Anne with an E The Next Chapter

Our Journey to Here

After the bringing the horse and buggy back to the stable, Gilbert helped Anne down from the buggy and pulled out a basket, the book bag and blanket. "Where to now?" she said. Her mood was still gloomy and she seemed closed off to him. They walked apart from each other on the path from the Blythe house and down the lane that headed to the school. Gilbert stopped by a Birch tree and asked her if she recalled the spot at all. She looked around "sure, it's the walk we used to take to school."

"It's a place I first met you, when Billy was calling you names" he said. The thought bothered her because she remembered it all too well. She crossed her arms and looked around feeling a bit awkward. Where was he going with this?

"You were this bright beacon in the dark forest. All I could think of that day on the way to school was that it would be the same people I'd grown up with. It would be the same girls whispering about the same boys who were totally uninterested in learning. But there you were...this fire haired girl and I suddenly had something to look forward to that day" he smiled.

"But you didn't even look at me. You looked right through me" he said as she offered a small apologetic smile. "And I was totally fascinated" he continued looking as boyish as ever. He stood with her back leaning against the birch. She looked up at it in admiration. "I do so love birch trees!" She said as she felt its peeling bark.

"I'd heard about you being this dreamy boy and when I saw you, well, I knew it had to be you" she said. "Oh really... dreamy???" he said arching an eyebrow and smirking.

They continued to walk and reached the school house, now, rebuilt after the fire. They approached a little creek where they used to keep their milk and Gilbert pulled out an apple from his basket. "Remember that?" he said "the apple from the orchard".

She smiled. "Yep. I refused to accept it. You know you had 5 girls looking at me over your shoulder, who forbade me to speak to you. I was NOT going to defy them". She took the apple from him, noting no one was in the window eavesdropping now.

"Let's go" he said and they moved over to the front of the school house. "This is where we spent three years getting to know each other. I think you may have challenged me more than the teachers did" he said and she laughed. "I really liked the healthy competition between us" She retorted. "You don't say" he said with an eye roll.

He grabbed her hand and she allowed it. He pulled her along running backwards & looking at her with a mischievous grin.  He lead her to the field across the school. He noticed her hair was flowing gently in the wind, the loose ribbon she had braided her hair with was barely holding up. The sun was high in the sky and lit every one of her features. She was translucent, luminescent. She looked up at him and said "and what now ?" She was slowly coming around. He could feel it. "This is where I found the boards from the protest. They had been piled there and survived the fire. When I looked at them, I thought about how you lead us that day. How brave and determined you were" she nodded seeming slightly doubtful of herself now.

They crossed the field and entered the forest, walking until they reached the discarded reading club. "And this is where I found your reading club". She smiled at the gutted little cabin. "So many memories here- I hate that it was destroyed" she said.

"You collected all these little things here" he remarked as they surveyed the last of the feathers and shells and notebooks.
"You see simple things in life as magnificent and that helps me focus on the positive. To be grateful for every little thing." He pulled the small shell from his bag and smiled as he handed it to her.

Amazed to see it she stared open mouthed "What are you doing with this?" she said, recognizing it from the items she took from her room many years back.

"I found it here last summer. It kind of became my token of you. I don't have a portrait of you so when I look at it I see you. She smiled and placed it back in the palm of his hand and pressed his hand to his chest. "Then I want you to keep it" She was starting to thaw, to warm up to him.

He pulled her along, now excited for their next stop. They made their way to the ruins and he had her jump up on the old wooden boat. She laughed and wondered what he was up to next.
"This is where I saw you on the night of the exams and you pretty much took my breath away. And then you turned me down when I asked if I should stay. I wanted you to tell me yes, but you didn't" he said.

"I did not turn you down Gilbert Blythe, you didn't really ask. And I wasn't thinking of me that day" she confessed.

"I know you weren't. You did what you do. You thought of me and what you thought was best for me".

She took his hand and jumped down to face him. He was so serious now, his eyes darkened and seemed sad. "You are selfless" he whispered to her and held her for a long time.

Finally he pulled her along. "Last stop" he said and they walked for a while until they reached the cliffs. They stood side by side looked out to sea as they had countless times before.
He turned to face her and held both her hands. "This is where my future became clear. I couldn't imagine being across the ocean from you. I literally felt pain thinking about that and I knew I'd rather be in Avonlea close enough to see you and not have you, than to be in Paris with another girl being some other version of myself.

She held his face in her hands, "I can't tell you how many times I've thanked my lucky stars that you made that decision".

"The point is, I know it feels odd being in this new place in our lives, but what I am trying to show you is that it didn't all start at Queens last fall. The kiss wasn't the start. The beginning was the birch tree in the forest and every other moment after that, whether we were together or apart. It brought us to where we are now" he said genuinely and convincingly.

"I know, I know Gilbert, you're right, but..."

"But what?" he said quickly trying to hold her gaze.

"But I feel as though my life is full of starts and stops. Like every time I take a step forward, a tragedy strikes. I don't want that for you. I am a disaster".

"Anne, at the ruins that night, you decided for me. You decided you were not good for me. Wasn't that the biggest mistake. If Diana hadn't told me about the letter we wouldn't have had each other all year. We would have gone on separately. Right?".

"Right" she said.

"You are not a disaster. Don't you dare do that  to me....because I truly feel you were meant to be here, for me, and me for you" he said more fervently now. "When I met you that day, my life was just darkness. You got me through it. You brought the light. My life was a disaster before you came too and I promise you, there will be more. But that's the point of living, to take chances, to love and to lose sometimes and to find someone who can stand with you while it happens"

She looked out to the ocean and he wrapped himself around her back as they looked out ahead. "Promise me you'll try to see it. All the really beautiful things you bring?" he kissed her cheek and smiled

"OK" she said.

They walked down to the beach and spent the afternoon sitting on the blanket and reading books that Gilbert had brought. They ate cheese and fruit. They listened to the waves and collected seashells. They laid across the wool blanket. Anne was looking at the clouds and sorting out the shapes when she turned to face him. He had drifted off to sleep, his hand on hers, his face, turned slightly toward her own. She turned to face him now and covered his chest with the shawl. She could count every pale brown freckles on his face, see his thick lashes and touch his soft hair. She placed a hand on his chest and watched the rise and fall of his breathing. She she saw the soft look of his peaceful sleeping face. She had never looked at his face this long before and she realized, in that moment, that whatever fleeting emotion she had for him last fall, it could never compare to the billowing love she felt in her chest and her heart today. She thought about his words. How the ocean between them could have hurt him. She questioned how she might survive next semester without his tenderness. She kissed his soft mouth and, with her hand on his chest, drifted off to sleep, more grateful than she ever thought she could be.