Chapter 5
Lucy
(Setting: the day after the coronation)
I think one of my favorite things to do is watch Peter. He doesn't know how much I see, and I'm glad, because I think it would make him uncomfortable. Until last night, when Aslan gave him his royal title, I would have only said that I watched him because I think the world of him and want to be like him when I grow up.
Now I realize that I watch him because he is excellent. He is good. I guess I hope that by watching him, I'll learn things about how I'm supposed to act in the world.
I've seen the way he submits to my father's advice and correction. He listens, he apologizes when he is in the wrong, he works hard to change. I've seen the way he's risen to take
I've seen the way he holds the door open for my mother without hesitation. I've seen the way he treats her with respect and helps her even when she doesn't ask.
I know how protective he is of Susan, how he lingers just outside the room when she brings a boy home, how he pulls those boys aside later to make sure they know how he expects them to treat his sister.
And despite what it sometimes seems, I've seen how much he loves Edmund, since I've walked past the boys room in the middle of the night sometimes and he is curled up next to his sleeping younger brother.
I watch him when he studies, when he plays, when he spends time with his friends, when he gets hurt or when he fails. Somehow, even before Narnia, he always seemed to carry himself like a king. I just wouldn't have called it that until now. It's so natural.
And now I've watched him shoulder the weight of a nation under a terrible curse, stand up to an evil witch, grieve at the graves of his fallen soldiers, forgive a brother who betrayed us, and bow his knee to a great Lion. In all of this, he has been magnificent.
I'm so proud to be his cherished little sister.