Heart Attack • Shirbert

• 15 • cramming, celebrations, and carrots

'We were walking on moonlight

And you pulled me close'

--

Harvest season arrived, so all hands were on deck. School closed for a week to allow children to stay home and help their family on their farms. The Cuthberts, Jerry, Gilbert, and Bash worked on both farms to harvest all of their crops before the weather started to cool down too much for the plants to survive.

This meant working every day.

The families decided to focus on one farm in the morning and the other in the afternoon to split their time and energy equally.

Now that Delphine was born, Mary needed occasional help caring for her. Bash, Anne, and Marilla formed what they lovingly called the "Delly Task Force," where they rotated who would help Mary whenever she called for assistance.

Even though school was out for the week, Anne and Gilbert were determined to continue their studies. They would go back and forth yelling words for the other to spell or asking history trivia questions. When Anne wasn't working, she'd either read from a medical textbook or quiz Gilbert specifically on medical terminology. When Gilbert wasn't working, he'd read some of Anne's favorite books aloud (most likely Jane Eyre).

The week went by quickly and, even though harvest season wasn't over, the bulk of the work was done.

The two families gathered in the Lacroix/Blythe kitchen and clinked their glasses of raspberry cordial together in celebration.

"To Matthew," Anne smiled, "he glued as all together during his life and we've remained connected since. Without him and all of you, Green Gables wouldn't have thrived."

"To Matthew!" Everyone replied and took a sip of their drink.

"And to Anne," Gilbert added with a smile, "happy birthday."

Anne's jaw dropped, "I thought everyone forgot."

"I can't believe you'd think we forgot your birthday!" Marilla, who had quietly disappeared, walked in with a small cake.

Everyone cheered and got up to hug Anne.

"You're getting far too old." Mary pulled Anne in, "What am I supposed to do without you next year?"

"You're going to continue being an amazing mother, that's what." Anne replied, making Mary smile even bigger than she was before.

Marilla hugged Anne and kissed her head, "My grown up girl," she pulled away and looked at Anne lovingly, "Matthew would be so proud."

Anne could feel tears behind her eyes, but she held back for the sake of keeping up the merriment in the room.

The whole time, Gilbert watched from across the table with a goofy grin.

She looks so happy.

It had been about a month since their conversation about Anne's past and since then things had changed.

Anne and Gilbert kept their morning walks to school, but they started going on adventures too. Anne took him to the story club, when Diana and Ruby weren't there of course, and showed him their old stories and some of Cole's leftover art. Gilbert took Anne to the docks in Charlottetown and showed her where he used to work. Occasionally they'd visit the beach and one time Gilbert took her in a boat on the Lake of Shining Waters.

During all of these, they would talk, going even deeper into their pasts than they had before. Gilbert talked about the struggles he went through while his father was dying. Anne recounted her past foster parents and the seemingly impossible tasks they'd ask of her.