Tough Love
Part 3

The girls kept up the chatter at the supper table that night. They talked and laughed as if nothing was going on out of the ordinary in their world. Marta reported two of her school friends were interested in taking music lessons from Maria, something she was starting as side work to supplement their family. Georg was pleased, he knew Maria had a gift and sharing it brough her nothing but joy. Friedrich remained quiet, nodding if he was addressed directly nothing more. Liesl noticed but kept her tongue, Brigitta well…she had inherited all of her father's grit without his art subtly.

"What's bothering you?" she asked her brother as they gathered in the family room after the meal was over. Friedrich tried to escape to his room, but Maria fixed him with a point-blank stare so he plopped on the sofa to brood in company.

"Nothing, I just don't want to sit around singing songs that don't make any sense anymore," he replied.

"That's not the reason," Brigitta replied. "It's probably because Mother or Father caught you smoking with those guys by the candy store, what are their names? Craig and Tony…Father would never approve of you being friends with them."

The Captain's ear perked up, but he took a breath. He had set a bad example for Friedrich in his most formative years, escaping to drinking, smoking, and unsupervised encounters with Elsa. Maria warned him, Friedrich wanted to be a man just like his father. Well, he was doing a pretty good job of becoming everything the Captain loathed about himself.

When it was time for Henry to go to bed, the Captain had the perfect excuse to escape the room. "I'll put him down tonight, Darling," he told Maria. "I missed playing with him last night." He took the infant from her lap and carried him off, bouncing him up and down as he went to the small nursery.

After changing Henry's diaper and putting him into a clean outfit, the Captain sat in the rocking chair with his son on his lap. The little boy looked up at his father with wide blue eyes filled with admiration and the purest form of love. "I'm going to make it different for you," the Captain promised. "I'm going to let you be who you are, and I'm going to show you all of the good about who I am. I'm going to be a good father to you, I'm going to learn from my mistakes."

Liesl had been passing the room on her way to visit the bathroom and heard her father's voice. The pitch was a bit higher, the tone very tight, like it had been as they stood on the stage in Salzburg singing "Edelweiss" and "So Long Farewell" to their country. Something had happened the night before. She knew her father was struggling since the move to America, but he had seemed better the last few months. Now…And she knew somewhere deep down it had nothing to do with leaving home.

Liesl tucked the worry away for further contemplation. The Captain was unaware any of his children overheard his whispered words. Henry fussed in his arms, so desperately tired but fighting sleep. "It's all right," the Captain whispered. "Papa's gonna make it all right. You close your little eyes now. Papa is here."

Henry's weight grew as the baby relaxed against his father's chest. Very carefully, the Captain laid the little boy down in his crib. The child didn't stir as the Captain pulled back his hands to step away. "Good night, my sweet boy. Pleasant dreams."

Henry's bedtime had taken close to an hour between his diaper, rocking, and falling asleep. The Captain took a deep breath before leaving the room. He needed to change his ways for this little boy. He could not allow his heart to close; he could not teach him to cope by drinking whiskey, smoking tobacco, or anything else. He had to teach him to love, to feel…Kurt had escaped most of his failures, he was too young for it to stick, and Liesel was as resilient as both of her mothers. It was Friedrich he'd failed. He would do what he could to make it up.

That decision seemed to bring the Captain to a lighter mood. When he returned to the family room, he sat at the piano and played a few songs that were coming up in America from the sheet music Louisa had bought with her butter and egg money. By the end of the evening, the crushing weight in his chest had lessened the way it always did when he set his mind to something.

After the last of the children had gone to bed, the Captain went to the drawer of the end table where he kept his cigarettes and pulled them out. "Georg," Maria sighed looking at them. "Do you have to, Sweetheart? I'd rather us just go to bed."

"We will, my love," he replied. "I just have a few things I need to get rid of while my mind is set on it."

"Get rid of?" Maria had been trying to get her husband to stop smoking since she'd met him, but so many men did it, especially in America that it was almost a way for him to fit in.

"Yes," the Captain replied. "I realized putting Henry to bed I spend too much of my life coping with things, good or bad, by smoking or drinking or some other thing I'm not proud of doing. I realized I inadvertently taught those bad habits to my sons. I have another son to raise now, Maria, and I will not make those mistakes again."

