Untouched

by augiesannie

Rilke wrote, "For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the work for which all other work is but preparation." In flight from a dark and dangerous world, bound together by circumstance, but kept apart by private burdens of pain, regret and sorrow, can Maria and Georg find their way to each other?

13. INTERMEZZO: AN EXTENDED AN

AN EXTENDED A/N: SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT OUR HERO AND HEROINE.

Don't worry. I've also just posted the next chapter, which you can go read right away if you can't wait. But I was inspired by some reviewers (not bothered, just inspired, I love dishing about my stories) to address some concerns and questions that have arisen about Georg's and Maria's behavior in this story. You can skip this note, you can read it later, or you can read it now.

This is my 32nd TSOM fic, not counting four unpublished pieces, and I've learned that at some point, you develop a core sense of the two main characters that can't and won't change very much. (or maybe they would with a better writer!)

My Georg is a Dark Captain, not a hearts and flowers guy. As my pal lemacd puts it, he's not a Disney prince. Think about that blazingly intense gazebo moment in the film. "Oh, my love," he murmurs. A world of feels in three words and it wouldn't be half as effective if he then ran around singing, oh, I don't know, a whole song called "Maria." (Wait, nvm, that was West Side Story). He's experienced great loss and trauma and has developed certain ways to deal with it. We will learn more about Georg in the remaining chapters (why is it that no matter how many chapters I write, there are always three more chapters? It's like some kind of Greek myth). But, like Maria in the film, I can't make him something he's not. He'll always be arrogant, stubborn and most comfortable with the kind of feelings that stay below the waist.

And my Maria, yes, she's spunky and independent minded, but come on. She's half his age, completely unworldly, bombarded by all kinds of emotions and sensations she's been raised not to feel. Just listen to her in 'Confidence.' The person singing that song is anything but confident; there's a frantic edge to it and the lyrics make no sense. In her own way, Maria is as confused and fearful as her Captain, although she reacts differently. The film opens with her running away; the first act closes with her running away, and come to think of it, she's running away at the end, too, but that's different.

So, yes, my Georg cannot even begin to understand what he thinks about Maria, but his default option is, well, you know, lust. And while Maria can push back at him in some respects, when she's up against that kind of crazy, she can't work miracles.

They will need me for that!

Now go read the next chapter.