Can you sense the feeling that there's more than what you know?
Edmund realized how silly he must have looked; giving his walls the death glare. There he stood in the center of his rather plain room staring angrily at paper on the walls like if he stared long enough the paper would talk. He had, for one brief moment, mused with the thought that perhaps the paper might talk to him.
Lucy had opened the door a moment ago, seen him and shut it right away. He was not in a good mood at this particular moment in time.
The idea had come to him after his third trip to Narnia. Gears turning in the back of his mind slowly for months, Edmund had spent hours considering this. Finally he gave up and did was he had been meaning to for so long.
He was meticulous. He measured two inches and then drew two parallel lines at exactly those points. He must have done this on an entire notebook's worth of paper. He lined it up so the lines on each piece of paper connected. He had then marked off every half inch between the lines.
It had taken him two days four hours and twenty seven minutes to complete the two extensive time lines. Each half an inch represented one year.
The top row of paper was Narnia, and the lower row of paper was England. He had spent about half of his time marking the years and important dates. Narnia had so many more important events. England had taken him only about five minutes to really complete because there were only four real points of interest.
Paper wrapped all the way around his room. The Narnia time line was four times as long as the England time line.
The Narnia line started with its creation and ended with his last trip, which was a span of 1600 years or so. The England time line started when the Professor had first discovered Narnia to the last time Edmund had gone, that time line only lasted for about fifty years.
The difference was easy to see. But that was not the problem; the problem was the inconsistency of the difference. Two hundred years in Narnia equaled thirty years in England at first. Then suddenly one year in England was equal to 1300 years. Finally one year in England was equal to one year in Narnia.
Edmund had been staring at the walls trying to figure out these inconstancies for hours. He stood there, in the center of his room glaring at his walls.
"Good God Ed, what are you doing?" Susan said coming into his room. Edmund didn't even look at her, he just keep glaring at the paper on his walls.
"I am redecorating, what do you think?" He said sarcastically. Susan rolled her eyes.
"I think you could have used some more color," Susan said with a bored tone. "What are you really doing?"
"Attempting to solve a time space problem way beyond my level of comprehension," Edmund said simply. Susan laughed at that.
"Time space? Why would you want to solve one of those problems?" Susan said, taking a seat on his bed. Edmund finally gave up his staring contest with the walls and took a seat next to his sister.
"Because it has been bothering me," Edmund said, rubbing his face.
Susan gave her brother a look that clearly said she didn't understand why.
"I got to thinking last month about how it had been 1300 years in Narnia after the first time. But when Lucy and I went back it had only been a year," Edmund said leaning back.
"And?" Susan asked, clearly not getting it.
"And I got the feeling that something was off about that," Edmund couldn't explain why it bothered him so much, but he felt that it was important.
"So, have you figured anything out?" Susan said looking at the paper closest to them.
"The only explanation that makes any sense is that time in Narnia follows at a constant rate. What's happening is we get moved either forward or backward in that time line," Edmund said motioning to the wall.
An hour ago he had changed the set up. Now the England time line stood broken into pieces so that their visits to Narnia where on the same part of the wall for both time lines.
"How do you explain the Professor entering the Narnia during its creation?" Susan asked catching on to Ed's thought process.
"His trip was voluntary, he went there on purpose. Every time we have gone Aslan called us," said Edmund. "That has got to be the difference. Aslan only brings us when we are needed but the magic rings that the Professor used are of their own power."
Susan stood up and looked at the walls. She paced the room exactly five times before sitting down next to Edmund. She leaned forward and placed her chin in her hands.
"That seems to be the only logical explanation," Susan said bringing up an old family joke. Lucy would often make cracks that logically they were all crazy; most of this was often directed at Susan. She had eventually given up and embraced the joke.
Edmund smiled at his sister and rolled back on his bed. He had an explanation for the time space problem. He just didn't like the explanation, because if he was right that meant that the only time Aslan called them had been when Narnia was about to be destroyed.
And now? Now none of them were going back. Edmund suspected that Eustace might return in the future, but that idea bothered him. Eustace was not the warrior that he and Peter were. Eustace had not become a king or forged himself in the heat of battle. All Eustace had done was become a dragon and then turned nice.
Would Aslan really call Eustace back when Narnia needed another hero? Would Eustace be able to handle it?
Then there was the issue of not returning to begin with. It didn't make any real sense. If Edmund assumed that Narnia was a real, completely separate world, how could he ever be too old for it? That wouldn't explain the existence of the Telmarines or the Calmars in the same world.
How could one be too old to return to a world that had adults? Simply there were too many holes.
Edmund had tried for days to wrap his head around some of these questions. He had ended up yelling at the walls with a head ache. It had been a great moment when his bother had come to tell him it was time for dinner to find him screaming at the wall.
"I DON'T GET IT! WHY DOESN'T IT MAKE SENSE?" Edmund had been shouting at a particular spot on the time line. His mother had stood at the door shocked for a moment before slowly back out of the room. Edmund had missed dinner that night.
"What now?" Susan asked, pulling Edmund back to the present. He looked at his watch.
"Lunch?" Edmund replied hopefully. Susan smiled and laughed.
"I mean with all of the time lines," Susan corrected herself.
"That seems to be where I am stumped. I have an answer to my question, but no where to go from there," Edmund leaned forward so he and Susan were level.
"Why not write about it," Susan suggested after a short pause.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, your teachers keep telling mother what a great writer you are, so why not write about all of it?" Susan said motioning towards the paper on the walls. "I mean, Peter says he thinks that perhaps he went to Narnia to learn courage and politics so he can one day change the world. Maybe you went to Narnia to write about it."
