Power of Love
The Captain walked down the staircase of his house happily. It was the day after the party where he and Maria had danced the Laendler. His mind was clearly on thoughts of Maria and how beautiful she was. 'I will have to somehow find a way to break up with Elsa,' the Captain thought to himself. He was determined to get rid of Elsa so he could finally tell Maria he loved her. With a big smile he entered the dining room.
"Good morning Children," he cried happily. Then he looked down at their gloomy faces. Each one of them looked as if all the life had been sucked out of them. The Captain realized Maria was not there eating.
"Are you alright? Where is Maria?"
"We do not know father," Liesl said.
" When we went to tell her good morning she was gone and all her stuff was gone as well," Louisa said softly.
"Father, why would Fraulin Maria want to leave us? Doesn't she like us anymore?" asked Gretl. The Captain was very confused at all of this. He never thought that she would leave them without even saying goodbye. The Captain told the children he would be back in a minute and he began to run up the stairs when he noticed Elsa. She was wearing a bright orange dress that looked hideous on her. In her hand she held a cigarette and a note.
"Good Morning darling!" Elsa happily said. She took a puff into her cigarette and said, "Darling have you heard the news Maria is going back to the abbey to become a nun, isn't it wonderful? I…" As Elsa was speaking he saw that she was trying to light the note in her hands on fire by putting her cigarette on it. He looked over at the smelly note and saw it said, "To the Von Trapp Family." He went over closer to her trying to brush away the horrible smell of smoke.
"Who is that to?" He asked.
"Why it is just something from that very ugly little nun Maria surely you do not want to read…I thought I would just set it on fire and then throw it away…"
"Elsa how dare you open a note that is none of your business, do you see you're on that envelope? Now give me that note…now." Glaring, Elsa handed him the note. The Captain noticed that she was not about to move away. Outraged, he stomped into his study. There he read the bad news. Maria had gone back to the abbey to become a nun. He stared at the note in disbelief. The end of it said:
"…Please tell your children goodbye for me. Thank you so much for your kindness, I will never forget any of you ever. Thanks for making my stay at your house so warm and happy. Love Always and God Bless, Maria."
The Captain was stunned. Why did Maria leave? He had always thought and hoped that she was falling in love with him as well. So why would she leave if she was in love? The Captain was crushed. He walked sadly into the dining room.
"Children, I umm… have something to tell you," They all looked up at him hopeful that Maria was not gone. As soon as they saw his face they knew it was bad news. "Maria had to leave and go back to the abbey because she missed it to much. She wanted me to tell you goodbye and that she would always remember you." Marta instantly began to cry.
"What did we do father? Why doesn't she want to stay here?" Marta cried.
"She didn't even say goodbye," Brigitta stated, "She would of said goodbye if she was never going to see us again, right father?"
"I'm sorry children but I believe she is gone, there is nothing we can do. Now why don't you go and take a nice walk to try to cheer up, hmm?"
"Yes Father," the children all mumbled as they walked slowly out of the room. When the children were out of the Captain's sight Brigitta suddenly got excited.
"You know what? Maybe Maria has fallen in love with Father. She must have been so scared because she is supposed to become a nun so she just decided to leave." Brigitta said smartly.
"What?" The other children replied. Not listening to them she kept talking.
"So if she is really in love she will come back and then Maria will be are Mother and it will be just like the ending of one of those fairytales she used to read us!"
"Brigitta, have you gone completely insane? Father only falls in love with rich people and anyways Maria's not coming back." Kurt said loudly.
"Yeah, Kurt's right." The rest of the children mumbled in agreement. Brigitta pouted a little then decided her siblings were right.
"I guess you are right, come on lets go and take a walk." Brigitta said. The children walked sadly down the stairs.
(Later that evening.)
The Captain walked unhappily to his room after telling his children goodnight. For the past few weeks when Maria had been there the children were energetic and happy right before bed because they were so excited for what Maria would do with them the next morning. Tonight though it was back to the not wanting to sleep because nothing exciting was happening in the morning anyways. The Captain sat on his bed and pulled out the note Maria had written. The white note still smelled of smoke, but he refused to throw it away. It was the only thing he had left that was connected with Maria. 'I don't even have one picture of her,' he moaned to himself. He rested his head in his arms and moaned out loud.
"Why did you leave me? I…I loved you." The Captain spoke softly. At that moment Elsa appeared in his doorway.
"Georg, don't worry I didn't leave you. I was just thinking actually about our wedding. When do you want to have it? I was thinking in a month or so. Is that okay with you?" Elsa looked down at him expecting an answer. The Captain was startled, 'Did she just propose to me?' Even though Elsa had hinted at marriage it was before Maria came along.
"Is that okay Georg? Hello where are you? Your lovely future bride is talking to you please answer her."
The Captain thought for a minute. It was then that he realized that the woman he loved more then anything in the world was not in love with him and was going to become a nun. She would not be coming back ever again to straighten things out by telling the Captain she loved him. The Captain also thought it must be God's will and that she is to become a nun and never come back to me. He had to accept the will of God.
"Yeah Elsa that's fine." He said.
"Oh that is wonderful Georg I can hardly wait for the wedding. Now about the wedding I was thinking first of all we should have it outside, I do not want anything to do with the Catholic Church." She said.
The Captain was startled.
