http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5113959/1/Two_Hundred_Years_of_Solitude

Word Count: 1,526

Official Description: AH, AU Original idea that led to alternate AU for “You Don’t Know Me”. Edward was never turned into a vampire, but lived to be 107- just in time to meet Bella.

Don’t miss You Don’t Know Me, the AU for this story.

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Lillybellis says: So, one day I was just roaming around FF.net (on a day it wasn’t being a complete failure), looking for something good to feed my emo mood (I have a lot of those). I just so happened to look at Philadelphic’s profile, following a link from someone’s favorites list. There, in the author’s note at the beginning were four little words that piqued my interest:

Don’t read this. Please.

Well, I don’t know about you, but it’s a certainty that when someone tells me not to read something, I most assuredly am going to read it. As if her warning weren’t enough, this last bit of her author’s note did me in:

All Human, All Canon Birthdays. You heard me.

Geriatric Edward and young Bella? My imagination went wild with the possibilities (and trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to know what they were). I am so glad I decided to put my curious mind to rest and read this gem of a story.

The tale begins as Bella, a newcomer to the small town of Forks, makes a visit to the local nursing home. She began volunteering there at the suggestion of her guidance counselor as a way to become more comfortable with talking to strangers, with the hopes of boosting her ability to make friends. One might wonder what kind of draw spending time with the elderly would hold for a young girl, but the author immediately draws us into Bella’s world (and a bit of canon), by likening the experience to Bella’s love of books:

There’s something about being at the end of life that makes most people a little deeper than they were when they were busy with the rush of life. They wanted to tell their best stories- the loveliest distillations of their own biographies. Maybe that’s why I loved them so much- talking to the residents of Twilight was like interacting with the books in a library, and I was always at home in a library.

Philadelphic then goes on to illustrate the wonderful give and take of an unlikely friendship between a man at the end of his life, and a young woman at the beginning of hers. She does a wonderful job of making us feel like we’re right there with them, showing the inherent understanding of two souls who have in some ways come together at the wrong time, but are meeting each other’s needs even then.

Remaining true to the canon Edward we all know and (for the most part) love, he helps Bella see the beauty in herself that sometimes isn’t so evident when a seventeen-year-old looks at her reflection in a mirror. He also manages to give her some much needed dating advice while showing us a glimpse of what had been missing from his own life:

“You don’t have to go with Mike,” he said comfortingly, “I shouldn’t give dating advice anyway, I was never any good at it. I just thought it would be nice if you enjoyed being young for once.”

“Well I don’t,” I sobbed, “I think I’m defective.”

“No, Bella, no. Don’t ever say that. You’re just too wonderful for your own good. If I were eighty years younger I’d have a ring on your finger before you could say boo.” We both laughed then, but I think he meant it.

If he were eighty years younger I might have let him.

This Bella and Edward meet a lovely and befitting end; one that might just make you want to open up to someone close to you and let them see the real stuff that no one else knows. Two Hundred Years of Solitude will leave you wondering what might have been, while being thankful that someone took the time to give us all a small glimpse of what kind of relationship Bella and Edward could’ve had if they really did live in a world where there were no monsters and no magic.

When you reach the end of this story, less than two thousand words and a few tears later, you’ll be really glad you read something that someone told you not to.