Chapter 4
The air he breathed in so deeply was not Narnian. Caspian was no longer laughing. He opened his eyes and saw Clapham all around him, gray and bleak and dripping in an evening rain.
He stood under the eaves of the house, trying to summon up an image of Narnian festivals in his head, but the pictures that swirled in his mind were incomplete, transparent ghosts which refused to take any solid form. Inside, he heard Susan laughing.
"Oh, Su," he sighed, leaning against the wall. "It wouldn't be so bad if you could remember too. We could help each other. But when I hear you laughing so carelessly, I feel like I have to carry Narnia for the both of us. Because one day you will want it back."
He squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the bridge of his nose as if to pinch away the tears that threatened. Perhaps Susan would never want to know Narnia again, but Peter had to believe it was still inside her. She couldn't turn her face away completely. That would be worse treachery than Edmund's so long ago. Still, he saw the ease in a blissful life of ignorance. Susan was so gay. She was really enjoying this party; there was magic in it for her, while he was standing outside miserable.
He felt rather than saw a girl at his shoulder, and he rejoiced. Susan had come away from the party to talk to him, to remember. But it was not Susan's voice which spoke.
"I saw you come out here all by yourself. You're Susan Pevensie's brother, aren't you?"
Peter turned. A girl about Susan's age was standing there, her skirt swinging at her knees, her blonde hair held back by a headband and curling near her chin. She was no noble Naiad, but she was cute in an earthy, English, and very real way. Peter smiled his gracious court smile to cover his disappointment. "Yes. And you--?"
"Oh! I'm Katie. I used to go to school with Susan."
Peter nodded, but he didn't know what else to say.
"Maybe—I wondered if you'd like to dance?" Katie ventured. She had a soft high voice, quite different from the clear voices both Susan and Lucy had. Peter liked the sound of it because it was something a little foreign to him.
He considered her offer for the space of a second. His inclination was to say no—and what? Stay out here miserable in the rain? Susan was having a good time because she let herself forget. He could try the same; it might just work. Katie wasn't Narnian, but she was real, and she was pretty in a very natural way. "That sounds good," Peter said.