The Just and the Wise

Chapter 1

I walk up the dirty concrete stairs in front of me and knock the golden knocker on the front door. I shiver in the brisk, rainy wind as I wait for someone to answer the door. The door swings open abruptly, and I am greeted by the most obnoxious member of the Scrubb household.

"Hello, Eustace," I smile pleasantly, "is Edmund home yet?"

"No. No, he's not," the Pevensies' cousin says in his nasal voice, "if I'm lucky, he won't come back at all."

The boy walks away stiffly, mumbling to himself. I take the liberty to step into the foyer, considering Eustace left me standing on the porch without a formal invite in. I go upstairs and sit on Lucy's bed, waiting for my friend and boyfriend to return.

A few minutes later, I hear the front door squeak open.

"Hello, Uncle Harold!" Lucy's sweet voice echos up the stairs. "I tried to find some carrots, but all they had were turnips again. Shall I start making soup?"

I hear Eustace come out of his room and walk down a few of the stairs.

Oh dear, here he goes.

Eustace has a knack for, shall I say, hating every single thing his cousins do. Lucy is usually decent at ignoring her cousin, but Edmund gets frustrated with him very quickly. I typically find Eustace's antics amusing, but when he makes Ed angry, I usually have to hear about it.

"Uncle Harold?" I hear Lucy trying to get her uncle's attention, and I rise from Lucy's bed and stand at the top of the stairs above Eustace, who's about four years younger than Ed and me. I see Ed standing at the bottom of the stairs, and he sticks his tongue out at his uncle's disregard for Lucy.

You tell him, Ed. I laugh to myself and roll my eyes at Edmund's childish behavior.

"Father! Edmund's making faces at you!" Eustace says quickly before firing a spitball at Edmund.

"Why, you little-"

Edmund runs up the stairs at Eustace, and Eustace once again tattles,

"Father, he's gonna hit me!"

Edmund grabs a hold of his cousin's arm, but I clear my throat to catch his attention before he hurts him. Ed looks up at me at the top of the stairs, and he sheepishly lets go of his cousin and sighs.

"Edmund look! It's from Susan!" Lucy comes around the corner waving a letter.

Edmund looks at his sister and back up the stairs at me before glaring at Eustace. I head back into Lucy's room, mostly because I know Eustace doesn't go in there often, and the Pevensies follow me.

I sit down on the bed, and Edmund slumps onto the bed next to me with his eyes closed with a sigh of exasperation. I put my hand on his thigh.

"Not too much longer staying with the Scrubbs, Ed," I tell him.