I walk up the dirty concrete stairs in front of me and knock the golden knocker on the front door. I shiver in the brisk, rainy wind as I wait for someone to answer the door. The door swings open abruptly, and I am greeted by the most obnoxious member of the Scrubb household.
"Hello, Eustace," I smile pleasantly, "is Edmund home yet?"
"No. No, he's not," the Pevensies' cousin says in his nasal voice, "if I'm lucky, he won't come back at all."
The boy walks away stiffly, mumbling to himself. I take the liberty to step into the foyer, considering Eustace left me standing on the porch without a formal invite in. I go upstairs and sit on Lucy's bed, waiting for my friend and boyfriend to return.
A few minutes later, I hear the front door squeak open.
"Hello, Uncle Harold!" Lucy's sweet voice echos up the stairs. "I tried to find some carrots, but all they had were turnips again. Shall I start making soup?"
I hear Eustace come out of his room and walk down a few of the stairs.
Oh dear, here he goes.
Eustace has a knack for, shall I say, hating every single thing his cousins do. Lucy is usually decent at ignoring her cousin, but Edmund gets frustrated with him very quickly. I typically find Eustace's antics amusing, but when he makes Ed angry, I usually have to hear about it.
"Uncle Harold?" I hear Lucy trying to get her uncle's attention, and I rise from Lucy's bed and stand at the top of the stairs above Eustace, who's about four years younger than Ed and me. I see Ed standing at the bottom of the stairs, and he sticks his tongue out at his uncle's disregard for Lucy.
You tell him, Ed. I laugh to myself and roll my eyes at Edmund's childish behavior.
"Father! Edmund's making faces at you!" Eustace says quickly before firing a spitball at Edmund.
"Why, you little-"
Edmund runs up the stairs at Eustace, and Eustace once again tattles,
"Father, he's gonna hit me!"
Edmund grabs a hold of his cousin's arm, but I clear my throat to catch his attention before he hurts him. Ed looks up at me at the top of the stairs, and he sheepishly lets go of his cousin and sighs.
"Edmund look! It's from Susan!" Lucy comes around the corner waving a letter.
Edmund looks at his sister and back up the stairs at me before glaring at Eustace. I head back into Lucy's room, mostly because I know Eustace doesn't go in there often, and the Pevensies follow me.
I sit down on the bed, and Edmund slumps onto the bed next to me with his eyes closed with a sigh of exasperation. I put my hand on his thigh.
"Not too much longer staying with the Scrubbs, Ed," I tell him.
"Not according to Sue's letter," Lucy says with a look of concern. "It seems we're to be here for a few more months."
"Months?!" Edmund sits up abruptly, making me jump.
"How will we survive?" Lucy whines.
"You're lucky," Edmund grumbles, "at least you've got your own room. I'm stuck with mullet mouth."
"Ha!" I laugh sarcastically at Edmund's joke. He glares at my mocking him.
"Susan and Peter are the lucky ones," Lucy walks over to a small, square mirror hanging on the wall, "off on adventures."
"Yeah, they're the eldest, and we're the youngest," Edmund says, lying down on his sister's bed, "we don't matter as much."
"Don't be so dramatic, Ed, of course, you two matter," I say to them.
I look over at Lucy as she pushes her hair behind her ear while looking herself up and down in the mirror.
"Do you think I look anything like Susan?" She asks quietly.
"A bit," I tell her, not thinking much of the comment.
"Ugh," Edmund sits up and tosses Susan's letter aside. "Have you two seen this ship before?"
Edmund looks at a painting hanging on the boring walls of Lucy's room. The beautiful painting looks quite out of place in such a dreary, neutral-toned house. Lucy turns towards her older brother.
"Yes, it's very Narnian-looking, isn't it?" She says with a smile.
"Yeah," Edmund responds, "Well, just another reminder that we're here and not there."
"Tell me about it," I groan, dramatically falling back on Lucy's bed, making her giggle, "I'd kill to be back there right about now."
"There once were two orphans who wasted their time, believing in Narnian nursery rhymes," Eustace's annoying voice enters the room.
"That'll do," I say, enjoying the coincidence of Eustace entering after my previous comment.
"Please let me hit him," Edmund steps toward him.
