"They Never Know"

A short story about Han Solo and Love

Author’s Note: I wrote the first draft of this short story for a creative writing class in grad school. We were supposed to imagine a story featuring a celebrity, dead or alive. I decided to base mine off of a dream I once had — that young Harrison Ford, whom I’d had a crush on since childhood, showed up at my house and proposed. Through several drafts, it turned into a story about expectations, disappointments, and assumptions.

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(Disclaimer: This a work of fiction. The character of Han Solo and related information belong to the Star Wars franchise, created by George Lucas and owned by the Walt Disney Company. As an author I make no claims to affiliation with the franchise or the actor Harrison Ford.)

Stock photo of engagement ring

They Never Know

Over the holidays, Harrison Ford showed up at Rita’s house. He asked for her daughter, who was visiting from the city. It was not present-day Harrison Ford, a man nearly as old as Emma’s grandfather. This was Harrison Ford in his prime, before his three marriages, before his alleged affair with Carrie Fischer. Before age made the side-ways smirk nothing more than a charming old man’s smile. In short, it was the young Han Solo raised from the dead, the man Emma had loved since she was four years old, when her father insisted they watch Star Wars as a family and she sat on the loveseat between her parents, still married and happy, Emma’s mouth agape, as the cool-headed, quick-triggered, cocky pilot told Princess Leia he knew she loved him, and he never said it back.

When Ford showed up, got down on one knee, Rita’s eyes filled with tears for her daughter’s future. But later, as Rita related the ordeal to her friend Linda, there was still disappointment in her voice.