Chinks and Chasms - A Collaborative Story You Can Join

[kristi]

Evelyn Watson sat on her hands, waiting for her parents to finish speaking to the matron. She glanced around at the dull, ordinary and oh-so-British surroundings. Floral wallpaper, needlepoint cushions. The room was sedate, down to the cat sleeping in a basket in the corner. The heavy curtains let in too little light, too little air. So little she might have bolted—certainly her mother had expected her to do so if left alone—except for one thing. The room smelled wrong. It smelled like summer and crisp mountain air and apples, and then when she tried to concentrate on the scent she decided she didn’t smell anything at all. Like peripheral vision. Something she couldn’t quite catch.

She should never have told her parents she’d been to another world.
---
“Will she be all right?” Mrs. Watson asked.

The matron sat with her hands folded on her desk. “It’s impossible to say, but there is hope. I am used to caring for special cases like your daughter. This is not the sort of institution you read about in the papers. I care about my students.”

“And then, when she’s cured, she’ll be able to come home to us?” Mr. Watson asked.

The matron gave him a steady look. “You must understand that she may never be just as she was.”

“But she’s talking nonsense about visiting other worlds, other worlds, Miss Plummer!”

“Yes, but I hope in time she will be better able to make her way in this one.” The matron offered him her best reassuring smile.

In the end, the papers were signed, and the matron had a new resident at Miss Plummer's Academy for Unconventional Education (or Chinks and Chasms as she liked to call it), the home for children who had once lost their way in other worlds.

***

This story is inspired by several books and fanfics, including Tonzura’s “To Rend the Worlds”, Almyra’s “Land of Make Believe”, “The Light Between Worlds” novel by Laura E. Weymouth, and others. One story dealt with a home for children who had returned from other worlds and were then thought mad by their parents. I have reimagined this with Polly as the matron. Join me in some collaborative storytelling as we explore the possibilities.

Basic premise:
Polly runs a home for children who have returned from other worlds and been unwise enough to speak about them.

Conflict:
Some unsettling things from those other worlds are about to find their way into ours and the students and faculty must deal with them with the skills they learned on their travels. None of these skills may be magical, though some of the threats may be.

Rules:

Keep it PG.

Be courteous.

In accordance with canon, none of the students in the home have visited Narnia. (One or two possible exceptions may be alluded to, but they will not be students.) If you introduce a student they may have visited Wonderland, Oz, Neverland, or another land of your own invention. (No Westeros or Hogwarts, please.) Other, non-portal worlds like Middle Earth or Aerwiar might be worked in if you can make it convincing (Maybe a character who keeps dreaming of Numenor and a great wave and spouting Elvish in accordance with The Lost Road or Notion Club Papers?)

The Pevensies, Eustace, Jill, and Professor Kirke are fair game to visit the school or Polly or become involved in the plot. Just keep them in character.

When you complete a scene, feel free to suggest an option or two as to what the next scene might be, to spark ideas. The next writer may use your suggestion for inspiration or decide to build on your foundation another way.

I hope you’ll join in for this adventure.

Possible follow-up scenes: The Watsons depart and Miss Plummer welcomes Evelyn to the school. (I imagine Evelyn’s world as one peopled with babbling, talking waters and lots of shimmering light.)

Ready. Set. Go!

[Lil]

Evelyn watched as her parents came back into the room and shook hands with Miss Plummer. She could see her mother looking at her with that pitying look and Evelyn thought she almost looked like crying.

"Evelyn Honey, you're going to stay with Miss Plummer for a little while. Just like camp, okay?" She said with a little laugh that people do to keep from crying and gave her a tight hug. Her father was quiet, only giving her a hug and saying that "they would write every week" and "keep your chin up, sunshine." And then they left, her father putting his arm around her mother, and whispering comforting things as they headed out into the entryway, and that was that.

"Now" said the Matron after she had seen the Watsons out and returned. There was something about her that Evelyn felt was already taking a measure of her and respecting her intellect. "My name is Miss Polly Plummer. How would you like to meet the others?"

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Evelyn couldn’t help the smile. Despite her parents leaving. Despite their thinking she was mad. Despite the fact that she was surrounded by total strangers in a strange place — that faint whiff of apple returned — all over again. Miss Plummer’s warm smile seemed to coax a response. “I would like that.”

“Then let us see who we can find,” Miss Plummer said. On their way to explore the institution, she paused at the desk just outside her office. “You’ve met Miss Fletcher the secretary, of course.” Evelyn nodded at the beautiful woman filing papers in a drawer. “She will also be your resident assistant.”

Miss Fletcher smiled. “If you ever need help with anything, you may always come to me.” Then to Miss Plummer, she said, “I’ll have her things taken up at once.”

