OCEANS | shirbert

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Lake of Shining Waters, a year after the Spring Ball

Spring had always been her favourite season. The sun was up, the sky held a beautiful shade of blue and the clouds had gone backwards, sheltering from the bright sunrays. The flowers had grown in such majestic colours that made Anne Shirley-Cuthbert wonder if they were real or not, for she had never seen such a beautiful tangly mess of colours together.

She delicately held a piece of paper in her hands. It was a bit yellowish because it had been written two years ago – yet she had never had the guts to send it.

It was adressed to Gilbert Blythe, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

The girl had just turned seventeen, and she was sitting near the Barry's pond, her bare feet refreshing in the water. She looked into the vibrant green colour of the nature, admiring each different tone. The mixture of green and the brown colour from the ground reminded her of Gilbert's eyes.

Well, everything reminded her of Gilbert Blythe lately, especially since he left for college a few months ago.

They had seen each other on Christmas and she was glad that things between them were still the way that they left them — like he had never left. Anne and Gilbert were the best of friends, although the rest of the people in Avonlea thought otherwise.

She had been carrying that letter with her ever since she went to the train station to look for him — that was more than a year ago. She did not want to deliver it, she wanted to give it to him in person, whenever she felt ready.

Dearest Gilbert,

I am extremely sorry I have not written you back lately. I have been busy with school since it is my duty to keep the top of the class now that you are not around. Being completely honest, this is quite boring, for a competitive soul like me needs constant challenging.

And now that there's an entire ocean between me and you is when I've realised that I care about you more than I thought I did. The day after you left for that steamership I felt so lonely. And these eight months have been awfully long without you.

However I am so proud of you. I know that we were not exactly friends before you left and that now we are... pen-pals, if you want to call it like that. But still I could not help but feel a sense of pride whenever I thought that you are out there seeing the world.

What I really wanted to say is that I'm not certain about my feelings for you anymore. We are certainly not rivals. Friends? I don't know either. I've read many (I mean it, many) books and none of them use the funny feeling I feel in my stomach whenever I think of you as a way to describe something such thing as friendship. It is usually something related to lovers. In the mean time, whilst I try my best to figure out all this, being your friend would mean the whole world to me.

I wish you could come back soon.

I miss you dearly.

Anne Shirley-Cuthbert

"I knew I'd find you here"

She turned around, although she did not have to. Years and years could go by but still she would have recognised that voice anywhere.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I found it in my mailbox" he said as he made his way towards her; his footsteps were as usual, confident, secuee. He was wearing a beige vest-suit which Anne guessed must be new and a light coat on top of it. He had just taken off his messenger cap, the one that he had been wearing during all these years. "Oceans, a story by Anne Shirley-Cuthbert"