anneoftheisland | Anne remembers Matthew Cuthbert

Current Location: the Hidden Hamlet

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Anne remembers Matthew Cuthbert

Usually when Anne found herself in the wikiup village known as the Hidden Hamlet, she was giddy with excitement about soon having her own home there as well. It was so small and perfect and she couldn't imagine a nicer place on the island to be. But today, today she had a very solemn duty that kept her from twirling her skirts and basking in her imagination. She'd been on this island for over a month now, so she'd come to realise for certain that she wasn't going to wake up and find herself at home any time soon, but she did have a small piece of home with her, and a large piece of home in her heart, and today she would bring those two things together.

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Ray had been trying to convince himself that he could enjoy the sun. So far, he seemed to just be burning up. He had gotten an umbrella from the compound and while that helped, it also had ducks on it.

His scowl faded when he saw her. He hurriedly folded up the umbrella and set it next to a wikiup before smiling slightly. "Hey, Anne."

"Hello, Ray," she said, and she couldn't help but give him a smile. Ray had been so good to her, so kind, not that almost everyone she'd met so far hadn't been quite kind, but Ray was special to her. She knew that she would be watched out for, when Detective Ray Vecchio was around. "I don't suppose you'd like to walk with me to the waterfall?"

Ray chuckled and shrugged, no sense pretending like he wouldn't follow her around. He realized Anne could take care of herself but, hey, that didn't mean she had to. Besides, he liked being around her.

He grinned. "As it turns out, I am completely available to walk you to the waterfall. And if I had anything better to do, I would ignore it and then walk with you to the waterfall. So I guess you're stuck with me now."

"I don't think I mind being stuck with you at all, Ray," she said, and tucked her arm in his as she started walking towards the path. "In fact, I'm very glad I came upon you today. I don't think today is a day that I particularly want to be alone."

Ray frowned, anxious to ask who the hell had been stupid enough to upset her but he was also observant enough to note that this probably wasn't a recent thing. "What happened?" he asked gently after walking with her in silence for a little while.

"I think that to answer that question I would have to tell you about my circumstances before I arrived here," Anne said after a moment of thought. And truly, she wanted to talk to Ray about it, because Ray had proved himself a very able listener and a very trustworthy individual. "That is, if you truly want to hear it. I know there are many that would just as soon not hear sad stories, though this story isn't entirely sad."

Ray was touched that she trusted him. Hell, she could tell him whatever she wanted to. It could be sad and it could involve pixies. Either way, he'd listen. He was a sucker for Canadian orphans.

"I want to hear it, Anne. Anything you want to tell me, okay? Anytime and for any reason. I'm here for you."

He hoped they could keep this little Kodak and Hallmark joint-sponsored event to themselves though. It would kill whatever rep a sunburned-duck-umbrella-toting-detective from Chicago could maintan.

She nodded her head, and took some time to compose her thoughts before she began, having learnt over the years that sometimes it was best, if you wanted to tell a story, to not start with the words before the brain caught up.

"I lost my parents when I was very young," she said when she'd gotten herself sorted out. "That's not a very big part of this story, but it's important to know, because it tells you why I didn't have a home until I was eleven years old. Oh, I always had a roof over my head, but there's a very big difference between a house and a home, don't you think?"

Ray nodded. He knew. He hadn't felt like his house had been a home until after his dad had died. Which was kind of wrong but kind of true.

"Yeah, I agree. So you were alone then?" He asked quietly, not wanting to upset her or anything but wanting to know who had looked after her.

"Oh no, I was never left alone," she assured him. "At least, not alone in person if you know what I mean. There was always a family to take me in, if they needed help with their chores or their children, my goodness, there were so very many children. And once there weren't any families that wanted me anymore, well, that's when I went to the orphan asylum."

Ray knew she wasn't kidding but at the same time, he really wished she was. What the hell was wrong with people? Using some sweet orphaned kid like she was a freaking pack mule or live-in entertainment for their little brats?

He sighed heavily. "Then what happened?"

"Well, I confess I have nothing good to say about the orphan asylum, and it's a very good thing that I have an imagination so that I was able to endure it," Anne told him, "but that was when I was sent for by Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. Oh, they didn't send for me particularly, but I was the closest thing that the orphan asylum had to what they thought was being asked for, so off I went to Prince Edward Island."

"And they became your family?" Ray asked hopefully. Jesus, could someone have been nice to her?

Anne had turned out all right but honestly... The detective was feeling to need to kick someone's ass. Maybe he'd just hit Stanley upside the head later for no apparent reason.

