Author's Note: I'm so sorry I couldn't update earlier, but due to delays in arrival back home and some less-than-good luck I haven't had time with my computer until now. I did have my notebook, though, and so Chapters 7-10 (well, half of 10) are written and just need to be typed and edited. Thank you for all the well-wishes and reviews!
On the subject of updates, they might get less frequent as I start work next week and also start my summer reading. I do have all the chapters planned out, though, which should help the process along.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Pevensies, Narnia, or its inhabitants. They are property of C.S. Lewis.
"Peter, perhaps you would like to take a trip to the store?" Mrs. Pevensie asked tentatively. Peter was intently reading a book for school. He'd been home a lot longer than his younger siblings and had taken full advantage of this free time to study.
"Mmm?" Peter asked, looking up from his book as though in a daze.
"I'll go," Lucy interjected, having just come into the kitchen. "It looks as if Peter is studying anyway. Besides, I have nothing else to do."
"But someone would need to go with you, dear," Mrs. Pevensie said with a frown. "I can't have you going alone." At this point Edmund also entered the kitchen, saw Peter, and made to leave again. However, it was too late; his mother had noticed and she smiled. "Perhaps Edmund would like to go."
Edmund realized he was not really going to have a choice in the matter and so, in a resigned voice, asked, "Go where?"
"To the store with your sister," their mother answered. "I want to make a rather nice Christmas dinner and I need food to do it. I've come up with a list of ingredients and I'll give you the money. I'd ask your father to go but he seems rather busy himself…bringing work home."
Peter's just like him, Edmund thought. Out loud he said, "Alright, I'll go."
At this Peter looked up and said, "Now hold on a moment. You asked me first. I say I'll go with Ed and Lucy can stay here and help you make dinner."
"Peter! I want to go," Lucy cried. Her face was set and stubborn.
"If you go there's no need for me to go," Edmund added. Peter glared at him and Edmund gave him a small smile. Truth be told, he was avoiding Peter because he knew Peter would ask him what his problem was. Edmund didn't want to tell him.
"Besides Peter, you're studying," Lucy said in a sweet voice. "I know more about these types of things anyway, as I actually cook. You and Edmund only eat, and if you go I just know you'll get something wrong." Edmund shot a grateful look at his sister although she didn't realize she was helping him.
"Fine," Peter muttered, looking defeated. As Mrs. Pevensie went to get some money and Lucy went to get changed, he looked meaningfully at Edmund and added, "But don't think you're off the hook just yet. I have a whole week and a half to talk to you."
"If you can get me alone," Edmund countered and before Peter could respond he had left the room. He felt that this had been entirely too close a call.
A few minutes later he and Lucy were walking down the street as a light snow fell. The air was cold but by now Edmund was used to being cold. Lucy stuck out her tongue as they walked and giggled when she caught a snow flake. "Don't you just love catching snow flakes?" she asked him.
"Truth be told, I don't do it much," Edmund replied. "Aren't you getting a bit old for that, anyway?"
"You sound like Susan," Lucy pouted, and Edmund felt a pang of guilt when he realized he did. "One is never too old to experience the simple joy of catching snowflakes."
"Wise words," Edmund said with a small smile. "I'm sorry, by the way. It's just that, as you know, I'm not a huge fan of winter."
Lucy gave him an understanding look and reassured him. "Christmas is just around the corner, you know."
"Thank goodness." They walked in silence for a bit before Edmund's attention turned to the piece of paper Lucy held. "What's on the list?"
"Oh, the usual," Lucy said. "Bread, steaks, seasoning, spices, and wine. I suspect Father will have to get the wine, though, because we're not old enough." She frowned a bit and Edmund knew what she was thinking: they had been old enough in Narnia. "Then, of course, there are some dessert items. From the looks of it-flour, sugar, baking soda-Mother wants to bake a cake."
"Cake is nice," Edmund said absentmindedly. In truth cooking never interested him in the slightest. Eating was a different story. He and Peter enjoyed that very much. He was more pre-occupied with getting to the store in good time. He wasn't wearing a hat and the winter air was penetrating his coat and making his ears numb. He started to speed up his pace and Lucy, who was shorter than him, was half running to keep up.
"Why are you walking so fast?" she asked. "The store isn't closing that soon. I'll never keep up at this rate." Sighing, Edmund slowed down and they were forced to stop at an intersection before crossing the street. The cars sped past, disturbing the air slightly in their wake.
"It must be fun to drive," Lucy said. "That was one thing we never did in Narnia. What do you think?" She glanced over at her brother. "Edmund?"
But Edmund was suddenly staring across the street with quite an odd look on his face. At first he'd glanced across to make sure it was the right crossing, but then something caught his eye and he looked harder. At first nothing was out of the ordinary…and then he realized. There was a tall, pale woman in a white gown of the strangest design standing across the street staring directly at him with a sort of sneer on her face. Edmund gasped. It was Her.
