The characters are created by LM Montgomery, and are her property... the original characters & storyline are unique to this story are copyright 2021, by Nell Lime.
— Gilbert —
Saturday June 19th, 11am
The Carol's Boarding House, Kingsport, Nova Scotia
I almost always dream of her. Sometimes the dreams are mocking of a future I'll never have. And other times they mock about what I'd lost. Still occasionally they mock of my future. Yet I cling to them all, all except the future I face. The one where I must see Mrs. Roy Gardiner in the next three years, and face all that I have lost.
This dream is the bitter sweet of the future I cannot have. I open my eyes to see her smiling over me. She's rubbing my shoulder laughing about how I'd fallen asleep with even my shoes on. She's wearing her ring. The one that had burned a hole in my pocked when she'd said no. The one that I'd impulsively bought her five years before when I'd seen the ring that cried out Anne. A simple ring with a row string of pearls on a gold band. I'd had it engraved even then impulsive as I was, to "My Anne-Girl, SS 4:9, Always Your Gil." But she never knew of that ring, instead it was only in dreams did I ever see it now. In reality it sat in the thin pocket, that I'd never opened once since that dreadful day in my billfold.
So in this dream, she was my Anne-girl. A term I once heard Mrs. Josephine Berry call her, and I'd secretly loved, and never dare calling her that myself, in my dreams she was always thus. My Anne-Girl. And as I always craved yet felt so far away. But this Anne-Girl was the Anne I always dreamed of. I wanted to sob in her arms about Little Anne, but instead I dreamed we had little Anne asleep on a cot in the main room. For our tiny bedroom had little more room then for our bed and wardrobe. And at night Anne would be tucked into the corner between me and the wall.
"Gil?" She asked, kissing my forehead. "I… I know its sooner then we planned, but Gil…" She reached for my hand and placed it on her stomach, softly. She wore the dainty nightgown I've always imagined her to wear. "We're to have a little one. Perhaps a Little Diana to play with Little Anne…"
I'd clung to her and kissed her and was swept away as I could only in a dream in the arms of my beloved. The arms that would always in the stark cold word remain bare. I'd sworn once to Fred back when I'd come home from Queens when asked if I'd kissed Ruby that I intended my first kiss to be Anne Shirley or none at all. So now, having lost all my Annes all I had were the kisses of a ghost.
"Mr. Blythe?" I was shaken awake, back into the cruel world by Mr. Carol, who leaned over me. "Mrs. Carol was worried you were going to be running late and miss the lunch. Had a note come round from the Professor you're under… Dr. Bernard. Said we're to send you off home on Monday to recoup. Why you are mighty warm. Mrs. Carol's in all a tizzy for she heard about the Gardiner wedding this summer. Not that we'll attend mind you but it'll be the talk of Kingsport for how grand it'll be. Just to warn you, I keep telling her young men never want to hear about weddings. But then her cousin's been asked to help with the organizing so she's spouting all about it."
I wanted to throw up, instead I blinked at Mr. Carol. I glanced towards the clock, it was a quarter to noon. If I packed in fifteen minutes, took a cab to the station, quickly bought my tickets and packed lightly. I'd just make it. I couldn't stay another minute and hear about the Gardiner Wedding. I'd go home. Home to Avonlea where Anne would't be. She'd be here preparing for her wedding likely they'd close up Green Gables for the summer. One final summer of farewells and then to my fate. My fate as a Doctor with no hope.
"You're quite right Sir, but I think. I think if I rush now I'll be at my mother's table tonight, if I hurry I'll just catch the train in time." Not likely but I could board in Charlottetown or send a telegram for Dad to pick me up at Bright River early. I jumped up, fetching an empty carpet bag, it'd been abandoned in the room with a torn handle one had to just hold right.
"Well… you pack young man, and I'll just be by to tell Mrs. Carol to pack a hamper for you. You'll need nourishment. Promise to write when you're home? And I'll ride with you to the station. Wave you off myself."
He left and I packed quickly. A second everyday suit with my sunday suit. A night shirt and four sets of undergarments, socks, and the garters to hold them up. Finally, I'd packed the new bible a recent friend on Patterson Street had given me, Reverend Blake, the drawing from Little Anne of us dancing at the Dryad's Bubble, and slipping my hand under the pillow I clutched a worn photo, slipped it into my billfold. I'd enough cash to make it home, and little left in the bank to make it back to school int he fal. The Rooms would keep though. For the Carol's charged by the year not the month. The last thing I grabbed was a medical text book, required reading for the fall and my notebook on my work at the clinic.
I'd been given a small hamper by the Carols. Concerned clucking from both of them, and Mr. Carol drove me himself to the station. Watched as I purchased my tickets home, then ran to catch the train. I'd waved farewell to Mr. Carol as I hurried across the station.
A woman ahead of me was jumping on just as the train began to move, though I barely took in that it was a woman. Instead I focused on my exhausted breath. Each movement moving me closer and closer to the goal. The train was picking up speed, and clutching to the carpet bag, and the small hamper like footballs in my arms I pushed the last of my strength. Tossed them onto the train and falling slightly behind again I pushed forward, gripping the rails of the steps to the train as it took off, and with the curve of the train floundered as I stepped up.
I barely noticed the woman herself catching her breath or the Porter who was trying to keep my bag from falling down the other side of the entrance to the car as the hamper had. I'd barely caught my footing and with the curve of the train, I stumbled in that last momentum of jumping on board. The woman in my path I took down with me, only at the last second registering and doing my best to not crush the woman as my stomach yelled complaints about the movement and every muscle ached. I'd kept my eyes shut from the dizziness, but even then I registered, just as my eyes blinked open. It had been two years since I'd held her in my arms, and never with such intimacy. But even before my eyes blinked open I knew.
"My Anne…" I'd managed before the world went blank and I'd lost the contents of my stomach over her beautiful hair and face.
—*—*—*—*—*—
Author's Note: This is the final update for this week. Look for the next update Sunday night or Monday morning. Sorry to leave you hanging, but it's a good pause point for the weekend... :D Can you just imagine such a reunion? LOL...
