Chapter Seven: Blue Strawberries

July 14, 1938

Later that evening:

            Well this has been very interesting and strange.  When I stopped writing in this journal I spoke to my brothers and sisters.  They were very upset that father was marrying the Baroness. 

            "I don't think there is any way to stop him from marrying her." Friedrich said pretending to be smart.  Kurt nodded in agreement with his brother.

            "Yeah seems like we will have a witch for a Mother." He said.

            "To bad he doesn't have better taste.  He could have at least chosen somebody that is nice to us."  Friedrich continued.  As my brothers babbled about Father and the Baroness Louisa, Brigitta and I communicated through our eyes.  We were all thinking the same thing.  Brigitta was unsurprisingly the first to speak.

            "There is a way to stop father from marrying her!  We need to get Fraulein Maria to come back!"  Brigitta smile was gleaming. 

            "What would Fraulein Maria do Brigitta?  She has no power over any of that.  What would she do? Just walk up to him and start lecturing him about why he should not get married to her?" Kurt asked.  Brigitta crossed her arms and glared at her brother.  She looked up at Louisa for help.

            "Don't you see it?" Louisa asked Kurt and Friedrich. 

            "See what?" Friedrich asked her.

            "Father is in love." Louisa supplied.

            "Yeah to a witch." Kurt replied.  Brigitta stood up and yelled at him.

            "No he is not in love with the Baroness.  He is in love with Fraulein Maria.  Duh."  Brigitta rolled her eyes.

            "What makes you say that?  Father never would fall in love with her.  You girls just think too much.  You watch to many of the sappy love stories at movie theatres." Friedrich said.  I decided to defend my sisters.

            "Have you two never noticed the way those two look at each other?" I asked.

            "People look at each other everyday." Kurt said innocently.  Then I remembered I was supposed to kill my brother.  Little Brothers they are so annoying.  They just don't get it.  I rolled my eyes at him.  I was going to go into how they gaze into each other's eyes etc. when Gretl cried out. 

            "They look like they are about to kiss, every time they are together." She stated.

            "Remember when they were dancing the Laendler?  Did you see the way they were looking at each other?" I asked.  Friedrich and Kurt thought back to that night.  At last Friedrich got a smile on his face. 

            "Yea you may be right.  They did look like they were going to kiss.  To bad the baroness had to walk in."  He said.

            "If they were in love then why did Fraulein Maria leave so suddenly?" asked Marta.

            "Well there is only one way to find out." I said.  "Lets go and talk to her at the Abbey and try to get her to come back."

            "I don't think father would approve Liesl." Brigitta said.

            "Well we will tell him we went berry picking!  Lets go now so we have time to beg for her to come back." I answered.  Brigitta's face lit up.

            "If she comes back then Father will fall in love with her all over again and then…there will be no more Baroness!"  Brigitta cried.  For the first time in weeks we all had smiles on our faces.  I told them I would go and tell Father.  Friedrich came with me to ask if we could go.  He told us that we could go as long as we were home in time for dinner.  I told him that would not be a problem and we left.  We talked on the way about how wonderful life could be if this worked out.  As we neared the Abbey we all became quiet.  The building was so massive.  It towered over the city.  We went up to the gate and I rang this huge bell so the nuns would hear us.  A nun came and let us in.  Then another nun told us that Maria was in seclusion and she was not going to see anyone.  We begged and begged but the nuns walked us out and told us no.  I really do think Maria would have seen us if she was told we were there.  We were all very depressed and upset.  We walked home very slowly forgetting all about the fib we had told.  If we were happier we would have remembered our fib and at least picked a few berries.  We also probably would not have moped into our backyard.  We had no idea father was watching for us.  I tried to smile.

            "Hello Father!  We are back." I screamed.  The children tried to grin as they ran up to him. 

            "You are late, I was getting worried.  What were you doing?"  He answered.  I was stunned.  I thought we were early.

