Chapter 2

Disclaimer: These first chapters are heavy on details recounting a relatively short period of time in the movie. I feel this is necessary a) given how little we know about what actually went on those first days and b) any significant life events that I have been privy to always have important first days, but you don't realize how important they were until later on (for obvious reasons)! Eventually, I will move on and the pace will quicken, but I really feel first impressions are so integral to the whole story, as we all learned in the Gazebo. C&B

PS - for those of you who may be wondering...Georg's thoughts are coming in Chapter 4

The Baroness and the Ballroom: Part II

Maria got up from her chair and moved over to sit on the edge of her bed and sighed, blowing the air upwards from her bottom lip, directing it in such a way that her bangs blew about. Although there were seven children to ponder, she found herself unable to shake the emotions the Captain had stirred in her at that moment when she caught him regarding her from the opposite end of the table. She was certain he wore a false front, purposefully carrying an air of nobility and decorum, hiding what was inside. There had to be a man with a heart somewhere beneath those layers? He must have a smile that actually dimpled his cheeks, reaches his eyes, and warms his complexion?

Maria considered how little of his own personality he revealed today apart from the characteristics of the staunch aristocrat and naval hero that she already understood he should possess. He commanded a room with little effort and the show of the Boatswain's whistle only reinforced his position of authority. Peculiarly, for a man of his station, Maria found it amusing how he seemed to have no sense of decorum when it comes to introductions and greetings. No handshakes, no formal introductions.

"I doubt he even remembers my name!" Maria scoffed. "Was it because I was Governess #12, destined to be packing sooner rather than later, and thus, not worth an investment of his time ? …or, was it because I had not arrived in the villa in the most typical fashion?"

Maria stretched her neck to the side and tried to relieve some of the tension building there. "I imagine it was the latter", she said out loud to herself while she rubbed her chin in pensiveness. "I wonder if I threw him off his game?"

Undoubtedly, Captain Von Trapp carried himself as a true hero would. Although he didn't reveal too much that day, somehow Maria was able to begin to draft an internal dialogue about this man.

In the vast expanse of the foyer while the Captain paced around her with his air of intimidation, informing her of how things had to work in his house, Maria found herself wondering if in his heart he really meant the things he was saying. Why could he not just stand still and have a normal conversation? He seemed so hard on the exterior, but at the same time, it all appeared to be over-acted. Maria knew from personal experience that whenever she tried to 'behave' and conform, she would have similar problems: it was just too artificial to be someone she wasn't. You could tell he had lots of practice, though: his quirks, his habits, his steady mannerisms, his confident posture, his steely eyes.

"Oh! those eyes…" Maria gasped, crossing herself quickly when she realized she had said it out loud. What was it about this man's stare that rendered her to a dithering fool? Those eyes said so much when he did not speak, and it seemed to Maria that his eyes could see right into her soul. She understood at once that keeping secrets from this man would most certainly be a challenge.

The thunder began to rumble outside the villa as Maria rose from the chair and began to organize the few belongings she had brought with her. Pausing in her folding, she looked out her window towards the Untersberg, now shrouded in darkness. She watched the lightning bolts as they began to dance over the lake, the clouds lighting up and illuminating the profile of the mountain. She was reminded of how beautiful and blue the water was and realized how blessed she was to spend the summer in such a beautiful location. She could be a part of everything every day without guilt, unlike yesterday when the Sisters had found her missing once again from the Abbey.

Thoughts of the blue of the lake sent her back into her reverie as she reflected further on her first day. The Captain's eyes were almost the same colour as the many glacial lakes that surrounded Salzburg... "There I go again" Maria sighed, exasperated. Crossing herself another time, she tried to make sense of the day and not those eyes. "Why didn't I just sit in the foyer and wait for the Captain like the grumpy butler suggested?"

Upon entering the villa, Maria was utterly amazed with what she saw…and what she did not see. It was such a grand home, and yet it seemed to speak of some profound ache, of longing…? It was beautiful, enticing, and a bit terrifying at the same time. The scale of the home left Maria dumb-founded; despite being so grand, it said nothing about the people who lived there. It was like standing in a large, open cave. Maria was struck by the sudden awareness that if she had not known otherwise, she would not believe that seven children lived in this house ...you would never know it, nothing revealed they had been there.