Instinctively his grip on Lucy's arm tightened and she squirmed uncomfortably. She also continued to call his name but he couldn't hear her. His eyes were fixed on the Witch just across the street. She was smiling. He hated the look of that smile, as though she knew something he didn't. But what if she does?
Edmund shook his head to clear the thought and continued to stare at her. Then, suddenly, he remembered his sister and turned to her alarmingly fast just as she was saying, "Edmund! We can cross now. Why aren't you-?"
He cut her off, putting a hand on her shoulder and shaking her. "Lucy! We can't cross! Don't you see?" Lucy frowned up at him but he yelled, "Look over there!"
Lucy looked. Edmund also looked and just as Lucy said, "I don't see anything" in an odd voice, the Witch started laughing at him.
"She's right…Lucy," Edmund's voice was strangely quiet as he continued to look across the street at the Witch laughing at his plight, and suddenly a thought came to him. "You can't see her?"
"Edmund, no one is there," Lucy told him slowly, her frown deepening as she tried to understand her brother.
"You can't see her," Edmund repeated, not a question this time. His voice was hoarse, and next he addressed the Witch. "She can't see you." The Witch's lip curled and she gave him a curt nod before disappearing completely. He gasped and knew that none of this could be good for him. Am I going mental? he asked himself.
Edmund shook his head again and turned to Lucy, whose look of concern pained him. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice full of worry. "Because I wasn't lying. You know I wouldn't lie about that. No one was there."
"Forget it," Edmund muttered, waving a hand dismissively and starting to walk across the street. "I think it must have…I must have been thinking of something else."
Lucy, who knew that she'd never get anything more out of her brother, said, "Okay…as long as you're alright." Edmund nodded distractedly and the subject was dropped altogether. Food shopping was an awkward affair, however, and by the time they set out for home again Lucy vowed to talk to Susan or Peter about this.
Peter was out with their Father when they got home, so Lucy sought out Susan instead, who was home (a rarity) and in their room. Edmund had gone to take a shower-"to clear his head," he'd said-and this left Lucy free to tell Susan what had happened without fear of discovery. She only hoped her older sister would listen.
"Susan?" Lucy called tentatively as she opened the door to their room. It had been so long since they had last talked-really talked. Lucy was nervous. "Yes?" Susan called back, and Lucy took this as her sign to enter the room.
She crossed the room in a few steps and sat on the edge of Susan's bed. Susan was doing her hair and Lucy frowned. "Are you going out?"
"Just experimenting with new styles," Susan replied, gesturing to a magazine on the bed. "So," she looked up. "What's wrong? You look upset."
Lucy was relieved that Susan noticed and immediately launched into her story of what happened. She told Susan how Edmund had seen something that she couldn't see, and how that something had really been a someone because Edmund said "her". Susan listened to this all rather attentively, but something in her face showed that she did not like what she was hearing.
"What do you think he could have seen? I mean, who was the 'her'? He looked scared, and I don't know what he could have been so scared of seeing, especially if nothing was there." Lucy sighed as she finished, having not paused for breath in a good while.
Susan regarded her thoughtfully and then asked, "Has it occurred to you that Edmund might…not have been telling the truth?"
"Susan, how can you say such a thing!" Lucy cried. "You know he wouldn't lie about something like that!"
"I know," Susan admitted, "but I don't like the fact that he saw something no one else could see."
Lucy shook her head. "I don't either," she said, and it disturbed her even more because in the past she'd always been the first to see what would not normally be seen. "It's happened before though, and…" Lucy hesitated and then launched into what she wanted to say. "I was the first to find Narnia and no one believed me at first but I was telling the truth. And on our second visit I saw Aslan when no one else could and I was telling the truth. You and Peter didn't believe me, though."
Susan's jaw clenched and something like anger flashed in her eyes. "That's different," she said shortly.
"My point," Lucy said in a slightly exasperated tone, "is that Edmund probably isn't lying and chances are, judging from past experiences, he's telling the truth."
Susan shook her head. "I can't believe that," she said. "Seeing things was all very well when we were younger but we both know it can't happen now."
Lucy stared at her. "What do you mean?" she asked. Then something clicked. "Are you angry because we can't go back? That doesn't mean anything! It's very possible for Edmund to have seen something. Aslan is in our world too, you know."
"It seems he's very good at hiding then," Susan muttered darkly. Lucy started to say something but Susan added, "Lucy, it is over. It was a nice game and now we're older and we must move on. Disregard what happened with Edmund. He was probably caught up in thoughts-you know how he thinks too much."
Lucy was looking at Susan with mixed sympathy and surprise at how she had brushed Edmund's problem off so quickly. Then, when Susan went back to doing her hair, Lucy felt angry. "Fine," she said coldly. "I'll talk to Peter about it when he gets home." She stood up quickly and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Susan looked up at the closed door and for a second looked as though she would very much have liked to cry. She took a deep breath and forced down the feeling. Then she turned to her magazine and ran her hand through her hair. "It doesn't matter anymore," she told herself and set about to styling her hair again.
Her two younger siblings would have liked her help at the moment, but Susan had rendered herself incapable of giving it.