Anne sat on
the banks, watching the few leaves which had fallen from trees into the stream.
They spun slowly as they were carried slowly along by the current. She sensed
movement behind her and looked back to see the cool breeze had blown two more
leaves off the tree not four feet away. They drifted down to the ground, adding
their gold and orange to the smattering of other colors attempting to cover the
green grass.
She looked
back at the stream, folding her arms over legs bent at the knees and using them
as a pillow. Even when the stream held no leaves at all, it was still rather
enjoyable to watch it winding along there. It seemed to know just where to go,
and seemed to have done so forever. Anne was sure she'd never felt anything of
that sort in her whole life. If anything, she was more lost than ever.
Out of the
corner of her eye she caught more movement and turned to see which leaves had
fallen. It wasn't leaves that she saw, however, but a pair of trousers which
had appeared out of nowhere with the man attached to them. She gave a start,
clapping her hand to her hear. "Gilbert Blythe, shame on you! You nearly scared
me to death."
He chuckled
and kicked up a few of the leaves with the toe of his boot. Then he sat down
beside her. "I did call to you. It's not surprising that you didn't hear me.
Where were you just then?"
"If you
must know," she snapped back gently, "I was absorbing the beauty of the season.
I find the falling autumn leaves very inspirational."
"You have
time to write? I'm swamped with classes."
She sighed
and picked up a leaf. She held it by the stem and rolled it between her
fingers, making it twirl in an orange and gold blur. "This is the first free
moment I've had in a while, but I feel it's important to make time for some
things like this, don't you?"
"I suppose
so," he agreed noncommittally. They sat together in silence for a while,
watching the leaves fall. First red... then a red and orange...
then a red and yellow... then one that was just yellow. "Makes you think
of home, doesn't it?"
Anne nodded
at once, remembering the pangs of homesickness she'd been doing her very best
to fight. She had been so looking forward to attending school at Queen's and
now that she was there, she was longing to be back
home as well. But the beauty of the place was only a small part of why she
missed it. "How could you tell?"
"Your
tongue is being unusually dull," he replied with a coy smile.
"Gil!" she
laughed, giving him a bit of a shove. It was childish and unladylike, but he
rocked with it, grinning and waiting patiently for her to answer him. "I do
miss Avonlea. It is always so gorgeous in autumn." She smiled, reflecting as
much on how nice it was to have someone there to confide in about this. "But,
then, it's always so nice in Avonlea, isn't it?"
"I suppose
so," he said, looking over at her. "And it's nice here as well of course but it's
also quite chilly. Aren't you cold, Anne?"
She
shrugged. She was wearing only a wool shirt and a blouse. "I am willing to
sacrifice for the appreciation of beauty." She gestured around towards the
stream and trees in a dramatic fashion. "I shall embrace the season of colors
and cold--"
"If you
stay out here too long," said Gilbert, shrugging off his jacket, "You're liable
to catch a cold."
"Gil..." Anne
said reluctantly as he put the jacket around her shoulders. He gave her a look
and she gave him a gracious smile back along with a simple, "Thank you."
They were
momentarily distracted by a gust of wind that passed over them, stirring up the
leaves and making them dance. The majority of leaves on the ground were brown, but
a few of other colors were thrown into the mix as they spun in the wind then settled
down again in different spots far from where they had fallen.
Anne pulled
the jacket more tightly around herself, then she looked
up past the branches that were gradually becoming barer. As she took in the sight
of dark grey clouds which covered the blue she was so fond of, she felt
something wet strike her cheek. "Is it..." She felt another strike her hand, then
realized more small raindrops had already fallen upon her clothes. She looked
over at the stream to see some strike the water, causing small circular ripples
for a moment before they were lost to the current.
"It's
raining," agreed Gilbert, holding his palm flat out, opening himself up to more
raindrops. "We should get going." He stood and gentlemanly offered his hand to
her.
She took it
without hesitation and let him help her up. She brushed the seat of her skirt
as discretely as possible, as she was sure dirt and leaves must be clinging to
it. Then she started to pull the jacket off.
"Keep it
until you're inside," he insisted, patting her back to encourage to go. Anne didn't exactly need encouragement as the rain
began coming down harder. By the time they reached the edge of campus, it was
pouring, and they were both relatively soaked by the time they reached the boarding
house where Anne was staying.
Anne and
Gilbert squeezed against the door on the stoop to get out of the rain. Anne
could feel his breath against her face as they huddled there together.
Gilbert's dark hair in front was plastered against his forehead and his shirt
and slacks stuck to him. She felt guilty that her own blouse was relatively
dry, thanks to his jacket.
