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Finally Home

By Becca

"For the first time, in my life I'm in a place that feels like home." Katherine (With a 'K') Brooke

"Katherine," the voice was coming softly from outside the door, "Do you want to come with me to the train?"

"What time is it, Anne?" She responded while looking out the window, "It isn't even light yet."

"I know, but I want to make it to the train on time."

"Anne, you must be in love because it is the middle of winter and you're going to wait at the train depot for at least two hours, and that is if the train is on time, which they never are on the Island."

"Actually, I was planning on walking, that way I'll make it right on time for the train and I can show you some more of Avonlea."

"I think that I'll sleep a little longer, help Marilla with the grandiose meal you've planned for Gilbert." Katherine said in a sleepy-teasing voice.

"Marilla doesn't tolerate another body in the kitchen. Please come, I'm too excited to be alone with my thoughts."

"Alright, you've convinced me, but are you sure you don't want to be alone with Mr. Blythe when he first gets here?"

"Gil and I will have plenty of time to be alone this fortnight, but this is the only chance we have to take this walk."

"I don't want to be a third wheel on the walk back."

"You won't, I promise."

"Fine. I'll go, but it's freezing out, can we please take the sleigh, you can take the long road there and we can enjoy the country that way."

"You've got yourself a deal Katherine spelt with a K, now get up," Anne, who had by now entered the room said while pulling the covers off a reluctant Katherine.

Within the hour, the two maids were on their way. Anne drove, for she didn't trust her excitement to be still in the carriage, for fear she'd jump and run to the train. Katherine thought that during the long ride, the two needed to make conversation besides about the scenery and weather.

"So were you and Mr. Blythe primary school sweethearts? Are your names carved into some tree near the school house?" Katherine teased Anne.

"Gil and I were in the same class at school, but no we weren't sweethearts." Anne said with regret toward the bittersweet memory in her voice.

"That sounds interesting, do tell."

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"I came to live in Avonlea when I was 11, and I started school soon after. Gil didn't start that year with the rest of the class, he came later, and I couldn't tell you the reason now. Diana, Mrs. Wright, and I walked to school together. One morning she told me that Gilbert Blythe was coming to school today, that he was the cutest boy in school and all the girls were wild over him. I couldn't have cared less. There was some sort of test and I was more worried about that than I was about this new boy that would soon invade my life. Diana and I sat across from Gil, around the middle of the room. Gil is the type that usually wants what he can't have, and secondly he liked to tease the girls. I wasn't giving him the time of day and in retrospect he has told me that he wanted to meet the new orphan girl. Like I said, I was ignoring him, so he pulled my hair, calling it carrots. Back then, one of many things could lead me into a temper and I have one to match my hair, Mrs. Lynde has always said, was my hair color. I hated it! And this boy that I didn't even know was teasing my about it."

"So what happened?"

"I smashed my slate over his head" Anne stated matter-of-factly.

"You what?" Katherine was stunned, even the veteran schoolteacher she was had never seen a display such as that.

"I picked up my slate, called him a mean, hateful boy, raised the slate, and hit him on the head and the slate broke in four pieces, I believe."

"What did the teacher do?" Katherine was eager to hear the story.

"Will you let me tell my story? He made me write 'Ann Shirley has a very bad temper' on the blackboard a hundred times, and he spelt my name wrong, which wounded me more than a whipping ever could have. Gil tried to apologize, but I wouldn't allow that. I was shameless and ignored him as best I could someone I was competing for top honors with. Then one day I wandered too far in the field during lunch and I arrived late for classes, and my teacher thought of the worst possible punishment he could; he made me sit with Gilbert Blythe. Gil continually was trying to show me he was sorry, and this time he gave a candy heart, and I, the little snipe that I was, crushed it under my boot and continued with my sulking. The blatant attempts to apologize stopped after a while, but he still tried. At one concert we were both participating in, he placed a flower that had fallen out of my hair into his breast pocket. That might not seem overwhelming now, but it meant a great deal to a girl of fourteen."

"When did you finally apologize for your shameless snubs?" This was the first time Anne had seen Katherine as an utter gossip.

