Once a Queen

The Wardrobe

Oh, Elise could hurt Peter right now. It wasn't his fault of course, he couldn't control the weather. But he had given Lucy false hope, as she now sullenly sat by a window, watching the rain fall slowly down the glass. Elise had noticed, of course, but she didn't know what to do. Her thoughts were once again torn away from Lucy as Susan tried to get Peter into her new game.

"Come on, Peter. Gastrovascular," Susan said.

"Is it Latin?" Peter answered, obviously not very into the game.

"Is it Latin for 'worst game ever invented?'" Edmund asked with a smirk. Elise and Peter couldn't help but chuckle at his joke.

Susan, however, didn't find it very funny as she huffed and slammed the large dictionary shut.

Suddenly, little Lucy's voice piped up as she began suggesting a new game. "We could play hide-and-seek!"

With a glance at Susan, Peter replied, quite sarcastically, "But we're already having so much fun."

"Come on, Pete, please!" she begged, sticking out her lower lip and making her eyes big and sad. "Pretty please?"

Elise began laughing, knowing that Peter could never say no to Lucy.

With a large smile on his face, Peter stood up and walked to a corner, covering his eyes and beginning to count.

Susan got up with a roll of her eyes but a faint smile on her lips as she ran out of the room.

"What?!" Edmund asked, not wanting to take part in such a childish game.

Grinning at each other, Elise and Lucy grasped each other's hands and ran down the hall. They raced up and down the mansion, not finding a suitable hiding spot for either of them until Lucy pointed out a curtain just up ahead. Running towards it, Lucy abruptly got shoved out of the way by Edmund, who claimed he had gotten there first.

"Oh, grow up, Edmund!" Elise yelled at him as she and Lucy continued on.

When they came to a hall with doors, Lucy tried one while Elise went to the next and, finding it was open, whispered to Lucy.

They both rushed in, shutting the door behind them. They turned around, only to realize that this room was completely empty except for the large white sheet covering something against the back wall.

"... 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92..." Peter's voice began fading away as the two girls stepped closer and closer to the sheet.

Despite knowing it was probably against the rules, Elise smiled mischievously and pulled the white sheet down, revealing a beautiful wooden wardrobe underneath.

"... 95, 96..." Peter's voice came back into focus, so Elise hurriedly began pushing Lucy into the wardrobe.

"But where will you hide?" Lucy's worried voice asked.

"Look at this wardrobe, Lu. There won't be nearly enough room for the both of us in there. I'll continue down the hall and find somewhere else. I'll be fine, I promise," she said with a smile. "You might want to hide farther back, because I won't close the door all the way," Elise advised before stepping away and closing the wardrobe door until there was about an inch of space.

Rushing down the hall once more, Elise finally found the perfect hiding spot: a little nook hidden between a bookcase and the wall behind it. Sliding in easily, Elise hunkered down and hid her face. Despite knowing that just because she couldn't see the seeker didn't mean that they couldn't see her, Elise had never quite let go of her childish ways.

"... 98, 99, 100! Ready or not, here I come!" Peter bellowed. Elise forced her heart to stop beating so quickly as she also calmed her breathing.

"It's alright! I'm back! I'm alright!" Lucy's voice cut through the house. Elise slowly lifted her head, confused as to why Lucy thought she was "back." Stepping out from her sneaky hiding hole, she found Susan and they both walked to where the commotion was coming from.

"Does this mean we win?" Susan asked, confused as to why they were all standing around.

"I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore," Peter said, confused.

"But I've been gone for hours," Lucy said, also confused.

Elise looked around at the rest of her siblings before looking back at Lu, asking the question that hung in the air.

"What?"

They all followed Lucy to the wardrobe in the spare room, and now they each inspected it. Edmund was at the back, knocking on the wood, and Susan was inside of it, knocking on the wood in the back of the wardrobe.

"Lucy, the only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe," Susan said, trying to be gentle, but coming off harsh.

"There really isn't anything else in there right now but some old dusty coats," Elise said softly, trying to save her youngest sister the humiliation and break it to her gently.

"One game at a time, Lu. We don't all have your imagination," Peter said, attempting to soften the blow.

Defiantly, Lucy stood strong. "But I wasn't imagining!"

Beginning to get tired of her younger sister's stubbornness, Susan snapped at her, "That's enough, Lu."

Feeling betrayed, Lucy began tearing up. "I wouldn't lie about this!"

"Well, I believe you."

Elise looked at Edmund in disbelief. He wasn't exactly the most skeptical of the five, but believing in a land called Narnia would be much too young for him.

Lucy seemed to share Elise's skepticism. "You do?" Even as she asked it, Elise could see uncertainty and a semblance of hope in Lucy's eyes and, knowing what was coming, tried to stop Edmund from crushing his little sister.

"Ed-"

"Yeah, of course!" he continued on with a smile. "Didn't I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboards?"

"Will you just stop? You just have to make everything worse, don't you?" Peter asked, annoyed and angry now.

"It was just a joke," Edmund tried defending himself.

"When are you going to learn to grow up?"

It was at this point that Edmund could take no more from his elder brother. "Shut up! You think you're Dad, but you're not!" he shouted angrily and stormed from the room.

"Well, that was nicely handled," Susan scoffed at Peter, following Edmund out of the room.

Peter looked around, exasperated, when Lucy spoke up again.

"But... it really was there," she said, now sounding more defeated.

Peter turned to her and said, "Susan's right, Lucy. That's enough." And with that, he too, walked away.

Elise was turning to follow, but Lucy's small voice stopped her.

"Elise? Do you believe me?"

Elise sighed and turned around, kneeling down in front of the smaller girl. With a sad smile, she glanced over the younger girl's shoulder at the old wardrobe, now seeming to loom over the room with a sense of power.

Looking back at Lucy, Elise answered.

"I want to, Lu. And Susan's right: it is logically impossible." Seeing the crestfallen look on Lucy's face, Elise smiled brightly and continued, "But then again, the greatest things in life can't be explained by logic. Maybe, just maybe, this is one of those great things."

Lucy's smile was almost blinding as they walked down the hallways, making their way back to their rooms. Elise grinned as Lucy explained to her who Mr. Tumnus was, and all sorts of fairytale creatures that he had shown Lucy by means of a flute and a fireplace. She was wonderstruck by these tales, and how Lucy spoke of them as though they were true. Elise wanted them to be, she so desperately wanted to one day walk in Narnia herself and personally meet Mr. Tumnus. Lucy didn't stop talking until it was time to go to sleep, and even then, she whispered to Elise from across the room until she finally fell asleep. That night, Elise dreamt of fauns and dryads dancing around a fire; centaurs and talking animals going to battle with a lady with skin as pale as snow, the White Witch. And she also dreamt of a lion, standing majestically on a hilltop, watching over all of the creatures below, the Narnians.