Battle of Fear and Trust

Family Reunion

I'm at the train station with my parents, waiting for each of my sibling's trains to arrive. As much as I enjoyed my time in America, it is nice to be back in England and it will be better when my siblings get here. Even though I'm still not sure how I'm going to tell them about the Witch - or if I even should. There's no telling what they will say or do.

I see a train pull up on the tracks and watch many people get off. I smile to see my older brother is one of them. "Peter! Over here!" Dad yells. Peter walks over to us with a huge grin on his face matching the ones on our faces.

"Hi, mum! Hi, dad! Hi, Su!" Peter greets us and we exchange hugs. Although judging by the confused look he gives me he can possibly feel my cold arms. I keep smiling, hopefully, he won't question me about it. At least not until I figure out how to tell him and our younger siblings about her.

"We missed you, Peter," Mum tells him with tears in her eyes, causing him to turn his attention towards her.

"I missed all of you as well," Peter says as he hugs mum. "When will Ed and Lu's train arrive?"

"Their train won't be here for another half hour." Dad tells him, "Maybe we can take your suitcases to the car while we're waiting."

"Why don't you and Mum wait here? Susan can help me take the bags to the car," Peter says, and my parents agree. Of course, I have a feeling that he just wanted a chance to talk to me alone and there was only one subject he didn't want our parents to hear about and it was not one I'd like to discuss, not that I would tell him that.

"America was very exciting, Peter," I tell him as we walk to the car. "There are lots of wonderful sights in New York, and there are also many shops with nice clothes." Maybe if I keep talking about America, it will keep him from talking about the Other Place.

"Do you really think your plan will work?" the Witch says, her as cold as the day she entered my mind. Not that I like to think about her being there, but she won't shut up, it is almost impossible to pretend she is not there. How am I going to tell them about her?

"I'm glad you had fun Su, but there is something I want to ask you," Peter says, and I feel my heart skip a beat, wishing the Witch wasn't right about my plan. "Did you get a letter from Ed or Lu? About their sea voyage?" he asks. Should I tell them what I found out?

"Yes, Lucy sent me one. Did she send you a letter?" I ask, maybe I can buy myself more time to think of how to explain my situation.

"No, but Ed did," Peter tells me as we put the luggage in the car.

"Did he mention that they can no longer go back?" I say, trying not to sound angry. I'm not sure if I want him to know how I feel about that Place. He would probably try to remain of the good times we had in that World, and that's too painful to think about.

"Yes, and I want to talk to you about that. Su, I know it's been hard for you knowing we can't go back. I talked to the Professor about it and he gave me something that has helped me a lot." He opens his bag and hands me a book as a chill goes down my spine. Curious and unnerved, I look at it. A Bible? Why would Peter give me this? "I got one for Edmund and Lucy, too. I'm giving Ed his tomorrow for his birthday. I know he'll really like it."

I look at it for a moment, not sure what to say. Did Edmund mention his Aslan and Jesus theory to Peter? I wonder to myself, but as I told Lucy before, this book is nothing but an old storybook.

"Thank you, Peter. Maybe you should hold onto mine for now." I hand it back and the chill goes away.

Not too long after we get back to the station, Edmund and Lucy's train arrives and we watch as they disembark. Once they see us, Lucy starts running and Edmund follows. She drops her bag and embraces me with a warm hug before greeting the others. "We missed all of you so much!" she said.