Maria shut her eyes as the Captain tossed the cigarettes, matches, and ashtray in the garbage can. "I'll keep the whiskey for medicinal or recreational use," he told her. "Now, we should go to bed. You have that meeting after church about the music lessons and I think it will be good for you to bring as much music to the world as you can."

The Captain slid his arms around his wife and kissed her deeply. "But for tonight…we can make a little music of our own, can't we? Very very quietly…" The words were peppered by kisses as Maria melted into his arms.

Their love making was slow, almost painfully so, and quiet as the Captain continually silenced his bride with his lips. When it was done and they lay spent in one another's arms, Maria traced circles across the Captain's chest. "Georg…I…" she began but he silenced her once again. "Don't talk right now, Maria, please. Let's just…lay here, let's just lay here and forget the world."

Maria laid her head on her husband's chest as he silently stroked her body with his fingertips. It was the second time in as many days he'd asked her to be silent when she felt the need to speak of difficult things, but she held her tongue, she wanted to be what he needed right now and if that was a silent supporter, she would be that for him.

Through the night, Maria was awakened by her husband's caress. It seemed he couldn't get enough of her body that night. It was another sleepless night for him, and that worried her, but they needed this special connection more than anything else.

The Captain was in a bright mood the next morning and sang with all of his heart in church. When the Mass was ended, he kept the children entertained as Maria spoke with two families about music lessons and kept a firm eye on Liesl who, in that last couple of weeks, attracted the attention of a young American man. She spoke with him easily, smiling, even laying a hand on his arm. The sickening feeling he'd had previously when Liesl was being courted wasn't there this time around. That scared him more than anything.

Sunday was peaceful in the von Trapp house, a time for music, reading, and a radio hour. Friedrich didn't participate, he spent time in his room. Maria wanted to pursue it, but the Captain advised her to let him stew a bit, after all, he had to invite Lucinda over the following day. That would be nerve wracking for any young man under any circumstances never mind these embarrassing ones. "He shuts off just like I do," the Captain told her. "He gets it from me, and I didn't teach him any different. Let it be."

Maria did let it be, for four days. Friedrich didn't mention Lucinda coming to have dinner at the house and he didn't try to sneak off or stay out later either. Perhaps the invitation had put an end to the infatuation.

Maria was about to write it off that way when it all started to come loose. She and Liesl had gone into town to do some shopping for their Sunday meal and to pick up the new shoes Marta required as she had grown out of her old ones. Maria was pushing Henry in the stroller as Liesl carried the bags. As they passed the corner café, Liesl drew Maria's attention away from an advertisement in the children's store window to two young people and a sheriff's deputy on the side of the road. "Mother, isn't that Friedrich?"

Maria turned and followed Liesl's gaze. It was indeed Friedrich with a very worldly looking girl or woman truth be told and a county sheriff's deputy. Maria turned toward them and hurried across the street holding on to the stroller tightly.

"Is that illegal?" she heard Friedrich ask.

"It is son when you are out on the streets causing a menace before school lets out. Unless of course you are with a parent or an adult approved by your parents," the deputy instructed.

"Excuse me," Maria piped up leaving the stroller a few steps behind with Liesl. "I'm his mother."

Just as Maria said this, Lucinda was responding to the deputy's comment about being with an adult. "I'm 20, Deputy."

"She's 20!" Liesl's eyebrows shot up at the revelation.

"And she does not have my approval, nor my husbands," Maria grated out. "Are you going to arrest him?"

The deputy looked at Maria, the woman's face was ashen. It was pretty clear that she had no idea what was going on. "Is your husband at work?" the deputy asked.

"Yes," Maria replied. "Yes, he is. I don't want to bother him at work. He's very busy right now, there is important work…"

"I'm not supposed to release a minor to anyone but the father," the deputy replied. "But since you seem to be new to the area and this is his first time in trouble with me, I'll send him home with you and overlook the citation this time."

Maria breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Sir," she rushed with gratitude, then turned toward Friedrich, her eyes hardening with anger and humiliation. She took him firmly by the upper arm and in her best Fraulein Maria style voice ordered, "Home now…"

Friedrich tried to pull back, but the deputy fixed him with a stern glare. He knew it was this or jail, at least until the Captain could come get him. He followed Maria back across the road and to the bus stop without a word.