The Sound of a Wonderful Life
Maria didn't want to go back.
The first time she was sent to the Von Trapp villa was bad enough, but at least she could find courage and confidence in the fact that she would return to the abbey at the end of the summer, back to the only place she ever felt safe and at peace. And courage and confidence served her well, until she came running back in the dead of night.
She had been frightened and scared. Suddenly everything she thought she wanted no longer seemed right. She wasn't the person she thought she was. She ran back to the abbey hoping all the doubt would go away, that she would forget the things she felt when she was with them... when she was with him.
The high walls of Nonnberg could keep out a lot of things, but he... somehow he got in. He snuck in through her thoughts and dreams. He waited for her to pray so he could appear behind her eyelids, smiling at her with his piercing blue eyes. Every part of her body would betray her when it happened. Her heart would race, her knees would grow weak and her lungs could barely fill with enough air to breathe. And her face... oh, how she hated how easily she would flush at the mere thought of him! It was if she had been infected with some wretched disease only he was so lovely to think about.
Oh, it was awful! It was wonderful! It was enough to drive a poor girl mad! And now she had to go back and face him again.
And no matter what may happen at the Trapp villa, she was sure she could never go back to the life she thought she wanted more than anything. Too much had changed.
How could she let this happen? How could she let herself get so distracted from God's task and by a man, no less? A few short months ago she knew what she wanted and now it was all falling away.
Maria dropped her bag and guitar on the ground, checked her pocket for the bus fare the abbess gave her, and flopped down onto the bus stop bench in frustration. The sky seemed extra sunny. It was just the kind of day that would lure her away from her duties for an afternoon on her mountain.
I wish I was there right now, she thought to herself. In fact, I wish I was anywhere but here. Maybe I should run away, somewhere he can't haunt me. A place where nothing can make me think of him or have anything to do with him. Ever again.
"You don't want to do that, my dear. So many people would worry about you," said a woman as she sat down next to her. Maria looked around, sure that the woman must have been speaking to someone else. They were the only two people waiting for the bus.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said, you don't want to do that," the woman repeated, smiling. She was a kind looking woman, elderly but spry. Her attire made her look like she stepped out of a Dickens novel, something Maria would have found endearing any other time, but at the moment it just seemed strange.
"Are you talking to me? What don't I want to do?"
"You don't want to run away, Maria. You were thinking about it, weren't you? You don't really want to, though. It would make so many people worried." The woman's eyes twinkled as she spoke. "Nothing is ever solved by running away. You've got to face your problems."
"Did the Reverend Mother send you? That sounds like something she would say," Maria answered flatly. Her forehead creased as she thought about the woman's words. "How do you know what I was thinking? And how did you know my name?"
"Oh, I know a lot about you, my dear," the woman answered with a laugh. "Everything, in fact. I've watched you grow up." Maria tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. Normally she enjoyed riddles but her mind was tired of thinking. She had spent so much of the last few days doing nothing else.
"Look, I don't know who you are-"
"Clarisse Oddbody, ASC."
"Clarisse…"
"Oddbody. ASC."
"ASC?"
"Angel Second Class."
Maria stared at her for a few seconds. It had to be a joke. "Angel? You're an angel? I mean, of course you are."
"That's right, but not just any angel. I'm your angel. Your guardian angel." Clarisse mentioned it with pride, as though she had picked Maria for her very own, despite the look of skepticism that met her.
"Ha, then where are your wings?"
"Haven't got them yet. That's what makes me Second class. But you're going to help me get them."
"Right," Maria muttered as she rolled her eyes. "Well, Clarisse, you seem like a lovely person and I don't wish to be rude but would you mind if we just waited for the bus without any more conversation? I would like to make it to Aigen with my sanity in one piece."
"But I was sent to help you!"
"Ah, so the Reverend Mother did send you."
"Oh, no. My orders came from much higher up."
Maria turned to look at her and let out a short laugh. "Now you are joking."
"Oh, no Maria," Clarisse shook her head. "This is quite serious. You were about to make a big mistake. I had to stop you. And I did."
"Did what?"
"I stopped you from running away. I mean, you just said you're going to Aigen, back to the Von Trapps. Isn't that right?" Maria's mouth dropped as she stared at Clarisse. She was starting to feel quite uneasy about this woman.
"Look, I don't know what kind of game this is, but it is getting very tiresome. Yes, I am going to the Trapp villa," Maria stated quite plainly, but then her face fell and her voice became quiet. "But to be honest, I'm not so sure I should. The truth is that I wish I had never gone there in the first place." Clarisse shook her head sadly.
"Oh dear. I'm never going to get my wings with that attitude." She put a finger to her lips and twisted her face in deep contemplation. "But maybe…" She looked to heaven and giggled. She stood up and put out her hand. "Come, Maria. You better follow me if you don't want to get wet."
"Excuse me?"
"It's going to rain," Clarisse explained as she headed away from the bench toward the shelter of a shop front awning. "You better hurry."
"What rain? There isn't a cloud in the-" The deluge hit before Maria could even finish her sentence. She grabbed her things and bolted for the awning where Clarisse stood waiting with a playful grin.
