24. Write a letter from one character to another.
Dear Professor,
Peter is being thick-headed again. It does not happen often, but when it does it is infuriating. I can't tell if Edmund agrees with him this time, so I am writing to you for advice. I have learned in Narnia that I can be wrong.
There's been three robberies in our neighbourhood in the past two weeks. The thieves took jewellery and money, but nothing else, and certainly not little girls. But Peter decided it was too dangerous for us to go anywhere alone, and that we should not leave the house without him or Edmund. Susan gets around that quite nicely, because her friends are old enough Peter thinks they can hold their own in a fight. It is not my fault my friends are nine years old! And I learned to take care of myself quite well.
Not that I object to Peter taking care of us, it is what he should do—but now that I'm writing to you, I can see that what I do not like is the restriction on going out. I like to be able to do the things I need to do without waiting on someone.
I can hear you saying, "Apply your mind, my dear. Bless me, what do they teach in these schools?" All right. I'm trying.
I could bring this up to Peter. He is good at seeing the other side of a problem, particularly if Edmund is around. And we could work out specific times each week where they're ready to escort me.
And that's all very well, but I don't like it. Isn't there a better way to settle this? Or should I accept this and—
Dear Professor, please disregard everything I wrote before. Susan came in as I was writing and hurriedly asked me to go with her someplace—a shop for something for her hat, I think it was—and we ran into the robbers on the way. Two teenage boys, stealing from the older folk in the neighbourhood, they ought to be ashamed of themselves! Susan recognised them right away, and we went and told the police, and all the stolen goods were found and returned to their owners.
Peter said, pretty dryly, that us meeting them proved his point about needing an escort (how were we to know they'd use the same alley shortcut? And Susan pulled us into the shadows so quickly they never saw us), but I said it rather proved we could take care of ourselves.
And then Edmund pointed out that yes, we had taken care of ourselves, but that it might have gone a different way. And what would we have done if it had? Because he meant no offence, but I'm not a full grown woman anymore, and a nine-year-old girl isn't much of a threat to an eighteen-year-old boy.
He has such a way of putting things. It bothers me, a bit, that I wrote this entire letter only to admit Peter was right. But I'm sure you'll have something to say that will make me feel better about it.
Much gratitude,
Lucy Pevensie