Author's Notes: The Sound of Music is owned by 20th Century Fox.
Chapter Two - Fired!
The morning had started off quite differently at the Von Trapp Villa. While Maria had been soundly asleep at the convent, the children were already up and awake still quite excited about the party from the evening before.
"Marta, Marta … look at me!" yelled Gretl gleefully, as she danced around the room, pretending to do a waltz in her nightgown. Marta joined her in her playful shenanigans, and soon enough the two of them had fallen down giggling after spinning around in circles, when Liesl opened their bedroom door.
"Come on girls, no messing around. You need to start getting ready before we miss breakfast!" chided Liesl.
"But where's Fraulein Maria? How come she's not getting us ready?" asked Marta.
"I don't know where she is … she's just not here … quickly …" responded Liesl as she walked to the wardrobe and got out their clothes for the day.
"Maybe she slept in, or something …" replied Gretl, as she struggled when getting her nightgown over her head.
"Who knows? But I hope father won't make her leave if she's late to breakfast!" said Marta, bending down to buckle up the sandals she'd slipped onto her feet.
Gretl laughed. Liesl smiled tenderly at them both. Preparing the young girls was no trouble for her, they never complained.
Once the girls' hair had been brushed and tied, and the room cleaned a little, Gretl, Marta and Liesl joined their brothers and sisters as they all raced down to the dining room. Somehow, decorum had long since been forgotten.
"Good morning, father!" they all cried happily, almost in unison, as they took their places at the table. Their father sat there in stony silence. Baroness Schraeder, as well as Uncle Max – no doubt still suffering from the previous night's effects of champagne and fine food – were not present for the early morning gathering.
Disregarding the others' absence, and placing her napkin neatly on her lap, Brigitta, in all innocence asked, "Father, where's Fraulein Maria? She wasn't in her room. Isn't she coming for breakfast?"
The Captain, not lifting his eyes off a piece of paper he seemed so intently studying simply said, "No, she's not."
Amused to almost disbelief by this, Kurt stated, "Well, she's sure going to be hungry by lunchtime!"
"Isn't she feeling well?" asked Louisa.
Finally lifting his eyes off the small piece of paper, the Captain replied with a sigh, "I don't know, Louisa." Then looking at his children carefully, he continued, "All I do know is that she won't be joining us for breakfast this morning … or any other morning, for that matter."
By the tone of his voice, Brigitta noticed there was something wrong, "What do you mean, Father?"
"Maria's left," he said bluntly. "She's gone back to the convent."
The children's jaws almost dropped to the floor as they looked at each other in absolute shock horror. Marta leant over to Gretl and whispered in her ear, "See, Father must have made her leave because she was late for breakfast!"
Seeing the children's shocked faces and hearing their muted whispers, the Captain responded with a somewhat stern, "That's enough!" With this exclamation, the cook came out and served breakfast, and the family began consuming their meal in total silence.
Playing with her napkin lying across her skirt, and being unable to eat, Brigitta, overcoming her fear, picked up enough courage and turned to the Captain and asked, "What happened, Father?"
The Captain put down his cup of tea and returned the teaspoon to the sugar bowl. "She wanted to go back to the Abbey." Then waiving the piece of paper he'd set beside his plate, somewhat angrily, he said, "She left a note. That's it."
"When did she leave?" asked Fredrich.
"I assume it was last night," replied the Captain, "she didn't join us for dinner, either."
Louisa looked down at her toast, covered in tasty jam, and pushed it aside. "I don't believe it …" she whispered, stating aloud what they all were probably thinking.
Brigitta, feeling a wave of emotion beginning to overcome her, asked if she could be excused from the table. "Can I too, Father?" asked Marta. "Me too?" followed Gretl. In a matter of almost five minutes, the table was vacated, making that the shortest breakfast together in the history of the family Von Trapp! Only the Captain and Liesl remained.
Liesl, sat stirring her cup of tea, even though in reality there was only but a mouthful left in the cup. Drawing her out of her contemplative state, she heard her Father's voice: "Liesl, did you know anything about this?"
"About what, Father?" replied Liesl, a little stunned by his straightforward question.
"About Fraulein Maria leaving? You've been quiet all morning. Liesl?" he continued.
"No … well I … no, not really." There was something about the way she answered that the Captain knew his daughter was withholding information from him.
"Liesl?"
"No, Father … I didn't know she was going to leave. Everything seemed to be fine last night. She and I put the younger ones to bed, and I was almost ready for bed when I went back to her room to talk about … well, to talk … and she wasn't there anymore. I just thought she must have gone back downstairs to rejoin the party."
"Hhmmm …" sighed the Captain.
Not wanting to say anymore, for fear of getting into trouble, Liesl quietly said, "Father, I'd better go and check on the others. May I leave the table?"
"Yes," replied the Captain. "Well, that's that." He thought to himself.
As she got up from the table, taking her emptied plate with her, Liesl slowly turned around and gently tapped her father on the shoulder, as if she couldn't keep her thoughts to herself anymore. "Father?" she asked.
"Yes, darling?"
"I … I do know more," Liesl confided.
This got the Captain's attention.
Liesl continued, "I went to Fraulein Maria's room, as I said, and she wasn't there. So I then walked down the hallway to have a look over the balcony – I only wanted to see what everyone was doing," she said with a smile.
The Captain sat alertly listening to all his daughter told him. Then going on she said, "As I looked over the balcony, well, I saw her leaving through the front door. I wasn't going to call after her to make a scene in front of everyone … then I assumed she must have … or you must have … uuummm …"
"I had what?" questioned the Captain.
"Maybe, you had fired her?"
Upset by this thought, he waived his daughter off, "Thank you, Liesl." Liesl again picked up her plate and sadly walked off towards the kitchen. For what seemed the hundreth time, the Captain reached for the note beside his plate, tenderly picked it up and in a melancholy whisper re-read the handwritten script:
Dear Captain Von Trapp,
For reasons that cannot be explained, I must leave to return to the Abbey. I miss my life there and need to go back. I truly believe this to be God's will for my life. I trust you will be able to find a replacement for my position soon enough. I apologise for any inconvenience I may have caused you.
Say goodbye to the children for me.
And remember, please love them … love them all.
Yours sincerely,
Maria Rainer
Author's Note: Feel free to comment, readers. I'd love to know what your thoughts and feelings are, as this is my first FanFiction. Please enjoy!