For Those in Peril

Marilla was mopping the floor, making the most of the warm day. There was a knock at the door, "Oh bother", she muttered to herself. "Who is it?" she called out.

"It's just me, Marilla." The familiar voice of Rachel replied.

"Can you just sit outside a spell? I'm cleaning the floor. I'll bring some tea out presently." Marilla hastily finished off and set the tea to draw. "Hello Rachel, how nice to see you." she said as she carried the tea tray outside. "Hope you don't mind having it out here. I want the floor to dry."

After the usual pleasantries, Rachel asked, "So, Marilla, how are you finding motherhood?"

"Well they've certainly bought the old house to life. There's never a dull moment with Anne and Joe around."

"What's the latest?"

"Well I probably shouldn't say this, it's a bit personal, but it seems young Joe is reaching puberty."

Rachel's eyebrows shot up. "Oh!"

"Yes, the laundry has increased exponentially."

Rachel laughed, "Oh yes, I do recall, it's not so bad at this time of year, but not so much fun in January. It should settle down soon. Any movement in that direction from Anne?"

"No, she's still a way's off I reckon." Both women paused reflecting on that miserable time, and thinking how happy they were that it was over.

"So how did you manage the talk with Joe?" Rachel enquired.

"I delegated that conversation to Matthew."

"Good idea."

"Yes, I didn't think he needed to hear it from me, and anyway what do I know about it?"

"Some say it's a sin, all that wastage."

"It's not his fault. Matthew says he's asleep when it's happening." They sat for a while, looking out on the spotless yard. The horses gently grazing in the field. It was a lovely fall day; with the leaves just turning.

"I always love this time of year, the last warm days before the bitter cold of winter and the beauty all around from the turning leaves." Marilla remarked.

"That must be Anne's influence upon you Marilla. I don't think you would have said that twelve months ago."

"Maybe so." Marilla agreed. "Motherhood seems to be changing me."

"Yes, it's an adjustment isn't it. At least I had mine as babies and we grew up together, but you've got two older ones together, a job lot as it were."

"That's not very Christian Rachel. They're such different people. Anne is such a romantic, always looking for the beauty all around her and sharing it with us. Joe is far more serious, but delightful in his own way. He's really improving with his fiddle playing."

Rachel was pleased for the Cuthberts, they were due a bit of joy in their lives.

Mr Philips had organized for the class to go on a field trip. It wasn't often that he took them out of the classroom, but the beach was such an excellent location for a science field trip that he couldn't resist it.

It was a beautiful sparkling day. Silvery gulls were soaring over them. The horizons were laced with long trails of frail clouds. The hushed air was threaded with a murmurous refrain of minstrel winds and waves. The wind was offshore and only broke the sea's surface into long, silvery ripples and sent sheeny shadows flying out across it, from every point and headland, like transparent wings.*

In his usual pompous manner Mr Philips told the class they could enjoy the land sea interface,** but they had already run off by that point and the moment was lost. Mr Philips should have been checking on his pupils' work, but instead he led Prissy up to the sand dunes to undertake some special research.

The scholars broke up into twosomes. Naturally Anne paired off with Diana. They had decided to investigate the rock pools. Wandering out to the reef, they could see the rest of the class spread out across the beach looking like little ants they were so far away. The heat shimmered, and the girls longed to go for a swim, but of course that was forbidden. Not only were they there to work, being girls, there was no way they would be allowed to strip off. "Oh, I wish I were a boy" Diana sighed.

"Really? A boy? I don't." A puzzled Anne replied.

"Well at least then we could go for a swim."

"Let's take our stockings and shoes off, and paddle at least." Anne suggested.

The girls did just that, it was probably forbidden too, but the water was so inviting. They wandered around in the cool water, hitching their skirts up their waists, enjoying the waves splashing further and further up their legs. "I suppose we should be working. Where shall we investigate?" Diana pondered.

"There's some rock pools over there" Anne pointed out a reef about fifty yards away. "Shall we see if anything's living in them?" The girls waded through the shallow water.

Once you look into a rock pool you can see whole worlds within. Naturally Anne got quite carried away; here was a whole new vista of imagination for her to lose herself within. "Look that fish is the prince, and he lives in that castle there, the mermaid visits him… "

Diana reminded her that there was plenty to do without inventing stories to match the surrounds. "We should collect some of those little fishes. Oh bother, we left our buckets and nets back up the beach. Shall I go and fetch them?"

"Yes, would you please? That would be wonderful, then we can examine them at our leisure." Diana stood up straight and ran back through the water to the beach, leaving Anne still crouched down, mapping out the worlds below.

