Susan Pevensie, After the Wars
Susan Pevensie, After the Wars
Rating: G
Spoilers: Most of the books, especially The Last Battle
A/N: I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was young, but the new movie has got me thinking about them again, and more importantly the fact that Susan was never really the character I wanted her to be. I decided to write my own interpretation of what happened to her after the series concluded. That said, some of the details from the books may not be accurate, it's been a while and all I did was skim the wiki.
Only Beta'ed for style/flow, not grammar and spelling. All faults mine.
Comments Appreciated!
Some days it's all she can think about. Those are the days she locks herself in her study and tries not to think. Sometimes gin is involved, especially when she can hear the tears in Jane's calls when she won't come out, when she misses dinner. He wouldn't approve of the alcohol, Susan knows. He wouldn't approve of a lot of things.
On the better days she putters about the house, dusting, her chore because Jane won't let her cook; for the best really. She wipes a damp rag across the picture frames: her family, with their parents, then just the girls, then just the boys, and then the children, all together, smiling. Lucy's front teeth have grown in the picture; she smiles wide, proud of them. They had come in too big for her face, and Edmund used to tease her about them. He called her a rabbit until Lucy cried and Peter cuffed him upside the head. Lucy's smiles were closed for a while, until Susan reminded her that Edmund's teeth hadn't come in until he was two years older than Lucy was; he was only jealous. Susan still remembers the smile that came at that, and its twin is in the portrait. It was taken after the war, after Narnia. The first time. It was one of the last times they were ever happy together.
Their parent's inheritance went much further for one than it would have for four, and Susan was able to buy a house with it. A little thing, in the country two hours from London, but a vast loneliness clung to the spare halls until she hired Jane.
Susan wrote books, small tales for children about a magical land where children could be heroes, animals talked, and adventures that lasted a lifetime would have you home in time for supper. There were never any lions, though. She didn't think of him much, but when she did she knew he would take umbrage at his kingdom being used to amuse, to profit from. It seemed safer to avoid lions altogether.
It was thanks to the books that she could afford a maid. That was all Jane was, in the beginning. Hired to keep the rest of the house tidy while Susan toiled in the study, but the more Jane was around, the less Susan stayed sequestered. When Jane tired of Susan hanging behind her, lingering on freshly-swept floors, making nervous idle chatter, and saw her actions for what they were, the arrangement ended. Susan stopped paying her, and Jane stopped commuting from the city and took the spare room over the kitchen.
On the days where she doesn't leave the study Susan thinks of them, and of him. On the really bad days she knew they had probably known all along what she was capable of, who she was inside. Perhaps that was why they had gone without her. Lucy and Edmund spoke little of their last visit to Narnia, at least to her. When Peter was back from university they held conference a time or two, but when she was in the room it was always of Jadis' days, good days, days they'd survived together, and the Lion's name was spoke in a hush, if at all. Somehow their whispers where always more reverent than hers.
Susan doesn't know where they are now. She visits their graves sometimes, on holidays, and anniversaries, but Susan doesn't think they are actually there, in spirit. She feels the same when they are at church, that they are out of her reach, and that is why Jane is the only one that goes any more. Somehow, Susan knows that wherever they are they ought to be with the Lion, and maybe that is why she didn't go with them. She was never too good at seeing Him. That's alright, she knows. She doesn't have Aslan, but she has Jane, and that is reason enough to leave the study today.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Most of the books, especially The Last Battle
A/N: I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was young, but the new movie has got me thinking about them again, and more importantly the fact that Susan was never really the character I wanted her to be. I decided to write my own interpretation of what happened to her after the series concluded. That said, some of the details from the books may not be accurate, it's been a while and all I did was skim the wiki.
Only Beta'ed for style/flow, not grammar and spelling. All faults mine.
Comments Appreciated!
Some days it's all she can think about. Those are the days she locks herself in her study and tries not to think. Sometimes gin is involved, especially when she can hear the tears in Jane's calls when she won't come out, when she misses dinner. He wouldn't approve of the alcohol, Susan knows. He wouldn't approve of a lot of things.
On the better days she putters about the house, dusting, her chore because Jane won't let her cook; for the best really. She wipes a damp rag across the picture frames: her family, with their parents, then just the girls, then just the boys, and then the children, all together, smiling. Lucy's front teeth have grown in the picture; she smiles wide, proud of them. They had come in too big for her face, and Edmund used to tease her about them. He called her a rabbit until Lucy cried and Peter cuffed him upside the head. Lucy's smiles were closed for a while, until Susan reminded her that Edmund's teeth hadn't come in until he was two years older than Lucy was; he was only jealous. Susan still remembers the smile that came at that, and its twin is in the portrait. It was taken after the war, after Narnia. The first time. It was one of the last times they were ever happy together.
Their parent's inheritance went much further for one than it would have for four, and Susan was able to buy a house with it. A little thing, in the country two hours from London, but a vast loneliness clung to the spare halls until she hired Jane.
Susan wrote books, small tales for children about a magical land where children could be heroes, animals talked, and adventures that lasted a lifetime would have you home in time for supper. There were never any lions, though. She didn't think of him much, but when she did she knew he would take umbrage at his kingdom being used to amuse, to profit from. It seemed safer to avoid lions altogether.
It was thanks to the books that she could afford a maid. That was all Jane was, in the beginning. Hired to keep the rest of the house tidy while Susan toiled in the study, but the more Jane was around, the less Susan stayed sequestered. When Jane tired of Susan hanging behind her, lingering on freshly-swept floors, making nervous idle chatter, and saw her actions for what they were, the arrangement ended. Susan stopped paying her, and Jane stopped commuting from the city and took the spare room over the kitchen.
On the days where she doesn't leave the study Susan thinks of them, and of him. On the really bad days she knew they had probably known all along what she was capable of, who she was inside. Perhaps that was why they had gone without her. Lucy and Edmund spoke little of their last visit to Narnia, at least to her. When Peter was back from university they held conference a time or two, but when she was in the room it was always of Jadis' days, good days, days they'd survived together, and the Lion's name was spoke in a hush, if at all. Somehow their whispers where always more reverent than hers.
Susan doesn't know where they are now. She visits their graves sometimes, on holidays, and anniversaries, but Susan doesn't think they are actually there, in spirit. She feels the same when they are at church, that they are out of her reach, and that is why Jane is the only one that goes any more. Somehow, Susan knows that wherever they are they ought to be with the Lion, and maybe that is why she didn't go with them. She was never too good at seeing Him. That's alright, she knows. She doesn't have Aslan, but she has Jane, and that is reason enough to leave the study today.