Then there was a piece of the real world that the children recognized. It was the huge interchange along I-95 not far south of Philly, where two other interstate highways converge, with ramps connecting onto a fourth freeway. As could be expected, traffic going south along I-95 was slowed down to a crawl, as seven lanes were merging into just four. Cars simply skittered off the edge of the patch and disappeared, their drivers appearing to be oblivious of the situation and still thinking they were headed for Baltimore, as the road signs had clearly indicated. A billboard was promoting the movie based on "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" that was destined to come out next December. Meanwhile, across a mile-wide median, northbound traffic was going at 60 miles an hour, splitting into two streams at the fork that appeared just before the twin spans converged. Interestingly enough, the signs for I-95 did not indicate Philadelphia. There were four speed limit signs just beyond the fork, the two on the right being electronic and indicating 65. The children could vaguely recall observing those signs while their mother was driving them home from Christmas shopping last year. They were of course too young to know much about roads, unless they were obsessed about them and had asked their mother lots of questions. But they knew enough to recognize the interchange as part of their world. Traffic reports on the radio had very frequently reported this very interchange as a notorious traffic jam spot, something to be avoided during rush hour, while shopping, or while coming home from the beach.
Before the children could reflect anymore on this, there appeared a scene from yet another world. There was what appeared to be a dairy farm next to a lake. Cows were lowing on the field, and a sign next the main building with an eye-shaped insignia read, "Valorous Farms Dairy". A bewildered man walked out the door with a cell phone and cried, "The world's a riot here!"
At this point, they saw another patch of the world from which their own patch was broken off. They came close. Dwarves and Talking Animals appeared frightened enough to call upon all the rocks from all the worlds to fall on them and surround them in all twenty-six dimensions.
The real Aslan now appeared with a great tremulous roar at the sound of which all the patches of all of the worlds, including Narnia, Oz, Middle Earth, the real world, and Snicketworld, began to organize themselves into their proper relations, much as one might try to fit a jigsaw puzzle. Patches of Lothlorien came back together, houses of at least five different colors seemed to organize themselves into color groups, the interchange vanished and could no longer be seen, and pieces of Lake Lachrymose poured into each other, exposing the the Leeches momentarily as they churned and splashed. Then all of Narnia went back together with a jolt, and the next moment, it seemed as if the chaos never happened. All that could be seen was the fields, forests and hills surrounding the Stone Table, and what was left of the armies that had fought there. Not a patch of another world was to be seen. Narnia proper was not mixed with Archenland, Calormen, or any other part of its world, but everything seemed to be back to normal. Aslan himself descended at the Stone Table, and with one swipe of his paw, demolished it.
While all this was happening, the people were so frightened that no fighting occurred. The battle that preceded the chaos accounted for all the casualties. Aslan had everything in order. He called the McKenzies, the Beavers, and the Witch to come forward. The Witch appeared to be very submissive as she bowed before him. He explained that the reason for the chaos was all the magic workers trying at once to open doorways into other worlds in order to bring in reinforcements while they were losing the battle, and that it was very fortunate that some good magicians from other worlds were working against the effects, as otherwise certain destruction would have been the result. "Which is why", he said, "no one should seek to travel between worlds by their own magic. Many people have read about other worlds and have had fun adventures fantasizing about being part of them. Some have written stories in which they have inserted themselves as one of the main characters. They have become over-sensitive to criticism and annoyed other fans with their near-perfect characters and their hackneyed plot formulas, not to mention that some of their content was not suitable for children. But when it goes so far that one resorts to dark magic to literally enter another world, and not just read or write about it, then it has gone too far.
"It is for this reason that a great evil entered into Narnia in the very beginning. An evil Witch had destroyed her own world in order to conquer it, and since she had no people left to rule, she sought to enter another world she could conquer. She was helped inadvertently by two children who thought traveling to other worlds was innocent fun and games. Long after I had defeated this Witch at my previous visitation, and the Golden Age had passed, another evil Witch discovered this world by her dark magic and forced her way in. She knew that since she was no Daughter of Eve, she had no ties to the throne. In order to legitimize her dynasty, she raped the former king, murdering him once she knew she was pregnant. When the product of that dispiccable action was born, she taught her her evil ways, which her daughter rejected. Then the fateful day came when her daughter killed her in self-defense. She has ruled Narnia as a good Queen since that day. Her laws were just, and she used her magic responsibly. Meanwhile, the spirit of her wicked mother wanted revenge.
