Chapter 14

Last year, being thirteen-year-olds meant we danced on Tuesday, but this year (2013) since we both will be tuning 14 in late July, we’re probably moving to Thursday nights.

However, we got a letter from Jimmy with the upcoming Cotillion schedule. Things have changed considerably; Monday is now 17/18-year-olds, Tuesday 13/14-year-olds, Wednesday 11/12-year-olds, Thursday 15/16-year-olds, Friday is the 9/10-year-olds, and Saturday at ten am, will be the 7/8-year-olds. This was explained by an almost 400% increase of new students wanting to attend the Bradshaw Family Cotillion. Maybe we should have asked Jimmy for a piece of the action?

Jimmy had moved out of the building they had been in since his great grandfather started the business over 60 years before.

Having found a new larger place, the Cotillion will now start at six pm for ninety minutes for the younger age and at seven-thirty, the older age will attend. Newbies and Returnees will be lumped together now.

Also, inside our envelope from Jimmy, was a personal invitation for both Claire and I to be as available teachers for the Friday evening classes of the 9/10-year-olds with commensurate privileges instead of payment for purposes of maintaining our amateur status.

RING

Without looking, I said. “Hello Claire — how’s my girl?”

“Did you get a letter from Jimmy?”

“Yes, ma’am ... I did.”

“Don’t ma’am me, Mr. Newman, or I will reach through the phone line and hit you over your pointy little head.” She couldn’t suppress a giggle.

“I was just kidding Claire. Interesting, how we will still be going on Tuesday nights and Kalista will be on Friday night, when we have coincidentally been asked to teach that class?”

“Jimmy must have gotten a whole bunch of new students in, after we won our award,” Claire said. “I am so happy for him ... What time?”

“What time, what?” I asked, feigning knowledge of what she was asking.

“You ... butthead, you know what I am asking ... school is out, what time tomorrow do you want me there to practice? We haven’t danced together in almost four weeks.”

“How about you and Special K come over at nine am and bring your go-bags?”

“I will be there promptly at nine o’clock, for my boyfriend to teach me something new.”

That sounded a little hinky?

“See you two, tomorrow then. Bye Claire, Love you.”

“Bye, Charles ... I Love you.”

I went downstairs and saw Annie, poring over a number of documents, scratching her head and looking very serious. She heard me enter the room.

Without looking up, she said, “Hi honey. What time are Claire and Kalista coming over tomorrow morning?”

“Mom ... how could you possibly ... Were you listening in on the phone?”

“No, dear ... this is Sunday, two days before the start of Cotillion. You and Claire haven’t danced in about four weeks, so I put two and two together and figured it out. I’m not stupid, you know.”

“I’m sorry, Mom, what’s all this in front of you?” I asked.

“I am just trying to organize this upcoming seasons’ competitions. They start in one week, there are eleven in all, at least the ones that are during your ten-week summer break.”

“Claire and I don’t have to go to them all, you know,” I reasoned.

“I know dear, but I still need to be better organized. Your father leaving us, has given me the time to really focus and plan these events better than last year.”

Putting my hands on her shoulders, I asked, “Mom? Are we doing all right? I mean moneywise?”

With a huge smile on her face, she said, “Honey, that stupid sonofabitc ... your sweet ... dear loving father, is paying us plenty of money each month, to live and play like we want to.”

“Yeah, but how’re ‘you’ doing, Mom? I love you. Claire and all the rest of them love you so much. Kalista lights up when she sees you, now that she understands the connection the two of you have. I just want to be sure that my Annie is happy.”

Mom got up and stood before me, opening her arms to accept mine, “Charles ... you have gotten taller since you first started dancing. What are you now, six feet tall? Honey, I am very happy. My youngest son is a nationally recognized dancer, who has the girl of his dreams as his dancing partner. Things couldn’t get better than that. Why don’t we go over there, unannounced, and pick up Claire and Kalista? Right now.”

“Mother, are you going through PMS?”

I must have caught her unaware, because she started to cough and choke a bit. When she had gathered herself together, she asked, “Charles — why ... did you ask me that?”

“Well, I went on the Internet and found the symptoms, which include mood swings, irritability, anxiety, angry outbursts — like the one you just had, and headaches — which it looks like you have been having as well. I am just worried about my mommy. You are the only one I will ever have, so I worry.”