"Elsa you know that I am Catholic and believe we need to be married through the church or else…" Elsa coldly interrupted.
"Oh I knew it would be okay with you since you know I am an atheist." The Captain's jaw dropped open for it had only been a few weeks before when Elsa had told him that she was a devout Christian. Elsa put her hand through the Captain's arm.
"I was also thinking about the dress. I don't want white because white is so ordinary. I was thinking a bright magenta color! I will look so beautiful!" The Captain almost choked to try to keep his laugh from coming out. Before the Captain could say anything she continued. "I also do not want anyone to walk down the aisle but me, no flower girls no bridesmaids no best men just me."
"What about the children?" The Captain asked.
"The children? Oh you mean them. Well I was thinking we could send them away to boarding school, before the wedding." She said.
"Elsa I am sure they would want to come." The Captain said. He couldn't help but think of planning a wedding with Maria and what she would want. He smiled and thought of how she would insist that he walk down the aisle with her so there would not be so much attention on her. He would then tell her, though, that she had to walk alone so he could admire his beautiful bride. Maria would surly want the children involved in the wedding, he thought. He also noted that because Maria was so religious she would probably insist on a beautiful church wedding as long as it was okay with him. The Captain was quickly thrown back into reality when Elsa started talking again.
"Well I guess we can talk about where to dispose of the children later. I was also thinking that you could maybe be out of the aisle as well because I want all eyes on me and none on you. I want no distractions, everyone needs to be looking at me!" Elsa cried.
"Next thing you are going to want to do is dig a ditch for me so no one can see me and everyone will look at you." The Captain muttered only half jokingly.
"That is a marvelous idea!" Elsa said. Her face pulled closer to his to kiss him but the Captain pulled away. He just could not kiss her. Elsa seemed to be a little bit upset but continued on anyways.
"For our honeymoon I was thinking maybe going back to my place in Vienna…" The Captain was about to slap her at that point. He had told her repeatedly that he hated where she lived it was right in the middle of a city. The Captain was afraid of what he might do to the woman if she did not leave him alone soon.
"You know Elsa I am really tired so I'm going to go to sleep." He said. Elsa did not move. "Are you not going to leave now?"
"Well we are going to get married I thought I would stay and…" Her voice trailed off.
"No Elsa we are not married yet, you know what I believe." He said firmly. The Captain started to think of some kind of prank he could use on Elsa to make her leave. He thought back to all the things the children had done to make the governesses leave but the only ones he could remember were the pinecone and the frog the children had given Maria. Elsa still was not moving. The Captain thought of throwing some black ink in her white perfectly curled hair so it would match her ugly red wedding dress better. It would also make it look less perfect. He thought of how beautiful Maria's hair always looked because it was not perfectly placed in a bun. Luckily before he had to resort to such childish play Elsa spoke.
"Fine darling," she smiled, "Goodnight." She moved to kiss the Captain. The Captain turned his head so she only kissed his check. He could just not bring himself to kiss her. He felt unfaithful for some reason. She then decided to hug him. The Captain could not help but think of how nice it would be for Maria to be in his arms and for Maria to be kissing him. The Captain drew away from Elsa's grasp.
"Goodnight Elsa." He mumbled. She smiled.
"I love you darling." She stated clearly expecting for the Captain to answer back with the same statement. All the Captain could manage was a mumbled "Goodnight," again. Elsa shook her head and walked out the door.
The Captain slowly walked down to where Maria had danced the Laendler with him. Unexpected tears filled his eyes. His life was falling apart…again. He could sense that he was losing the children, slowly separating from them. Worse he was getting married to a rich brat, that wanted nothing to do with God and wanted an ugly reddish-magenta dress for the wedding. The worst part, though, was that the person he loved more then anything in the world, past or present, the person he had become more deeply in love with then anyone ever, even his wonderful first wife, Agathe, was about to become a nun. The Captain was not one to break down and cry easily but there he stood, with tears streaming down his face. He started muttering to God.
"My God I really thought she loved me. God why did you take Maria away from me to become your nun? Haven't I been through enough grief and suffering already? I can't take this anymore God, please help. God if it is your will please send Maria back from the abbey to be with me. Please? Please Lord just let her come for one day so I can tell her how I feel. Please Lord I will do anything for you. I love her more then anything. Please God? I love her."
In the vaults of heaven a beautiful angel looked down watching the Captain pray. At first this angel was a little bit jealous for she knew that her husband on Earth loved Maria even more then he had loved her. Soon though her jealousy turned to happiness that he had finally learned to love again. Then it turned into sadness and anger because her husband was getting married to some rich brat, instead of Maria, who Agathe considered one of the nicest people down on Earth. The angel by her read her mind.
"Agathe would you like to go and talk to…" She said sweetly.
"Yes I think we should go and talk our Lord about this." Agathe said. So the angels went to the Lord and before they could say anything the Lord spoke.
"Agathe, daughter of God, do not fear for it is the will of God that Maria will come back and marry the Captain and watch over your family." The Lords voice boomed but was soft and sweet at the same time. "For Georg has proven the power of his love, he loves her almost as much as I the Lord, her father, does. The power of his love will bring her back." Agathe smiled deeply.
"Thank you Lord!" With that she left and began to celebrate in heaven. The angels danced for joy and sang beautiful songs because Maria and Georg were finally going to be reunited and married very soon.