Tough Love
Part4

When the Captain returned home that night, he saw Maria staring into a pot of stew, stirring it absently, totally unaware that it was as thin as chicken soup. "Maria, Darling, exactly what is that in the pot?"

Maria lifted the ladle, "It was our supper," she sighed. "Georg, I'm so sorry. I just can't think of anything else but what happened earlier. She's 20 years old, Georg! She's a woman, our son is not a boy, but he's hardly a man…and she is a woman! He was carousing around with her, getting into mischief. Heaven knows what might have happened if the deputy didn't realize he was truant!"

The Captain slid his arms around Maria's middle and held her closer to him from behind. "Did you speak to him at all?"

"No," she replied honestly. "I decided to wait for you. I don't know what to say to him, Georg. It was one thing when I was his governess, I felt I had your authority but now…I'm the stepmother." She wrinkled her nose.

"Maria," the Captain replied with a raise of one eyebrow. "You are hardly a "stepmother" to the children, you are their mother, they have all accepted that, even Friedrich."

"I just didn't know what to say," Maria admitted. "It's one thing when it's one of the girls, I've been a girl, I know what to say about getting your period, having a first crush, getting a run in your stocking in front of the boys, but this…" She shook her head. "Even if we do discipline him, he just ignores us anyway. He's been skipping school; we know he is failing out when he is there. I don't know what to do."

The Captain leaned back against the wall and shut his eyes. He had been a teen boy, he had been defiant and rebellious, a few years in the Navy shocked that out of him, but he wasn't sure if that was the way for his son. "I've led him here, Maria," he finally said. "I taught him how to hide, I taught him how to mask his emotions so thoroughly even he doesn't know what he's thinking. I know that this is my fault, I know that, but I don't know what to do either. I talk to him, I try to just let him have a little bit of lead, but I don't know if my words are reaching him or not. I have no idea."

Maria turned off the stove. There was no saving that stew. "So, what do we do? Do we just let things go and see what happens? Do we ground him again and try to force him to do what we ask him to…"

"No," the Captain replied quickly. "I don't know what TO do, but I know what not to do. Being too forceful and stern got us here, got me here…I think we make a firm line in the sand regarding his attendance at school and church until he pulls his grades up, but we have no way to enforce that. We have seven other kids, six of whom are still young and need us to supervise them and help them. I have my work, that's not something that can be sacrificed. I wish I could follow him everywhere and be everywhere he is but I can't, we can't."

A squabble in the girls' room drew their attention then and proved the Captain's point. All of their energy could not be focused in one place, they had limited time and limited resources. The Captain went to settle the dispute between his youngest two girls while Maria poured the ruined stew out and found some left over roast to carve up for sandwiches. She planned to use the bread for the girls' lunches so now she'd have to bake a loaf herself to replace what she'd purchased that day.

When the Captain returned he sat on one of the kitchen stools and started absentmindedly assembling sandwiches. "Sean mentioned to me he's needing help at the dairy," he said after a while. "Sean was a logger before he married Mary Kate, he's tough but fair. Perhaps we tell Friedrich he has to accept a position after school and on weekends and any money he does earn he can keep after he tithes his 10%. Keep him constructive, he can learn the dairy business, it's a good trade around here if schooling isn't for him."

"It's hard work, Georg," Maria replied. "But I think it's worth the chance. Perhaps we can go over tonight and speak to Sean about it. I doubt Mary Kate will be putting up with too much disagreeable behavior either."

The Captain nodded once again feeling lighter inside now there was a battle plan.

To their amazement, Friedrich responded favorably to the idea of working for Sean O'Brien at the dairy and as Thanksgiving approached, he even took to spending more time at church helping with food baskets. It seemed to the Captain and Maria that his problems were turning themselves around with a little bit of tough love.

Whenever they could be involved, they were. The Captain took Friedrich to school and watched him go inside before making the other drop offs. Sean often retrieved Friedrich from town while on his errands. That's why when Sean brought Friedrich home one afternoon in mid-December pushing the boy by the back of the shirt, Maria and the Captain both reacted with surprise.

"I'm sorry, Georg," Sean said as he handed the unruly teen off to his father. "But I just can't do it anymore." Sean's brogue was thickened by his frustration and the Captain had to listen especially closely to understand him given his own English was accented as well.

"What's happened?" the Captain asked firmly. "Come inside. Maria, take the children into the back room, and shut the door."

Maria wanted to protest, to insist on being included in this but she knew it would take her firm control to keep curious ears from pressing against the door or curious eyes from peering around corners. "Let's go, Brigitta," Maria encouraged softly.

The Captain offered Sean a whisky, but her turned it down. The Captain only had to be a few feet from Friedrich to realize the boy smelled like a distillery. "He's been drinking over at your place?"

"Not regularly," Sean replied. "He's been tipsy a time or two before this, but the last three days he's been there…one's been worse than the other. Today, well…when Mary Kate corrected him for showing disrespect he…The liquor got his blood up and I just won't tolerate anyone man or boy talking to my wife that way."

The Captain took a deep breath, "Friedrich, go to your room, please."

"But Father!" the boy protested, the liquor's potent odor magnified as he spoke.

"No buts, no ifs, no nothing," the Captain replied. "Go to your room now."

The Captain turned his attention back to Sean, "I am so sorry, Sean. Truly I am. Is Mary Kate all right?"

Sean laughed, "She's fine, honestly, I'm not sure who I'm protecting by letting Friedrich go, him or Mary Kate. When she gets riled…that red head of her's is no lie."

