Chapter Text
The next week continued, as it always seemed to do, and Susan still couldn’t get the Neverland story out of her head. There was just something about it. And even more so, she came to realize, there was something about Wendy. Something different, something that Susan couldn’t quite grasp. And it came out in her storytelling.
The next time they met in class was workshop day. Their professor split the class into groups and assigned tasks designed to help the students better know their stories. It was an interesting exercise, Susan thought, although not really necessary in her case. It was actually pretty fun hearing what strange details people had crafted in their worlds or finding gigantic holes in their story. Susan was quiet for much of the discussion, as always, but she didn’t mind listening.
She had been slightly distracted from her groupmates when something someone else had said caught her attention. She looked over her shoulder and realized it was Wendy talking about Neverland. The two had barely interacted in class and didn’t really speak outside of class either aside from the peer editing meeting. In fact, Susan realized, the only time she really saw her was in their creative writing class. She looked pretty today, with her short hair pinned out of her face and wearing jeans with a simple blue sweater.
Her group mates were asking her questions and she seemed to be the one with all the answers. Susan even heard some weird things, questions about the geography of the land and the weather and still- Wendy had all the answers. She had all the answers to the smallest details of Peter Pan’s hideout and Captain Hook’s ship, and yet…there was one question that stalled her.
“What happened to the kids after they returned from Neverland?” an underclassman boy named Jack asked.
Jack was a usually quiet boy, with light brown hair and red-rimmed glasses. He was also American, doing a semester abroad. It was strange for him to be asking so many questions.
“Oh, um, I suppose…I suppose I don’t really know. Um, I mean, it is just a story after all.”
“So they just moved back? Grew up? Do you think they remembered Neverland?”
“I, I don’t know. Really!” Wendy replied. The group clearly wanted more, but she refused to continue. She had an answer to almost every question about it, and yet she said she didn’t know what happened to them after. Or, like she was simply avoiding it. As if they simply grew up, alone in their memories of their adventures together, and never able to return home.
Yeah, thought Susan, I can imagine that.
At the end of class time, Susan caught Wendy to give her the second draft of her story.
“Hey, Wendy,” Susan said approaching her from the other side of the room. “I have my next draft for you, and it’s an actual draft this time.”
“Oh, thanks,” Wendy replied. Something in Wendy’s tone of voice seemed off, Susan noted. Not that she knew her well enough to really know what was normal and what was not. It just sounded slightly sad, maybe a dash anxious, like she was still being grilled about her story. Wendy took the paper from Susan and quickly left the room, her mind reeling from her classmates’ questions.
You don’t owe them answers, Wendy told herself. They have no reason to think it was anything but that. Or even writer's block. No reason to believe they returned to live in the real world only for Jane to grow up longing to return to Neverland and forever regretting the choice she made to leave, forever resenting the fact that she was eternally locked out of Eden.
Back at home, Wendy began thinking over and (eventually, inevitably) overthinking the previous creative writing class. Minute details stood out in her mind. Jack’s red rimmed glasses, the sound of her classmate’s rustling paper, the curls by Susan’s face on the other side of the room. The hyper-focusing annoyed her, so she searched for a distraction. Often she would paint or draw when these sorts of moods hit her, but today she was lacking inspiration. Deciding for once to get on top of her school work, Wendy picked up Susan’s story.
Wunderkind
Susan Pevensie
It was Susan’s most recent draft. She’d had it since the end of class to look over before next week. Wunderkind, Wendy thought. A beautiful word. And Susan Pevensie, a beautiful name.
The longer Wendy looked her name the more she realized she know almost nothing about Susan Pevensie. She knew they were in the same creative writing class and that she rarely, if ever, spoke …. And that was about it. That was all she knew about her.
Good, Wendy thought, pulling out her laptop to begin investigating her partner, a distraction.
Susan had a Facebook account but posted almost nothing. On her wall, the only things Wendy could see were an old photo she had been tagged in, and a picture of a lion’s face next to the words “Courage, Dear Heart.” There were several twitters with the same name but, again, nothing. Wendy then typed the name into the search bar, doubtful that she would find anything. Three links down the page she saw her first lead: …survived by Susan Pevensie, and clicked.
It was an obituary or… a news article? Wendy wasn’t sure, perhaps it was some of both.
Local Family Among Those Killed In Train Wreck
“…Among the confirmed deceased are Mr. & Mrs. Pevensie and three of their four children, Peter, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie. They are solely survived by their eldest daughter, Susan Pevensie…”
A wave of realization washed over Wendy as she read the article. Without looking she grabbed the draft lying beside her and skimmed over the first page as a soft no escaped her lips. There it was, right in front of her. The story of four siblings exploring a magical land together. Peter, Edmund, Lucy…and “Lily.” But it wasn’t Lily, not really. It was Susan. A story was written by a girl about her and her dead family.
Unsure of what to do with this new information, she picked up the packet and read again.
Susan sat down in class on the last peer review day and looked around for some sign of Wendy. There wasn’t much to go over at all, really. She had read through Neverland again the night before and hadn’t been able to find anything problematic. And after reading it that first time, she read it again. It seemed to stir something deep inside her. Not necessarily a pleasant something but not anything awful, either. But it was familiar, as if the words were woven from the magic of Narnia’s golden age. For a brief moment, she had even allowed herself to consider the possibility of another person who had ventured to Narnia, someone else with a story like her, but she killed that fantasy almost as soon as it had begun. The Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve of the prophecy had come and gone and there was no need to bring a new girl into Narnia. Yet, the familiar feeling of magic when she read Wendy’s story was no less.
“Susan? Susan?”
She looked up, startled, “Um, sorry Professor.”
“It appears that Ms. Darling will not be joining us in class today and, as we are doing peer reviews, you are free to go. Please arrange to meet with your partner at another time.”
“Oh, uh, thank you!”
Susan gathered up her things and returned to her apartment early. As the afternoon dragged on, she realized she was distracted by Wendy’s absence. She was probably just sick or tired or something, but still…she didn’t seem like the kind to miss class. Plus, she wanted to give her the final comments on Neverland, and get the final comments on her story. Two days passed and Susan heard nothing from her review partner. Text messages, emails, and even phone calls had gone unanswered. Susan’s worry for her grade turned to worry for her classmate, despite barely knowing her. She needed to do something. Flipping through her papers she found where she had written down Wendy’s address. It was time to make a house call.