The main foyer of the house reminded Maria of a passenger steamboat that she had seen while in school: a simple pleasure boat that that travelled the length of the Danube, shuttling passengers between Vienna and Budapest during the summer months. The curving staircase, the sturdy pillars, the railings that circled the upper deck...it was quite fitting for the home of a Naval captain. The grandeur of the home seemed to swallow Maria during her first moments. Its cavernous walls and ceiling were quite masculine, lacking the homey touches that would reveal something of the personality of the aristocrats who lived there.

Looking heavenward for calmness and inspiration, Maria had noticed the beautiful chandeliers and was momentarily mesmerized by the way in which the light bent and changed colour through the delicate crystals. A further survey of the hall beyond the front door revealed little, other than a series of doors, two pairs of side tables and the bust of a beautiful woman at the opposite end of the hall. Was this the children's mother, perhaps? There were several doorways down the right side and a corridor to the left that Maria had suspected lead to the kitchen since the grumpy butler had headed that way when he had told her to wait.

She wondered if something beyond the grand foyer might reveal a nugget to her, to tell her something about the Von Trapps. To show her anything that would quiet her mind and boost her confidence. Since the Reverend Mother revealed little to her about the Von Trapp family, suggesting that she would come to understand in the Lord's Own good time, Maria felt entirely unprepared for what she was about to face.

Even several hours later, Maria could not understand why she had been drawn to the room on the right. Like a moth to a flame...and soon she would come to realize, at her peril. Maria had been desperate for something, anything to tell her what this family was like. She peered through the crack between the double doors and found herself grasping and turning the handle and ducking inside in one smooth motion.

"Oh! What a room!", Maria recalled. She remembered letting out an audible gasp that echoed off the walls and startled her so that she nearly jumped out of her own skin. It was a grand and glorious ballroom on a scale that Maria could never have dreamed of, and she found it so incredible that something so beautiful could exist in someone's home - not just reserved for the Emperors and Empresses of Vienna?

The many intricate figures that danced on the walls, the delicate mirrored sections and gold plate, blended effortlessly with the marble flooring. Maria all at once had a feeling of déjà vu, noting it had a similar aura to the feelings of peace and light she could find in the Abbey. The care with which the pieces were assembled and the details in the character's faces reminded her of the figures so lovingly painted in the Stations of the Cross that lined the walls of the Abbey chapel.

Like the chapel, the ballroom possessed ethereal acoustics. Just the simple patter of Maria's feet across the smooth, cold floor seemed musical. All at once, Maria was overwhelmed with a feeling that something entirely secular could feel so spiritual. Maria sensed a spiritual presence like the one she found during prayer in the chapel. The air seemed to sparkle as the dust danced in the narrow streams of light coming through the windows.

She chuckled to herself as she remembered taking on the dual roles of the Baron and Baroness opening a ball with a deep curtsy and a flourish of a bow. With some melancholy, she realized it would be the first and last time she ever danced with a Baron in a setting such as that ballroom!

At the time, she was so lost in her reverie that Maria did not hear the agitated pacing of the Captain's footsteps outside in the hall. Her mind floated back to that moment, during a deep curtsy to an invisible partner, when the Captain burst from the hallway like a raging storm on a restless sea. All at once the glitter, charm, tranquility, and solitude of the room burst as he entered. He glared briefly at Maria, but she recalled that it seemed he could not gaze long. He seemed to struggle with the expanse of the room and quickly tore his gaze away, and instead bore his steely gaze into the corner of the door frame. His eyes were so wide, Maria could see the whites of his eyes from her position in the shadows. Maria briefly wondered if he, too, could sense the presence that seemed to linger in the room?

Maria realized she should have snapped to attention and run for the hills the instant he appeared, yet for a moment, time was suspended while she studied his profile, the tension in his body, and the heaviness of the air as he struggled to acknowledge her and meet her gaze. Maria was transfixed and curious as she readily noted that he, too, seemed to sense what she was feeling.

Snapping out of her dazed state, Maria scampered out of the amber hues of the ballroom and into the bright light of the foyer. The Captain mumbled something about rooms in the house that should not be disturbed, but in truth, Maria could not focus on what he said, she was so flustered from being caught! Trying to regain her composure, she had managed to stand a little taller and mustered up enough air from her lungs to reply, "Yes, Captain, Sir…".

As her eyes adjusted to the light, that was when Maria noticed it. Noticed him. Noticed THEM...his eyes! They were the most incredible clear, icy blue, just like the lakes in the Salzgamerkut. Like the many lakes around Salzburg, there was a permanence in the blueness of his eyes, and even after she had closed her own, she still could see them, burned into her eyelids.

