Homesick

Chapter Two

...Then I'm Out of Place

Edmund had learned more from Narnia than any of the other children. He learned love and forgiveness. At least how to receive them. Giving love and forgiveness himself proven to be much harder, but he adjusted and he learned.

He had also changed the most from Narnia. He had experienced cruelty first-hand, and he knew he had to change himself. He received Aslan's sacrifice and forgiveness, and he became King Edmund the Just.

The change was also the most noticeable in England. In Narnia, most of the creatures had accepted the change in Edmund's character rather quickly- he suspected Aslan had something to do with that- but in England he had no character witness besides himself. His first day back at the boarding school, his math teacher had dropped her things on the way from class. When Edmund stopped to help her pick the materials up, She gave him a quizzical look. It was the first of many.

The hardest thing for Edmund, however, was resisting the temptation of his few old friends. They were the school bullies, and if you weren't with them, then you were against them.

The first confrontation came at the beginning of the school year, out in the field on the side of the school. Thomas, the biggest of the boys, had a young student named Simon Harley pinned up against the wall. "Hey, Ed, come over here." Thomas ordered.

Edmund moved toward the small crowd, but for a reason other than what Thomas was expecting. "Let him' go." Edmund stated, putting out more courage than he really felt.

"What did you do, Pevensie? Did you hit your head?" Thomas asked, his voice growing deeper and more threatening.

"What does hurting him get you?" Edmund, the negotiator, tried to reason. That was when the first punched came.

Edmund was slightly on the small size for his age, but his time in Narnia was well spent. He had fought in battle against far greater enemies than Thomas, and while he lost much of that skill when he went back to an adolescent body, some of it still remained. However, Edmund was greatly outnumbered and he soon found himself on the floor, blood dripping from his noise and bruises forming along his head.

When Edmund rolled over, grass and dirt sticking to his forehead, he found Simon on the ground as well, but in much better shape than Edmund.

Simon was looking at Edmund apprehensively- Edmund might have just saved him from a beating, but that didn't make Simon forget all the times before when Edmund had been on the other end of the exchange.

"What happened to you, Pevensie?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Edmund replied before he tried to stand, rather unsuccessfully at first, and make his way to his room. It was the closer to the truth than any other answer he would ever give anyone.

Edmund collapsed as soon as he found his room, his feet still sticking out of the doorway. "Get a grip, Ed." He told himself, "You engaged in combat in Narnia. You can't take a simple school fight here?"

His thoughts wandered to Thomas' gang, and he predicted-rather rightly- that this would not be their last confrontation. In that moment, Edmund desperately wanted to be in Narnia. There, he always wanted to do right by Aslan and the people, but he never felt that he was being tested there as he was there. He could never measure up to that test anyway, and he knew it. He also knew in Narnia that was all right. Aslan didn't expect him to be perfect.

"I want to go home." It was a whisper, almost inaudible, but it was said. Edmund felt young and childish while saying it, but he didn't care. He didn't know how he could survive England with all its tests and trials. "I want to go home." He said a little louder this time.

In the back of Edmund's mind, Aslan's voice came to him. "Have courage, son of Adam," The voice of the lion commanded.

Edmund heard the lion's roar, as clear and powerful as church bells. Narnia was always home, but for now, the roar of the lion was enough.

--

Sometimes it seemed like Lucy had enough faith for the entire world. Not that adjusting to England wasn't hard for her- it was- but she never lost hope. She knew she would never return to Narnia, but Aslan had said he was known in England as well, and she would continue the search for him for the rest of her life.

She had a natural innocence around her that made her seem younger than her years. While her family admired her energy and faith, it made it hard for her to fit in the modern world.

For Lucy, it really wasn't a readjustment to England. She had never really felt at home there in the first place. She sometimes secretly believed she had been born a Narnian. Aslan seemed more familiar to her than to her siblings.

The few friends Lucy had before Narnian slowly vanished after her last trip. The girls at school thought Lucy couldn't hear them, but she heard more than they would ever know. Anne Featherstone was the worst- she had dislike Lucy from the beginning. Lucy often overheard phrases like, "Not quite right in the head." and "Never did learn how to grow up." She even overheard a teacher once or twice say things like, "That Lucy Pevensie has such an active imagination! Where did she come up with her ideas?"

A few of the meanest girls ventured to say things straight to Lucy's face. Some of them she truly didn't care about, ("Lucy, you'll never get a boy if you keep acting like this.")But some stung more than she let on.

She lost count of the times that she cried in her room. She tried to be quiet, but sometimes it didn't work. The most hurtful comments were things like, "Stop crying- grow up Lucy!" She never bothered telling them she already grew up once, and the second time was proving to be much worse.

She lost her last friend a cold, wintery January day. Margaret, a short, chubby girl whom Lucy sometimes secretly suspected only befriended Lucy because she had no friends of her own, had said something Lucy found to be quite preposterous.

"Ah, for Aslan's sake, Margaret . . . " Lucy trailed off, realizing what she had said.

"Aslan's sake? Who is Aslan?" Lucy made no move to answer. "I don't want to know, Lucy. You have to stop playing your childish games."

Lucy was not as good at holding in her tears as her siblings, so she made no attempt to hide them from Margaret, which just caused Margaret to give a rather undignified snort and leave.

"Aslan, why did you do this? I don't belong here. England isn't right for me." Lucy let out through streams of tears.

Lucy had never felt more alone before. She desperately craved to seek her comfort in Aslan, to bury her face in his mane. It was something she could not have.

Lucy glanced up to see if she was truly alone. From the wall, the image of a lion stared back at her. It flashed away, but Lucy saw and Lucy believed. She, and all of them, would someday make it back home.

-Fin-