"I'm getting there, nosy. One day, some friends and I were acting out 'The Lady of Shallot' and I was floating down the Lake of Shining Waters," Anne looked over to see her friend's confused face, "Barry Pond, when the dory began to sink. I grabbed on to the post of a bridge and held on for dear life. Gilbert was the first person to pass. He pulled me into his rowboat and brought me to shore. He asked me one last time to become friends, as he believed we were meant to be, and I ungratefully refused. He never tried again. We both went to Queen's the same year. We tied at the top of the Queen's list and I also received the Avery scholarship to attend Redmond and by this time Gil and I had developed a disdainful rivalry, and that pushed both of us to perform better in school and I assumed that would continue to the University. However that was not to be. Gil was not going to attend Redmond immediately because he had to pay his way through college. When I heard the news, it shocked me. It took me almost six years to realize that any relationship I had with Gil would mean more to me than almost any friendship, and if that relationship was based on a grudge then so be it, but I was not going to lose it. But there it was staring me in the face, Gilbert was staying in Avonlea and I was going to Redmond. But then Matthew passed on and Marilla's eyesight began to fail, and I decided that I was needed at home more than at Redmond and with much protesting on Marilla's behalf, I decided to teach in Carmody, and Gil was to teach in Avonlea, and maybe the rivalry could continue. Then Gil did one of the sweetest and selfless things anyone has ever done. He gave up the Avonlea School and took Carmody so I could stay at home through the winter. He had to pay his own board, making it harder for him to earn money for Redmond, but he still thought of me. I finally gained the courage to apologize, which was something I wanted to do years before. I met Gil on the street and thanked him. He asked me if we were to be friends now, and from then on we were. He walked me home and we talked for so long, catching up for wasted years. We studied Redmond courses in our free time and two years later finally entered as freshmen together, and we were practically inseparable. There's your tale. Isn't this lane gorgeous? In the spring it blooms with amazing white flowers; I used to call it 'The White Way of Delight'."

Katherine took a moment to enjoy her surroundings, and then turned her attention back to Anne. She may be an old maid, but Avonlea, Green Gables, and Anne's story had brought out the girl in her that she had never known she had. "So when did he propose?"

"Which time?"

Katherine gasped and then responded, "You refused him, after all that, you refused him?"

"Yes, I was young and confused, but that is another story and we don't have time because we are at the station."

"The train isn't here and you can tell me while me wait."

"There isn't enough time for Gil and my Redmond stories."

"Please," Anne had never heard Katherine (Miss Brooke!) whine! Anne found a way, pulled from her talkative days of old, to tell of the Redmond days."

"The first two years at Redmond were very pleasant. Gil and I had the same circle of friends. It was your typical circle at college, although Gil and I tended to remove ourselves from the group and talk about things that only the two of us could understand. We had developed that close friendship in two short years, imagine what could have happened if we had had longer. Gil escorted me to most functions at Redmond out first year and part of the second. I wasn't at Redmond to find a husband, and besides, who needs to look for a beau when I had a friend like Gil to take me anywhere I wished to go. I'm afraid it gave Gil the wrong idea. Now don't misunderstand me, Gil and I had our quarrels, we still do, we bother are stubborn and can be bull-headed."

Katherine stifled her laughter and at Anne's obvious comment.

"There was also pressure from Avonlea. From the moment, Gil and I began talking the old gossips began pairing us together, especially Mrs. Lynde. I think Gil felt that pressure more than I did. The combination of our closeness and that pressure culminated during the spring of our second year, when Gil proposed, and I, with my foolish dreams of a knight on horseback, reciting poetry, sweeping me off of my feet, couldn't see the wonderful man in front of me. Our friendship was never the same. We still talked, but always in a group; we avoided each other on vacations to Avonlea. I found my prince and Gil began escorting the little sister of one of his friends. I was jealous, although I didn't know it. A roommate of mine put it best when she said, regarding her wanting Gilbert to court her, 'Now we don't like that one little bit, we don't want Gilbert for ourselves, but we don't want anyone else to have him,' And that was exactly it. Gilbert was my best friend and I didn't want anything to change. I wanted him to be there like he'd always been. And then my prince asked for my hand in marriage, and all I could think about was a joke I told him last week and that he hadn't understood, but I told Gil the same joke years ago and we had had a good laugh over it, and I couldn't live with someone I couldn't laugh with."

"You wanted Gil."

"In the back of my mind I probably knew that, but I wouldn't admit it. I wouldn't give into those old gossips and I wouldn't give into my pride, besides, he had Christine." Anne confessed with great disdain in her voice, particularly on the last word.

"The sister?" Katherine asked and Anne nodded the affirmative response.