"I told you to hurry," she laughed. "Oh well, a little rain never hurt anybody."
"A little rain? Where did it come from? I never saw the sky get dark!" Maria had to shout to be heard over the sound of the raindrops pelting the pavement.
"What did you expect? You said it would have been better if you never went to the villa," Clarisse reasoned. "You touched a lot of lives by going, Maria. You just don't realize how different it would be if it were true. You've been given a very rare gift, Maria. To see what things would be like if you never went to the villa in the first place."
Maria pinched the bridge of her nose. She could feel a headache forming behind her eyes. "You are talking nonsense. I did go to the villa."
"No, you didn't. You got your wish. That's why it's raining."
Maria scowled as she watched the rain pour, gathering in torrents that rushed into puddles and flooded the gutters. Just then the jangling bells of the shop door as one of its patrons stepped outside. Clarisse made a strange cooing sound and clapped her hands, earning her a strange look from the man who quickly opened his umbrella and went on his way.
"Did you hear that?" Clarisse asked, pointing toward the door when Maria shook her head. "The bells! Every time a bells rings an angel gets his wings! Or her wings, I suppose. I do hope it was someone I know."
Maria shook her head, so sure she was dreaming and only needed to wake up. "This isn't real. This cannot be happening. You distracted me, that's what happened. You and your funny clothes and talk of guardian angels. I never saw the clouds, never heard the thunder in the distance. That is what happened."
"Oh, no, no. Think about it, Maria. What is today?"
"Thursday," Maria answered with a sigh.
"Yes, that's right. And what were you going to do on Thursday?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Maria mumbled impatiently.
"Think, my dear. Think! If you hadn't left the night of the party, what were you going to do today? Don't you remember?"
"Well, just let me think for a minute," Maria said tersely. "Thursday… oh, yes. I was going to take the children for a picnic. It was going to be their reward for singing at the party." Clarisse gave her a knowing nod, but she was still clueless. "So what? I would have been stuck on a mountain with seven children in the pouring rain."
"You never went to the villa in the first place. You never made plans for a picnic. Don't you see?"
"I did go to the villa," Maria maintained with growing annoyance. "And obviously I don't see."
"Do you remember what you told the children to do? You told them to pray for a nice day."
"Yes, so?"
"Well, you never went to the villa, you never made plans for a picnic and the children never prayed for a nice day. So… rain! And lots of it, I should say."
"That is the craziest thing I have ever heard," Maria mumbled under her breath as she looked at the skies for any sign that the rain would stop.
"What kind of talk is that?" Clarisse chided. "Don't you believe in prayer?"
"Of course, but-"
"But only for the big things, never for the small things," Clarisse said with a sigh. "You're not alone. A lot of people never notice the small answers to prayer." Maria couldn't really argue the point. There was a time when she found so much joy in the small answers to prayer, but lately her prayers were too laden with big problems that she stopped being very thankful.
Still, none of that meant she was to blame for the weather. It was ludicrous. She did go to the villa, that was for certain. She didn't know who this Clarisse person was or how she knew these things about her, but she refused to believe she was an angel.
"You're skeptical," the older woman said, reading Maria's mind. "No matter. You'll find out that it's true soon enough. Right now we have to figure out how to get you to Aigen."
Maria laughed. "I plan to take the bus. If you're an angel, you can just fly there."
"I can't fly," Clarisse reminded Maria insistently. "I haven't got my wings yet. Incidentally, if you check your pockets, you'll find the bus fare gone."
Maria rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket. "The Reverend Mother gave it to me and I put it here so I wouldn't-" It was gone! She double checked, and then looked around the ground to see if it had fallen out.
"I had bus fare. It was in my pocket. In fact, I double checked right before…" She didn't finish the thought. Instead she stared dumbfounded at Clarisse.
"Why would the Reverend Mother give you bus fare to return to a place you never went to in the first place?" Clarisse was starting to sound a little frustrated. "Really, Maria, you need to start thinking differently or we'll get nowhere, not even Aigen." Maria frowned. She sighed and hugged her things closer to her body. This day was going quickly from bad to worse.
Finally the rain began to let up and within a few minutes, the sun even began to peek out from the clouds being pushed across the sky by the light breeze. When it seemed safe enough to venture out from under cover, Maria began walking. Clarisse followed along, chattering merrily about how excited she was to be on any mission considering her track record as an angel was not very good.
"Of course," Maria said wryly. "An incompetent guardian angel. I wouldn't expect any different."
"Now, there's no need to be unkind," Clarisse reproached, though she didn't seem too hurt. Maria apologized before the pair slipped into an understanding of silence for the rest of the journey toward Aigen.
TBC...
A/N: I actually started this story a couple years ago and it just lost steam. I pulled it out for the May prompt, worked the entire story out in my head and have completed about two and half chapters of it. It's probably stupid to start posting yet another story but hey... livin' life on the edge.
Disclaimer: I don't own 'The Sound of Music' or 'It's a Wonderful Life' or the characters. Written for fun, not profit. I do own the character of Clarisse, a name I chose because it seemed like a nice variation of Clarence, the angel from IAWL. Not Julie's character from 'Princess Diaries'. Just so you know.