pride and prejudice

Fred and I have started listening to audiobooks on road trips. This last road trip over winter break, we failed to plan ahead and consequently did not deliberate and agree upon an audiobook to purchase. Thankfully, I had a copy of Pride and Prejudice on my iPod--a free audiobook I found back in the day when I took a British literature class at BYU. Although Fred has seen the (new) movie, and I have read the book already, we decided this would have to do.

Fred had never read the book, but I think we were both a little surprised to find that he. loves. Pride and Prejudice. LOVES. He will sheepishly deny it, but I was there when he asked me to put it on again and again and again. I sat through all the dinner conversations when he repeatedly brought up Mr. Darcy in a way that he considered "casual" (I know better). I noticed he began speaking with a slight accent, saying things like, "Oh Rachy, have I no respect for your nerves?" The kid was hooked.

One day, after break had ended and we were back in the swing of things, I was going through some old textbooks and packaging them up to sell back to Amazon. Fred sat down and listlessly shuffled through the stack.

Suddenly, he gasped. I looked up from my packaging, only to find him furiously holding up my copy of Pride and Prejudice that I had purchased for my literature class years ago.

"You OWN this?" he accused. "And you didn't TELL me?"

"Well, I'm selling it back anyhow," I explained, at which he positively unraveled. The next few days, Fred tried to convince me not to ship off my book. I explained to him that Pride and Prejudice is probably the easiest book to get our hands on, thus it was not a big deal to not have our own copy. Eventually, Fred let up and, through a pouty face, agreed that Pride and Prejudice should go to Amazon with the dozen other textbooks and novels.

What a sweetie, right?

A few weeks passed. Life was beginning to get back to normal. Fred no longer brought up Mr. Darcy the way a twelve-year-old brought up her crush, and it seemed that Pride and Prejudice was finally behind us.

Until it came.

The cardboard box that was dropped off at our front door with a brisk knock. The cardboard box with Amazon.com embossed on the side. Fred said that he had bought some resistance bands for us, so that was probably what was in the box. He ripped off the tape, opened the flaps, stuck his hand in the box, and retrieved...

Pride and Prejudice. Yes, THE copy that I returned to Amazon that Amazon then decided it didn't want anymore.

I couldn't believe it. Fred couldn't believe it, either, although the sentiment between our disbelief was quite different.

Pride and Prejudice now sits on our kitchen table--the table where Mr. Darcy passes between our mouths in conversation. The table where today I realized Fred hacked our Netflix queue, because sitting on the table in the Netflix envelope is...

the first half of the 6-hour Pride and Prejudice on DVD.