"I came back to Avonlea the proud owner of a B.A. and the carrier of a heavy heart. I put on a joyful facade, and managed to have fun that summer, even without Gil to join me. But I couldn't keep it up for long when I heard that Gilbert had taken ill. I kicked myself and cried and then I thought about my mistake and cried some more. If I hadn't been so stubborn, I could have been with Gil, I could have sat at his bedside, but he would never know how I felt," Anne's eyes teared up even at the memory, "I didn't sleep at all that night, I just stayed awake with my thoughts. In the morning, I found out that Gil's fever had broken and that he was out of the woods. Our friendship began to recover part of its old familiar ness, but that wasn't what I wanted anymore, but I refused to profess my feelings because I believed that Christine was still in the picture. One night, he came by Green Gables and asked if I would like to join him for a walk; I had to refuse him because I was attending a friend's wedding. However, we made plans for the next night and the next night was the night he proposed, and the rest they say, it that."

Anne had left out the details, for that she kept for only herself and Gilbert. Anne had managed to get the entire story out before the train arrived, but only because the train was predictably late. The two women sat on the bench, a bench that Anne had sat on so long ago. They talked of Christmas and school and any other subject that was on Katherine's mind. Anne, however, listened but only with a passive ear. Her mind and heart were waiting for the train to arrive. There were others waiting for the train as well, waiting for loved ones to come home after extended periods away, but none were than that redhead. The train did arrive, and closer to punctual than Anne would have liked to believe, and the passengers disembarked, making the crowded platform even more crowed. Anne searched fervently for Gilbert, but it was without success.

****

He stared out the window; his breathe fogging his view. He tapped his foot impatiently waiting for the train to read his stop. Home for Christmas break. He had seen Anne the entire summer, but for young love, there was just too much of a gap, and he would probably have to wait longer. Anne was most likely being the social butterfly that she was and wouldn't have the time nor t the energy to meet him at the station this early in the morning. Also, it would be considered indecent by the Avonlea fold if she were to meet him at the station on her own. He would just have to surprise her at Green Gables later that day. The train finally slowed to a stop and Gilbert disembarked. He went to claim his luggage when something caught his eye. He looked again, and as plain as day, was his loveable redhead. She was looking in the other direction and he ran to her. He came up behind her, turned her around to face him, lifted her off the ground, and twirled her around in the joy of the moment. He slowly put her down and they hugged.

"What are you doing here? I thought Diana and Fred were coming to pick me up."

"No, I decided that I wanted to, actually I found a suitable chaperone to keep Mrs. Harmon Andrews quiet. Gilbert, I'd like you to meet Katherine Brooke, the friend I wrote you about. Katherine, this is Gilbert Blythe."

The two shook hands.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise."

The ride home was uneventful, the three talked as if they had been friends for years. The carriage arrived at the Blythe residence in what seemed like a second to the occupants.

"Anne, what a surprise you are, I would have thought you would be at Green Gables helping Marilla cook her famous Christmas feast."

"No, Mrs. Blythe, luckily Marilla relieved me of my duties so that I could complete some more important business. Which brings me here, I have a surprise for you."

And with that Gilbert stepped from around the corner. He quickly stepped into the house to hug his mother.

"You weren't due until tomorrow. What are you doing here?!"

"I couldn't wait and changed my ticket to an earlier train. I wrote Diana Wright, asking if her and Fred," he looked over at his bride to be who was giving him her most stern schoolmarm look, "pardon me, if Fred and she could pick me up so I could surprise both you and Anne. I should have known Diana couldn't keep a secret from Anne. This redhead surprised me instead," he said while lovingly squeezing Anne's hand.

"I hate to be in such a rush, but Marilla really does need me in the kitchen, even though she claims she doesn't. The twins are likely to be in her way. I will see you all Christmas afternoon," Anne excused herself, gesturing to Mrs. Blythe, as well as James Blythe who had just entered the room, and then turned to Gilbert, "And if you please sir, will you escort me to the door?" She said this in her most old-fashioned decorum.

"That I will milady."

Gilbert and Anne said their good-byes and promised to meet the next day. Gilbert re-entered the house and sat down for a good talk with his parents. He expected to be asked of medical school, but his father surprised him.

"You really have found someone special son. I wasn't too keen on the idea at first, an orphan adopted by the Cuthberts at that. But she is quite a catch son." James Blythe said in a completely monotone manner. "Now then, how are classes?

The End

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