My Dear Brank,
I’m telling you what, Brank, you better know that I care about you because I’m writing at a time like this. After all, do you know where I’m headed? I’m on my way to one of those glorious feasts that we have down here when someone blows his assignment. Of course, Our Father Below would rather have every varmint’s soul, but this new generation of tempters isn’t like they were in my day so, unfortunately, sometimes we just have to eat them.
Say, did you know that today’s feast will be particularly gluttonous because we have seven of your dumbest colleagues to make a hearty meal of? And, guess what? They are the very ones that you’ve had to work most closely with for all these years.
I mean really, I’m almost surprised that a little idiot like you isn’t down here being prepped for consumption, too, but maybe some of my brilliance is rubbing off on you. Of course, I doubt that.
But, I digress. What I really wanted to write to you about is to make sure that you’re prepared for the future. I mean, I know that before I always warned you against letting your patient maintain close ties with her friends and relations who had somehow met the Enemy, but I don’t want you to just assume that you’ve bagged her soul now that they aren’t in the picture anymore.
In fact, you’ve always been a long way from bagging her soul because, even though she was outwardly willing to ridicule their memories of meeting the Enemy and she went along with a lot of your distracting suggestions, inwardly she never stopped loving them and, despite all your assurances to the contrary, I was never quite convinced that she didn’t have doubts when she made fun of them for being childish.
So, I bet that you’re wondering what you should do now, right? Well, first you should suggest that she needs to be angry that their childish little game has gotten them killed. I mean, sure, it’s one thing for mature adults to have fond memories of childish games, but it’s quite another to go and get killed while they try to recreate them, right? Of course, it is.
I mean really, those varmints were quite selfish to go off and leave your patient all alone in this world.
Of course, unfortunately, she is not alone in this world, but you must be careful to keep that information out of her mind. However, if you slip up, as morons like you are prone to do, then you should suggest that her memories of the Enemy should be filled with Anger and Resentment. After all, did He not continue to talk to her friends and relations while she was distracted by other voices? Did He not allow them to be taken away from her? How could He possibly love her if He is willing to do such horrible things to her?
Another suggestion that would be productive if she becomes aware of His interference is to suggest that the Enemy is only reaching out to her to condemn her for being distracted for so many years. I mean really, how could anyone forgive that? Certainly, you don’t want her to remember that unfortunate old story about how He forgave this Male who denied knowing Him.
I’m telling you, Brank, I’m really excited about the possibility of your patient being on Our Father Below’s dinner table one day. After all, it isn’t every day that a delightful tragedy of this magnitude happens to someone in the Enemy’s camp. I mean, doesn’t He claim to always be with them and protect them? What a joke.
I mean really, how could she have any hope after what He has done to her? Well, you’d better make sure that she doesn’t. And, above all, keep that story about what the Enemy is said to have done for the dead Male and his two Female relations out of her head. It’s an awful story that originates from when I was tempting in the field, and she doesn’t need to read it.
Well, I’ve spent more than enough time on this letter and now I’ve got to get to that feast. After all, Our Father Below doesn’t like it when someone is late to a feast and I have my reputation to protect, don’t I? Of course, I do. Try not to let the glorious fumes of withering tortured failures distract you from your assignment or you’ll be the main course at our next feast.
You’re very hungry Uncle,
Screwtape
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Author’s Notes: Screwtape’s stories come from John 11:1-44, 18:15-18, 25-27, 21:15-17.
I think that by the time of The Last Battle, Susan could have been living in two worlds. Outwardly, we know that she ridiculed Narnia as a childish game, but I wonder if, deep down, she really remembered. Maybe she thought that she could remember by just watching the others while she lived as an adult in the world. But then tragedy struck and she couldn’t use her family and friends to remember Narnia or Aslan anymore. Now, she had to remember Him in order to be reunited with them one day.
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