This chapter addresses something else that I've wondered - what on earth did the kids do to the eleventh governess who "stayed for only two hours"? It also incorporates the Academy Awards (the Oscars), and I really enjoyed tying that in because I love the Oscars and look forward to them every year.


Chapter 18
The Story of Fraulein Augusta

As the summer days idled on, the children continued to have lessons every morning, while their afternoons were mostly spent at the villa. Maria still took them on outings into Salzburg or up to the mountains once or twice a week, not unlike the "every other day" suggestion that Louisa had made on their first trip there. So after their trip to St. Sebastian's Church, the next two days were devoted to lessons and downtime. Maria believed heartily in giving children plenty of downtime, especially in the summer, and it was having this free time to think that solved the children's problem of what sort of gift to surprise the governess with.

The idea came them on a typical, pleasant afternoon on the grounds of the von Trapp house. Friedrich and Kurt were tossing their ball back and forth on the grass by the lake. Marta and Gretl were taking turns with their jump rope on the flagstone path near the gazebo. Maria was supervising them all from the veranda, and the three oldest girls were sitting near her on the stone bench, flipping through a magazine about American celebrities that Liesl had bought on their last trip into the city. It was a quiet summer day, and Maria was able to hear most of what they said, and though she knew very little about American movies, she recognized some names.

"Oooh, look, that's Clark Gable. Isn't he dreamy?"

"Oh, I wish Father would let us go to the cinema sometimes. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers look so lovely in pictures, imagine how they must look dancing on the screen."

When she heard the name Oscar, though, Maria's mind drew a blank. She couldn't think of any American actor named Oscar, and soon, the girls were mentioning him quite a lot — Oscar this, Oscar that. Curious, she walked across the veranda to their bench. Perhaps this Oscar was a German performer who'd become famous in far-off Hollywood, too, like Marlene Dietrich.

"And who's this Oscar you girls keep talking about?" she asked, sitting down beside them. "Is he a new movie star?"

The three of them all laughed, even though Maria didn't see what was funny.

"No, Oscar isn't a person, Fraulein Maria," Brigitta explained, giggling. "It's the name of a special award they give out to movie stars in Hollywood."

"This article says it's the highest award an actor can get in America," Liesl went on excitedly, tilting to the magazine so that Maria could see the picture — a glamorous blonde actress that she didn't recognize, draped in jewelry, holding a statue of a little golden man. "And did you know, Fraulein Maria, they even give Oscars to young people sometimes? Last year, they gave one to Deanna Durbin, and she's my age!"

Maria nodded, though she was still puzzled. "I see... and so, the award is named Oscar? Why is it called that?"

Liesl, Louisa, and Brigitta all blinked and exchanged puzzled glances, as if they each expected the other to know the answer. Finally, Liesl flipped through the magazine again and shrugged. "Well... I don't know. I don't think it says in here. I suppose it is an odd name for an award, if you think about it."

"I have an Oscar, Fraulein Maria," Louisa spoke up, talking for the first time since Maria had joined them. "I have one of my own that the others gave me when—" But then she abruptly fell silent. She had been looking at Maria, but she turned from her to face her sisters, and the three of them shared a meaningful glance with each other. Brigitta raised her eyebrows. Liesl nodded. Louisa glanced over at their brothers, grinned, and nodded, too. Liesl stood up from the bench with the air of having decided something and smoothed the curtain skirt of her playdress.

The children weren't as secretive as they had been when Maria first arrived, of course, but it still fascinated her to see the way they could shut out everyone but each other when they wanted to, the way they could talk to each other without using any words at all. She liked watching when they all went into the nursery for their Sunday-morning meetings, which they still held as regularly as the sisters back at Nonnberg Abbey held worship services. Every Sunday, after breakfast, they would all leave the dining room and move upstairs together like one unit.

Now, as if on some secret, invisible signal known only to the seven of them, Friedrich and Kurt abandoned their game of catch, and Marta and Gretl folded up their jump rope. In no time, the children were all huddled together in a group on flagstone path, whispering and occasionally glancing over their shoulders at Maria.

Maria was curious, but she only smiled and decided that they were entitled to have a few secrets. While they talked, she picked up the magazine and looked again at the photo of the American actress holding the little Oscar statue. Whenever she thought about the woman that the Captain intended to marry, the Baronness Schraeder from Vienna, she pictured her rather looking like this actress. Vienna felt almost as far away as Hollywood to Maria's mind.

The children whispered among themselves for some time, then broke apart. Liesl and Friedrich glanced at each other, then Friedrich turned to face her. "Fraulein Maria," he said proudly, squaring his shoulders, "we have a surprise for you."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes," Liesl said, stepping forward. "It'll be right here at this time tomorrow."

"And just what is this surprise?"

Kurt pursed his lips as if he were trying to hold it in, but then he burst out excitedly, "It's a play!"

The children immediately went inside, shut themselves in their nursery, and stayed there until bedtime, only emerging to eat dinner. And when Maria saw the play the next day, she was impressed at how quickly they put it all together.

