Part 4 - The wildflower's naivety

Anne ran through the crowd, going as fast as she could, just like the moment when Rachel Lynde belittled her by judging her appearance, or like that famous day when Mr. Phillips punished her on the board for hitting Gilbert Blythe with her slate after he called her "Carrots". She felt equally humiliated, although the context was quite different, and she was not a child anymore. However, today she was no longer sure, perhaps she was still a child? In any case, it turned out that running was a reflex when her emotions were out of control.

When she was running, everything around her seemed to be gone, all she could think about was finding a refuge. Suddenly she dropped her hat, which landed on the grass, and then people looked at her with a certain curiosity, because she continued to run at full speed while sowing things that belonged to her.

Still rushing, her mind wandered back to the lily-of-the-valley that Gilbert had given her that morning, then she slipped it into her hair... so naively... Sadness giving way to anger, she grabbed the sprig of lily-of-the-valley that was slipped between her blue ribbon and her hair and threw it to the ground. At the same time, a tear that was just waiting to fall, rolled down her cheek.

Now the crowd could trample the flower, just as her heart had been trampled.

Farther on, behind the redhead, it was possible to distinguish Gilbert, who had hastened to catch up with her, now he was also running between the visitors of the Fair, he could see the latter at about fifty steps in front of him. She seemed so injured, he had to reach her, he didn't really know what to say to her, but he would find comforting words when he found himself in front of her.

He couldn't help it, he had to try to do something, because he hated to see her devastated. Although he knew that Anne often had passionate reactions, he was aware that this cake meant something important to her. She had to put her heart into it, like anything she did. He couldn't stand to see her belittled, judged or bullied. He had to stand up for her every time, in any way he could, isn't that what a good friend would do?

And even this famous day when she had hit him with her slate... even that day he defended her. He just couldn't accept that others dared to make fun of her. After all, she was like a rare butterfly that had to be preserved.

He began to shorten the distance between them, but she didn't stop. He had even seen her lose her hat, which he hastened to pick up at once. Then he started shouting her name, "Anne!"

But she refused to slow down, on the contrary, she didn't want him to see her in this way. So she looked around for a moment, she seemed to be searching for a place where she could take refuge away from sight, and especially away from Gilbert's eyes. She didn't want to attract any more attention, she wanted to be alone. She passed in front of the fairground organ, which was playing music so loudly. She instantly made up her mind that if she wanted to shed a few tears without being heard, there would be no better hiding place than behind this machine.

The young man kept shouting her name, but suddenly he lost sight of her at the very moment the man on stilts passed in front of him, blocking his way for a few seconds, but above all cutting off the eye contact he had with the red-haired girl.

When the artist on stilts had finally left, it was too late, there was no more Anne, it took only a few seconds for her to disappear. But Gilbert didn't want to give up, it would take more than that for him to give up. So he continued to call her, "Anne!", but, of course, no one answered.

Then he stopped in the middle of the aisle, peering around him, but no redheads in sight. Perhaps she had already run away from the Fair? No, it was not possible. She was probably in a quieter place.

As he was about to resume his walk, he noticed a sprig of lily of the valley that was stuck to the shoe sole. Couldn't it have been...? He took the flower out of his shoe, there were still the thirteen bells. Although the flower seemed to have been trampled on by many people, including him, he decided to put it in his jacket pocket anyway.

The dark-haired boy continued walking until he reached the large fairground organ, he had no idea that his friend had taken refuge there just a few minutes ago.

Indeed, Anne was sitting on the floor behind the big machine, her arms around her bent legs and her head on her knees. She just wanted to be forgotten and be alone for a few moments. Then suddenly, she saw feet approaching from the other side of the organ, this gait seemed familiar to her, but no, it couldn't be... And then the voices she thought she heard a few seconds ago, no, it couldn't have been Gilbert shouting her name, he was in too good company to worry about her now. Finally, she saw the footsteps move away a few minutes later.

Under the marquee, everyone was still there, Matthew and Marilla were getting ready to see the awards for their category, while Bash waited with Winifred for Gilbert's return.

"Anne... seems to be an important part of Gilbert's life.", she suddenly said as she looked at the young father who was now giving his daughter a baby bottle.

"Oh, well... He knew Anne long before I met him. I heard a lot about her when I was on the ship with him. I mean, a whole bunch of anecdotes, you know.", Sebastian replied with a small smile.

"Oh...I see. Excuse my question, but... is it usual for Gilbert to run after her?"

Bash cleared his throat, no longer sure if he should answer such a question, "Hm. Well, I don't think I should be the one to answer this..."

Winifred looked at this one, confused, why suddenly he didn't want to talk about it anymore?

