Chapter 3
A New Friend
For the very few summer days that they had together, Lucy, Edmund, and Peter spent almost every waking hour with Judith (Susan was far too busy readying herself for her trip to America and the others concluded that she didn't care much for Judith anyway). Their new friend had many strange quirks, most of which were endearing, but seemed to be fuel to the fire of many rumors. Firstly, Judith preferred old things. Despite being very rich, she despised the thought of stiff new clothes and even though rather unfashionable, she always wore her favorite pair of tired, brown, riding boots. Her love for aged things did not only apply to her possessions, but to almost everything around her. She would often run her hands over old stone buildings and ask, "How old do you think this stone is?" and "How far do you think it had to travel from its quarry to get here?" and she often wondered about all the things old stone had seen.
Judith seemed to find life in everything. She would always ask trees permission before climbing them and would always thank them for the shade. And she spoke to animals as though they could understand her, and listened thoroughly to their calls in return. Most people saw this behavior as foolish or they would conclude that Judith was mad—but Peter, Lucy, and Edmund loved this quirk the most as it gave them all an extraordinary sensation in their hearts because it reminded them of the place where trees would wake and animals could talk.
Although they liked many things about Judith, there were also things that they did not like. She had a quick temper and when she was angry she became rather arrogant. Lucy hated this the most; Edmund found great humor in it; Peter could justify it and knew that once she had calmed she was quick to apologize.
They all had become great friends in a short amount of time, but Judith and Peter spoke more readily since they were the same age and had a lot more in common than anyone would think. And while the Pevensie family had Judith over for dinner every night (she proved to be so gracious and polite that Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie found her to be a delight), none of the children were ever invited past Judith's front gate. But no one ever complained—after all, her very large house was inhabited by two very strict, selfish, and spiteful people that never approved of anything past what was practical.
This, in turn, leads into Judith's history and explains why she is the way she is and how she was able to do what she was eventually meant to do. Now the only person, (other than Judith herself) who knows and understands her story in its entirety, is Peter. It was a venture lasting many moments, days, months, and years, but he took great care to know it all because in due time it becomes part of his story as well. And as we had already established, all life is intertwined.