Though she had already seen them when Miss Plummer had given a tour of the place, Evelyn glanced into the doorways of the dining hall and the expansive parlour. The dining hall was plain, but brightened by cheerful curtains and a few floral arrangements. The parlour proves more interesting to look at, being furnished with chairs of considerable comfort, a large fireplace, and even a piano. Evelyn regretted her inability to see her favourite feature: a bird’s-eye perspective watercolour of magnificent mountains, one of which was crowned with gold and trees laden with jewel-like flowers or fruits.

Up the staircase they went, passing empty classrooms (for there were no lessons today) and a few faculty offices. Unlike the rest, the door featuring a nameplate reading “Prof Kirke” was closed, shutting out all distractions from the student he tutored inside.

“Here we are,” Miss Plummer announced as she entered a sitting room. A quick scan of the room immediately informed Evelyn that there were only a handful of the institution’s population present. “Students, we have an addition to our ranks: Evelyn Watson.”



Suggested scene: Here’s a chance to write in some other students!

[cleander]

Footsteps echoed in the passage outside, but Professor Digory Kirke took no notice of them. He was staring in silent awe at the 13 year-old-boy sitting opposite his desk.
"Tell me, Joseph," he said at length, "How exactly did your parents react when you woke up and... told them?"
Joseph Winders fidgeted in his chair. "I don't remember much, sir." he said. "My head was all muddled after I fell off the roof."
"You never did tell me how you fell off the roof," put in the Professor, opening a little apple-shaped tobacco tin and filling his pipe. "What were you doing?"
"I was trying to get at a bird's nest, sir." said Joseph, slightly embarrassed.
The professor smoked thoughtfully. "I see," he said. " Pray, go on. Tell me about how you got to the... that place."
"Well, sir," said Joseph," When I fell, I found myself laying flat on my back on the ground. Only it wasn't on grass. It was stone. That's what first tipped me off that it wasn't England, or anywhere else I knew."
Professor Kirke glanced down at the doctor's report below him. "First displayed peculiar behavior after emerging from a trauma-induced coma." it read. " After six months, the child is still showing evidence of being highly delusional. May have at some point suffered hallucinations."

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

(Cutting back to Evelyn to allow for more development of Joseph before attempting to write him. I don’t want to mess up anything cool cleander’s got in mind!)
(Also, sorry this is kinda long. Wanted to intro my character.)


Evelyn surveyed the room. A teen girl hovered over two children - a boy and a girl - at a wide writing desk, perhaps helping them with an assignment. Two girls about Evelyn's age looked up at her from a game of checkers. Another boy lowered his gaze from the ceiling, a look of frustration on his face as he tightened his grip on a piece of paper; this, however, he smoothed away in favour of greeting the newcomer. All of them in near-unison said, "Hello, Evelyn."

Evelyn swallowed. Her mind filled with memories of her schoolmates drifting away from her after the... "incident". What was to prevent these kids from rejecting her at the start? How close dare she try to get with them? A wave of warmth fell on her, like the first rays of a sun emerging from behind a cloud. Odd. The windows showed no especial sunlight to accompany the warmth. Evelyn realized that the seconds were slipping fast away, so she made up her mind to at least make the most of this chance at a first impression. "Hullo, everyone. How do you do?"

At Miss Plummer's prompting, the students introduced themselves to Evelyn one by one. To her embarrasment, she could only remember the teen girl's - Anna - and that the checkers players were in her assigned wing.

"And this," Miss Plummer interjected, "is Matthew Stokes."

Evelyn felt Miss Plummer guide her to a wing-backed chair in a corner of the room, and only then did she notice the seventh student. He looked to be about ten or eleven at first glance, but the longer she looked at him, the less sure of that she felt. He seemed small, sitting with his knees nearly up to his chest and his shoulders hunched, cradling a pad of paper in the remaining space - a few pages sitting on the side table suggested that he held a sketchbook. But before Evelyn could decide that he was younger than she'd first guessed, the intensity of his grey eyes pierced right into her. They were guarded, wary. Dare she risk a word perhaps too strong and suggest "haunted"? It aged him considerably and, for a fleeting moment, she hoped her parents didn't think she looked like that. "I'm pleased to meet you," she ventured.

The colour in the boy's face drained away and his eyes darted all about the room. Evelyn took an involuntary step back.

Miss Plummer let her, stepping carefully toward Matthew herself, her hands outstretched. "Matthew, what is it?"

Matthew clutched the arms of the chair in a white-knuckled grip. What was wrong with him? Was he ill? Evelyn could feel the other students tense up behind her. She turned in hopes of finding an answer when -

"Matthew, don't!"

Evelyn let slip a cry of surprise as she tumbled to the floor. Matthew crouched beside her, but his eyes were fixed, not on her, but on the windows. Evelyn scrambled away while Miss Plummer caught the boy in her arms.

"It's alright, Matthew, she's alright," Miss Plummer told him. "Evelyn's fine. There's nothing here."

Anna rushed to give Evelyn a hand up. "Are you okay?"