All of a sudden, Gilbert reappeared under the big tent, he seemed sad and tormented.

"Is she all right?", asked Sebastian, who was also worried.

"I was unable to catch up with her, I don't know where she ran away to.", he replied more concerned than ever.

Winifred immediately recognized the hat the young man was holding in his hands, "Do you want my help to find her?", she innocently suggested.

"Oh... If you want. That's very kind of you.", replied Gilbert.

But Sebastian felt the need to intervene on this, "I think you should go on your own, I mean... I don't think Anne wants to see many people right now."

The boy with the brown curls now felt a little guilty saying out loud his thoughts, "Winifred, you won't mind if I left you a few more minutes? I'm... I'm a little worried about Anne and I wish I could find her to make sure she's okay."

"There's no problem, I think I figured it out. The fact that you didn't invite me should have pointed me out earlier.", She laughed slightly reluctantly, "I need to find my parents. Good luck, Gilbert. Goodbye, Sebastian.", she said as she walked out of the tent and kept her chin up.

Bash said as she watched the young blonde walk away, "I don't know what she understood, but I think it's excluded from having a tea date with her now.", As he finished his sentence, he turned his head to see Gilbert's reaction, but he seemed to have already left the place.

Behind the fairground organ, Anne had finished drying her few tears, she decided to get up, feeling ready to confront all these people again. But her only mission now was to convince Matthew and Marilla to go back to Green Gables, she didn't even want to hear about the Barn Dance anymore.

She made a last round of the fair, she wanted to keep some beautiful images in mind, despite the disastrous turn of events, she could not help smiling when she saw all this joy and celebration around her. She was about to pass in front of the hot-air balloon dressed in bright yellow, making it appear like a sun. She was still as fascinated by this machine, her eyes staring up at the sky, she told herself that the problems must have been quite insignificant from up there.

But the moment she lowered her head and her eyes rested straight in front of her, she was far from imagining that a certain young man would be standing there, just a few steps away from her. Indeed, a boy with brown curls and a mischievous smile seemed to be staring at her, he was also holding a hat in his hands. He had probably just found her.

"You entertained the audience under this tent. Here, I found it on the floor.", he finally said as he took a few steps towards her and handed her the hat.

"Entertain... that's the right word, yes.", she replied bitterly, retrieving her hat and placing it back on her head. The fact that Gilbert had picked it up and brought it back to her didn't surprise her so much, his chivalry was no longer something to be proven.

After an embarrassing silence that seemed to have lasted for hours, Gilbert cleared his throat, he had to justify his presence by saying a comforting word, he was there to support her, as Anne had been able to do with him, "I mean, you know, even Mary would have found it funny.", He didn't know if these words would soothe her, but he was totally sincere in saying it. He had now gotten close enough to be right in front of her, as close as they had been earlier that morning, before Winifred arrived.

"And even though I completely ruined her recipe?", she finally replied, still as disappointed in herself as ever.

"Mary wasn't like that, she would never thought that.", he said with a nervous chuckle.

"You... you're right.", she was now getting ready to leave, "Thank you.", she finally said as she turned around in the hope of joining Marilla and Matthew.

Despite Gilbert's consoling words, there was still certain bitterness in Anne's mind, and no one could find the words for it. No, no one would have the right words to mend her wounded heart. In truth, even though the failure of her cake was a great disappointment, it was nothing compared to what she had learned today. This gorgeous blonde had had several dates with this amazing boy, who was her friend. Yes, that same friend that she had stared at every moment since dance practice at school. Maybe she had done it before? But in any case, it was the day she realized it. Anyway, now she had to hide her memories, she had to be happy for him, like a true friend would be. But most of all she had to stay away from him, it was still too painful to be near him.

The dark-haired boy, frowned when he saw the girl escape again, had he said something wrong? His actions hadn't been enough to cheer her up, what more could he do?

Suddenly a man's voice diverted the boy's attention, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you ready for the challenge? You'll never see things in the same way again after getting on board this splendid hot air balloon!"

Gilbert looked at the young redhead again, and an idea came to him, "Anne!"

She turned around, confused, what more could he say to her? So she made her way back to meet him again, but she began to say, without having control over the words that came out of her mouth, "I'm... I'm fine. Honestly I'm fine. I'm really happy for you, you don't have to worry, I'm-", as her thoughts had decided to speak without warning, she immediately stopped, realizing what she had just said.

He frowned, what was she referring to? Winifred? He ended up answering with a slight, confused chuckle, "What...? I... no. Actually I was wondering if you would accompany me up there?", He pointed to the balloon immediately.

