4
Fred's Romance with Wilma Rubble
(A Fan-Fiction Story based upon the animated T.V. series, "The Flintstones" (1960-1966), and "The Flintstone Kids" (1986-1988), both created and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera of Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.; and also based on the D.C. Comics' Universe of "Superman", first co-created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. The story is based on and parodies the "Lois Lane" comic book story, "Superman's Romance with Lana Lane".)
Chapter One: Mystery Woman
Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble were getting ready to sort through all of the family picture slides that each of them had been storing in boxes in the basements of their cave-houses. It was a daunting task, but they had committed themselves to completing it. Betty had brought all of her boxes over to Wilma's house, and they had arranged them in rows in the basement of the Flintstone abode. They intended to take all of the best photos and make up Memory Scrapbooks for their families.
Their progress was slow. Every time they found a new photo album, they would both stop their work to take a trip down memory lane.
"Look, Wilma," Betty chuckled adoringly, "Aren't these cute baby pictures of Barney?"
"There are some even cuter ones of Fred," Wilma replied, "But I think they're in the slide portion. Let's get some of these old slides going on the projector!"
"So much for getting anywhere on our task," Betty giggled, always happy to be distracted from whatever work chore she was performing.
The two women set up their rock-stone slide projector, and within minutes they had happily abandoned their work to watch the numerous slides of Wilma's husband Fred Flintstone and his family. There were lots of baby pictures of Fred; and there were some of him when he was a young child, posing with his parents Ed and Edna Flintstone.
Wilma chuckled at the endearing photos. They were all so adorable. She knew that Fred hated it when she looked at his childhood pictures, but she just couldn't refrain from doing so whenever they were anywhere in range. As they clicked the projector forwards, the slides began to show Fred as a teenager and then as a young man—when he was dating Wilma and his best pal, Barney Rubble, was dating Betty. They giggled at the photos girlishly, delighting in memories of the past romances.
They had just about reached the end of the slide-session, when all of a sudden a very strange photo appeared on the screen, depicting Fred with a mysterious woman. To Wilma's profound shock, he was putting an engagement ring on her finger!
Betty and Wilma stared at the photo, too horrified to say anything to each other.
"Wilma..." Betty finally managed to stammer, "That...that woman looks familiar, don't you think?"
"She looks as though she's related to me," Wilma replied shakily, "But she doesn't look like either one of my sisters, Mica or Mickey. Who could she be?"
"Come to think of it," Betty murmured, "She kind of looks as though she could be related to me also. Do you see the resemblance?"
"Yes," Wilma conceded, "I can see it, but it must be a coincidence. She couldn't be related to both of us! Do you think that my father had an affair with some other woman? Could this be an unknown sister of mine?"
Betty gasped at the idea of Wilma's respected father, Ricky Slaghoople, cheating on his wife, Pearl Slaghoople. Could such a terrible thing be possible? Ricky and Pearl, after all, had been pillars of the Bedrock community. As far as anyone knew, they had only had four children: the three girls, Wilma, Mica, and Mickey, and their brother Jerry.
"Check the bottom of the slide. Is there anything written on it?" Betty asked.
Wilma took the slide out of its pocket. There was something scrawled on it, and she could barely make it out. It looked as if it said...
"Wilma Rubble?!" Wilma exclaimed, "Who on this Modern Stone-Aged Earth of ours is Wilma Rubble?"
A shocking thought suddenly hit both of them.
"Wilma!" Betty whispered, "You don't think that...could one of Barney's parents have had an affair with one of your parents?"
"I was wondering the same thing," Wilma replied, sitting down heavily, "It might have been my mother, Pearl, with Barney's father, Bob—or it could have been my father Ricky with Barney's mother Flo. Either way, it's pretty darn shocking."
"Either one of those pairs could have gotten together before they married the other people," Betty suggested, "It doesn't necessarily have to mean it was a clandestine thing."
"But then why keep it a secret from the rest of us, if that was the case?" Wilma asked.
Betty shrugged. "Could you ask your mother about it, Wilma?"
"No, definitely not," Wilma countered, "But I'm going to ask Fred to explain the photo. I never knew that there was another woman before me!"
Upstairs, Wilma and Betty could hear the sound of Fred's car, nicknamed "The Flintmobile", rolling into the driveway of their cave-house. Wilma snatched the offensive photo and stomped up the stairs to greet Fred at the door and confront him with what she and Betty had discovered.