Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Anne of Green Gables.
This is a one-shot for Emory, who requested an Anne and Diana fanfic. Merry Christmas, Emory. He was born! :)
Marilla Cuthbert had never raised a child before. However, when it became quite apparent that not only were the two siblings to keep Anne as their own, but that she must be the one to raise her up, she took on the challenge as a duty, and set forth to instill in this heathen child all forms of propriety that would mold her into a respectable, honorable, dutiful woman.
Sliding down the Barry hill on a worn old toboggan certainly did not qualify as a form of proper ladylike behavior. As a matter of fact, it held itself on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Anne, while always wanting to please Marilla, to show her gratitude for her adopting her, had only a rough understanding, at the age of eleven, of what counted as ladylike things and what counted as the exact opposite. In addition, she had an adventurous spirit and a real sense of imagination. So when Diana came bounding over the snow-laden hills one early December afternoon, Anne opened the door and immediately, open seeing her bright-eyed, red-nosed Diana, grew a bigger twinkle in her eye.
"What is it, Diana?" Anne asked, excited for an answer.
"Good afternoon, Anne," Diana said. Her black eyes twinkled, and she quickly retrieved something lying on the ground. "The last time my cousins were here, they left this toboggan in my father's barn. Our hired hand discovered it this morning and let me have it."
"Diana, do you know what this means?" Anne asked, almost too excited to stand still.
Diana nodded eagerly.
For several weeks, school was let out to the joyous shouts of the male students. They fell over and scrambled to their hats and coats once the school bell rung. Instead of walking home in groups or alongside a pretty girl they'd been written up with, they'd grab their homemade toboggans left alongside the wooden schoolhouse wall and race them down, in ones and twos and threes, down Barry's Hill.
At the foot of this hill, walking along the deep ruts in the snow-covered roads, the girls would watch. They'd be wistful, or cheering, or raise their noses to such rambunctious, foolhardy playing. Anne and Diana would be of the first of these three temperaments, of course. Anne would watch on, her head craning, her braid swinging, her books clasped to her body all but forgotten. Diana would clutch her arm and scarce breathe. She'd close her eyes and screech with glee and a frightened smile as the boys whizzed past them, fallen snowflakes blown into the wind again. But Anne would watch with wondrous eyes, imagining the thrill of speed and the wind in her lungs. Oh, it was such a thing to imagine.
And now her imaginings would come to reality, as many things had since she'd come to Green Gables.
"We are going this very second," Anne said.
Diana, eyes quickly growing concerned, stepped out of the cold into the foyer of Green Gables. She'd wisely left the toboggan on the porch, lest Marilla's house be ruined by snow and thoughtlessness.
She watched nervously as Anne scuttled up the stairs and returned quick as a wink, bearing her winter things in her arms.
"We're going now? I thought Marilla had left you with chores? She always does, on Saturdays," Diana said worriedly.
"Oh, I know. I've most of them done. But Marilla's gone to town for shopping and will most likely visit Mrs. Rachel. They know how to talk for a long time. At least, Mrs. Rachel does, and Marilla is too patient and polite to make her stop. We'll be back before she will." Anne was full of comforting reassurances that neither comforted or reassured Diana; this latter couldn't help feeling incredibly nervous as she watched her best friend wrestle on her boots, hat, scarf, and mittens, besides her big, ugly coat. When finished Anne bounded up and seized her best friend's arm. "Lead the way, Lady Diana," she said merrily.
The Barry Hill was only a walk away on a warm spring afternoon, but it was a difficult surmount to trudge, especially in three layers of petticoats, in winter. But when Anne looked up atop the hill, she saw the vastness of beautiful Avonlea, its pine trees and branches, its wonderful hills, its animal-dotted pastures, its tiny homes bearing up the telltale smoke; when she saw the sky a bright white, almost too white to look at without glancing away in an instant, she smiled. She exhaled a cold contented breath, and said, "Oh, Diana, I can't add anything to it. My imagination can't add a single thing."
Diana stood up, her cheeks and nose resembling cherries, her fingers numb in her mother's hand-knitted stockings. Snow crumbled from her braid as she straightened next to Anne. And her heavy breathing quieted, like the silent winter around them, and she said, "It is beautiful, Anne."
The toboggan was mounted, its bow off the ground, its shadow cast on the white. Diana hugged Anne, almost too scared to go through with this. Anne breathed, and she thrilled with excitement. "Are you ready, Diana?" she asked, excitement almost choking her.
Diana couldn't speak; she just nodded hurriedly against Anne.
Anne leaned forward, and they slid down the cold hill, going too fast to comprehend. The trees whizzed past, the houses became brown blurs. They passed by their footprints in the snow, over five times the speed they trudged up with.
They grew closer to Avonlea, that WHISH! and cold and wind filling up Anne so she couldn't scream, though she wanted to from excitement. She held on and watched, wide-eyed, the world pass by. Snowflakes fell and missed her hair.
They finally sunk to a finish at the bottom of the hill. Anne joyously raptured, saying, "Gracious, Diana, wasn't that the best thing in the world? Wasn't that everything we imagined it would be? The cold, the wind, the speed—my expectations were far too short! That was such a thing as to last us a lifetime! Am I glad that we didn't hit one of your father's cows, or we'd have a story that all of Avonlea would know. I have so many of those stories now, I shouldn't think another would do any harm, but Marilla wouldn't like it! Oh, Diana!"
Diana peeked her head out from Anne's coat. "Is it over?" she asked.
The thrill of a dream realized slowly faded from Anne; Di had missed seeing it all. "Oh, Diana!"
"Anne Shirley, Diana Barry, what is the meaning of this!"
Anne slowly turned from her trembling friend to see Marilla Cuthbert standing before her. Wearing her somber winter things and hands on her hips, she looked even more somber and exasperated than usual.
It wasn't the toboggan ride that scared or knocked the wind out of Anne, but Marilla. So, for once speechless, it took time until she could gather her voice together, but she could only breathe out one cloud of a word as she gasped: "Oh, Marilla!"
Thanks for reading! And Merry Christmas!