Yay! I finished another chapter! And the next one gets to be Friedrich/Adelaide based again:)

And I got Darling Lili out of the DVD player!

Enjoy...

CHAPTER TEN

"I'm sure you'd like to hear some happy memories from my childhood…"

"I'd like to know that at least some of your childhood was happy, my dear, but I'll always be with you through everything."

Maria smiled, thinking back to when she was twelve.

A young girl stood outside a shop, nose pressed to the window, holding a cigar box in her hand. She was gazing fondly at an acoustic guitar hanging in the window.

"Are you sure that's what you'd like to spend it on?" A slightly familiar sandy haired man asked his sister.

"Positive. It's only what I've been saving for for years." The girl replied, gesturing towards the cigar box that we learn is filled with her life savings.

"That was when I bought my guitar…I was about twelve. I was obsessed with it. Hank was my teacher, the mountains our classroom. My brother was very patient, and he taught me all the chords and things."

"I'm sure he didn't need much patience, you must have picked it up quickly, with your musical talents…" Georg defended Maria against herself.

"You'd be surprised, Captain…"

"What's G Chord again?"

Hank sighed, once again positioning the fingers of his sister's left hand on the proper frets. "Try and remember this time."

Maria scowled at him, "It's hard!"

Hank laughed, remembering when he learned to play, and conceded to his sister's opinion, "Yes, at first it is. But it gets easier."

"He eventually taught me theory and notes…"

"This is called sheet music, Maria. Each one of these black circles corresponds to a note on guitar. That way people can learn music without figuring it all out by ear."

"But it looks so confusing…"

"It's easier in the long run. Let me see how I can make it easier for you…" Hank picked up his guitar, strumming absentmindedly. "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with?"

"ABC?"

"When you sing you being with Do Re Mi…"

"And he discovered my singing voice. I think I was about thirteen."

"Maria, I don't think I've ever heard you sing." Her brother remarked thoughtfully one lazy summer afternoon that they were spending in the mountains.

"Well, I don't sing very often. I can't think of the last time I did."

"Sing our song for me."

"The Sound of Music?" Skepticism was laced through her voice. Sure, she could play chords on guitar, but sing

"Yes."

"Here goes nothing." She said, picking up her guitar, she sang the song through, not too confident in her ability to succeed. She stopped after the first chorus when she noticed her brother's mouth hanging wide open.

"What? Am I that bad?" She inquired, slightly offended.

"My goodness, anything but! It's a sin I didn't ask you to sing before now. Keep going, please!"

Georg interrupted here, "Didn't you sing at church?"

Maria was slightly startled, as she had been in her own world, so it took her a minute to reply.

"I didn't attend church until I was fourteen. My uncle was an atheist, but my brother always tried to get me to attend services. He finally convinced me to go once…"

"Are you doing this because you want to, or to spite your uncle?" Hank asked, searching his sister's face carefully.

"What do you think?" The girl replied, the question reeking of faked innocence.

Hank sighed, knowing the answer. "And I try so hard."

"What would you do if you lived with someone like that?"

Hank thought a minute, "Seek refuge in the bible and Christ's teachings."

"What's sad is I laughed at his comment then. Mocked it. I didn't realize how right he was until after that service."Maria reflected on her youthful reactions.

"You what?" Her uncle asked for clarification on his niece's whereabouts that morning.

"I attended church." She replied innocently, knowing he would think it sinful. She really had realized what she was missing though. It seemed so reassuring…

"That's what I thought you said."

Our favorite young woman, growing up in the middle of all of these conflicting opinions, somehow still knew the correct path. "Yes. That's where I was. And I'll never be the same again. You should go uncle!"

The last line was the mistake. Maria was forcibly hurled towards the closed door of the closet; lucky that she didn't go through it.

"You have had the most interesting, full, hectic and yet in some ways awful life of anyone I know." Georg said in awe, finding Maria's life story to be amazing now that he was hearing it.

"I was blessed." She said simply. "I didn't realize quite how blessed my life was until recently. And you're the one with the interesting, full life."

"So I shot down a couple ships. Maria, you have made it through much more than I have. At least you had your brother." He added the last part as an after thought.

"Well, I did. But he was also what influenced me to leave my uncle."

"How did he do that?"

"He died."

It's a disgusting, blustery, grey day. Thunder can be heard from a distance. A young woman dressed in a modest, black dress is half kneeling, half sprawled out and sobbing in front of a gravestone. A gravestone marked Henry Kutschera.

Suddenly, the young woman is yanked up by her wrist to a standing position by a gruff, older man. "Come on, it's time to go home."

The young lady spares one glance backwards as she is tugged along behind her uncle. She whistles a mournful tune until her uncle jerks her.

"Stop that infernal noise!"

She pulls away, enraged. "No! No." Taking a deep breath, she continues. "That was Hank and my song. It seems to me you weren't a very good uncle to him. I don't think you knew one thing about him. That was our way of saying goodbye. Now I'll sing it to you." She turns around, singing as she leaves.

The man scoffs, laughing. "You, you can't mean your leaving. Where in heaven's name will you go? You won't last one day, and you'll come crying back."

Her song stops. "You'll never see me again." And her melodic soprano voice hit two more notes of goodbye before he never heard from her again.

"And that's how I left him." Maria concluded.

"Do you know what happened to him?" Georg inquired.

"Yes, actually…He's in an asylum now." She simply said it, the amount of sympathy that would be there for another person wasn't quite there, but there was some empathy. "I feel bad for him."

"How do you do it, my love? You are the only person I know who could be so mistreated by a person, and yet forgive them so simply." The empathy that was in her voice wasn't lost on Georg. "How did you ever bear his treatment towards you?"

"I simply thought of nice things."

"You'll have to teach me." Georg replied, his voice in a low octave and a naughty, lustful look on his face.

"I may take you up on that one, Captain." Maria replied, grabbing his hand and pulling him in the direction of their room.

Hopefully the whole holiday thing isn't getting old...

I'm sorry. I feel SO terribly bad, but I simply don't have time to write back to your reviews this chapter...I'll write back to all of them on the next!The replies for this chapter will be the begining, before the chapter.

Thank you so much for the positive feedback, and I'm sorry I couldn't reply!