Today, Anne was still avoiding me, so I went straight home after school. Inside the house, Mary was sewing by the fireplace. Bash was in town. So I put my books away and walked out the back door into the cool fall air.
I walked down the path behind my house, past the woodpile, and through the woods. Stopping in front of the small, neatly-kept cemetery where my father's grave was, I slowly opened the heavy wrought iron gate, and walked inside. Sitting down on the cold stone bench, I noticed a small bouquet propped against his headstone. I picked it up. They were wildflowers, tied with a thin blue ribbon.
I slumped down on the bench. "I miss you, Dad." I said. "And it looks like someone else does, too."
I tried to clear my throat. "I've been gone for awhile. I've travelled, to all different places we had talked about, just like we always wanted to. I wish you could've gone."
The wind blew, making the flowers quiver in my hand.
"Dad, I've decided to become a doctor."
In fact, it was his own horrible sickness that prompted my decision. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.
"I hate not having you around. Cancer shouldn't be able to take you, or anyone else. Mothers shouldn't lose their children. Other children shouldn't become orphans. Anne doesn't even remember her parents..."
I drew in an unsteady breath.
"I want to help people, Dad. So they won't have to feel this- this hurt." My chest burned, my head ached. I wanted- no, needed - my father.
This wasn't the same, talking to a grave.
I stayed there for a while, thinking, and remembering when Dad was alive. Remembering the good times we had before he got sick.
Finally, I returned the flowers to the cold, silent headstone, and got up from the bench. I wandered further down the tree-lined path in a daze, until I reached the end.
Looking up, I realized that I had come the whole way down to the lake. I smiled a bit when I saw Dad's small green fishing boat at the shore. It was still covered from when he had last used it, the last summer before he got sick - and passed. Throwing the cover aside, I ran my had along the smooth, varnished side. Then I grinned. Why not take it out again?
YOU ARE READING
Return to Avonlea - Completed!
FanfictionWhile watching Anne with an E, I often wondered what things would be like from Gilbert's PoV. This short story is focused on that. Also, I couldn't help sneaking in a scene from the original movie into storyline of the modern AWAE adaption. Charact...
