. Pevensie smiled and laughed. "I've been raising four children, I know when people will make good parents."
"I don't know if I'm ready for this," Mrs. Berkovich admitted. "It all seems so much. One moment Otto and I are wondering what our lives would be like if God had allowed us to have children. Now we're going to have two of them coming by tomorrow!"
"I remember feeling the same way when I first found out that I was pregnant with Peter. It was our first child, so the labor was an all new experience for John and I. Afterward when he was born, we were absolutely beyond ourselves. Afraid to let anyone hold him, afraid to let him out of our sight for five minutes. Finally my mother scolded us after my sister- Alberta- tried holding Peter while I was supposed to be helping John and my father with cleaning the table. She told us that if we kept reacting the way we did whenever anyone tried to hold Peter, the poor child would be suffocated by our affection. When we realized that we were going to be having Susan, we realized that we couldn't continue being so rigid.
"My point is- you can read all the books and get all the advice from your parents or friends or outside sources that you can possibly get. It doesn't matter however, because each situation is different. Just like each person is different, each family isn't alike. Nobody is ready to become a parent. It's just a skill that humans have born within them and they don't even realize it. Some are just better at tapping into it than others."
"You believe that Otto and I will be able to do it?"
"I know that you will," reassured Mrs. Pevensie.
AN: I took note of the questions that were asked, and decided that I would answer them in the story as they progress. Of course, if they just stem more questions, all the better! Guess that means I'm doing something great! Maybe you can come up with your own answers.
Reviews are appreciated!