Anne with an e- a new version of the story

Part 34- Love in four seasons

ANNE

It was her first day on holiday, and Anne was sitting under her cherry tree, reading a book. She looked up and admired the flower-filled branches, although spring was over, and the merciless summer sun was already beginning to make the days hotter and hotter, her cherry tree remained majestic and fragrant.

She loved to spend hours there, doing nothing, laying her head on the foliage that piled up by the trunk, looking at the blue sky and watching the clouds that formed funny figures as if they told a story full of unusual characters. She was lost in time, while her mind wandered through the world of imagination and dreams, there were no limits to where her thoughts went, the world she saw before her eyes was hers alone, and no one would dare bother her in those moments of inner peace.

She sometimes saw Marilla watching her from afar, shaking her head in dismay, then she would turn away and return to her tasks. The girl knew what she had to think, for over and over again she had heard her grumbling, that it was time for Anne to behave like a little girl, for her childhood had been left behind for some time, and she needed to grow up and forget her little girl fantasies.

Anne didn't care what Marilla said, she always smiled, and kept her sweet thoughts to herself. If she could, she would never grow up, keep her Peter Pan spirit within her heart, and live in a state of infinite happiness. But the girl knew that the time machine could not forgive, and a few more years she would be living in the adult world and she would have to learn to keep those moments in a little box of memories, and open it only once or once when she felt tired of trying to understand the foolishness of the human being.

A noise of wings took her out of her thoughts, and she saw that a colorful flower kiss had approached one of the cherry blossoms, sucking its pollen with its huge beak, then flew away, leaving Anne enchanted with its beauty. She closed the book she was reading and thought about the last week she had spent. The final examinations had been applied in those days, so she had had to study hard, and had hardly had time for anything other than books, although certain memories insisted on diverting her attention from her studies, and the girl had to make an enormous effort not to let herself be carried away by them.

The image of Gilbert and the day of the play came to her head, making her restless, then she  took a lock of her own hair and began to braid it nervously, then got up from the floor and sat on a bench under her bedroom window.

She'd be lying if she said she didn't love staging Romeo and Juliet with Gilbert. Although she had been caught off-guard by the situation, she was amazed to play such an incredible character as Juliet. Doing it with her heart, and the security Gilbert had given her on stage, was responsible for her lack of inhibition. She knew she had a certain talent for dramatic roles, after all, her life had always revolved around books of dramatic romance, so putting those fantasies into practice wasn't so difficult for her. It was just that she had always done it in the security of her room, or when she told Diana and Ruby some of these stories.

She had never had such a large audience watching her, and when she stepped onto the stage, fear invaded her momentarily, but as soon as her eyes landed on Gilbert, her fear was gone, and she managed to give each act the exact tone of emotion, and the result was the rain of applause and praise that she had received. Of course Gilbert had his share of responsibility for the success of the play. He had been a perfect Romeo, and the tone he had given to each line of his character made Anne believe that they were really in Verona, living an impossible love.

But when it was all over, the redhead had to come down from the clouds and return to the reality of the facts. She had moved away from the boy, leaving the way open for Ruby, and there was no point in fantasizing about things that would no longer happen. She made a face when he thought about it, and not even the memory of the kiss she and Gilbert exchanged when he had followed her after the play could cheer her heart. Aside from the warmth of the moment, because they were so involved in the magic of the story they staged together, it had made them throw themselves into each other's arms.