Competition Thirty-Four Highly Commended: Pemberley Parkrun by S.A. Greene
You won’t believe who I saw at Parkrun today! Emma! From the book? Coincidence or what? We were the only runners in Regency sun-bonnets, so naturally I went over.
‘Elizabeth Darcy’ I said, bowing.
‘Emma Knightley.’
We’d both used our married names and the farthing didn’t drop at first, but once we realised we were both Austen characters, we fell into step together.
‘How’s married life treating you, post-novel?’ I enquired. Her face clouded.
‘Is something wrong?’
Silence.
‘You can tell me.’ I said gently. ‘I’ve always regarded you as a sister.’
‘Oh? How so?’
‘We’ve got the same progenitor. And we’re both strong-minded women with husbands who are… of high moral virtue.’ (I was going to say ‘po-faced’ but I restrained myself.)
Emma didn’t respond, so I invited her for coffee afterwards.
‘I can’t,’ she said, too quickly. ‘Mr Knightley’s picking me up.’
‘Dispatch your footman to tell him you’ll be late.’
‘But it would displease him…’
‘DISPLEASE him??! Get a grip, girlfriend! This is the 21st century!’
Emma looked at her feet. A tear splashed onto her left Adidas. I recalled the part in the book where Knightley reprimands her before they’re even an item. True, Emma behaved appallingly towards poor Miss Bates on that picnic, but who was Knightley to stick his nose in and moralise? That “Badly done”? Massive red flag.
As we approached the finish I noticed a horse-drawn carriage among the BMWs over in the car park. Knightley.
‘Come back next Saturday,’ I urged, swiping my barcode. ‘I can help you.’
Emma turned and hurried away. I looked on sadly as the once wilful and self-assured heroine diminished towards her husband. The midday sun was directly overhead, but the shadows that encircled her were deep and they were widespread and they stretched for centuries.
S.A. Greene’s fiction has appeared in Free Flash Fiction before, as well as in New Flash Fiction Review, trampset, Mslexia, Blink-Ink, Temple In A City, Fictive Dream, Bath Flash Award Anthology, Gooseberry Pie Lit., and other lovely journals and anthologies.
Photo by Annette Lewis at Pexels
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What a well constructed story with a great ending. Beautifully written.