The very next morning they had a very pleasant surprise – the Professor, being a famous academic had been invited to come and give a special lecture at the university and was coming to stay in Cambridge for a couple days and Peter, whom he was tutoring, was coming with him. Uncle Harold had offered to let them stay at the house, and although there would not be much room in the house when they were all there, no one really minded. They had of course sent a telegram to Peter and the Professor the very day that they returned from Narnia, but telegrams are expensive for children and the longer they are the more expensive they are, so they had been very limited in what they could say. This meant that they would have to get Uncle Harold and Aunt Alberta out of the way so that they could have a long discussion about the latest adventure in Narnia.
The Professor and Peter were arriving in a few days, so Edmund and Eustace decided not to bring up the subject of Narnia until they arrived and allow those older and wiser to talk to Lucy about it. Those days were spent doing fairly mundane, but enjoyable activities around Cambridge. The three of them would pack a lunch and walk to one of the outlying villages or Uncle Harold might take them punting. On the one rainy day Eustace completely absorbed himself in a book about astronomy and Edmund and Lucy were slightly afraid that he was reverting until he told them that he had remembered something that Ramandu had said about stars in our world.
But they found it hard to talk about anything except the visit. Lucy loved her brother and the Professor very dearly, and like all those who love others dearly felt it very keenly when they were away, but felt unparalleled joy at a reunion after a long parting. Edmund was always very glad to see his brother and was fond of the old professor. Eustace was feeling apprehensive about the whole thing, as he had always been disliked by all the Pevensies including Peter. Although Lucy and Edmund assured him that he had nothing to fear and that Peter and him would get on swimmingly now he had changed, he couldn't help fearing that they wouldn't. He had always felt that Peter looked down on him. He realised now that this probably wasn't the case, but it did make him anxious.
While walking along the river one day a little out of the city, Edmund once wondered whether Aslan had heard him. It was so hard to know when he could not see the Great Lion with his own eyes. He looked to Lucy who was walking ahead of him. Before they came back she would have been dancing and skipping down the path and trying to persuade him to do the same.
Lucy was covered with gloom once again. It was as bad as it had been in the chapel. She didn't want it and she had tried not to be gloomy, but today the gloom had won. All she wanted to do was to shut herself in her room all day. Finally the walk became unbearable and she stopped and turned round to tell the boys that she wanted to go back. But just that instance a gust of wind from the river breathed on her face, and she turned to the river. A flash of electric blue streaked through her vision.
"Look," she cried pointing to the kingfisher, but the others had been talking and hadn't seen it. She had never seen a kingfisher before, and while Edmund was telling her how lucky she was, as he had never seen a kingfisher in this world, she forgot that she was gloomy. The three of them carried on down the river for a bit longer before turning back, talking about animals and birds they had seen, and telling Eustace about the all the Talking Birds of Narnia, whom he had never met.
"And although He didn't quite promise that I could come back, I think He meant that I could," Eustace's eyes were shining as he finished off his tale.
Eustace and Edmund were enjoying telling the story so much that they didn't notice Lucy biting her lip, though Peter did, and Lucy saw him watching her. The Professor noticed all these things, though no one would have realised from watching him, for he was not the sort of man to give much away.
It was the day after Peter and the Professor had arrived and they were sitting having a lunch in a very nice café in the centre of Cambridge that the Professor was treating them to before he gave his lecture at one of the colleges later in the afternoon.
Lucy had seen them first. "Peter," she had cried and ran towards him just as he stepped onto the platform. By the time the others had reached them, Lucy had finished hugging Peter and was hugging the Professor.
Eustace couldn't help noticing the way Peter held his head and the authority in his look. He had thought (although he had never admitted it to anyone) how noble Edmund and Lucy had looked while in Narnia, but in Peter's manner and on his face, there was both a nobility and a courage that awed Eustace made him want to avoid a conversation. The others were much-loved Narnian royalty after all and he was not. He knew that he had been rather unpleasant to everyone he had met for the first few weeks of his time in Narnia, and sometimes this made him feel very insignificant next to them.
But after Edmund and Peter had released each other, Peter looked Eustace straight in the eyes, "I hear that you are getting on well with my siblings now, Eustace. You will have to tell me how that happened," he said with a meaningful smile. Eustace managed a weak smile back and was completely unprepared as Peter hugged him.
As they walked back from the station, Eustace mentioned Peter hugging him to Edmund, who laughed and said, "Well I guess you're one of us now."
"It don't feel like it," said Eustace, "I was never a king like you."
"That's not what matters," said Edmund, "What matters is what Aslan says you are, because that's what you become."
After that they were silent for a bit, because Edmund was remembering the first conversation he had ever had with Aslan, which none of the others had heard, and Eustace was contemplating what Edmund had said. But soon they started going over their plans.