"No!" Lucy grabs her brother's arm, holding him back. Normally, I'd be helping Lucy calm Ed down, but for whatever reason, today I feel like Eustace could use a good beating.
"Don't you ever knock, you waste?" I spit at Eustace, particularly impatient.
"It's my house, I'll do as I please," Eustace sneers. "They're just guests, and you don't even live here."
"Don't you talk to her like that," Edmund lunges at his cousin, but I stand up and get between them.
"Save it, Ed, save it for when it counts," I tell him.
"What's so fascinating about that picture anyways?" Eustace asks, seemingly a little bit curious. "It's hideous."
Lucy, Edmund, and I stand around the painting looking at it.
"You won't see it from the other side of the door," Ed says with his lip curled in disgust.
"Edmund, it looks like the water's actually moving," Lucy tilts her head, studying the painting carefully.
"It-it does, doesn't it?" I say.
"What rubbish!" Eustace laughs. "That's what happens when you read all those fanciful novels and fairy tales of yours."
"There once was a boy named Eustace," Edmund says rhythmically, "who read books full of facts that were useless."
Lucy giggles, and I smile, still looking at the painting.
"He spent his days moping about," I add to Ed's poem, "as no one's ever invited him out."
Edmund laughs and smiles at me.
"People who read fairytales are always the sort who become a hideous burden to people like me," Eustace snaps, "who read books of real information."
"Hideous burden?!" Edmund glares at his cousin. "I haven't seen you lift a finger since we've been here."
Ed slowly walks toward his cousin, and Eustace glances toward the door. He moves toward it, but Edmund beats him to it, slamming it loudly. I turn around so that I'm fully facing the two of them, but Lucy remains fixed on the painting.
"I have a right mind to tell your father it was you who stole Aunt Alberta's sweets!" He threatens.
"Liar," Eustace says nervously, backing away from his cousin.
"Really?" Edmund laughs sarcastically. "I found them under your bed, and you know what? I licked every one of them."
"You did what?" I ask, bewildered at my boyfriend's bizarre claim.
"Oooh! I'm infected with YOU!" Eustace cries out in disgust.
"It's not so bad; you get used to it," I roll my eyes at Eustace's dramatics.
"Oh!" Lucy gasps, and I feel water hit my face. The three of us turn towards her, and I see water gushing from the painting.
"What's going on here?!" Eustace panics.
I look excitedly at Edmund, and Lucy has a look of excited wonder on her face.
"Do-do you think-" Edmund begins but is cut off by Eustace.
"It's a trick!" He shouts. "Stop it or I'll tell mother!"
At this point, the Pevensies and I are ignoring his whining shrieks entirely, too focused on the water rising in the room as the ship moves seemingly closer from the painting. Water fills the room, and Eustace rushes to pull the painting off the wall.
"No! Eustace stop it!"
We all begin fighting him for the painting, and the water pours faster from it as we do so. Before I even realize it, I'm standing in water up to my ribs. My feet are swept out from under me by a current, and I try to swim over to Lucy who also has fallen.
"Lu! Lucy!" I call her.
The water rises quickly, and I take a deep breath before swimming under it. I look around underwater, and Edmund points up repeatedly to both Lucy and me. I swim up to the surface and breath in deeply, and I notice a warm feeling on my face: the sun.
"Guys!" I shout, but only Lucy has come up for air.
"Y/n! Y/n lookout!" Lucy cries pointing.
I look behind me and see a massive ship, the ship, moving quickly towards me. Edmund and Eustace emerge from the water gasping for air.
"Where are we?" Eustace shrieks.
"Eustace, swim!" Lucy yells, and we all swim quickly away from the oncoming ship.
I've only been swimming for a matter of seconds when I feel someone's arms wrap around my waist from behind.
"It's alright! I've got you," a familiar voice says.
"Oh, my-Caspian!" I say, filled with joy.
"Y/n!" He says back with a beaming smile.
"Ed! Lu! It's Caspian!" I call out to them, and they stop paddling and turn around.
A few of Caspian's crew members grab Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace.
"We're in Narnia, then?" Edmund asks.
"Yes! You're in Narnia!" Caspian shouts back excitedly.
Thank Aslan.