One week earlier,
Anne's dream had never really been to work at Avonlea School, especially not after winning the Avery. But with Matthew dead and Marilla's eyesight failing, she was more than willing to temporarily set aside her dreams and ambitions to help her family and save Green Gables. If it were not for Gilbert Blythe and their truce at the beginning of last summer, where he gave up the Avonlea School to have White Sands, Anne could help Marilla keep home and later with the twins.
Their truce and somewhat newly-minted friendship meant the world to Anne. Having someone who understood her on an intellectual level was something she had not yet experienced in her life. Additionally, they worked great as a team, forming the Avonlea Village Improvement Society together. All in all, these two school years had passed with him in the blink of an eye, and it was time for a new stage in their lives: attending Redmond College.
College. That word just sent a shiver of pleasure down Anne's spine. She just imagined telling her younger self, before she had been taken in by the Cuthberts, that she would have a B.A. She was sure that little Anne wouldn't have believed her, for college wasn't even a dream back then because of the pure impossibility of the situation. She was only half there during whatever she was doing that summer because the other half was away. Inrd herScotia, it was
It was only a week and a half until she moved into her boarding house at in Nova Scotia. She daydreamed nonstop, which was beautiful.
Gilbert stared at Anne for an hour as they sat by the beach near Avonlea. They had gone there to discuss plans for departure from the A.V.I.S and who should take up their organization's leadership. But it seemed Anne had gotten distracted from the goal at hand. He loved watching her absent-mindedly picking at the grass and flowers on the bluff overlooking the vast expanse of water. Gilbert could tell she was deep in thought about what he could never quite get. If there is one thing he would wish for, it would be to peek inside Anne Shirley's mind and see the world as she saw it, through beauty and wonder. On a more selfish note, he would also like to know exactly how she felt about him. He understood they were solid friends now, but he wanted to learn if she could see a future for the two of them as he did.
If there was one thing Gilbert Blythe was sure of in his life, it was that he was hopelessly in love with Anne Shirley. When he saw her in the Avonlea schoolhouse as a young boy, he was enamored with this mysterious new girl, maybe just at the point because he thought she was pretty. However, he would see she was much more than that through the years. Even her hitting him on the head with her slate was a point in her favor. He unfortunately spent the next five years paying for the crime of calling Anne 'carrots.' He paid attention to her closely as they grew up alongside them, but apart from each other, from academic competitions to asking for forgiveness multiple times, he tried everything to have them be at least friends. Eventually, his grand gestures gave way to a much-desired friendship with Anne. And for now, that was more than enough.
"Anne, are you still here, or have you wandered off to another magical world again?" Gilbert mused as he waved his hand in front of her face, feeling that staring any longer might be weird.
Anne jumped, startled by the sudden sound and movement. Having become embarrassed about losing track of reality again, she blushed and looked out to the water. It was a fantastic day for the end of summer when the days seemed to bleed into fall, and a sharp wind made it cold enough that she had bundled up with a blanket she had brought.
"Oh Gilbert, I am so sorry! I must have started daydreaming again, but you know how easy it is for me to become so enamored by my thoughts and the magic they bring to this sometimes dreary world. But today, I was thinking about how bright our futures look: you are off to become the best doctor in all of P.E.I. I am the first girl from Avonlea to ever go to Redmond. Maybe life really is magical in itself." Anne said with awe filling her voice.
"It really is…" Gilbert trailed off, thinking less about his and Anne's achievements and more about their friendship for the next four years and what could develop.
They sat in silence for a while longer, staring out at sea, comforted by each other's presence, for the most incredible friendships are the ones where no words are needed. They only started to get up when Gilbert noticed that the air had gotten cooler, the wind had picked up, and the sky darker.
As Anne attempted to get up from the ground, her feet got tangled in her skirts, and she tumbled off the low bluff into the shallow sea below. After the shock of the freezing sea wore off, she stood up. She climbed back onto land with help from a hysterical Gilbert, who, after seeing she was okay, started laughing so hard his ribs hurt.
"Oh, Gilbert Blythe, if you keep laughing, I will push you in next!" said a very soaking wet Anne as she tried to wring some of the frigid water out of her skirts to no avail.