Once she collected their buckets and nets, Diana noticed two things. The first was that the reef was further from the beach than she had thought and the second was that the tide had turned.

Diana could see Anne stranded out on the reef looking very distant now. "Oh Anne" she called out, "Anne". Anne was oblivious still with her head down looking into her rockpool world. Diana cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled as loudly as she could "Anne Shirley look up!"

Anne heard a distant cry, was that Di? She looked up and her eyes raked the distant shore, still mindless of the impending danger. Diana could see Anne stand up and look towards her, she called "Anne! Look! The water!"

Anne heard "k oughta" what was Di talking about? She looked towards her and yelled "What?"

"Water, look at the water, it's rising."

Suddenly it dawned on Anne, her little reefy island had shrunk. The water around it was deeper and she didn't think she could easily make it back to land. The beach looked further away too. While she had been daydreaming about castles under water, the tide had turned. "Diana, Help! I'm stranded."

Diana had already worked that out. She was safe, but her bosom friend was in real danger. She looked around wildly. They had turned the corner of the point and the rest of the class was nowhere in sight. She called out "Help! Help, please Help!" But her voice just bounced around in the sunlight and she doubted anyone could hear her. Over on the dwindling outcrop, Anne was jumping up and down and waving her arms. Diana could just make out her calls for help. There was nothing for it, Diana would have to leave her to find someone who could assist. She gesticulated as such to Anne and ran up the beach towards the point and the rest of the class, leaving Anne on her own.

Anne felt terribly foolish as she watched Di run off. She had forgotten the cardinal rule about rock pooling, always keep an eye on the tide. Marilla had drummed it into her before they came away for the day. Once again, her daydreaming had gotten her into trouble. She recalled the last time that had happened. She'd been tasked with cooking the Hammond's dinner and had gotten lost in a marvellous daydream, a thing she did often to escape the mindless drudgery of her sordid life. That day it had been a dream about Princess Cordelia. She had been whipped for burning the dinner and sent to bed in the barn without anything to eat. Now her dreams about watery palaces had landed her in more danger than ever before. Anne berated herself, would she never learn?

Diana ran around the point, barely looking where she was going in her haste. When all of a sudden, she bumped, quite literally into Gilbert Blythe. "Oof, where are you running off to in such a hurry Diana?"

"Gilbert, oh you have to help. It's Anne, she's stranded out on a rock." Diana turned and pointed to the distant Anne, jumping up and down and waving on the shrinking outcrop.

Gilbert's eyes followed the direction of Diana's outstretched finger. The sight of the obviously distressed Anne shocked him. "Oh shit."

"Can you help her Gilbert? You have to rescue her. She's going to drown."

Gilbert stripped off his shoes and socks and quickly ran into the surf, taking big strides through the water. It was slightly too deep to walk through easily, but not yet deep enough for swimming. He didn't think about how he'd get Anne back to shore, he just had to get out to her.

Diana for her part was pacing up and down the shore biting her nails, anxiously watching Gilbert race out to Anne.

It took a few minutes, he was swimming at the end, but Gilbert did get out to the island to find Anne standing on the last remnant of semi-dry land, though even that was mostly under water. Gilbert clambered up onto the island, needing a quick breather.

"Hello Anne, nice day for it. Are you having fun yet?"

"Don't tease me, Gilbert. I'm really frightened."

"How shall we do this? Can you swim?"

"Not really, I mean, I probably, oh, I don't know."

"Well no time like the present for a swimming lesson." Gilbert jumped in the water and encouraged Anne to jump in. "I'll catch you, don't worry."

Anne looked at him in horror, but the waves were breaking over the outcrop and the island was fast disappearing. She didn't have much time to make up her mind. Placing her life in his hands, Anne took a big breath and jumped down. She submerged as he caught her. Breathless with the shock of the cold water, she came up spluttering, her red plaits floating in the water. She grasped onto the only solid object she could find, namely Gilbert. "Steady there, you don't want to drown me too." He cautioned.

Gilbert guided Anne through the water. She was kicking, and he showed her how to move her hands to guide herself though the water. It was difficult, not just because she was unpractised, but her skirts were a hindrance too. He was very encouraging. Eventually, her feet touched the bottom and she was able to stand up. Gilbert stood up next to her. She turned to him at that point and said "Well thank you for rescuing me Mr Blythe. I am very much obliged. I truly thought I might have drowned out there."

"It was my pleasure. Will you forgive me my past transgressions, Miss Shirley. I really am truly sorry I teased you, and on your first day at school too. That was really out of order. There's no excuse for my poor behaviour. I hope we can be friends."

