No Regrets
A Narnia Fanfiction
Frank, once a London cabby, now forever a king – the first king – of Narnia, lay in bed beneath a crimson canopy of thick velvet, nose to nose with his wife Helen.
They were by then quite aged – they'd grown old, and they had not, despite handsome appearances, been as young as some when Aslan first called them to this world. Frank's arms were liver-spotted, and his wife's hair was gone very white. But this did not greatly concern either of them. It would have been one thing to grow old in London, with smog and sulphur in their lungs and tragedies of that world in their hearts, far away from the countryside of childhood, but it was another entirely to age gracefully after a full life in this place. Frank had a scar under one eye, from a war against some of Narnia's earliest enemies, but he was far prouder of its being proof he had not turned out to be a 'soft 'un' after all despite never having fought, in his birth world, using more than bare knuckles.
For her part, Helen thought it made him look rather dashing, even as folds and wrinkles stretched it out with the passage of time. It had been a long white scar when it first formed, now it was pink and rather puffy.
"Well, I recon if it's our time t'go soon, as I suppose it well might be–" wheezed Frank, softly. He faltered, then resumed, "I daresay, at least the throne-a-Narnia's gone to our eldest and he's got a good head on them shoulders a his."
The corners of Helen's mouth turned upwards. "Yes."
"You've got no regrets, have you, Nellie, my lass?"
A soft sigh whistled out her nose and landed, breathy and rather sweet, on his upper lip. "None, my love. Except..." Her eyes shone. "Well, there is one thing I think-a now and again."
"Somethin' left behind in London?"
"Just so, Frank. Just so. I think now and then, how I do regret when I answered Aslan's call and found myself in this world, I hadn't the sense to grab my best hat so it got drug along with me."
Frank cocked one hoary eyebrow. "Ya mean t'one as had imitation cherries on it?"
"Yes."
"Nellie, light a my life, I feel I must tell ya now, if I ever mean to..." He planted a little kiss upon her protruding bottom lip. Breaking away, he murmured, "I always loathed that hat. Was never a bit partial to it as you were. Never did think it suited ya."
Queen Helen's body quaked with laughter; she pressed her forehead to her husband's. "Well! Well! I suppose you liked seeing me in a crown t'best in the end."
"I recon I did."
The royal couple then closed their tired eyes in tandem, unawares that – when they opened them again – they would find themselves in Aslan's country, at the end of the world they'd helped forge together.