Evelyn mastered her breathing, but her heart insisted on pounding. She clutched the older girl's arm and stared at Matthew, whose hands gripped Miss Plummer's arms similarly. His eyes scanned the place - especially the windows - with an almost feral energy, his posture poised to spring again. Miss Plummer continued to croon comfort in his ear, and he began to crumple in her embrace.

Anna tugged at Evelyn's arm. "Come on, we should go." Evelyn was aware of being dragged into the hallway with the other students, but her eyes never left Matthew. Matthew's own eyes, now wet with tears, connected with hers just as the door closed. Evelyn and the other six stood in awkward silence. When the sound of soft crying reached their ears, Anna immediately steered the group into a classroom.

"What was that?" Evelyn asked.

Everybody looked uncomfortable. And shaken.

"What happened?" she tried again. "Why did he attack me?"

"He does that sometimes," one girl offered.

"I don't think he meant any harm," Anna added.

"He's mad, that's what," a boy said. "They ought to put him in an institution."

"Watch it," the other snapped.

"What else could it be? None of us are crazy," the first boy argued. "Whatever happened to him Over There knocked a screw loose in his head."

"Stop," Anna said. "You know what Miss Plummer says: no one is told anyone's story but his own. And until Matthew tells you his, leave him be, you hear?"

Evelyn hugged herself and turned her head in the direction of the sitting room. Matthew had scared her, but something had scared him too. Something terribly frightening. If only she knew what.

[kristi]

Great work, everyone. I'm really enjoying your additions. (Feel free to compliment the folks before you if you find something especially cool in their post. Encouragement will help us keep rolling.)

Her [Evenlyn's] mind latched onto the word one of the boys had used. She addressed Anna. "What does he mean when he says that boy--Matthew--belongs in an institution? This is an institution. My parents sent me here to be cured because...

She trailed off. Because they think I'm mad. And they've put me in a school for mad people.

Follow-up suggestion: Does anyone explain to Evelyn what's going on? She thinks she's in an upscale asylum.

[renegadeoftheshire]

(Ariel, I'll take the teen you have if you don't know what to do with if you want )

[knightofnarnia]

"What?" Said Anna, "You think this is an institution? I'll admit my parents thought this was one but I knew the minute I set foot here that this was something far nicer and much better then that." Evenlyn was shocked, not an institution where was she?

[cleander]

Ooh, foreshadowing! Love it, knightofnarnia!
--------------------------------------------------
"So what was it like?" asked the Professor.
Joseph glanced at the old man hesitantly. His parents had tried to be understanding with him after his recovery, but it only felt like they had been humoring him; Professor Kirke, however, was the first person who had showed any signs of taking his story seriously. He decided to open up.
"Well," he began, "I saw the sky overhead. But somehow it was night all of a sudden. The moon was out, but it wasn't like our moon. It was larger and brighter, like something in a picture. I stood up, and felt sore all over. Then I felt horribly cold. That was when I realized where I was. It was a huge mountainside I'd been lying on, with wind and snow blowing around me. I saw a forest thousands of feet below me. It reminded me of the time I visited America with my uncle. Huge pine woods they were. I could tell that at a distance."
"Well," said the professor, "How did you know it wasn't somewhere in America?"
"I told you." said Joseph. "It was the moon. Things may be bigger in America, but they use the same moon we do."
The Professor laughed. "Yes, I suppose they do. So what else did you see?"
Joseph grew sober, almost mysterious. "I saw the strangest man I ever met in my life," he said.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

@Rennie: The six students in the sitting room are fair game, so go right ahead! I just had to name one of them to make it easier for storytelling.
@cleander: Yay, more Joseph!! (Also, "Things may be bigger in America, but they use the same moon we do." Love it!) Gonna cut back to Evelyn so as not to interrupt Joseph and Digory's consultation.


The first boy gave Evelyn a look. "Didn't Miss Plummer tell you? Nobody here is mad. Except Matthew." The other boy elbowed him. Hard. He ignored it and continued to address Evelyn. "What was it like Over There?"

Evelyn's heart seemed to leap into her throat and she knew her eyes were bugging out. Did he mean...? How did he know? Something niggled in the back of her mind, something Miss Plummer had said to her parents about "special cases like your daughter". Could that mean...? She looked at Anna, who smiled encouragingly. The other girls' eyes fairly gleamed with anticipation. The other boy tried to reign in his curiosity but failed most miserably. The first boy smirked and nodded knowingly. Evelyn forced her voice to return. "Y-you mean," she stuttered, "you've all been to... Cascalynne?"

"That's a new one," a girl said.

"No, but we've all been Somewhere," Anna answered. "Evelyn, the Academy is for kids who've been to other worlds."


(Note: Kristi has given no parameters for Evelyn's adventures in Cascalynne (named by Kristi outside of this thread) except that "it's peopled with babbling, talking waters and lots of shimmering light".)