Susan was walking through a snowy forest. It occurred to her that she should have been freezing cold but she wasn't. Perhaps, I'm wearing a coat, she thought…
She walked on in the sparkling silence. There's grass under this snow, she thought… And suddenly, she wondered, What if there isn't any grass? What if all the grass is dead? And the thought frightened her so much that she knelt down and began to dig in the snow with her hands trying to find just a tiny blade of grass, just something that would reassure her than the grass was still there. She dug more and more frantically and then some noise made her look up. She saw a patch of grass ahead of her.
Grass, she thought. The grass is there. And then she saw Him standing there and she forgot all about the grass.
"Aslan," Susan whispered. What she wanted most of all at that moment was to run to him and bury her face in his mane and sob, but at the same time she was much too afraid to even make a step. She just stood there and drank him in with her eyes. And then it occurred to her that there was something different about him.
"Aslan," she said. "You are smaller."
"That is because you are smaller, child."
"But Aslan," Susan said, uncertainly. "I've grown this year."
"But in many other ways you have grown smaller. And the smaller you grow, the smaller I will seem to you."
Suddenly Susan was sure he knew all about it and tried to explain. "But Aslan, I only did what I had to do. I had to lie. There was no other way."
"There is always another way," Aslan said.
"But they wouldn't have understood the truth! And what's the point of telling the truth to those who will never understand it or accept it? They would have thought she was mad! They would have laughed at her and called her names and, and, and it would have been all my fault!"
And then, she was on her knees and weeping on that single patch of grass.
Was I really in the wrong then? Have I been in the wrong all this time? But I saw no other way. There was no other way. Or was there?
"Rise, dear one."
Susan stood up and buried her face in Aslan's mane. She did not weep anymore but stood quietly with her face buried in his mane for a long time. She could have stood like this forever.
"We have little time left, dear one," Aslan said presently. Gently, Aslan threw some snow over the patch of grass. She did not see the grass now. But she knew it was there.
And then, Aslan was getting smaller and smaller and Susan clutched him tightly, tears running down her cheeks… and she realized that she was in bed and she was clutching Lucy's kitten.
Susan sat up. She must speak to Lucy immediately. In the middle of the night? She asked herself incredulously. Yes, right now, she told herself firmly. She stood up and walked over to Lucy's bed. She was just about to reach out and touch Lucy's shoulder, when doubt came. What if the dream…but she never got to finish the thought because right there on her nightdress, was a single strand of grass.