"Oh... But why don't you invite Winifred? I'm sure she'd be delighted.", She seemed so embarrassed, how could she still be alone with him for even a few seconds, so traveling up there... there would be no escape. After naively imagining his intentions behind his actions, she couldn't afford to fall into that trap again. This trap was her overly fertile imagination.

Gilbert suddenly felt at a loss for words, if he had to think of only one person to go up there with him, Winifred would never have been the one he had in mind, this experience could only be lived with Anne. He could already imagine her raving with such enthusiasm. Indeed, how was it possible to think of someone else? He felt like he was making a discovery, he understood how important the redhead was in his life.

After a silence, he finally tried to answer, or rather to justify himself, "Winifred is gone. She had to join her parents."

"Oh...", Anne couldn't help but feel hurt again. So... she was the second choice? There was no other reason for him to come back to her like that, what audacity he had...

Suddenly, the man promoting his hot air balloon found himself next to the two teenagers, "So young folks! You won't be able to resist this extraordinary experience! If you agree to be the first to get on board, I'll give you a special price!"

Gilbert, with a small smirk on his face, insisted as he looked at the girl, "Didn't you say you'd find the view thrilling if you went up there?"

"My imagination has told me, but I don't know if I can always rely on it.", She tried to reason with a certain sadness in her voice.

"There's only one way to find out, do you accept?", he asked again, his eyes almost imploring.

The young redhead, no longer feeling the strength to resist, nodded, "Well... I-I accept."

A radiant smile suddenly appeared on Gilbert's face, as if her answer was the most wonderful thing he had heard all day.

The Aeronaut was waiting next to the craft, and the two teenagers had to put their legs over the basket to climb into it. The young brown boy stepped over the first one so he could help Anne, he reached out his hand, but Anne pretended not to see him and preferred to hang on to the ropes to help herself. Gilbert placed his hand behind his head, pretending that the girl had not ignored him just before.

Anne couldn't hide a certain excitement, although she already regretted a little that she had agreed to accompany him, who knows what she would be able to say up there? But she had nothing to worry about, the chatter would probably not be their main concern up there, only the view would matter.

Once installed in the balloon basket, the aeronaut joined them in turn, he operated the burner to get the balloon off the ground. Men had untied the ropes that connected the aerostat to the ground, very gently they released as the craft took off into the skies.

The redhead was already in full euphoria, she was waving to the people below that they were looking at them with curiosity and fascination, she was in such a hurry to be able to fly. As for Gilbert, although he was also impressed by this experience, it was not to the ground he was looking at, nor to the sky. All he managed to do at that moment was to gaze at Anne, her smile, her eyes, her gestures. Even the most beautiful landscapes would have a hard time competing with this.

"Gilbert, how can you not be as ecstatic as I am?! It's so spectacular!",

The young man looked at her smiling, "But I am!"

They were now high enough in the sky to begin to roam the landscapes of Prince Edward Island, they were now arriving on the edges of cliffs, they could see the ocean and then the waves hitting the rocks.

"Hello Prince Edward Island! What an exceptional perspective! Isn't it wonderful?!", Anne shouted from her chest, which made the aeronaut smile.

Gilbert shouted back, "Ouhouuuuh!".

Anne laughed, "That's what I call enjoying the view."

The balloon continued to fly along the coast, twenty minutes later, the excitement passed, the young redhead was now calm, she was just looking for Green Gables in the distance, leaning on the edge of the basket, "I never thought I' d experience this today, I see my problems in a completely different way now, thank you."

"Thank you for accepting... and glad it helped.", he answered with a smile.

"Earlier I wanted to go back to Green Gables, but now I feel like I could go through any storm."

"It seemed to me that Anne Shirley-Cuthbert could only be stubborn."

She simply replied with a smile and a defiant look, "I dare to hope that's a compliment?", and then her eyes gazed at the horizon.

Gilbert, who was standing to her right, turned completely towards the young girl and stared at her for a few seconds. Anne felt it then she turned her head and plunged her eyes into his, they seemed to smile at each other, just by exchanging this look. She suddenly remembered that they were not alone on board, the aeronaut was right behind them, and he must have been laughing at the situation or just being uncomfortable. She tried to find a way to stop this exchange of glances.

"Winifred...", she suddenly dropped, which surprised the young man who didn't understand where it was coming from, the redhead continued immediately, "...Where did you meet her?"

Anne could hardly believe it herself, she had really just asked that question? After all it was normal to talk about all sorts of topics if they were friends, wasn't it? The truth is that it bothered her, she didn't really want to talk about this young woman, even though she seemed nice, why would she want to talk about the girl who took HER place! That's it, she had admitted it to herself, she felt terribly jealous, and it was impossible for her to appreciate the latter for this single reason.