Captain Von Trap was most certainly an enigma. Dark, handsome, serious, and seemingly focused to a fault. In truth, Maria had imagined that he would look more like the odd Butler who had answered the door. Surely a retired sea captain did not look like that? Like him? He could not be old enough to be "retired"; he did not have a grizzled grey beard, nor did he have a pipe. Instead, he had perfectly combed hair, a noble ad youthful profile, and piercing blue eyes that seemed to dance with emotion.

The colour of his eyes were so blue and they seemed to ebb and flow like the lakes near Salzburg that ran with wild and clear glacial waters. In the few short seconds that she was able to study them, Maria observed how they transformed with emotion. At first, in his anger, they were narrow and practically dark ebony; then, in an instant, they danced with icy blue tones as his expression changed. It was as though they were speaking to her. Maria very quickly discovered that much could be learned about this man by reading his gaze, and just like a book in a foreign language, she simply needed time to decode it.

The Captain seemed to detect that Maria had been desperately trying to read him, and in that instant asked her why she was staring at him in 'that way'. Maria could not wrap her head around the sensation deep in her stomach that his gaze elicited. The first thing that entered her head went directly out her lips: "You don't look at all like a Sea Captain, Sir", she replied. At that moment, the colour of his eyes shifted again and he replied curtly "I'm afraid you don't look very much like a governess". Next thing she knew, the Captain demanded she turn in a circle, removing her hat…was he studying her the dress, the one that not even the poor wanted?

As the Captain paced around Maria, his fingers on his left hand twitching impatiently, she was amazed at how he quickly he regained control of his emotions. His facial expressions shifted from anger to annoyance to curiosity, but they were ephemeral – gone in an instant, only to be replaced by something new. He began to recite the failings of the previous 11 governesses, trying his hardest to intimidate her. He spoke sharply of how things must be. Rules. Discipline. Hierarchy. Order. Maria recalled chuckling inwardly as she realized what he was up to. Did he not know what she had just left behind at the Abbey? Maria was a headstrong girl with God in her heart, yet she so shamelessly struggled with those very things: Rules. Discipline. Hierarchy. Order.

In so many ways, his world, the world of the sea captain, paralleled what Maria experienced daily at the Abbey. As a test of her fitness to survive inside the Abbey, she was instead thrust back into a segment of the outside world that seemed to be wrought with the same rules, need for decorum, and respect for discipline. Ah! But one could not live a life without love, spontaneity, and fun! How was she to manage this?

The Captain's gaze spoke to Maria, silently commanding her to listen and conform. Yet somehow Maria could not quite take him seriously. Part of the situation she could not understand, but she knew that the haze that had enveloped her in the ballroom had followed her out into the foyer. She felt like she had awoken from a deep sleep, finding herself in the centre of a circus ring. The Captain was the Ring Master, running his usual routine and snaring her in his gaze. The ballroom haze, that heavy presence she had sensed, combined with the unpredictable expressions on the Captain's face at once crashed together in the pit of her stomach. She could not explain the wave that hit her at that moment, but for some reason it drew a smile to her lips, and she returned to him a playful salute with a hearty: "Yes, Sir!".

At that moment, Maria recalled how the Captain had glared at her with a combination of insult and something else…dare she think it? Intrigue? His eyes focused on hers and he promptly removed a whistle from his jacket. Without hesitation, he let out a boatswain's call that reverberated through the foyer. Despite her initial shock at the man's impertinence, Maria smiled inwardly as she recalled the number of times the Abbey bells would toll, and she would be expected to rush back to the Abbey. To Rules. Discipline. Hierarchy. Order. Did he really think this would work on her now? Well, it did shut her up, but not for the reasons the Captain was likely hoping for. Maria was awestruck by his behaviour: it was if he had an odd case of mal de débarquement and didn't know how to function in a world outside of the Navy. She wanted to just wrap him up in a hug and show him that there was a better way.

All at once, the elusive children came flying out of their rooms and assembled in order of height, and presumably, of age, on the landing. Maria ran for cover behind his broad shoulders, for when the ceiling would eventually collapse from the weight of their footsteps, he would certainly take the brunt of the fall. She quickly counted the children in the line-up. One...two...three...four...five...six...? Six? Surely the Reverend Mother had the math correct. At once she noticed. An empty space at the 5th position - one was missing.

