CHAPTER ONE of Faun's Fancy! Rose meets her new housemates!
After my home was destroyed by the air raids, my mother, thankfully still alive, sent me away in the Save the Children Evacuation Program. On the train, in my gloomy compartment, the train began to rattle forward, and I was joined by four people. A girl, of about perhaps nine, with a dark red bob, a boy, of maybe twelve, with deep chestnut hair, another girl with curly dark hair of maybe thirteen or fourteen, and a tall, handsome boy with sandy blonde hair of about sixteen. They came in, grim-faced, and silently sat down, giving me a polite nod of acknowledgement. The young girl was hiding tears, so I didn't speak to them until they began to look restless.
"I'm Rose Hawthorne, by the way." I said to them, sitting up.
"Hello, Miss Hawthorne." The eldest boy said, politely. "My name is Peter Pevensie. This is my sister Susan," He pointed to the dark haired girl who smiled at me, "My brother Edmund, and my sister Lucy."
"Pleased to meet you." I answered. There was an awkward pause.
"Where are you going?" Susan asked me.
"I'm going to stay with a Professor Kirke. I've never met him, but he's taking in evacuees." This seemed to spur something in the children.
"Why, we're going to stay with a Professor Kirke, too!" Exclaimed Peter. The other boy seemed not to want to join in with the conversation, but the little girl seemed to be eager to join, but simply couldn't think of anything to say until now.
"Hurrah, we'll live together!" She said, cheerily.
"What a splendid coincidence!" Susan said. We chatted politely for a while longer, and by noon, the train curved to a halt at our stop. Not quite sure of what we were to do, we all stood up, carried our sparse amount of trunks down the hallway, and hopped off. The country's green, rolling hills struck gold in my heart, and the war's midnight evaporated with the sun for a moment. We all climbed up onto the ancient wood platform, watching the road. We stood there in silence for a while and three or four cars drove by, none of them for us.
"How old are you, Miss Rose?" Lucy asked me.
"Lucy!" Scolded Peter. I, however, grinned at her.
"I'm nearly eighteen." I answered her. "I know I'm not exactly a child, but they let me evacuate anyway." Susan grinned at me again. She was a sort of listen and smile type of person, I thought to myself. A car approached and we all hauled our bags onto the roadside, only to see it drive directly past us. We all sulked, confused.
"I don't understand." Said Susan. "The professor knew we were coming…" The sound of approaching hooves interrupted her, and the five children turned to look at the bend from which it was coming from. Around the corner came a clip-clopping honey colored Clydesdale, pulling a rickety wooden cart. In the cart sat a prim, ginger haired woman with permanently pursed lips and a brown hat. She pulled the cart to a halt in front of the astonished children, glaring down to them over her round glasses.
"Mrs. MacReady?" Edmund asked, cautiously.
"I'm afraid so." Said the woman curtly. "Is this it, then? Have you brought nothin' else with you?"
"No, Ma'am." Peter answered. "It's just us." She raised an eyebrow, then motioned for them to climb in. They did, hauling their trunks into the back of the cart, and set off to the Professor's house.