Chapter 2

"You may go in now, Maria."

Maria was thankful that she seemed to have a true friend in sister Margaretta. After all, when one seems to be in trouble as often as Maria is, it's nice to have someone that always tried to find the positive in her.

She looked up at the nun, very nervous, for how could she tell the reverend mother what she had been doing this afternoon. Sister margaretta gave her a slight nod of encouragement and a soft smile as she watched Maria enter into the reverend mother's office.

"Come here my child." The reverend mother was always so kind and patient with her. She was closest thing Maria had to a mother, and she was so very grateful for her. Maria walked over to the reverend mother and knelt and kissed her hand. "Now, sit down." As Maria walked back towards her chair she immediately began her explanation and apologizing for this afternoon.

"Oh, reverend mother, I'm so sorry. I just couldn't help myself. The gates were open, and the hills were beckoning, and before I-" The reverend mother interrupted her. "Maria, i haven't summoned you here for apologies" But Maria just couldn't help herself, she had to get it all out. (well, almost all of it, she was unsure of whether or not she should bring up her interaction with Georg this afternoon) "Oh mother, please do let me ask for forgiveness."

"If it will make you feel better." And Maria knew for a fact that it absolutely would help her feel better. "Yes, well you see, the sky was so blue today, and everything was so green and fragrant. I just had to be apart of it. And the untersburg kept leading me higher and higher, as though it wanted me to go right through the clouds with it."

"But child, suppose darkness had come and you were lost?"

"Oh mother, I could never be lost up there. That's my mountain, I was brought up on it. It was the mountain that led me to you."

"Oh?" The reverend mother was becoming more and more curious at this point. "When I was a child, I would come down the mountain, and climb a tree and look over into your garden. I'd see the sisters at work and hear them sing on their way to vespers. Which brings me to another transgression, reverend mother." Maria hesitated. She knew that there were rules put in place at the abbey about the postulates singing. "I was singing out there today. Without permission." The reverend mother had begun to worry that her confession was something more serious than singing in the mountains. "Maria, it is only here in the abbey that we have rules about postulates singing." But, Maria knew that was not her worst problem. "I can't seem to stop singing wherever I am. And what's worse, I can't seem to stop saying things, everything and anything that I think and feel." The reverend mother bit back a chuckle at that. She knew that was one of Maria's worst faults. "Some people would call that honesty."

"Oh, but it's terrible reverend mother. You know how sister berthe always makes me kiss the floor after we've had a disagreement? Well, lately I've taken to kissing the floor when I see her coming. Just to save time." The reverend mother looked down at her desk and back up at Maria again. "Maria, when you saw us over the abbey wall, and longed to be one of us, that didn't necessarily mean that you were prepared for the way we live here, did it?" Maria bit her lip. Well, of course she wasn't quite prepared for the abbey. "No, Mother, but I- I pray, and I try. And I am learning, I really am."

"And what is the most important lesson you've learned here, my child?" Maria didn't even hesitate, it was almost as if she had been preparing for this question. "To find out what is the will of God, and to do it wholeheartedly." The reverend mother stood from her spot behind her desk, and began to walk around to where Maria was sitting. "Maria, it seems to be the will of God that you leave us." Once Maria heard these words she began to go into panic mode. Surely the things she had done recently and in the past hadn't been so bad that she would have to be sent away. "Leave?" The reverend mother could tell she was beginning to worry and tried to reassure her. "only for a while, Maria."

"Oh mother, please don't do that, don't send me away. This is where I belong, it's my home, my family. It's my life."

"But are you truly ready for it?"

"Yes, I am." Maria almost interrupted her, trying to get her point across. "Perhaps, if you go out into the world for a time, knowing what we expect of you, you will have a chance to find out if you can expect it of yourself." Maria's voice was starting to raise. Not out of anger, but out of worry. "I know what you expect mother. And I can do it, I promise I can." The reverend mother gave Maria a stern motherly look. "Maria." Realizing that this was not something she would win, Maria, in defeat, went back to her chair and listened to the reverend mother. "Yes, mother. If it is God's will."

"There is a family near salzburg that needs a governess until september."

"September?" Maria could not believe she was being sent away for this long. "To take care of seven children." In shock, Maria's eyes widened and she repeated the number, hoping that she had heard wrong. "Seven children?"

"Do you like children, Maria?" Maria began to stumble over her words, still unable to wrap her head around all this. "Well, yes, but seven!" The reverend mother took a pen and began to write something down. "I shall tell Captain Von Trapp to expect you tomorrow." once again, Maria's curiosity overcame her. "Um, Captain?"

"A retired officer of the imperial Navy. A fine man, And a brave one. His wife died several years ago leaving him alone with the children." Maria would never admit it, but she stopped listening to the reverend mother and her mind started to wonder back to Georg. She wouldn't be able to meet him for lunch now that she was being sent away. And she had no way of informing him, so it would seem like Maria was standing him up. But what could she do? Tell the reverend mother that she needed to be late on her first day, because she has a date? No, she could never say that. All she could do was hope and pray that if it was meant to be, that she and Georg would find each other again.

Maria realized at this moment that her day to day life would soon drastically change. The only thing she wanted to do now was pray and pack for her journey.

To be continued... Sadly, i still don't own TSOM.

So, this chapter mostly quotes the movie, but chapter 3 will be more original.