The Parent Trapp

Chapter 11

Maria sped back to her house to begin packing immediately. Thank heaven she didn't work during the summers and it was too early to start classroom setup or else she'd be in a pickle. She raced up the stairs to the apartment and flung open the door. She raced to the bedroom and opened the closet. It was such a mess. Maria had moved all of her stuff out of the dresser so each girl could have their own drawer, even then there wasn't enough space. In the place she'd found they would all have to share a room, but two closets were better than one.

She found her duffel bag under the bed and began tossing clothes into it. How long would this take? Did she need to bring stuff for the girls? What if her car stopped in the middle of the road?

She shouldn't have sent them to that camp, sure she was happy but would Agathe be? She had left for a reason, and good reason at that. He didn't even know Gretl existed. Was he being kind to them? Would he send them back? Would he be angry? Or the worst, would he want to keep them?

Maria knew in her heart it was right for the girls to live with him, they had siblings, family, heck the man owned a mansion practically while they all had to share a bed with her. But Agathe had left with the girls for a reason, and Maria loved them with all her heart. Even after being gone for a month she had felt worry, fear and happiness like she had never experienced before, as if they were her own flesh and blood. Surely God wouldn't take these children away when he had already taken the chance of any others. No, Maria decided, she would go down there and figure this out with Georg like a mature adult, and if the girls wished to stay, what kind of a mother would she be if she didn't let them.

She began the long drive to North Carolina the next morning, praying her phone wouldn't die along the way, map reading was not exactly her forte. She did however need to talk to someone, and there was only one person who would understand, but it was just a matter of dialing

Georg was sitting on the back porch with his children, all of them. They had spent the day teaching the youngest three to ride and now sipped lemonade cheerfully as they recounted tales from summer camp. Georg sat on a bench with Marta on his lap and Kurt and Gretl on either side of him. Louisa sat in a rocking chair while Friedrich, Brigitta and Liesl sat in the swing at the end of the porch.

"And then she opened the door and water literally crashed all over her" Louisa was telling the story of Brigitta's prank and the kids were dying of laughter.

Georg couldn't help but laugh. He and Agathe would prank each other all the time, as would Max, and hearing his own children take after that was endearing.

He had never spent this much time with his kids, even the ones he previously had a relationship with, but the past two days had changed his life completely. He had loved his kids dearly, but only did the bare minimum. Getting to know all seven of them better had been a wonderful experience. He hadn't even thought about Elsa once, which probably wasn't the best, she would come by any day now and then hell would break loose, so for the time being he was going to enjoy his children's company.

As they laughed and Louisa was about to continue he heard his phone ring. He stood up a bit to reach his phone out of his back pocket and looked.

"It's Maria!" Marta cheered

Brigitta looked to her two older sisters who all shared a look of fear. They had told Liesl and the boys later on about Maria's initial reaction.

"Yes, uh I'll be right back" He slid Marta off his lap and walked back inside, sensing that she wouldn't call just to chat.

"Hi Maria-"

"Look I know they're with you" Maria deadpanned

Georg took a second to process, he should have contacted her but Ellen had said Brigitta had checked in.