#inspired by the end of Pyranesi

[queenlucythevaliant]

rush together with their hands held out

Lucy found Marjorie Preston having a panic attack in the lavatory one day and told her to be brave. This was how their friendship began.

Lucy wrapped her arms tight around a girl she barely knew and whispered, “Deep breaths” into her hair. She inhaled deep, held it, breathed out slowly, slowly, and eventually Marjorie began to do the same.  

After a long time, Lucy stepped away from Marjorie, who was no longer shaking. Yet her face was still pale and stricken, so Lucy took off the bracelet she wore on which a lion-shaped charm was hung. She gripped Marjorie’s hand and released it, then clasped the bracelet around Marjorie’s wrist.

“There,” said Lucy. “Do you feel braver now?”

Marjorie returned just the faintest hint of a smile. “A little,” she replied.

Marjorie was a year older than Lucy, but to look at them side by side no one would have guessed it. Lucy was tall for her age, held her head like a hero, and laughed with a practiced ease; Marjorie was small and slight and her smiles always seemed as though they might shatter at any moment. It wasn’t hard to understand why. Lucy’s father had fought in France, but Marjorie’s father and two brothers were never coming home.

A few nights after giving her the bracelet, Lucy invited Marjorie to come watch a meteor shower with her. They snuck out of their dormitories and got in terrible trouble for it the next day, but that night the moon was new and the sky dusted with stars. Glittering, the meteors fell through space and the two girls exclaimed for joy at the sight of them. They stretched out on the grass and Lucy told fairytales and Marjorie smiled stronger than she had in years.

The next day, they started eating breakfast together. Soon, Lucy counted Marjorie Preston among her dearest friends.

.

In the pages of the magician’s book, Lucy saw Marjorie riding a train beside Anne Featherstone. Anne had been Marjorie’s friend before the war, but hadn’t wanted her wan and grieving. Lucy had wanted her though, and now Marjorie smiled for real again.

“Shall I see anything of you this term?” Anne was asking, “or are you still going to be all taken up with Lucy Pevensie?”

Marjorie tilted her head just a fraction. “Don’t know what you mean by taken up” she replied.

“Oh yes, you do. You were crazy about her last term.”

“No I wasn’t. I’ve got more sense than that. Not a bad little kid in her way. But I was getting pretty tired of her before the end of term.”

As she spoke, Marjorie fidgeted with something on her wrist. She still wore the lion charm bracelet.

The lightning-rage that came down on Lucy’s head was swift and violent. She seethed at Marjorie's betrayal until she read the next spell and her spirit was refreshed.

.

“I don’t think I’d ever be able to forget what I heard her say,” Lucy told Aslan. She was pressed against his golden side for comfort and for courage.

“No, you won’t.”

“Oh dear,” whispered Lucy. “Have I spoiled everything? Do you mean we would have gone on being friends if it hadn’t been for this—and been really great friends—all our lives perhaps?” She looked up into Aslan’s eyes now, stern in reproach yet infinitely kind. “—And now we never shall?”

“Child,” said the Lion, “did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?”

It was neither a yes nor a no. Lucy’s valiant heart trembled at the thought.

.

She was dreading what would happen when she returned to school the next term, when she saw Marjorie again. Marjorie, of course, did not know that Lucy had overheard what she said to Anne, but Lucy knew, and Marjorie had still spoken the words. The prospect of no longer being friends and that of continuing on as though nothing had happened were equally dismal.

Yet when Lucy had finished unpacking her things and was headed downstairs for supper, she caught sight of Marjorie and was suddenly shaken to a stop. Looking up at her from the landing was not Marjorie Preston, but the Sea Shepherdess she had glimpsed from the Dawn Treader’s rail.

The quiet, lonely look on her face was just as Lucy remembered it. Her dark hair was an iridescent violet in the light, her skin a lovely olive, and her dress pooled around her ankles as though pulled by the current. For that instant, Lucy felt sure that Marjorie did not only resemble the Sea Shepherdess; she was the Sea Shepherdess, plucked from the crystal waters of Narnia's last sea to stand on the steps of a British girls' school.

“Lucy! I’ve missed you,” Marjorie called from the landing. The smile on her face was small and quiet, but no less strong for being so.

At once, Lucy felt her legs move beneath her, and then she was rushing down the stairs two at a time to throw her arms around her friend.