Chapter Five: Singing Once More
June 1, 1938
Well I was right. I suspected Maria must have been taking us to the Mountains. She did. It was so much fun. I had not been to the Alps since Mother had passed away. They were even more beautiful than I remembered. We ate lunch and played games on top of the hill where we used to picnic often. During our conversation Maria decided to teach us a song for the baroness. Those poor children. They told her they did not know how to sing. They really and truly did not know how. I was the only one who started to learn. Maria did not look frazzled at all. She told us that we must learn. Then she started to sing just the basic notes. She made it into this fun song and soon we were all dancing and singing. When we were through and it was getting dark we paraded down the Mountain singing and humming the tune. I had never had so much fun. We were allowed to be children for the first time in a long time. My sibling's voices were stunning. Very good for beginners. Oh Maria is calling us now. She wants to do something before bed!
June 19, 1938
Today Father is supposed to arrive home. We would usually be longing for him to return, but honestly I haven't missed him too much. Well I mean I really missed him some, but he really has not been home for years. So when he comes back I am scared that all this wonderful fun might be put to an abrupt halt. It has been so much fun around here. For the past twenty days the house has been full with singing and laughter. Maria is always teaching us some fun game. Uncle Max sent us a puppet show. Maria was such a pro and taught us how to work the puppets! Soon we started singing and came up with a puppet show. I don't think we will ever get to show it to Father though. Oh well it was fun. Our voices are improving everyday.
I have had so much fun talking to Maria. We are really good friends now and talk often. It's strange she is like a Mother to me. I never thought I would have that feeling again. I have told her everything. I even told her about Rolfe and what really went on that night. We are so very lucky to have her. I will be so sad when she goes back to the abbey. I wish she could stay here forever. Even though I love her for what she has done I am still not sure she can wake Father up. I don't think he likes her very much at all. It will be interesting to see what happens when he comes back. Oh I have to go. Maria decided to take us on a canoe ride before Father comes home.
July 20, 1938
Wow where do I begin? Yesterday was completely unbelievable. We were riding in the canoe not expecting my Father back until late. We were singing a Do-Re-Mi, but not together at all. Then we saw Father. Maria jumped up. She was so happy to see him. I don't know why she was that happy. When she stood up the boat rocked and tipped over. It was scary at first. Then I realized I had not swum in a long long time. We started laughing and screaming happily. Then we heard his voice.
"Out of that water immedianly!" He cried. Ugh. That Captain voice again. I couldn't help, but think of how nice it was to do what Maria said for the past month. Her voice was so peaceful, unlike his. He introduced us to the Baroness. I looked at her and then he told us we must dry off and report back there. We ran off. Maria followed, but he told her to stay. Oh dear. Father was glaring at her like he wanted to slap her. I hope he doesn't do anything bad to her. My mind raced with thoughts of the Baroness. She looked nice enough, but she had that rich look to her. I could just tell she was not going to like us very much. To bad Father could not have a girlfriend like Maria…wait what if… Brigitta ran up the stairs.
"Come on don't you want to sing before Father comes inside? Lets go and get dressed." She screamed. My brothers and sisters and I all thought this was a good I idea so we ran upstairs and got dressed in record time. We raced down the stairs and entered the room where the Baroness was sitting.
"Excuse me Baroness," I said, "If you don't mind we would like to sing you a song Maria taught us." She looked up at us and smiled unexpectedly.
"A song would be lovely." She replied. So we started to sing an old song. We always used to sing it while Mother was alive. It is a beautiful song. We sang most of it and then I looked at the doorway and saw Father looking at us. I had never seen him look at us that way. Then he started to hum and then he began to sing with us. We were stunned. We all stopped singing and watched him finish. The last lines of the song we were able to hum, but not one of us could sing. Then when the song was over he looked at us and hugged us. We about leapt into his arms. Then we started to laugh. Gretl gave flowers to the baroness and then she said
"You never told me how enchanting your children are." Father looked as if he were about to cry. Then he told us to not go away. Why would we go away now? It had been us begging him for years not to go away. He left the room quickly. Everyone else was talking. I couldn't help but listen to what he was saying outside the room. From what I heard he apologized to Maria, I am assuming he was talking to Maria. I couldn't hear her voice. Then he told her he forgot about music and that he wanted her to stay. I clearly heard Maria's words.
"If I could be of any help." Was her answer.
"You have already, more than you know." He said. Then he reappeared in the room and started to talk to us. It has been so long since he has talked to us. I loved every minute of it, but I couldn't help thinking about his words. What did he do to Maria? I hope he didn't do anything awful. I still do not know what he did even after the rest of the night. Luckily Maria showed up at dinner and seemed happy. It was strange though dinner was the only time Father was not paying attention to us. Even more strange is that I noticed that it was not the Baroness who he was staring at all dinner. He was staring at Maria. Yet again I am confused because of him. Isn't he in love with the Baroness? I will write more later. I am too excited to write any more.
June 25, 1938
It appears that Father is really back this time! I forgot how lovely this house is when everyone is happy. Father is like a new person. He is almost exactly the way he was five years ago. I can tell he is happy and it is wonderful. Today we put on a puppet show for them at night. It is good that Maria prepared us for the show before Father got home because there was a lot of pecking going on by him. He told Maria that he just could not leave his children alone again for a minute. Maria would laugh at him and tell him we were almost ready anyways. They seem to get along really well now. They are always laughing with each other and talking. I might be wrong, but by the way he was looking at Maria we weren't the only reason he wanted to stay and watch.
The puppet show went very well. Father loved it. It was very hard work to put that on. Maria was so tired because we had insisted on doing all these last minute rehearsals. I ran into the hall to talk to Max, but out of the corner of my eye I saw my Father and Maria smiling at each other. Max began to talk about us singing in a festival. That would have been so much fun, but Father turned it down. He did not seem to be paying much attention to any of us though. Maria then asked us.
"Children who should we hear from next?" This was our attempt at trying to get Father to sing. We raced over to her and told her who. She walked up to him hesitantly. Why was she hesitant? She never was before.
"The vote is unanimous. You Captain." She said. He was stunned and then said no. Then after a whole lot of begging on our part he took the guitar. He started to sing a song called "Edelweiss." This is my favorite song in the world. Father used to sing it to me to put me to sleep. It is the prettiest little song. It is just so pure and simple. Before he sung the lines again he motioned for me to sit in front of him. I echoed his words. We used to sing it together except I was so small I would never get my part of the song in the right place. Now though I sang exactly when I was supposed to sing. Oh Father. I love him so much. I couldn't help but notice the Baroness shifting uncomfortably. She looked disgusted. I looked to where she was gazing. Maria was standing against the wall smiling at Father. He looked up and met her gaze. It was like he was singing the song only to her. He smiled and then gave her a shrug as if to say "That wasn't that good." Elsa jumped up and suggested we have a party. Father reluctantly agreed. Maria told us to run to bed. We flew out of the room after saying goodnight. We were all so excited at the prospect of a party!
I just can't help thinking about Father and Maria. It would be so impossible for them to like each other right? Is that impossible? I think it is. Well they might like each other now, but I am wondering about the other kind of like. No father couldn't possibly fall for a nun who is a governess. I don't know though. I doubted Maria would be able to wake Father up and notice what he was ding was wrong. She did. In the process did she get Father to fall in love too? No there is no way. It's late I will write later.
P.S. I can't help thinking about how lovely it would be if for a day Max and the Baroness left and the rest of us were here together.