Play the Love Away

The Letter to Gilbert Blythe

Dear Gilbert,

I hope this letter finds you in good health as I am writing to you in regards that there is news in Avonlea that myself and Anne think it is necessary for you to hear. A man, who is boarding at Green Gables with Anne, has announced that there is gold within the soils of Avonlea under everyone's feet. To determine, residents are sending money with the boarder for testing across the seas. We believed that this information was important enough for you to know in the course that you might find it threatening enough to return home.

Now that I've read aloud only the first part to Anne, I can speak freely now. Gilbert Blythe, you are one of the most inexplicable boys I have ever met. And in saying that, I live with Michael. He's doing well, if you wanted to know. Maybe well is too hopeful but that is the only thing we can hold on to.

I want you to know that I understand why you left. I may not have come to terms with it but I understand it. Of course, I wished you stayed. I wish you didn't leave me in here in this place that reminds me left and right of you. I wish you did it differently and I wish I hated the jewelry box so much that I could smash it but it's too precious and too beautiful, so I thank you for it.

I truly want to know how you have been. I realize that working on a steamship is not at all similar to the lives we hold on land but I always hoped you'd write. Personally, the gold finding was an easy way to send you a letter without the unnamed friend that we spoke of, hating me but here we are, she eggs me on to bring you home.

Remember when we baked that cake for your father? Goodness, it was a pile of chocolate heaven that was too rich for any of us to finish. I remember you almost ruined the whole makings with salt instead of sugar, what a tragedy I would be writing if you had. Your father ate 3 more slices in the days to come and we both laughed in your room as we joked about it sitting in his stomach like a rock. That was the day you played the first two measures of the Moonlight Sonata by Bach. You were so happy that you got up and forced me to dance around the house with no music. I felt so silly but you focused your eyes completely on me without any other distractions. It was a perfect day.

I do hope you have friends on that steam ship of yours because I cannot imagine you having gone this long without a friend. Oh, how I ever so long to never know the state in which you socks are in! I shouldn't even remind myself of how horrid those things do smell.

Nevertheless, I hope this finds you a token of Avonlea in whatever beautiful and exotic country you're in. I want you to remember you have a home with me to return to, no matter what.

Yours truly,

Elise