Separate, But Not For Long

Susan's Story

Susan Pevensie sighed as she watched another train go by.

"Your father said he'd pick us up at midnight." Her mother said. "Never mind dear, I'm sure he'll get here before the next train comes."

She sounded very confident. Susan was a smart girl, she knew it would be sensible to listen to her mother's words. So she sat there and waited, passing time by staring at trains. Fun.

Susan had gone to a classmate, Rose's, birthday party. Rose lived on the other side of town so Susan had to beg her parents to take her.

She sighed again. Where was he?

"You know dear," Mother stroked her hair. "It might be silly hope but, who's to say their won't be something new from the post!"

Susan smiled. She loved it when she got a letter from Peter or Lucy. It gave her that singular brief second where she could imagine they were here with her. Like it should be. Then reality would come crashing in ruining everything.

She wished Edmund would send her a letter, she really did. Difficult as he was, he was her brother! She couldn't help missing Edmund. She could feel sympathy for him, Susan knew he was a good person, just with some issues. It was war, who could blame the poor boy. Plus, it wasn't as though Peter helped the situation whatsoever.

Still, Lucy was with him and thinking about how Ed used to treat the little girl made her skin curl. Shaking her head she tried to remember all the letters in which Lucy described him as her constant.

"Darling, I'm going to try and find your father in the crowd." Mother said, snapping Susan from her thoughts. "Stay here sweetheart."

Watching her mother leave, Susan began to whistle the tune of a song she heard on the radio. Susan knew she was considered the lucky one in her family.

The one who got to see a foreign country. The one who got pretty features. The one who got to stay with their mom and dad.

She just knew that they were thinking that. She also knew they were right. Her parents took her to this giant country and she could go to parties and go to school and be with her parents at the same time! Of course they would wish they were in her place and not at their terrible Auntie's house or in a crowded house in the middle of nowhere.

Susan rolled her eyes. Safe as her siblings may be, there was no denying which family member got the good luck. Except she didn't, not without them. Not without Peter's reassuring smile, or Lucy's adoring smile, or Edmund mischievous smile. Dear lord, Susan missed them.

Closing her eyes, Susan wished that she could see them again.

Then she opened them and began staring at the train again. But, something was different. It came and went to fast. She looked around and gasped as the crowd around her became nothing but a blur. She looked around confused. Then she panicked. What was going on?

Asleep. Susan was sleeping. It was late and she was a child, so she was tried and she fell asleep and dreamed up something that made absolutely no sense and any moment her parents would wake her up.

Yes, that was truly the only logical explanation!

And while trying to wake herself up, the train, the walls, the people, everything disappeared. Susan dropped to her knees and wept. But soon found that the ground was cold.

Composing herself, she realized she was outside, in the woods. And it was snowing.