~ Chapter 3 ~

Georg shook his head in surprise at the sudden change. He walked up to the window and stared outside at the moon, thinking of what he had just witnessed.

The children seemed happy, but they obviously still missed Maria very much.

Again, the feeling of a certain wrongness crept up on the Captain.

And Elsa … she was obviously not happy, either.

Agathe had sent these spirits to guide him in his decisions, as she had put it. They certainly make me think, he thought, raising his eyebrows at the moon.

He considered going to bed, but decided against it. He wouldn't be able to sleep, knowing a third spirit would be visiting him. Instead, he sat down on a chair by the window and stared into the darkness of his bedroom, deep in thought.

He must have dozed off, for a soft sound startled him from his sleep.

He snapped his head up and for a moment thought that Gretl and Marta had wandered into his bedroom.

"What are you…" he began, but as his eyes focused on the small shapes, he saw that they were not his daughters.

Two little girls, one blonde, one dark, stood arm in arm in front of him. They had large, sparkling eyes and their long, loose hair and white gowns seemed to billow in a wind which Georg could not feel. These two little girls were also wearing wreaths of holly, convincing Georg that they represented the last of his predicted visitors.

"We are the Ghost of Christmas yet to Come," they whispered, their voices soft, but in perfect unison.

"We will show you what is yet to be. Come with us and learn."

The girls turned around and walked through the bedroom door, which had inexplicably opened.

Georg followed them, but as he stepped through the doorframe he did not walk into the corridor outside his bedroom, but through a curtain of bright light which led into the salon – again.

Another Christmas scene unfolded in front of the Captain's eyes. There was a Christmas tree in the salon again, but the children's self-made ornaments were missing. Even though the tree was pretty, it lacked – [I]personality,[/I] the Captain thought with a wry smile.

Glancing around, he noticed himself, Elsa, and the children. The atmosphere reminded him rather of the first scene he'd witnessed tonight and he looked closer. The children all looked a little older. This must be next year's Christmas, the Captain thought.

But wait – there were only eight people in the room. Examining the group again, the Captain noticed that Louisa was missing.

He walked closer, wanting to hear the conversation.

"Why would I want a French dictionary for Christmas?" Kurt whispered to his brother. "It's not even as if I like French… "

"Well, maybe it's a hint to make you study harder," Friedrich muttered back to him. "At least you got something you didn't have yet. I got a tennis racket, and I already have two."

"Well maybe that was a hint for you to get better at tennis. You're terrible," Kurt shot back.

The Captain of this future Christmas shot an annoyed look at his two sons.

"You can show a little gratitude toward your mother. She tried very hard to get nice presents for all of you," he warned. And reaching for the hand of the Baroness, he said, "Didn't you, darling?" He shot a slightly apologetic smile at her.

At the word 'mother', the children all exchanged glum glances.

Georg, looking on, was surprised to hear the word at first. Then, he realised that of course, he was married to the Baroness and the children would call her 'mother'. It did not seem to fit. He looked at himself closer. The Captain in the vision was holding his wife's hand, but instead of the loving, warm look that was supposed to go with true marital bliss, the only thing that was in the eyes of this Captain was worry.

"Well," said the Baroness, getting up and making an effort to produce a smile.

"How about we play a game? It's Christmas after all, we should all be joyful!"

Liesl tried to be polite and asked the Baroness what game she would like to play, but the boys whispered to each other behind their hands again.

"Joyful?! Some Christmas this is," complained Kurt.

"No wonder Louisa stayed at school for the holiday. I should have listened to her and done the same. Anything would have been better than this, " agreed Friedrich.

Again, the Captain listened in surprise. Boarding school? He had wanted the best education for his children, but he had never considered sending them away from home to a boarding school.

He looked on for a little while longer, watching as Marta went to fetch a pack of playing cards from the library. When she came back, his future self, the Baroness, Liesl, Marta and Gretl started playing a game he did not know. Apparently, the Baroness didn't know it very well either, because she kept making mistakes and nervously apologizing. The Captain reassured her that it was fine, but he was obviously not feeling at ease with the situation. He kept shooting annoyed looks at Friedrich and Kurt, who'd bluntly refused to play and were sitting in silence on the sofa, and at Brigitta, who had her face hidden in a book and was off in a world of her own.

"This can't be right," the Captain whispered, turning around to look for the two girl spirits.

They were standing right behind him. He looked at them in bewilderment. "This is not right, is it?" he repeated, urgently.

The girls looked at him with those big eyes and nodded with serious faces.

"This is the future of the path you are on. Change your path, and you can change your future," they said, their voices as one.

"So you mean this is just one possible future?" Georg pressed on, staring at the girls. They did not speak, but nodded at him in silence.

The Captain turned back to glance at the scene again. But as he did, he saw that everyone was gone – and he was looking at his own bed in the dark of his bedroom.

A while later, as he lay in bed, he repeated the events of this curious night in his head. His eyes had been opened. The road he was taking was the wrong one. The future he had seen could not make him, or his children, happy.

Again, the memory came back to him of dancing with Maria. He felt a smile form on his lips as he thought of her, and he began to realise what he had failed to acknowledge before: he was in love with Maria, and she with him. But he had seen something else in Maria's eyes that evening.

She was afraid. Was that why she had left? Maria must have felt that it was not her place to fall in love with a Baron, her employer even, that she betrayed the task she felt had been bestowed upon her by God, and not knowing what else to do, she ran.

The Captain thought about this for a while. Even if he now realised what he wanted, he still was not sure about what Maria wanted. But he had to try. He felt that his happiness, and the completion of his family were in her hands. He had no choice but to ask her to be part of his future, as his wife, the mother to his children. And no matter what her answer would be, he knew there would be no place in his future for Elsa.

And while he lay thinking about the order in which to take the appropriate actions in the morning, sleep finally came over Captain von Trapp.