These children, decked out in matching uniforms, so clearly mirrored what Maria knew of the many dedicated women in habits who had given their souls and lives to God. Like her own personal experiences at the Abbey, Maria could see that these children longed to be free from the rules and uniforms. To leave behind their formal clothes and regimented lifestyles.

Maria didn't know what baffled her the most. The Captain and his ridiculous whistle, or his wretched attempt at running his own Nunnery? This is not how one raises their children?!

The children marched down the stairs in order, lining up in the foyer. Chins high, shoulders back, chests out. One of the middle children, she assumed, arrived late with her nose in a book. Apparently being late was a little less frowned upon if you were doing something intellectual. The Captain playfully bumped her on the bottom with her book and ordered her back in line. He inspected their uniforms, straightened their collars. As the Captain introduced Maria to the children, in unison, they moved only their eyes from their original straight-ahead position, peering at her suspiciously. The words "trust" and "governess" clearly never went together in this home!

The Captain went on to introduce each child by blasting their unique Boatswain call. He looked so serious, but it was all so silly! Did he really have NO idea how to interact with his own children? Maria tried her best to hide her shock at this turn of events. She didn't know if she should scold him or offer comfort instead? The Captain, on his part, shot her a look of smug satisfaction when he spotted her gaping like a codfish, his glance suggesting he again had the upper hand.

Each child responded with military precision. Well, each child except the little one. She was a firecracker and from the looks she and her father shared, he knew it as well. Maria studied each of the children, paying attention to their eyes. The eldest, Liesl, had eyes like her father and tawny brown hair. At the other end, the smallest, Gretl, Maria assumed looked like her mother. As Maria looked up-and-down the line, she looked for facial features that matched their father's, trying to paint a picture from the collective of what their mother had looked like.

As she was trying to put these features to memory, the Captain spoke to her, passing her a whistle of her own. Her arm seemed to tingle as his long, aristocratic fingers brushed her own while she reached out to accept her whistle. She was so taken aback by this turn of events. Whistles were for pets, not for people! Maria made a face that was reminiscent of drinking unsweetened lemonade in the summer: she would not whistle at these children! They were not Navy cadets! The Captain was insistent, however, and his stubbornness only encouraged Maria to resist further. As she begrudgingly accepted the whistle, she was then unceremoniously whistled at, herself.

"Yes, Captain! I was this much trouble at the Abbey, thank you very much! Even you would have been in trouble had you carried on like this. Sister Berthe would have you kissing the floor for your impertinence!"

As the scallywag about-faced himself away from Maria and the children, she promptly turned the tide and used her whistle on him. His body seemed to seize in a temporary paralysis, everything stopping suddenly. Ah-ha! A kink in this military man's armour! Maria noted he balled his hands into fists, turning over his shoulder to sneer at her. She knew she had hit her target and did little to hide her amusement when she asked for his signal. The man did not know what to say out loud, but the look he gave her gave his inner turmoil away. His parting words focused on the fact that he was the Captain and he implied that perhaps she should start acting in a more disciplined fashion. He turned on his heel after giving her a look she had never seen before, and he marched off into another room.

After the Captain made his hasty retreat from the foyer, Maria then turned towards the children and hoped to move on to getting to know them better. Having studied their mannerisms in the drill line, she tried to use what little reconnaissance she had gathered to carefully choose her words with them. "Don't need a governess! I'm impossible! I'm pretending to be someone I'm not! I'm the bookworm and this is my incorrigible brother". The second smallest, Marta, would be 7 in a few days and the smallest, Gretl, had a smile that would melt the coldest glacier on top of the Grossglockner.

Despite their wide ages, they all demonstrated a single great truth to her heart that day. On the surface, they appeared suspicious and doubtful, however, their eyes all sparkled with the mirth one would expect to find in a child that so clearly ached to be set free. To bask in the love of their parents, and not wallow in this Navy family's world of rules and discipline. She wasn't entirely sure how the children perceived her, but her heart was buoyed when the smallest child, Gretl, stated quite proudly that she liked Governess #12. If she had managed to gain the trust of the one who could glare at her father without fear, the child with the shortest tenure in the Von Trapp "abbey", Maria was confident that the others would soon come around.

That afternoon, frogs and all, Maria understood that she and the seven Von Trapp children would somehow find their way together. To break free of their collective habits, rules and discipline, and live out their happiest childhoods together in the mountain air of Salzburg in summertime. She hoped that over the coming weeks, particularly with the Captain ensconced in Vienna, she would be able to bond with the children on her own terms.