"I'm sorry, but I just can't get the image of the shock on your face as you fell out of my mind, and oh, the anger when you stood up was priceless," Gilbert choked out between his laughs.
"Quite the gentleman you are," Anne grumbled as she pushed past Gilbert to start walking back to Green Gables so she could change out of her freezing wet clothes as soon as possible. Gilbert finally composed himself and ran to catch up with Anne, who, for someone wearing drenched clothing, was managing to walk quite fast.
"Really, I am sorry, Anne. I wish we had not walked out here and instead taken the horse and buggy so that you would not have to walk all the way back wet," Gilbert apologized, genuinely feeling bad that his best friend probably felt miserable right now.
"It is okay, really. Me falling into the sea had nothing to do with you; Gilbert and I enjoyed the walk out here, even if it will take a long time to get back," Anne responded. She did not want Gilbert to think her frustration was directed at him in any way just because she was cold.
They had walked a little bit farther when it started to rain, and all Anne could think was that at least Gilbert would get wet now, too. As they walked on, the rain got heavier and heavier to the point they could not even see a few feet ahead. After stumbling for another hundred feet, they ran into a small building off the road. A building might be a bit of a strong word for what Gilbert saw; it was more like a glorified shed that was most likely used for some smaller pieces of farming equipment that had long been forgotten.
"Anne, it would be best to wait out the storm and take shelter. I am sure it will not be long before the rain lightens up, and we can continue on our way," Gilbert suggested.
"Oookay," Anne struggled to get out because she was so cold that her lips had gone blue. Gilbert noticed this as an early sign of hypothermia, based on his medical knowledge and common sense, and decided that they really did need to stop and get her warm.
When Gilbert opened the door to the shed, he was astounded by how small it was inside. He ushered Anne inside and followed himself. While the shed was cramped, dusty, and smelly, at least they were no longer pelted by the rain. The two of them just sat there for a moment in silence beside the harsh sound of the rain in the background. Anne was getting quite sleepy but violently shaking from the cold.
Noticing how out of it Anne seemed, Gilbert was close to panicking. She could get seriously ill from hypothermia if she did not get warm soon, and he was not sure how to keep her warm, with no way to make a fire or any other source of heat nearby. Gilbert took a minute to collect himself and then went through his options systematically as if he were solving a tricky math equation. It was how he processed the situation best.
"You need to take off your clothes," Gilbert said in a way that sounded like a command.
During Gilbert's panic-induced problem-solving, Anne struggled to think for herself; all she could muster was just how cold she was. But she was shocked back to life by Gilbert's absurd suggestion.
"Gilbert!" Anne cried. "How dare you suggest such a thing to me? I thought I knew you better."
"No, no, not like that; it's just that you can not get warm with all the freezing clothes you are wearing, so the only way you can warm up is by taking off your clothes. I am sorry that it has come to this, but you could get seriously sick if you do not." Gilbert explained calmly, using his best impersonation of an established doctor.
Willing to do anything to get warm but hesitant to undress in front of a man in a small shed, she turned away from Gilbert and slowly started to take off her clothes. Gilbert, to his credit, turned around in an attempt to give an illusion of privacy in this tiny shed. Anne was incredibly self-conscious, so she looked around the shed and found a discarded moth-eaten blanket she wrapped herself in. Then, I indicated to Gilbert that it was safe to turn around. Anne slowly started to warm up, having shed her wet clothes, which were causing the issue. After the coldness disappeared and other feelings could come back in, she noticed how tired she was.
"Do you think the rain will let up any time soon? Because I am exhausted, and I need to lie down for a bit," Anne questioned Gilbert. However, no matter the answer, she would probably sleep anyway.
"I do not think the rain is going anywhere soon, so you might as well get some sleep. I will stay up and watch the rain to see when we can start heading back," Gilbert responded.
Anne slowly lay down on the shed's disgusting ground and fell asleep as her head hit the ground. Gilbert, trying his best not to look anywhere near Anne out of respect for her and propriety, listened to the rain as it seemed to get harder and harder. The relaxing noise started to call Gilbert, and the next thing he knew, he was waking up next to Anne to the sound of a shotgun being cocked. He looked up to see a gruff farmer pointing the gun at his head.
The farmer looked at the situation in his shed and threatened, "You two are in a world of trouble."