The Captain smiled at the younger man, "My Maria is the same way. When she gets angry about something…she's let me have it plenty of times, but if anyone speaks against her or hurts her in anyway. I do understand and I cannot apologize enough. You have been good friends to us."

"We still are good friends, Georg," Sean assured him. "He's got a problem your boy. I know. I've been there. First, it's the cigarettes, then it's the drink, next he's so out of control you can barely recognize him."

"I barely recognize him now," the Captain murmured, half to Sean and half to himself. "Thank you again."

"If you be needing anything, sitters for the girls, time alone with Maria, you let us know?"

The Captain nodded as Sean took his leave.

When Maria saw Sean's car drive off, she left Liesl in charge of the children and stepped back into the kitchen. The Captain was sitting on the stool by the kitchen counter his head in his hands in defeat. Maria moved slowly to her husband's side. "What is it, Georg? What's happened now?"

"Drinking," he replied. "Apparently more than once and apparently our son is mean drunk because he was rude and disrespectful to Mary Kate. Sean said it's happened before but today he crossed the line and…We're back at square one."

"Georg," Maria began gently reached out to touch her husband's shoulder. "What if we just sat him down and told him how his choices are effecting this family, maybe…"

"We don't do things like that, Maria," he sighed. "Besides, it won't work. He'd have to care about the family first and he doesn't. I think the best thing for me to do is pack him a bag, put him in the car, and send him off to the first naval recruiting station I can find."

"But Georg, he's just a boy, he's not old enough…"

"He is if I sign for him," the Captain replied. "If you have any other ideas I'm all ears, but this is the only thing I think might get through to him. We must remove him from the situation, the stressors…When we would have a seaman that was acting up onboard ship, we'd transfer him by the first means of advance, change the environment, get him away from the triggers. We live near his new friend and her influence is overshadowing ours."

Maria's eyes filled with tears, "No, Georg. No. You can't do this, I'm not going to let you do this. He's struggling, but we are his parents it's up to us to fix this problem, not some drill sergeant somewhere. I am begging you please."

The Captain looked at his wife's face. She wasn't a crier, he couldn't recall her crying more than a handful of times, even when she was pregnant with Henry tears were few and far between. The tears on her face grabbed at his heart. "All right," he sighed. "All right, we'll think of something else for now. We'll talk to him tonight, sit him down like you said. Don't cry. Don't cry."

The Captain eased his arms around Maria and held her close. He bit the inside of his cheek to hold back his own tears. He closed his eyes and prayed to St. Michael for guidance and strength. The tender embrace was broken when Louisa tentatively stepped out of the back room with Henry in her arms. "Mother, I'm sorry but I think he's hungry."

Henry was crying and chewing on the sleeve of his little shirt. Maria nodded and took the little boy into her arms. Fixing his tears would be easy, fixing what was breaking inside their family would be impeccably hard.

When the girls went to sleep and Kurt was set up on a cot in the back room, the Captain and Maria went to the boys' room to speak to Friedrich. He was starting to feel the effects of his overindulgence and only listened to his parents' pleas with half an ear. He fully intended to keep doing what he wanted to do. The faster they wrote him off the better he'd feel, he decided. He was done with school, done with church, done with the family singing in the parlor, he was done with it all. He was his own person; he was separate and apart.

When the Captain firmly stated that if he insisted on marching to his own drum, he would have to pay them room and board, get his own job, his own transportation….He set a limit of 30 days for compliance before he would make good on his thought to enlist Friedrich in the American Navy.

It was killing both of them from the inside out to watch their son floundering so much trying to get his footing in life, but the Captain insisted they hold fast. They had tried everything else. In the first week of this tactic Maria shed more tears than in the years she had been a postulant and married combined. There was such a coldness in the house.

As the Christmas holidays drew closer, Maria resolved that she would try to bring some joy and cheer to the heavily ladened atmosphere that was their home. It was their first Christmas in that house, and she wanted to make it special.

She was encouraged when Friedrich agreed to go with Kurt and Georg to get a tree for them to decorate. While the men were out on the hunt, she made popcorn balls with the girls along with garland rings and snowflake ornaments. They sang while they worked, the house feeling harmonious for the first time in a long time.

When the men returned, they had the perfect tree. It fit in front of the window across from the large fireplace in the family room, just where Maria imagined it when they bought the house. After the Captain hung the lights, he went to the piano to play while the children put the rest of the decorations on the tree. It was then Friedrich moved to get his coat.

Maria's heart fell, she's wanted so much to have this day as a family. She moved to the door, "Friedrich, I would appreciate it if you stayed here with us tonight and helped with the decorations."

"I went out to get the thing, that's not enough?" he asked with an edge on his voice.

"I know and we were all so happy that you wanted to do that," Maria replied standing between Friedrich and the door. "I don't want you to go tonight, please stay here with your family."

Friedrich tried to push his way to the door. The Captain had risen from the piano bench and moved towards them. Liesl closed as well, "I don't want you to go either, Friedrich," she said hoping her intervention would take some of the charge out of the air.

"Who's going to stop me?" the boy challenged as he began to feel penned in.

"I'll stop you," the Captain warned in a low growl.

"Georg, please!" Maria begged. "Stop." She didn't want this to escalate any further, but her stubborn streak was winning over her reasonable one for the moment. As Friedrich moved to pull on the doorknob Maria pressed it closed. "I said you're staying here." Her hand moved to his arm to push him back.

It wasn't clear how it happened, only that it did. Friedrich moved to shake Maria's hold off his arm with a strength fueled by his own inner rage. The back of his hand made firm contact with the side of her cheek sending her small body flying into the coat rack by the door with a resounding thud.