The dark-haired boy felt strangely embarrassed, why did he feel it was a subject that should not be talked about with Anne? But reluctantly, he finally replied, "Well, I met her at Dr. Ward's practice, she has been her assistant for several months."

The teenager realized that they had been dating for a long time, and this information devastated her even more, "Oh, I see. She...She seems quite lovely, and she's very pretty. She's...she's a real lady.", You could feel a certain pain in her voice.

Gilbert suddenly remembered he had put something in his pocket, "I had forgotten I'd found something else earlier...", He was now holding the very damaged sprig of lily-of-the-valley in his hands.

"Oh...", said Anne speechless, she didn't want to believe it, this flower that she had thrown with such anger because it reminded her of how naive she had been, had just come back to her face.

A long embarrassing silence followed, even the aeronaut felt uncomfortable.

"Isn't it funny that I found it stuck to my shoe? Isn't it luck?", Gilbert finally asked, laughing, trying to relax the atmosphere.

How could he still torture her like this, he was not even aware of what this flower could have meant to her. For him, it was just fun.

So without thinking, she took the sprig of lily of the valley from the young man's hand and threw it overboard. He couldn't believe his eyes, why had she done that?

"Anne?! Wh-why?!", he exclaimed in amazement.

Anne nibbled her lips, she could no longer hold back, "I...I hated that flower!"

"You, hate a flower? How-"

She interrupted him, "That-that wasn't really the flower I hated, but what it meant."

Gilbert was always so confused, he felt so disappointed by the girl's act.

"She never brought me luck, it was just the opposite.", she added.

"Indeed...but I- "

"But what... Gilbert? There's nothing else to say. This flower represented nothing else after all."

The dark-haired boy didn't know what to say, so he remained silent for the rest of the trip. Anne had gone to the other side of the basket, the mood was not as cheerful as it was at the beginning. A few times later, the balloon went down again, and when they landed on dry land, it was as if the two teenagers came back to reality. Anne hurried down first and Gilbert followed her very closely.

The young girl turned around one last time, to thank him with a simple nod. The two friends didn't need to speak to see that something had broken between them. If the redhead knew why, it was different for the young man.

A moment later, Anne was looking for the Cuthberts, she saw them quite quickly. She started running towards them.

"Oh! Anne! Where are you going while running again! We're starting to get worried!", exclaimed Marilla, who was standing next to Matthew at the entrance to the Fair.

"I...I was...I was up in the hot air balloon!"

"What?! Alone?!"

"Oh no, it's Gilbert, he invited me to join him."

Brother and sister exchanged glances full of innuendo.

"Did you at least succeed where I failed?", asked Anne as if to switch topics, even though she really cared to know the answer.

Marilla showed her red ribbon which meant that it had been a great success for her Plum Puffs, "The judges tried again to get my recipe.", she said with a proud smile.

As for Matthew, he held up his ribbon to the girl, which read "The most unusual".

The redhead laughed bitterly, "The most unusual... I should've entered myself into this category. I would've won."

Matthew then approached her to give her the ribbon, commenting, "I figure this is a badge of honor."

The woman with the bun couldn't help but say when she saw her slightly depressed face, "Cheer up, Anne. Your cake was a work of art. And Mary, bless her soul, would've laughed and laughed."

At this remark, Anne couldn't help reminding herself of Gilbert, who had had the same comforting words. Maybe they were only meant to be friends, he had been the best of friends to her today, but then...

"In fact, I would like to know one thing.", added Marilla seriously, "How on earth did you manage to get liniment into the cake?"

"I only added what the recipe said...", the young redhead innocently replied.

The old woman was even more confused, "What flavouring did you use?"

"Vanilla. But... I broke the bottle. So I had to use the spare one from the pantry."

Marilla then realized with stupefaction, "Oh, dear. I believe it's my fault. I broke the liniment bottle ages ago and poured what was left into an old, empty vanilla bottle."

Anne laughed, she felt an immense relief, finally she wasn't as helpless as she thought she was, she exclaimed, "And I couldn't smell it because I had such a cold!"

"You are an unlucky girl, Anne, there's no doubt about that."

"I'm not unlucky...", Then she held up Matthew's ribbon, "I'm just unusual.", The two women then laughed out loud.

The family took a last walk to the fair in the afternoon, Anne had forgotten that she had wanted to go back to Green Gables at some point, although hectic, the trip in the air had done her the greatest joy. She was now ready to face the dance and who knows she might have a good time.

This chapter took a long time to come, I hope you haven't given up on this fic, the next chapter will be the last one! I hope so ahah!