Georg chased the little ones who ran away squealing with excitement. He managed to catch first one then the other, tickling them gently while they shrieked with happiness. Spying Kurt and Brigitta watching laughing, he grabbed Kurt as Brigitta fled, tickling him much more roughly. He hauled him up and threw him over his shoulder as he ran off, the three girls valiantly trying to rescue their brother who was shouting fiercely and breathless with laughter.
Maria watched them tenderly. Then realizing this was certainly an unevenly balanced game she called to them. When they did not hear she clapped her hands. All five looked up. "Children if you want to have chance against your father you are going to need some strategy. All of you need to work together to catch him and tickle him."
"This is a mutiny" Georg roared in mock outrage as the four youngest children all attacked together. He ran with the children in hot pursuit, then he allowed Gretl and Brigitta to catch him with Kurt and Marta joining in as they pulled him to the ground.
Friedrich and Louisa were watching smiling, unsure of what to do - their longing to join in with the fun was being curtailed by the dignity of their age. Maria encouraged them "You two had better help the little ones, they won't be able to keep him down for long." The two needed no further encouragement and raced off gleefully to hold their father down. He disappeared under a pile of children as they all looked for spots to tickle him, only his well shod boots to be seen.
Maria looked at Liesl enquiringly. She shook her head smiling, preferring to watch rather than join in. Putting an arm around her, their heads leaning together affectionately, the two watched in great amusement as Georg managed to emerge with a roar and begin the attack again, the children scattering in different directions shrieking with laughter.
"Father used to play with us like this when we were little. I'm so glad he is doing it again," Liesl said to Maria. "He really has come back to us," she added with quiet joy in her voice.
Of course none of the children wanted to stop the game, but eventually Georg called surrender and walked towards Maria, a pretend fierce look on his face. "A mutiny engineered by my own wife – definitely a court-martial offense!" he said with mock outrage. The words 'my wife' still had the power to send a thrill of happiness through her.
Then more quietly so that the children would not hear he added "I will deal with your punishment later tonight. I happen to know you are extremely ticklish."
She smiled adoringly up at him, cupping his cheek with her hand. "You're a wonderful father" she said softly. He turned his mouth into her hand that was cradling his cheek and kissed her palm, his eyes loving.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see the children exchanging looks at the interactions of their parents, ranging from embarrassment (Kurt and Friedrich) and rolling of eyes (Louisa), to simple joy (Marta, Gretl and Brigitta), and a dreamy far- away look (Liesl).
Maria started to blush at the very private message her husband was giving her with his eyes. She looked awkwardly at the children, but she needn't have worried - since their return from their honeymoon her cheeks were permanently flushed with happiness, so even Brigitta no longer bothered to comment on them.
"Alright everyone it's time to get cleaned up and eat our picnic," Maria called.
Georg winked at the children, "Maybe after we eat we can go for a walk and look for those elusive blue strawberries" he suggested. The little ones giggled immediately, reluctant smiles on the older ones' faces as they piled picnic food on their plates.
"What on earth is all this talk of blue strawberries?" Maria asked, taking the bait. The topic had come up more than once before. The little ones delighted in what had now become a family joke that they all gently and teasingly excluded from their new mother. Marta and Gretl fell into peals of laughter, their little hands clamped over their mouths as if they were trying to physically keep the secret from escaping. And perhaps they were, since normally neither one could keep a secret for longer than two minutes.
"I have never in my life heard of blue strawberries and I'm a mountain girl, so I should know." Maria played along with the family joke, hands on her hips looking at them all in turn. "Alright which one of you is going to be the first one to tell me about these blue strawberries? Kurt?"
He shook his head with a grin, his mouth full of chicken.
"Brigitta?"
She just laughed happily, her eyes shining, and wrapped an arm tightly around Maria as she ate her apple.
"Friedrich?"
He gave an awkward shrug, an embarrassed smile on his face as he ate his sandwich.
"Georg?"
He looked at the children playfully, eyes twinkling and responded " I'm sorry my sweet, it's meant to be a secret between the children and me." The older ones laughed outright, remembering that first uncomfortable dinner table conversation of long ago.
"Ah hah, I see. Well then perhaps you should keep your secret and if you find them you can let me make some blue jam. But in the meantime we should eat," Maria responded, hiding her smile with laughter in her eyes and voice.
But it seemed he was not yet finished. "I have heard though, that you can get them in their thousands when the weather is particularly cold," Georg added for good measure, as the giggles of the children continued.
Maria sighed with pretend exasperation, eyebrows raised with exaggerated impatience.
"I was only trying to think of a warm, happy and pleasant way to spend the rest of the afternoon" he said, though he was not quite able to pull off the look of bland innocence in his blue eyes. Maria gave in to her laughter and they exchanged a look over the heads of the children.
Then he dropped kisses on the heads of the youngest two who had snuggled beside him to eat their food. They looked back at him smiling. They did not always fully understand their parents' sometimes peculiar conversations and the teasing, but nevertheless they felt the wealth of love behind the words, and knew that it signaled that the family was happy and safe.
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