"Although some of the Cruels, Hags, and other dismal creatures have repented, most of them have fled to the North where they have practiced dark magic, calling up the evil spirit of the Witch they served. They discovered how to open doors to the other worlds that you have just seen. They even opened the door to the nonmagical world from which these children have come. They have caused people to come here by being blown by whirlwinds, drifting too far out to sea, entering black holes in outer space, where the flow of time is always towards the singularity, or by reaching too far into their closets. Indeed, I have called people into other worlds by such means, but no one should attempt them on their own power. They transformed themselves into the appearance of more attractive creatures and deceived my people with false prophesies and accusations, even going so far as to parody my sacrifice which once saved Narnia from being overturned.
"Now, I must say that the McKenzies will not be ruling on four thrones as the Pevensies once did, for they were not called here for that purpose. They shall be returned home. Jadis II was not completely successful in stamping out all humans, so a new dynasty will be established from what remains of humanity in Narnia. As for the Queen herself, she shall go to the world from which her mother came, for in that world, there used to be good witches. There, she can help the people of that world pick up the broken pieces from the time her cruel mother used to rule them. The Hags who have repented may live in this world as long as they keep to unpopulated areas or to the North and do not return to their former ways".
The McKenzies were allowed to remain in Narnia for some time and have tea with Fauns, Dwarves, Satyrs, and Talking Animals. And they had some good times. But the time soon came that they must say goodbye to the former Queen, and to the good King and Queen who were now ruling, and to the Beavers, and to Mr. Thomas the Faun, and to all the good creatures they had come to know. The last day they were in Narnia, they were with Mr. Thomas in his home at Lantern Waste. He led them past the lamp-post and to the thicket, where the children knew that by Aslan's will, the door to their world would be opened for the last time. Once inside the thicket, the children felt the hard wood on the walls of their closet and brushed up against the hanging coats. They could hear Professor saying, "It was only an accident. I'm sure the kids didn't mean it". He was clearly soothing the housemaid, who they remembered had been upset over a broken glass cat. They opened the door of their closet, which they had not been afraid to shut, since unlike the door to the wardrobe through which the Pevensies entered Narnia, this closet door had a knob that turned from both sides, and it did not lock from the outside. As they stepped out of the closet, they apologized for the accident. Having been soothed and having had time to collect herself, the housemaid forgave them. The kids would eventually make it all good by buying her another trinket to replace the one they broke. Since it was now 10:30 on the night they had left their world, the Professor led them to their bedrooms.
The professor said, "You look like you've had quite an adventure. You don't look the way you did just three minutes ago, and that was all the time you were in that closet".
"Well", said Pete, "it turns out that the younger kids were right. We had some adventure, watching a parody of one of our favorite stories unfold right before our very eyes. And I don't expect we'll be going back".
"I believe you. I won't be expecting you'll return to that world, either".
"Have you been to Narnia, Professor?" said Lou.
"I have, and I'll tell you about it later. But it's getting late, and we should be getting to bed".
The next morning, during breakfast, the Professor received a call from their dad, saying that he was just now released from service and was returning home from the war. He would be at the Philadelphia International Airport at 4:00, take the shuttle home, and as soon as he could, he'd drive down to pick up the kids.
He then asked the kids what their adventure was like, and when the kids had explained about the parody, he said, "When I was there, it was also a parody".
"What story was it based on?" asked Ed.
" 'The Magician's Nephew' ".
News reports said nothing of the incident in which part of the interstate network broke off from the real world, other than a few spurious rumors of UFO sightings, for much the same reason that Muggles are oblivious to magic. No mysterious deaths, missing people or missing cars were reported, as apparently, the magic had not impacted the real world to the extent it had the magical worlds.
Their father arrived at 7:30 PM to take the children home. The traffic was not bad anywhere within city limits, nor at the 476 split, where most of the traffic stays on the 95 and usually has to slow down in order to get in lane, nor on the outdated side street where their exit let off. And it can indeed be said that many of the narrow, two-laned roads in Pennsylvania are long overdue for widening. But their trip home was uneventful. By next Sunday, their mother was home from LA.
For years afterwards, when the oldest of them were being allowed to read Harry Potter, while their parents were using it as a springboard and opportunity to teach them the difference between fantasy and reality and the wisdom to flee from the occult wherever it might rear its ugly head, they would have fun talking about their adventures in Narnia, discussing its spirituality, and making up new adventures of their own, some of which crossed over into Middle Earth. When they were teens, they would get on the internet and read fan fiction. They eventually decided to post their own adventure as a fan-written story about Narnia, and as the best stories are usually the stories that actually take place in some reality, you can be sure that their story got rave reviews all over fanfiction dot net.
THE END