~By the Lion's Mane: See You Again~

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

~Edmund~

When second term finally ended, Lucy and I returned home to see Peter and Susan and our parents. When we told them we’d been back to Narnia for our last time, their responses were very different.

“But Rose?” Peter asked us, frowning.

I looked away, and let Lucy answer softly, “Aslan wanted her to stay in Narnia.”

“But why? She had a choice the last time!” Peter objected.

Lucy only shrugged. “I don’t know. Aslan has a plan for her.”

Susan had been strangely quiet and hadn’t said anything the entire time we told our story. But then she spoke, though we were shocked to hear what she had to say.

“Well, good. That it was your last time, I mean. Now we’re done with that place and can finally get on with our lives.” She said it matter-of-factly, but looked away from us and swiped at her eyes.

Our mouths hung open. “But Susan!” Lucy cried. “You can’t mean that!”

Susan set her jaw. “And why not? We need to accept that this is where we belong, not in Narnia. England is where we will have to live the rest of our lives, so we might as well start to forget about Narnia and everything we had there, because it’s not going to make it any easier if we keep dwelling on it and the people we left behind!”

And with that she stood abruptly and left the room.

After a long time, Peter asked quietly, “Do you think she’s right?”

“No!” Lucy said fiercely. “Aslan brought us to Narnia for a reason, more than just to help. He meant for us to learn things there that we couldn’t here in our world. And I don’t think he would want us to forget about it.”

I stared at my lap. Susan’s speech had reminded me for the thousandth time, but no less painfully, that I would never see Rose again. We were in two different worlds now, and always would be. We would never get married, buy a house, have children, or grow old together. But I was no closer to accepting that than I had been when I first came back from Narnia.

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Peter tried to talk to me about Rose. One night, he came to our room that we shared as we were preparing for bed.

I felt him looking at me. “What is it?” I asked.

“How are you getting along?” he asked softly.

I shrugged, turning back to pull back the sheets on my bed. “As well as I could hope to, which is to say...” I trailed off, clearing my suddenly tight throat.

I felt Peter’s hand on my shoulder. “It’s rough, mate. Doubly so for you, I’d expect, but I know how it is.”

My chest tightened. I hated how it made me feel when Peter got to talking about feelings and such. It made my skin crawl in awkward discomfort and embarrassment, but right now... For once it was reassuring.

I put on a smile and nodded. “Thanks, Pete.”

And then I climbed into bed and rolled over to face the wall.

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Peter, Lucy, and I continued to talk about Narnia, saying things like “Remember when...” and “You know that time that...” We were determined not to forget.