A Problem Like Maria

Chapter 21

Maria arrived to the Trapp's house on Friday afternoon. She was a little later than usual since she had to pack and Peg wanted to drive her.

After a long visit with Helen, which would probably continue after the kids left, Georg announced they were done loading up the car and everyone said their goodbyes.

As the group went out to the garage Maria's mouth flew open.

"You rented a van?" She exclaimed.

"Of course, I'm not taking two cars, that's way too much work." Georg smiled

"Oh to have money" Maria shook her head.
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Georg drove with Kurt up front, the three youngest girls had the first row of seats, then Friedrich and Louisa and lastly Liesl and Maria. Bags were cramped and pushed everywhere around the van but no one seemed to mind.

After a two hour drive Georg pulled onto a gravel road that intertwined through the woods until finally a cabin came into view. It was decently sized, had a deck and a dock that extended over the lake. It was seclusion at its finest.

Inside there was room large room that held a warm kitchen and a cozy living room. There was a brown leather sectional that faced a fireplace with a TV above it. Down the hall was a small bathroom, the master bedroom and another smaller bedroom. Upstairs held a room with two sets of bunk beds and another room with a larger set of bunk beds with a jack and jill bathroom connecting them.

"This is where we spent lots of our summers as kids" Liesl came up behind Maria who was taking it all in.

"I would love to be here all year round" Maria beamed.

They had agreed that Lou and Liesl would share the master, Maria took the smaller room at the end of the hall. The rest of the girls took one bunk room while the boys took the other. Everyone settled in and soon enough the boys and little girls were jumping off the dock and swinging off the rope into the water from a tree that stood nearby.

Louisa and Liesl came running out nor far behind, ready to join and Maria was going to watch for a while before Georg stopped them as he ran down the stairs.

"Wait" he jumped the last two steps "we forgot to grab food."

"We have the cooler" Louisa shrugged.

"No, we need more than that" Georg said "I'm gonna run to the store and try not to forget anything" he grabbed the keys off the kitchen counter.

"I'm sure you will" Maria teased.

"Go with him" Liesl blurted, seizing an opportunity "we can handle ourselves for a little bit"

Georg and Maria were both surprised by the offer but Maria agreed anyways and soon they were out the door.

As Maria got in the van Georg said "Let's pray we don't come back to find them all dead."

"Don't worry, they're more grown up than you think" she buckled into the front seat that Kurt had previously occupied.
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When they got to the supermarket they stocked up on breakfast food, sandwich stuff, drinks and other random things. They had all they needed until Maria remembered onr last thing.

"We have to get stuff for Smores!" Maria walked next to Georg and grabbed his arm with one hand like Ellie so often did.

"If you want" Georg couldn't help but smile over how excited she got and followed her and she dashed to the candy aisle.

She skipped around and tossed the ingredients into the buggy.

"You really like Smores don't you?" He laughed as she spun before dramatically dropping the marshmallows in the cart.