Never Say Goodbye

Into the Forest

Never Say Goodbye

Chapter 1: Into the Forest 

Dearest Edmund,

That wouldn't do.

My Darling Edmund,

That was no good either.

Dear Edmund,

He was dear to me, but was I still dear to him? Just how exactly does one address a letter to a young boy—though he's not quite as young as he once was, but he's still not as old as he was when you first met him—who at one time you called husband, but now was only a friend?

Edmund,

It was simple perhaps, but it was the best I could come up with. I stuck the end of the pen (a sort of quill with the ink already inside) in my mouth and wiggled my back against the bark of the tree as I thought of where to begin. Figuring out how to address the letter was hard enough, but I soon realized that my troubles were only beginning.

It had been four years since I followed Edmund through the wardrobe and entered this land they called England. I had been confused and frightened at first, but Edmund and his siblings were very comforting and Professor Kirke was very kind. Having nowhere else to go, the Professor took me into his household. He claimed I was an orphan whose parents had died in the war; I suppose technically I was an orphan, but my parents didn't die in any war.

It is most unfortunate that our paths could not cross this summer. I was quite looking forward to it, and I know Professor Kirke was as well. When I returned, your visit to the country was all he talked about. I think he gets very lonely in the house when he's by himself. If only he could spend a summer at the Cair; there he'd have enough company to last a lifetime.

I bit my lip. Thinking of the Cair was hard; though, not nearly as hard as thinking of who lived there.

Winchester was lovely. I met many nice people at the academy, and I learnt many new songs. Professor Kirke asks for one just about every night. He reminds me of Lucy in that way. She used to always ask for a song at dinner time too. You were persistent as well, but your ways were always more subtle than Lucy's.

I paused for a moment, with the butt of the pen in my mouth again, before striking though the last part. After stepping through the wardrobe I spent many weeks living with Professor Kirke and the Pevensies in the Professor's large house in the country. But after a while the air bombings in London—that's where the Pevensies lived with their parents—were over, and it was deemed safe for the kids to return.

So Edmund and his siblings returned to the city of London to see their mother. However they were allowed to visit the Professor and I during the summer; they could have come during the winter too, but the weather often prevented that. For three years I got to see Edmund, Lucy, Susan, and Peter every day for a whole month during the summer. This past summer however, I had been accepted into a summer music program in Winchester, and the weeks of the program happened to be the same weeks the Pevensie's were staying with Professor Kirke.

It was probably best that I didn't see Edmund though. At least, not until I figured out what was going on with me.

I have now been living with Professor Kirke in northern England for as many years as Edmund and I were married in Narnia. In the first few days since journeying from Narnia things between Edmund and I were...awkward. I mean, we were married and yet I was only eight and he was ten. Certain marital things were unheard of at that age, even in Narnia. Fortunately, after a while, our minds seemed to forget our marriage. Marital thoughts and feelings were forgotten, and Edmund became nothing more than a very dear friend of mine.