Edmund simply stared at his sister.
"What? You keep talking about how Narnia has so many different theological and philosophical applications," Susan said putting her hands on her hips.
"It's just," Edmund started. "It's so brilliant I feel like a complete fool for not thinking of it myself."
"That's why you have older sisters, to give their genius little brothers all the really brilliant ideas," Susan said laughing, but Edmund was too wrapped up in the possibilities.
"If I get published I could get every great mind to help me. Hundreds of millions could ponder this. There could be infinite solutions that I could never even imagine!" Edmund was practically jumping up and down. Edmund walked over to Susan and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Well done!"
Susan laughed at this. Leave it to her brother to be overjoyed and still not hug her. The boy was simply impossible.
"Well do you at least want lunch first?" Susan asked before Ed could get a chance to start writing. Edmund actually looked like he had to think about this.
"I do suppose I will be able to think better on a full stomach," Susan rolled her eyes at Edmund's response.
They trudged down the stairs to find a note from their mother.
Susan you are in charge of dinner. I had to return to work.
"Looks like its just you and me," Susan said pulling out some meat for sandwiches.
"What about Lu?" Edmund said taking a seat at the table.
"She went over to Mary's house hours ago," Susan searched through the cupboard for the bread.
Edmund didn't really hear the response, because something else had just crossed his mind. It's a month ago today, and she hasn't talked about it since.
"Why haven't you ever spoken to me about what happened?" Edmund said suddenly. Susan stopped what she was doing a quirked one eyebrow at him.
"You and I have never spoken about what happened between you and HIM," Edmund said, reluctant to use the name incase it upset Susan. "You talk about it to Peter all the time, and Lucy said that the two of you have spoken of it often. So why not me?"
Susan stood at the counter with her thinking face on. Edmund watched as first Susan looked confused, upset, and finally sure of herself.
"Well, it's because you are my little brother," Susan said finally.
"So you can't talk to me about boys?" Edmund was a little offended.
"That's exactly what it means. Think about that first time you came across us, do you remember what you said?" Susan said giving Edmund an accusing look.
"Something about my eyes burning and you needing to put some clothes on…." Edmund said sheepishly.
"Exactly!" Susan said, setting a sandwich in front of him. "You are like the anti-affection king of the world. When was the last time you gave any one a hug?"
"That was different, you were half naked. This is you leaving me out of the loop!" Edmund said between mouthfuls.
"Alright, if you want to be in the loop so badly what is it that I haven't told you?" Susan took a bite out of her own sandwich.
"Do you love him?" Edmund asked, always one to get right to the point. Susan didn't respond right away. Instead she lifted both of her eye brows and kept chewing.
"You don't beat around the bush do you?" Susan said with a slight laugh. "Peter on the other hand will dance around the topic for hours, its much more fun that way."
"That's not an answer…" Edmund said, giving his sister a squinty eye glare. Susan just gave him a large smile clearly saying he wasn't going to get an answer.
"Fine, new question. What happened in Narnia between you two?" Edmund got the feeling if he wanted any kind of answer he was going to have to employ Peter's so called tactics.
"Stuff…" Susan said with an evil smile. Edmund groaned, she was being difficult on purpose.
"If he was your perfect man why do you think Aslan sent you back?" Edmund said posing a different kind of question.
"You already know that answer yourself Ed," Susan said with a sad smile.
It was true. Edmund had made up a huge theory when they had first been sent home to help Susan. He had written and entire essay about the fact that Narnia was there to teach them great lessons. He had explained in clear logic that Susan and Caspian must have met so the she could know what kind of man was right for her. He had based the idea on the fact that if not for Narnia he might have never learned to grow up.
When he had given the paper to Susan she had smiled and given him a kiss on the head. To which he was disgusted and told her never to do it again.
"You really do think everything is going to be fine?" Edmund asked in disbelief. He was still recovering from the fact that he would never go back. It was easy to say he doubted.
"That last two times we didn't listen to Lucy, look what happened," Susan said picking up their plates. "This time I am going to trust her. She says everything is going to be alright, then it will be. She says I will see him again, then I will. All I have to do now is wait."
Susan smiled at Edmund. She walked over and gave him a pat on the head before leaving the room.
He sat there longer, thinking. Something had been eating at him for a while. Narnia, its existence seemed to be moving toward something, toward some kind of end. The time lines pointed to it. But what was bothering him had been something thing Aslan had said.
"I will see you at the end." Those had been his exact words. The end? It was coming, maybe not tomorrow but soon. Edmund didn't like the implications of these facts.
Maybe I should stop thinking and for once and just believe Lucy. BUT IT'S SO HARD!
Hi lovely readers! Thanks again for all of the reviews, keep them up!
I want to personally thank Scooby Lady and her twin for their continuing objective and detailed reviews and thoughts about the story. If it weren't for their very concerned email this chapter would have been about two pages shorter. They gave me a swift kick to the head and reminded me that some of my readers wanted to see stuff about Caspian and Susan.
This chapter is all Edmund as you might have noticed. I got some comments about how I hadn't used him. I feel so bad because I really do love Edmund I just forgot about him for a while.
As some of you have guessed these are what I am calling the "Farewell" chapters. First Peter and now Edmund. Next will be Lucy. After that I am sorry to say that the train crash is next on the docket. Caspian will be back intermixed in there.
Quote today is from Open Up Your Eyes by Jeremy Camp.
Thanks of course to my wonderful beta Sam!
Love -E
