Play the Love Away

Gold Parties

Gilbert Blythe loved Trinidad, as long as his legs weren't shaking too much. Getting into flat land that didn't keep swaying was strange for him, but either way, he found his way to a smile when he saw the place in front of him.

Off the small dock, people lined up and sold fresh vegetables, fruits, exotic foods that Gilbert had never seen in his life. The scents all seemed to melt together as his friend didn't seem to be as happy as him. Bash lead Gilbert through the stands, pointing out different foods.

"You have anything good to eat up on Prince Edward?" Bash asked as they passed another fruit stand. Gilbert shrugged, "I like potatoes."

Bash gave him a look like, seriously? He scoffed, "C'mon, potatoes? Give me something to work with here!" Gilbert thought for a moment before recalling some good memories back home. "My best friend, Elise, she would serve the best crab you've ever tasted. Seriously, she's an amazing cook." "Now we're gettin' somewhere! How'd she prepare it?" Bash asked. Gilbert shook his head, "She put a lot of different things in it that I have no idea their prospects but Mrs. Kincanon would boil it, I think. Add some salt."

"That's it? Crab with... salt?" Bash almost threw his friend back into the harbor. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Crab nice when you cook it up right. Like Mommy's crab callaloo. Sunday food. She'd boil down a pile of dasheen leaves in coconut milk, throw in some onions, garlic, okra, a pig tail and then the crab. Add a whole pimento pepper and let it simmer." Gilbert's mouth watered as Bash went on.

Life in Trinidad felt like forever away from Avonlea.

~~~

Returning to school the next week wasn't all how Elise was planning.

She had gotten up quite early this morning and decided to spend her time trying to figure out what to say to Gilbert. Her notebook had been filled with, Dear Gilbert, Gilbert, Dearest Gilbert, etc. Any possible way to start a letter had been written down. By the time she abandoned it, the sun had just risen and she found herself moping to her closet and picking out a simple dress and stockings. Thankfully, the weather hadn't sunken yet.

She said a quick goodbye to her brother and father and slipped out the door with her chalk board slate and book, covering her lunch in a wicker basket.

Walking to school made her heart churn. She missed the usual boy that walked by her side, making her laugh and telling her a new fact about the inner human body or the geography of Canada. She paused as she looked up at the hill where he would've been waiting, instead a lonely and dark house. She forced herself to move on and in time she found herself at the schoolhouse.

She walked inside and looked around. Some of the boys and girls had changed but hardly. Others stayed the same with their gossip and wretched smirks.

Elise no longer favored school.

~~~

"'...answer'd Lancelot, the chief of knights: / 'And with what face, after my pretext made, / shall I appear, O Queen, at Camelot, / I before a King who honors his word, / as if the word... '"

"I think the entire poem is shameful. They should be tarred and feathered," Josie interrupted. Her head was held high with superiority in her voice as Mr. Phillips abandoned the book and looked at his student. "Josie?"

Josie almost shrugged. "Guinevere is married to the king, not Lancelot."

Anne looked up from her book with desperation. "Oh, Mr. Phillips, can't you skip to the part where Elaine's pure and true love turns most tragical?"

"No. Do not interrupt me again. 'Yea,' said the Queen, / 'A moral child without the craft to rule, / else he had not lost me... '"

A clatter sounded from the boy's half of the room as Elise finally looked up from the book. Her eyes spotted a drawing pad with once a beautiful castle to a large ink smudge.