Note: Have mercy on me, I wrote this when I was thirteen and have been poking at it ever since. Most of it is inspired by Jack Lewis' timeless classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The rest of it, if it seems peculiar, is directly based on a dream my sister had (as well as a couple of my own).So, sit back, listen to the Celtic woman on YouTube and enjoy!

If this is the first time you are reading this, please feel free to review, good or bad. I'd love to have your input.

"These are the times that try men's souls…Tyranny, like hell is not easily conquered." ~The American Crises, Thomas Paine

Chapter One: Why It Was

Eustace Clarence Scrubb, or just Scrubb as his teachers called him, was rather an odd soul. He used to call his father and mother Harold and Alberta instead of father and mother and he ate only a very limited amount of things, things like eggplant, Brussels sprouts and spinach weren't even in his vocabulary. But perhaps we can't blame him; Eustace's parents were very odd as well. They were teetotalers, pacifists and had very few clothes on the bed. They always had the windows open summer and winter and it was usually quite cold in their house. They lived in Oxford, very near the famous university.

It was now 1939 and Eustace's parents had been killed in a car accident the month before. Eustace had to endure life with his closest living relatives…his Mother's cousin Edward Pevensie and his wife, Miriam, and their four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

To put it all in perspective, it's been a little over exactly seventy years since 1939.

~o*o~

Eustace was sitting in the corner with a bug book.

"Oh!" Lucy giggled as Peter chased her around the room, "You do look funny!"

Peter stopped, pulled his new gas mask off his face and grinned at her.

"They're awful to breathe through," Susan said, tucking hers back into its canvas bag.

"They're pretty awful to look at too," Edmund noted.

"Except for mine," Lucy said, dimples dancing over her face. It was true; Lucy's was smaller than the others and was made of bright red rubber shaped like the face of Mickey Mouse.

They had received their gas masks that day. It was September and England had declared war on Germany only a few weeks before, on the third, following Germany's invasion of Poland. The grinding might of Germany would overrun Poland in a matter of months now and England and France stood alone, fighting for their lives across the channel on French soil. It was only a matter of time before Germany would begin bombing England and most people believed that they would use gas like they had in the Great War.

"For goodness sakes!" Eustace exclaimed as Peter began playing the piano, "Stop pounding that thing!"

The piano sounded like Peter had put his whole weight down into it. He was playing Be Thou My Vision, his favorite hymn. He wasn't bad at playing it…he was just being overly enthusiastic. Susan's clear alto rose above the fading notes and Peter settled down to playing the piece more quietly so she could sing along.

Edmund sat down with the chessboard on the window seat followed by Lucy. He hated playing with Eustace, because Eustace always lost. Slowly, deliberately, Edmund positioned his pieces on the board. Lucy, her golden hair glowing like a halo in the sunlight, lined hers up more quickly, always racing to be finished first.

Softly the door opened and Mrs. Pevensie looked through, a slight smile on her face.

She looked at Peter, Peter looked happy, she was glad. Since Mr. Pevensie had gone into active service in the RAF, Peter had taken on the role of the head of the house as if it were some sort of duel to be won. Eustace loathed him for it; the others were amused and even helped when he mapped out an escape plan for the house for when the bombing started. There had been an air raid shelter to erect in the garden, corrugated steel among the lilacs. Lucy had painted flowers over it and the neighbors agreed it was the prettiest air raid shelter in the area.

Susan's beautiful voice hung in the air and her black hair flashed with sparks of fire from the sun streaming through the window.

"Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;

I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord…

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,

Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.

Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.

Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power."

Black pawn took white knight.

"I should have seen that," Lucy moaned.

Edmund smiled a cunning smile.

A flat was played with enthusiasm on the piano. Eustace glanced up annoyed; Mrs. Pevensie came into the room. The piano ceased abruptly, Susan's voice died. White castle checked black king.

"Children!" Mrs. Pevensie said, "I have something to talk to you about."

"What is it mum?" Peter asked looking at her over the top of the piano.

Edmund glanced up, he knew by her face something happened or was going to happen.

"Your father and I are going to send you away."

They stared at her horrified.

"But mum!" Susan gasped, "You can't!"

"No, we've decided," Mrs. Pevensie said, with the calmness of one who had been troubled but was now at rest, "The government is advising families in the city to send their children to the country. Mrs. Murphy has already sent her children to America."

"Not America!" Susan exclaimed.

"No, not America," Mrs. Pevensie replied vehemently, "You are going to an old friend of your father's, do you remember Mr. and Mrs. Kirke? It was a long time ago. Your father was in the trenches with Mr. Kirke before the RFC recruited him."

"Vaguely," Peter said, and then burst out, "someone ought to be here with you! At least I ought."

"No," Mrs. Pevensie said decisively, "you are all going."

Lucy's face crumpled up and she let out a wail, both Susan and Mrs. Pevensie went to comfort her.

"But Mum!" Peter exclaimed. "I'm going into the RAF next year!"

"No you're not!" Mrs. Pevensie said over Lucy's head, "I've told you again and again, I won't sign for you!"

"Father will," Peter replied.

"No he won't," Mrs. Pevensie said firmly, "It's bad enough that he's in the RAF."

"I suppose the war won't last that long anyway," Susan said comfortingly.

Edited 7/31/11

Author's note:

Operation Pied Piper; the major evacuation of millions of woman and children, from English cities, was in the planning stages in 1938 and went into effect August 31, 1939, the month before the war actually started. (September 3, 1939). The first bombs fell in the Shetland Islands 1939; a rabbit was the lone casualty.

After that followed what was called the 'phony war' though it was anything but phony out at sea on convoys and on French soil. In 1940, the French and English forces were driven to Dunkirk and the famous (though not the first of the war, that was Norway) evacuation of thousands of allied troops followed. After Dunkirk, Germans had the airbases in France and finally had the range to reach England. For the first part of the year, they bombed British airbases exclusively, but finely gave up and on September 7, 1940, the first bombs of the war to fall on any English city fell on London and the period called the 'Blitz' ensued.

Unfortunately, in the winter of 1939, many children returned to their parents in the city because neither gas, nor bombs had been used. They were back just in time for the Blitz.

Please note that the Pevensie children in my story are not part of Operation Pied Piper. They are being sent to the country by their parents to friends, not organized by the ARP and sent to strangers. (CS Lewis himself was one of those strangers and took in children during the war. No doubt, the Pevensies in his book were meant to be part of Operation Pied Piper.)

Happy reading!

~Psyche