For Edmund and Eustace had come up with some very elaborate plans to get Uncle Harold and Aunt Alberta out of the house so that the five of them could talk properly, but Lucy had dismissed them as impractical. They needn't have worried, because as soon as the Professor entered the house, he addressed Aunt Alberta with the beautifully polished manners that some elderly people possess.
"My dear madam, I cannot thank you enough for allowing Peter and I the privilege of staying with you. I trust I will not be a burden to you while I am here. I should also very much like to treat my old lodgers to a lunch in the city if you will allow me to take them off your hands tomorrow lunchtime. Of course your delightful son must come as well, as I would not like him to feel left out."
After being addressed in such a way by such a distinguished gentleman, Aunt Alberta had really had no choice but to agree, and that had settled it.
After Eustace finished his story, he had to hear the Professor tell his own story of how he and his childhood friend Polly had been to Narnia on the day of its creation and witnessed the birth of the country, the coronation of the first King and Queen, and perhaps most remarkably, had heard the song of Aslan that brought it all into being. All of them perked up as he started telling, and even Lucy smiled. Although the Pevensies had heard the story before it is the kind of story that you never tire of hearing, and Eustace who had never heard it before marvelled at the rings, the flight of a winged horse, the lamppost and wonders of Aslan that he had not even dreamt of. But the Professor had timed his story carefully, for no sooner had he finished then it was time for him to go to give his lecture.
He had told them that they were welcome to come to his lecture if they wished, but he expected that they would find it very boring and had recommended that they didn't. Eustace, who was still a little in awe of the Professor and still sometimes thought that he knew a lot, said that he wanted to come. The others weren't very pleased about this, since they felt that they should come as well if Eustace was, but no one was going to argue about it on a day like this. So they all trooped out of the café towards the lecture theatre together.
Sitting in the back of the lecture theatre, they were fairly inconspicuous. It was a big lecture theatre not nearly full, and the academics and students who had come to hear the talk were at the front, so the children could speak in whispers at the back without disturbing anyone. Peter had carefully positioned himself so that Lucy was on the end and he was next to her.
"How are you feeling about not going back to Narnia?" he said a few minutes in, when they had all, even Eustace, admitted that they weren't going to understand a word of what the Professor said.
Lucy was very fond of Peter, and although she didn't want to talk about it she did for his sake. She told him how the great sadness had come over her as she realised that she would never return, about her yearning for Narnia and about the gloom. As she started it became easier and easier until she even admitted crying into her pillow. Although one can't talk very quickly in whispers, she had nearly an hour and at the end she felt exhausted. Peter didn't speak a word at first, but put his arm round her. When he did speak it felt as if rays of light were shining into the room though she couldn't see them, and she thought she caught a whiff of a faint golden sort of smell.
"It was hard at first for me, adjusting to this life again knowing that I will never return to the places we all loved, but there is adventure in this life too. There are people here who we love and there will be things to fight for, paths to journey on and hope to keep us going. Aslan will have a purpose for you here, and you will learn to see Him here as well."
"But I can't. He is not going to show up in this world is He? It would terrify everyone if a huge lion appeared in Cambridge."
Peter smiled, "That wasn't what I meant. I suppose I am learning that all beauty and all joy come from Him, whether we are in this world or in Narnia. He is here in this world, just a bit harder to see. And when you came back just now, didn't he say that there is a way to His country from this world, and that He would show it to you? He wouldn't have said that unless He meant to speak with you here as well, and that one day you would see Him face to face again."
At this point the lecture ended and all the children applauded so vigorously that the Professor was embarrassed. Lucy felt much better and the words Peter spoke kept going round and round in her head. 'Aslan will have a purpose for you here. He is here in this world, just a bit harder to see.'
That evening, Edmund finally found the Professor alone.
"Professor, can I ask you something?" he said.
"Of course, Edmund."
He paused, trying to form the question that was in his mind. He had been trying unsuccessfully all day to put it into words, and he knew that the Professor would scold him if he did not speak coherently. But eventually he realised he just had to go for it.
"Aslan said that there was a way into His country from this world. Do you know how to get there?"
The Professor was silent for a long time, and Edmund knew better than to press him. From his expression, he was obviously taking this question very seriously indeed.
"No, Edmund, I do not," he said at last, "I have come to the conclusion that nothing I can do will ever get me there. All I can do is to put my trust in Him, and pray that He will get me there. But I believe that if you and I do that, then we will reach His country eventually, whatever it may be like."
"It was like a mountain range," Edmund assured him, "I caught a glimpse of it over the edge of the world."
"One thing I can tell you with absolute certainty," replied the Professor, "It will be far more than that. Indeed it will be far more than anything you and I could ever imagine."
With that the Professor got up and left the room, and that was the end of the conversation. Edmund went back to the others, but the Professor went to the bathroom and wiped his eyes. After a lifetime of dreaming of Aslan's country, it is not easy to talk of it and such powerful longings were stirred in him whenever he did. He took a few minutes to compose himself before returning to his chair and his book.