            "Umm well we were…we…well…" I kicked myself for stuttering.  Unfortunately Maria was not there to save us this time.  Father looked at us again.  We stood close together in a cluster.  He must have known something was up because usually we never stood together like that anymore.

            "It is not like my children to be umm…secretive."

            "We are not being secretive Father." Louisa answered trying to make her voice innocent.  We really had never lied to father before.  It sounds strange, but this is really the first time. 

"Mm hm. And it's not like my children to be late for dinner."  Oh dear were we really that late?

"We lost track of the time." Fredrich answered.  It was true in a way.
"Ah, I see."  He said.  We all mumbled yes.  "All right, now who's going to be the first one to tell me the truth? Friedrich? Brigitta? Liesl?"  Oh did he have to look at me last?

"Where do you think we were Father?"  I just knew he suspected something.  He answered me with an "hm?"  I continued.  "Well, if you don't believe us, you must have some idea where you think we were.  Marta began to giggle.  He saw her and asked her where we went.

"Aha! Marta!"  He said.  She looked him in the eye and asked "Yes Father?"  Father continued.  "You tell me."  Friedrich gave his approval by nodding at her.

"Friedrich told you, Father. We were berry picking." She answered.  He clapped his hands together and told us he forgot we went berry picking.  Then he asked us if we were gone all afternoon.  He was leading us on; he knew it was a lie.  We all talked at once how we picked thousands of them.  Thousands?  Oh dear big mistake on our part.  When he asked that we all started talking.

"What kind of berries?" He asked.  Without much hesitation Friedrich answered.

"Ah blueberries sir."  Blueberries?  I thought that blueberries are ready later in the summer.  Father was making yummy sound so we all joined in with nodding.  Then he stopped.

"It's, um, to early for blueberries."  Oh I knew he didn't believe us.

"They were strawberries." Friedrich answered quickly.  That might have worked.  Father asked "Strawberries?"  Friedrich continued the fib.  "It's been so cold out lately they turned blue."  Oh my, this was fatal.  He realized it and winced.  I rolled my eyes I mean come on blue strawberries.  It was not even cold today.  The worst came up next.  He asked us to show him the berries we picked.  After a ton of stuttering Kurt told him we did not have them anymore.  Father asked what happened to them.  Oh my this is one of the times when I want the Baroness to walk out here and interrupt, where is she?  With a big smile Brigitta spoke.

"We ate them!"  Father turned to us smiling.

"You ate them?" He asked.  We enthusiastically answered yes and told him how delicious they were.  He did not believe us at all. 

"Very well. Since you've obviously stuffed yourselves full of thousands of delicious berries, you can't be hungry anymore, so I'll just have to simply tell Frau Schmidt to, uh, skip your dinner."  He said.  We all frowned and sulked.  He trotted up the steps and smirked.  He knew he had won.  He knew very well that we were starving, but since we had came up with that dumb thousands of berries comment.  Kurt started to complain and soon we were all complaining about one thing or another.  Kurt was hungry.  He always is, but now he was really hungry.  If we had to wait until breakfast for food I would be hungry as well.  As of right then though my mind was thinking of Maria. 

Brigitta reminded us that when Maria wanted us to feel better she used to sing us that song.  So we decided to try it because we were all unhappy.  We sang the song very slowly.  Ever since Maria left I don't think we have sang anything quick and fast.  Gretl asked me why she didn't feel better.  It broke my heart.  I wrapped her in a hug, but I knew that was not going to make it better either.  It made me sad to think even this song could not brighten our mood a little.  There was only one thing that could.  That was Maria.  We continued to sing and soon we heard another voice singing with ours.  Brigitta looked confused.  We knew whom it sounded like.  It sounded like Maria.  We turned around hoping and wishing it was.

Running up to meet us in a green dress was Maria.  I made sure my eyes were not deceiving me or that I was not dreaming.  Then I heard the other kids shouting.  The song picked up and we ran and greeted her.