After lessons and lunch, the children led Maria outside to the veranda, where a large paper sign – A von Trapp Family Production – hung from the parapet. The children wanted Maria to feel like she was seeing a real play production, so they even gave her a little paper ticket and handwritten program. Kurt, standing beside the sign and looking very serious, took the ticket, tore off a corner, and handed it back to her with, "Thank you, Fraulein, enjoy the show." Marta and Gretl were too little to have roles in the play, so they happily sat on either side of Maria on the bench to watch their siblings' performances.

The program explained that the play was the story of Fraulein Augusta, the eleventh governess. She had been quite a coup for the children, for they'd driven her to leave in only two hours — a new record. She was the woman that the Captain had mentioned to Maria when she'd first arrived, and she'd been wondering all summer what the children had done to her, never quite sure that she wanted to know.

The play began with Louisa wading right into the lake, with her shoes and all her clothes still on. She took a deep breath, then began a dead-man's float, face-down in the water. Kurt ran across the lawn to the house, shouting that something was wrong with his sister with real terror in his face and voice. Then Brigitta, playing the family's cook, stepped outside to see what was the matter. When she saw Louisa face-down in the water, she fell to her knees, clutched her heart, and screamed dramatically, "Lord have mercy, she's drowned!"

Liesl, as Fraulein Augusta, gasped and swooned as if she were going to faint. Friedrich played his father, who'd just come home from business in Salzburg during the prank, and when he stepped outside onto the veranda, Liesl greeted him a great wailing and wringing of hands. "Oh, Captain von Trapp, sir, I'm so terribly sorry," she babbled, almost unintelligible, "I think there was an accident, sir..." She tried to get in his way, to delay him from coming out far enough to see the lake, and while they were distracted with each other, Louisa drifted slowly towards the shore.

Louisa had skills, Maria had to give her that — able to climb a trellis with a whole jar of spiders in one hand, and able to float face-down for several minutes, turning her head to the side for air so stealthily that nobody noticed. "But don't worry, Fraulein Maria," Marta said, holding her hand, "she really is all right."

Louisa popped up behind Liesl and Friedrich at the perfect moment, just as the drama had reached its height. She was dripping wet but perfectly fine, and she cried cheerfully, "Hello, Father, I fell in the lake by mistake!"

Maria, Marta, and Gretl applauded as the older children all gathered in front of the bench and took their bows. Then Gretl sprang to her feet and retrieved Louisa's Oscar statue from underneath the bench, where it had been hidden before the play. The children had been so proud of getting rid of Fraulein Augusta after only two hours that they'd made Louisa a homemade Oscar statue out of modeling clay and golden tinfoil. It obviously wasn't real, but it was a decent copy of the statue in the magazine.

Gretl held the little man carefully with both hands as she walked forward. "And the Oscar for Best Actress goes to... Louisa von Trapp!" she exclaimed proudly, as she presented it to her sister.

The other children applauded as Louisa took another little bow. Liesl squeezed Gretl around the shoulders and said, "And you were a very good presenter, Gretl, just like Shirley Temple," which made Gretl throw her shoulders back and grin. Her older sisters had shown her a picture in their magazine of Shirley Temple presenting an Oscar to Walt Disney.

Friedrich, out of the seven of them, was the first one to stop smiling. He looked older than fourteen, more like a grown man, as his brow furrowed and his mouth frowned. He glanced at Maria and asked slowly, "I... I suppose that was a pretty mean joke we played on Fraulein Augusta, wasn't it, Fraulein Maria?"

Maria nodded, relieved that he had found some sense of regret on his own. As impressed as she had been with the children's play, she had been appalled, too, that they had played such a cruel prank on the unsuspecting governess, and she'd been on the verge of saying something reproachful to them. She couldn't imagine what she would have done in Augusta's place. No doubt it was this governess that the children had been remembering when they'd cried over their dinner on Maria's first night with them.

"Yes, I think it was," Maria replied quietly. "I believe I would've left after just two hours, too."

Now all the children looked regretful. "That was pretty rotten of us," Louisa agreed. "That was probably the worst thing we ever did to a governess."

"Fraulien Augusta actually cried when she realized Louisa wasn't really dead, remember?" Brigitta asked, and her siblings nodded. "She cried, and then she went straight to her room and packed her bags and left."

Maria could imagine that scene very well in her mind — the poor woman rushing upstairs to her bedroom, still sobbing, flinging a suitcase onto the bed, her hands shaking from anger and relief and nerves as she tried to pack her clothes.

"And Frau Schmidt, she cried, too," Marta added softly. She squeezed the end of one pigtail between her fingers and looked so guilty that Maria rubbed her back with one hand. "She came outside during all of it, and she thought Louisa was really dead, too, and she cried."

"All the adults cried except Father," Liesl muttered bitterly, almost to herself. "He just yelled."

Maria could imagine how the children's pranks would've escalated to even worse theatrics if she hadn't been the next governess to arrive after Augusta. The children hadn't felt sorry for what they'd done at the time, but they did now, and Maria counted that as progress — progress that she had had some small hand in, and she thanked the Lord again for sending her to this family.