Rippled Moon
Maria stood at the end of the jetty watching the rippled moon on the water, its silveriness a path on the lake before her. The lonely birdcalls in the dusk seemed to ask her where her life was leading; that, along with the blackness of the watery depths, loomed unfathomable to her.
The crack of a twig had her reeling round to the dark shadows behind her.
"Who's there?" her voice quailed in the evening air. With the click of a latch, a dusky figure descended the steps to the jetty.
"I'm sorry if I scared you," he said, footsteps hollow on the boards. He stopped near her, watching the silvery trail. "It's just I've spent so many hours watching the moon here. Seeing you there, it felt as though I was watching myself. It was as though you were me."
"Oh, Sir, I hope you don't think I was trespassing…"
"No, not at all, Fraulein. It is a magical place to be at this time of night."
"My apologies, Sir." He paused, looked at her, then took a step away, stretching his fingers, looking out over the lake.
"In fact, I'm glad you're here, Fraulein, because I wanted to ask you something. " A furtive glance, and then , softly, "Might I ask whether you would address me by another name?"
"Oh, Captain, Sir", the governess replied , "I am sorry; I had forgotten you asked me to call you 'Captain' …" He turned to her with a quizzical look on his face, so she went on, "I can understand if you had commanded a ship you would expect to be called 'Captain', so I will try to do so, Sir. Captain."
He smiled as a bird called again, a long low call in the gathering night; he looked aside across the water at the path of silver, then turned back and whispered, "It's Georg, Fraulein. I'd like you to call me Georg. " She looked at the tenderness in those deep brown pools that were his eyes as he asked, "May I call you Maria?"
And slowly she began to realise, after all, where her life was leading.