ANDIE has called on PRISSY.
Andie: Good morning, Miss Andrews.
Prissy: Good morning, Miss Norman.
Andie: Are you busy?
Prissy: Father is having important business partners over this afternoon and I have to be present to greet them but until then I'm as free as a bird.
Andie: Good, would you like to walk to town with me? It's Gilbert's birthday tomorrow and my brain empties when I try and think what to get him.
Prissy: Let me grab my coat.
ANDIE waits on the doorstep. BILLY comes around the corner of the house.
Billy: To what do we owe this pleasure, Mrs Johnston?
Andie: Excuse me, Mr Andrews, to whom are you talking to?
Billy: Oh please, everyone knows you are courting the farm hand.
Andie: Courting equates to marriage in your book? How interesting. Don't perpetuate that view too loudly Billy or you'll slander your family's good name. You could court any number of girls at a time, word will spread about a polygamist in the Andrews' family. On the other hand, children out of wedlock and the like.
Billy: What? But I never –
Andie: I should be careful what you insinuate. My name is Miss Andraya Norman and it will be until such time I see fit to change it. Call me "Mrs Johnston" again and there will be consequences.
BILLY sniffs and skulks away. ANDIE speaks quietly.
What a prick.
PRISSY comes out.
Ready darling?
In town they wander the shops. They stop by the book shop.
Mm...I don't know. We had talked about this book for a while...they bought me a dress for my birthday so perhaps I should buy him a warm new coat?
Prissy: I don't think men like to receive clothing as gifts as much as women do.
Andie: That's true. Hmm. How about a harmonica?
Prissy: Why?
Andie: I don't know. I'm stressed.
Prissy: Take a deep breath.
Andie: I've spent every day with this boy for...seven months. And I literally have no ideas. Why don't consoles exist for goodness sake –
Prissy: What's a console?
ANDIE's eyes widen with an idea. She clutches her friends' arm.
Andie: Prissy...do...do you have board games in Avonlea?
Prissy: Mm, you mean like chess and drafts and backgammon?
Andie: Mm...do you have 'Snakes and Ladders'?
Prissy: 'Snakes and Ladders'? I've never heard of anything like that.
Andie: Prissy...can you draw?
Prissy: Talking you today is like a whirlwind.
YOU ARE READING
Anne with an E: Andie with an IE
FanfictionAndie: First option, I am in a coma and this is my coma-dream. Second option, I am already dead and purgatory is based in 19th Century Canada. I mean...that would make sense. Everyone here is god-fearing. But also you've got a heavy-duty patriarchy...