Her 'Thank
you' was drowned out by a loud clap of thunder as she shrugged off the jacket
and handed it back to Gilbert. He was soaked to the skin, dripping wet as
though he'd fallen right into the stream. Had she not felt so guilty, she would
have stopped to be amazed about how quickly the storm had arisen. One moment it
had been a few light sprinkles, and the next moment it was a torrential
downpour.
Though he
could hardly get wetter, Gilbert held the jacket up over his head with both
arms. "See you around, Anne," he said. Then, "Some advice for you? Next time
you decide to admire the leaves, you might want to pick a day when it's not
meant to rain!" And before she could reply with something undoubtedly witty, he
was off at full speed across the grounds towards the Academy's residential
building for men. The end of his jacket streamed behind him as he ran, waving
goodbye to her. She smiled and headed inside to change and get warm, but only
after he'd turned the corner and disappeared from her view.
*
In a class
of more than fifty, no one was likely to notice one student sniffling through a
lesson. On the contrary, now that the weather was growing colder, every nose
was a bit red and sniffly after coming in from the
outdoors. But Anne could not help but notice that the next day in classes
Gilbert looked and sounded like he was suffering from more than just a bit of a
runny nose.
Gilbert
looked up several times, catching her eye briefly then looking away. After each
incident there was a long period of time before he began sniffling again,
however. And when he rubbed at his nose, he always glanced over to be sure she
wasn't watching him. He didn't seem to realize she could watch him out of the
corner of her eye, like the falling leaves.
She did not
have a chance to speak to him after class, as Josie and Jane approached her
outside the building about taking lunch together, and Gilbert disappeared with
Ruby Gillis as he almost always did.
He did not
resurface until classes resumed that afternoon. As she grew older, Anne grew
better at not letting her imagination get the better of her. But as she glanced
over at Gilbert across the classroom during their lessons, she was sure she was
not imagining the fact that he did indeed look ill. It wasn't long, in fact,
before he sneezed. And though it was just the one, Anne had a feeling that
there were quite a few more that he was doing his best to keep from surfacing. Class
was interesting as always but, strangely, her concentration was not fully upon
the lesson. She felt distracted and kept glancing back over towards Gilbert.
And, by the end of the day's lessons, she was rather convinced that the reason
was not simply friendly concern. Though she headed in Gilbert's direction when
class ended, he took off before she reached him.
In fact,
Anne did not speak with him again until him the following day. It was one of
the first weekends she had not gone back home. Her studies were becoming more
and more intense, and she felt she owed it to herself and those she'd left in
Avonlea to study as hard as she possibly could.
This was
how she ended up in the library on a Saturday afternoon, making her way
steadily through history books for anything that might help her with her term paper.
One thing that wasn't helping, however, was the frequent interruption in the
form of sneezes which she heard from somewhere else in the usually silent
library. After losing her place a half dozen times, she sighed and stood,
determined to put an end to it. It wasn't so much that she was annoyed by the
disturbances, simply that she thought whoever it was should know better.
Somewhere
within her she'd somehow known it was Gilbert Blithe sneezing. But when she
navigated through the stacks and came upon the sight of him, she couldn't help
but be a little surprised. He was sitting at one of the small tables that were
lined up along the wide isle. Anne was sure that his condition was the reason
no one had elected to sit at the tables on either side of him. Gilbert looked
just awful. Sallow face, flushed cheeks, and an expression of utter exhaustion
which started in his eyes and spread throughout him so that he moved unusually
slowly. He had the back of his hand pressed again his nose. His shirt cuffs
were unbuttoned and loose, and the top button of his white shirt just above his
vest was likewise.
As she
watched, his breath caught and eyes closed. But it was almost a minute until he
actually sneezed. In the meantime, his nostrils twitched and mouth turned down
into a frown. His body rocked back and forth very slightly as his chest rose
and fell. Finally he leaned back further in his chair, lifted his head, and
snapped forward. "HUHHTChihhhhh!"
Gilbert looked up and jumped in his seat with surprise. "Anne Shirley, you
scared me to death!" he said with much more amusement than annoyance.
"I'm
sorry," she said with a smile, walking over to stand beside him. "You seemed
rather distracted for a while, there. But I'm not surprised. You sound
terrible, Gil."
He nodded
but shrugged. Innocently, "I'm all right."
"So where
is Ruby?" Anne asked, trying to sound as though she actually cared, rather than
was simply asking to be nice. However she did wonder how Ruby could let Gil be
out and about like this when he was so obviously sick.
"She's not
here in the library on a weekend, I can tell you that much."
He sniffed
a few times and she gave him a look.
