■ Helpless ■ Gilbert Blythe ■

A sure sign of good things to come

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Gilbert Blythe watched silently as the waves hit the bottom of the ship. It was a beautiful day and the skies were clear, hopefully, an omen for good things to come.

In his hand was the latest letter Victoria sent him, crumpled by the numerous times he folded and unfolded it to reread it again and again.

Each letter she sent were filled with her hopes of him coming back. He died a little inside whenever he had to tell her that he wasn't ready. Yet, now here he was, heading towards Canada and feeling more nervous than he ever did.

He unfolded the letter again and started reading the words that he had unconsciously memorised.

To my Gilbert,

I know that it hasn't been long since my last letter, but so much has changed in so little time.

Traces of gold have been found in Avonlea. Everyone is beyond excited and many have already invested their money in the cause. Truth be told, I am quite weary of the situation, there is something a bit dodgy about the geologist. But it is probably just my paranoia kicking in. Hamilton said that I often look a gift horse in the mouth.

I hope that this news excites you and maybe it might compel you to return in ways in which I could not. I'm sorry if I am being pushy again, I simply want to be honest with you.

Whatever you decide, I will be happy with it. However, you must know that I'm counting the hours in which we are apart and I long for the day that we will meet again.

Most faithfully yours,
Victoria T. Edwards

Gilbert sighed absentmindedly as he traced her name with his finger.

"Look at you, smilin' to yourself like an idiot again."

Gilbert turned around at the sound of Bash's voice as the latter joined him by the railing. He nodded towards the letter with a teasing smile. "Was about time you returned, you can't keep your lady waiting any longer."

Gilbert shook his head. "Like I said before. She's not my lady."

"So she's just a friend?" Bash continued as his gaze never left the boy, despite Gilbert trying to avoid looking at him. Gilbert hesitated for a while before answering. "I... Never said that."

Bash grinned knowingly at his response but before he could bug him even more, Gilbert changed the subject.

"You're daring, coming to this level of the deck. Fireman hears about you coming up here, you can expect trouble." Gilbert warned and Bash quickly waved him off.

"I can live down trouble. I want to see where I'm headed for once. Feel the wind on my face. Avonlea ahead of me. Ten years on this ship humpin' coal. I earned this. Besides, what they going to do? Sack me? Toss me overboard? Worst-case scenario, I get the latrine." Bash joked as he nudged Gilbert slightly.

Gilbert grimaced at the mention of the latrine, not even wanting to think about it. "If my choices were that or latrine duty, I might take my chances with the Atlantic."

Bash looked out at the horizon, the scene in front of him being both calming and beautiful. "Choices. I like that word. Things are going to change startin' right now."

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"Why are we even doing this? This seems like a bad idea." Victoria stated as Josie forced her to sit between Cole and Moody in a circle. Cole shrugged. "You say that as if we had a choice," Cole said as he motioned towards Josie who was moving everyone around.