Anne looked at him, water streaming off his hair and down his nose. He looked quite handsome in his wet shirt. "All – all right, Mr Blythe, you have been so gallant today, I guess it would be churlish of me to hold a grudge after you saved my life." She held out her hand and he shook it.

Diana watched all this unfold from the beach. Gilbert's partner Moody appeared, he had wondered where Gilbert had disappeared to and came looking. They stood on the beach as Diana filled him in. They ran down to the water's edge, but Gilbert seemed to have it in hand. Diana gasped as she watched Anne and Gilbert shake hands while they stood waist deep in the water. They held hands as they walked back into the shore. Anne said afterwards that the seabed was uneven, and she held his hand to prevent herself from falling over, but Diana thought the sand was pretty flat just there.

It was a very wet, cold and bedraggled Anne and Gilbert who arrived back to the assembly point, where Mr Philips and the rest of the class was waiting. Joe rushed over to Anne as she appeared. "Are you all right Anne, what ...?"

"Just what is the meaning of this?" Mr Philips interrupted.

"It was my f-f-fault, Mr Ph-f-f-ilips. I got s-s-stranded on a r-r-reef and Gilbert r-r-rescued me." Anne was pretty cold by this point.

"What were you doing out on a reef in the first place, you foolish girl?"

"Anne and I went out there to look at rock pools for our field work Mr Philips" Diana explained "but we lost track of time. I came back to shore to fetch our buckets, and realised the tide had turned, but by that time Anne was stranded."

"I hope you've learned your lesson, young lady. That was a very silly thing to do." Had Mr Philips been doing his job, instead of canoodling in the dunes with Prissy, the disaster might have been averted in the first place, but he was hardly going to admit to that.

It was a cold walk home for Gilbert and Anne, but they did at least have the warmth of reconciliation to comfort them. Joe walked alongside Anne. In an attempt to warm her, he gave her his waistcoat. It didn't really work because Anne's dress was so very damp, but she appreciated the gesture.

Marilla glanced out the window and saw the children arriving home. Joe only half-dressed and what had happened to Anne, her dress looked very limp? She ran out to greet them, "What happened, are you both all right?"

"Anne had a bit of an accident Marilla, but she's all right now."

Anne looked at Marilla, her lips a slight shade of blue. "Anne! Let's get you inside to warm you up. What happened Joe?"

She and Diana went to look at rock pools for our field trip and she got stranded when the tide turned. Gilbert Blythe had to rescue her."

"Gilbert rescued her? Where was Mr Philips?"

Joe had no answer for her, Mr Philips had disappeared for the majority of the day.

"Well we'll investigate that later. Come in beside the fire now Anne. Joe, can you leave us for a while." Once he had left, Marilla stripped Anne out of her wet clothes, wrapped a blanket around her, and put on some water for a bath. "Were you daydreaming again Anne?"

Anne nodded. "I'm afraid I was Marilla. I must remember to keep in touch with reality. I was so frightened, I don't want anything like that to happen again."

Marilla determined that Anne was chastising herself more effectively than she ever could, so she decided not to punish her any further. Once the water was hot, she poured it and some cold water into the bath and helped Anne in. "We can just be thankful that God spared you Anne, and sent Gilbert to save you. I hope you can forgive him his past transgressions."

Anne, warm for the first time in what seemed like hours, contentedly said "Yes, I've forgiven him, and I told him so when we were standing in the water today. He was very chivalrous."

Suddenly Matthew burst through the door Marilla turned suddenly and ordered him out "Out out, I said get out!"

"Where's Anne? Where's my little girl? Joe said there'd been an accident."

"She's all right now Matthew, she's warming up in a bath. I'll come out with you. She's had a nasty shock, but she's fine now."

"What happened? As soon as I heard something was wrong I ran up here so I didn't hear what Joe had to say."

"She got caught up in her daydreams again, the tide turned and she was stranded."

"How did she get out of that predicament?"

"Gilbert Blythe rescued her."

"Gilbert Blythe?" Matthew raised his eyebrows.

"Now don't be like that, Matthew."

"I thought we'd seen the back of the Blythe family."

"Evidently not. She's forgiven him, says he was very chivalrous."

That night as she lay in her bed, having sincerely thanked God for her deliverance, Anne reflected on the nature of forgiveness. It felt right that she had pardoned Gilbert, they didn't have to be best friends, but she didn't want to stay enemies either. Holding on to her anger had become rather a drag lately, so it felt good to have that behind her now. Anne rolled over, closed her eyes and went to sleep, exhausted after her traumatic day.

* Anne's House of Dreams, LMM
**My brother once had a lecturer tell him to enjoy marine recreation on the land sea interface i.e. swim at the beach.