When Susan goes to her first party, her first real party, everyone is dolled up in the latest styles, the neweest cuts, and it is as if there is no war right outside their doorsteps, and Peter is not crashing helicopters and half-killing himself and the Germans, and Edmund too.

They pretend as if there is nothing wrong with the world, as if nothing exists beyond their wine glasses and their nylons (where did they get them? Susan thinks, because you can't find them, not anywhere, and she has looked everywhere) and "How is it going with you and that John fellow?" And then, they dare, they dare to frown upon her, question who this green girl is in their presence, how she dares invade their empty spaces and their hollows, and she is not afraid.