Gilbert
cleared his throat.
She narrowed
her eyes at him.
He closed
his. And then he cupped his hand to the lower half of his face. "HUHChihhhhhh! Snff! Excuse
me."
When he
opened his eyes, she was still staring at him, leaning closer, bearing down on
him.
He sighed. "It's
just a little cold. I've had it for a few days."
Anne
crossed her arms across her chest. "Well you must be terrible at hiding this
sort of thing because it does not look all that little to me. And I have a
feeling being out in the rain didn't help any. Am I right?"
"You didn't
need to know because it isn't your fault," Gilbert insisted, rubbing his nose.
He coughed, his whole body shaking, then leaned forward in his chair with
another five or six coughs. He received glances from several other students and
he cleared his throat.
"Gilbert
Blithe, you're sick and should go straight to bed this instant!" She hesitated
for a moment, then pressed her hand to his forehead,
feeling for fever. "Or you'll make me feel terribly guilty."
His cheeks
flushed more and he froze as he touched her. Then he turned away when she was
done, in order to muffle another sneeze in his sleeve. "hut-CHUFFF!" He cleared his throat with some difficulty, then
looked back up at her. "I'll be fine, Anne."
"Well
you're not going to get any better sitting here studying," she said, gathering
up his books and papers into a pile. She was about to scoop them all up when
she thought of the handkerchief she carried. It was a bit too dainty for this
sort of thing-- thin linen with her initials embroidered in one corner by Marilla who had been appalled once upon a time to find Anne
hadn't any proper handkerchiefs of her own-- however, it was certainly better
than sniffling into one's sleeve. She pulled her handkerchief out and handed it
over at once. As Gilbert sheepishly dabbed at his nose, Anne picked up his
things.
"You don't
have to do that," he said, reaching up for his things. "I'm all right here."
But she
shook her head. "The decent thing to do when one is sick is to stay in bed so
as to not pass it on to the rest of us." Her tone softened slightly. "And you
should really get some rest instead of working. It's the only way you'll get
better. Now let's go."
He coughed
but reluctantly stood. "You just want me to take it easy so you'll have a
better shot at winning the Avery Scholarship."
She smiled
innocently. "I can earn that award fair and square," she told him.
Then she
watched him pitch forward, giving a double-sneeze into the handkerchief she'd
given him. "ihhh...HEH-Schhhhh-Heh'KSchhhhh!"
She put a
hand on his shoulder. "And you've also got a great chance to get the Avery or a
medal, but you can't do so when you're sick. Isn't that right?" He nodded back
and when she turned to lead him out, he followed.
This time,
Anne walked Gilbert to his dorm. Their pace was moderate, and Anne made a point
of checking that that sky was clear. The last thing they needed was another
rain storm.
"h'CHIHshhh! hehhShihhhh!
Excuse me." He dabbed at his nose, then folded the handkerchief and sheepishly
offered it back to Anne.
"Keep it
until you're well again," she insisted.
He smiled
and closed his hand around it. "Th-thank you," he
managed before his face fell.
Anne's
'You're welcome' was drowned out by another of his sneezes.
"HIHschhhhh!" He rocked a bit in place at
the force of the sneeze.
"Bless
you," she said, weighing the pros and cons of reaching out to him. Her concern
just fell short to the rules of proper relations. She managed, however, to
express herself as always in words. "I am sorry, Gil, about you coming down
sick."
He shook
his head. Insistently, "I would have been caught in the rain anyway. Please
don't feel guilty. Hihhh... h'KShuhhh!" He sniffled and
rubbed at his nose for a few moments. Anne started to worry he might be growing
worse while standing and talking with her.
Luckily Gilbert
reached over to the door and pressed his palm against it to keep himself
upright and still. He smiled and gave a chuckle. "I can tell you feel guilty,
though."
"How could
you tell?"
He just
smiled back at her and she laughed, remembering his words the last time they'd
spoken. "I would never think to tease someone who is unwell. However, a light
scolding might be in order to remind you that you should stay in bed when ill."
"Your point
is well taken," he said, glancing towards the door to the building and taking a
step closer.
"Take care,
Gil." Anne briefly considered placing a kiss on his cheek, but she stopped
herself before getting swept away in the moment.
He thanked
her and headed inside.
Anne stood on
the steps for a moment, looking out over the campus. The wind picked up briefly,
hitting a tree in her line of sight. A handful of leaves broke free from the
branches but were caught in the wind. It sent them down at an angle, far from
the base of the tree. As she watched them being blown about and finally falling
right where they were supposed to fall, Anne could not help but smile. She
thought she had an idea now of how they might feel.