"I was almost sent back," Anne told him earnestly. "When I arrived, I discovered that they had wanted a boy and not a girl, and I was so very crushed for I'd already fallen in love with the place. I was to be sent back the very next day! But dear Matthew had taken a liking to me, and sometimes I imagine that Marilla did too but she would always say that it was Matthew. So there I stayed, and I would still be there if I weren't here now."

Ray breathed out a loud sigh of relief. Good on Matthew who was very clever and good Canadian man.

And that's when it occured to him that this was probably what she was thinking about and wanting to remember. He stopped and looked over at her. He wanted to know the rest but if Matthew had died, he wanted her to be able to really talk about it. Not walk on towards the waterfall for Ray's sake or feel the need to pretend it was easy to lose someone.

Canadians --the polite ones anyway-- always had this compulsive need to take care of everyone else around even when they were in emotional pain or needed some taking care of. In fact, Ray was pretty sure they took even better care of people when they needed caring themselves.

"Go on," he said gently, touching her shoulder.

"I should have been visiting his grave," she said softly. "I promised that I would, and I believe, oh I believe that he heard me promise that, Ray. It was only a few weeks ago, so even if Heaven is as beautiful as I imagine it is, so beautiful that it could distract even Matthew, he won't have forgotten already."

Ray blinked and cleared his throat. He wasn't sure how anyone could say things like that and mean them, but if anyone could, it was this Canadian.

"You can remember him here. He'll get that, Anne. He'll understand."

Anne nodded her head and clutched his arm a little tighter. "That's why I wanted to go to the waterfall," she told him. "And that's why I'm so very glad I ran into you, for there's no one on this island I would rather be with right now. You've been so very good to me, Ray, and there's something that I need to do."

"I'll help you with it," Ray assured her, swallowing back a lump in his throat.

Ray had never really known how she felt. Benny would have known. The sort of burden she had was a lot like the Mountie's. It wasn't that Canadians cared more deeply or better than anyone else, but it sure seemed like that sometimes.

They'd reached the small clearing around the waterfall, and Anne opened her hand to show him the two pips she held there. "I had apples, when I arrived here," she told him. "Apples from home, from Green Gables. I've been storing the seeds in the coldbox for the last month, so they should be ready to plant now. I want to plant them here, to have a place for Matthew here on the island."

When he died, Vecchio was definitely making sure his chief mourner was Canadian. He eyed the seeds, nodding respectfully. He wasn't sure what to say but Anne didn't really need him to say much. She just wanted him there and Ray could manage that. "All right."

"I don't even know if they'll grow or blossom here," she confessed. "I know they don't normally grow on tropical islands, but this isn't any ordinary tropical island, so maybe it will let me grow an apple tree for Matthew. Do you think it might do that, Ray?"

It sure as hell better. He frowned a little and then nodded. "Probably. We'll figure something out."

"I think it's worth taking the chance," she agreed, and found a nice spot where she could clear away the underbrush, so the fledging apple trees would not suffer from too much competition. It wasn't anything like an orchard, but it didn't need to be. It just needed to be a little piece of home.

"Right here, do you think?" she asked, before she pressed the seeds into the ground.

It was in a shady corner, so the trees wouldn't get too hot, but a spot which would also get sunlight so the trees could grow tall and strong -- a place where Anne could come and sit and spend time, whenever she liked.

Ray nodded his approval. He didn't know much about planting trees but the island was weird and probably wouldn't mind having some apple trees.

"Yeah, there's plenty of sun but enough shade. And when they grow, you can read books under 'em or sing or look for fairies." Or whatever she did.

"I think they would like that," said Anne, giving him a smile. "I think Matthew would like that as well. He was a man of few words and he did lack imagination, though I should never call that a failing in him, but he always did appreciate imagination in others."

She knelt down by her cleared patch of ground and pressed both seeds in, just a little bit under the surface of the soil. There were two seeds, but likely only one tree would grow. One tree was all Anne needed here.

Matthew sounded like fine upstanding Canadian to Ray. He knelt down, ignoring whatever effect the sand would have on his clothes because some things in life managed to be more important than that, and watched her plant the seeds.

It didn't look like much when Anne was finished, but soon the seeds would sprout and the very first beginnings of a tree would grow. Until then, Anne marked the area with stones and flowers, so she would know where to come back to. The island climate would surely give the trees all the water they could possibly need; Anne -- and Ray, perhaps, sometimes -- would give them the attention that would help them to flourish.

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Anne remembers Matthew Cuthbert

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