“Well, Charles ... first, I am too young to be going through ‘the change’, as it is often called, and I appreciate your worry, but I assure you that I am OK. Your father leaving, was a blow to my ego and I am still recovering from all that, so let’s go and surprise the girls, Loverboy.”

“MOM! Stop it — you know Claire has started calling me that too. There’s nobody to blame, except you for that ... you know,” I chuckled.

We got in the car and started the drive to the McArthurs.

“Get over yourself, Charles ... we’re just teasing. When you kissed Claire on Letterman, last year, oh ... you remember all those letters you got from young girls.”

“Well, I got letters from their mothers, telling me how inappropriate it was for my thirteen-year-old son to be kissing a girl at all, much less on National TV. They all thought I was a terrible role model and Mother.”

“You got letters from the moms ... about me kissing Claire? Why are you just now telling me this?”

“Now, Charles ... it’s OK, now, they stopped and all of us have grown up. Speaking of growing up, when you and Claire start dancing at Cotillion, you might want to go back to putting some space between the two of you when you dance?”

“Why, Mom?”

“Two reasons, Charles ... if you know what I mean?”

“Oh, yeah ... Claire’s got her breasts now.”

The car suddenly swerved into an oncoming lane. Mom pulled it back into ours.

“Charles, what a ... careless thing to say!”

“Well, it’s the truth ... Oh, Mom, is this one of those ‘think it, but don’t say it aloud’ things we talked about last year?”

“Right honey ... Claire can’t control what’s happening to her body and saying anything to her about it, will only cause trouble between the two of you and I mean ‘between’ in all ways possible.”

“So, you are saying, we can’t dance chest to chest anymore, Mom?”

“Well, now I guess it would be, to use your words, chest to breasts and Claire may have a physical problem with you dancing that close and ... rubbing up against her.”

“What do you mean ‘physical problem,’ Mom?”

“OK, Charles here goes ... I am likely to embarrass both of us here, but I am going to have to use some blunt language. I better pull over, first. There, we’re parked.”

“What Mom?” I got nervous all of a sudden.

“What do you know about breasts, Charles?”

“They are mostly fatty tissue, but on women they grow in various shapes and sizes, the numbers and letters I don’t begin to understand. At the front of the breast is ... something called the areola and in the middle of the areola is the nipple.”

“Anything else, Charles?”

“No ... yes, when a woman is pregnant, they fill up with a kind of milk that the mothers feed their babies.”

“Very good, Charles ... anything else?”

“No ... that’s it, Mom. How long after a baby is born does the milk keep being replaced?”

“Well, I breastfed you from when you came home from the hospital, until you were eighteen ... no, nineteen months old. We moved you to a bottle and my breasts stopped making milk about two months later.”

“So, your body knows you stopped feeding me and it just sort of shut down on its own?”

“Yes, Charles ... that’s an excellent way to put it.”

“How does all of this relate to Claire and dancing too close, Mom?”

“Charles, you mentioned the nipple ... well, when a woman is ... how do I say this ... aroused, the nipples go from dormant to erect, you understand what I mean by erect, Charles?”

This just became uncomfortable to me.

“Yes, mother ... I know what ‘erect’ means.” We smiled at each other. She chuckled a little.

When my now deadbeat Dad gave me ‘the talk,’ I was ten; none of this stuff was talked about. This is kind of weird talking to Mom about this, but — oh well.

“Dancing chest to chest may cause Claire to get ‘erect’ and may intensify the kind of problems you two were having last year.”

“OK, Mom ... I think I understand. Now, can we never admit to having had this conversation, so I can concentrate on learning to dance with my girl?”

Mom started the car. We started going again. She looked over at me and smiled. I caught it and smiled back at her. That was pretty gutsy, explaining all of that to her own fourteen-year-old son. Mom’s pretty cool – and pretty!

All this talking about breasts made me glance over at my mom’s chest for a split second. She caught me, smiled and said, “Claire’s might get as big as mine, Charles; maybe even bigger, which could be an issue as you two get older,” she giggled, “and closer.”

“Mom?”

“What Honey?”

“Never mind, it’s not important.”

We arrived at the McArthurs, with both of us getting out of the car and walking up to the front door. Sarah opened the door and welcomed us in.

“Were we expecting you, did Claire forget to tell me something?” she asked.

“No, no, no Sarah. We just dropped everything and thought we would come by and see how everybody was doing? We hadn’t seen each other in a while. Charles and I started talking and I decided to just come over. If this is a bad time...”

“No, you know that you two are always welcome here. I do want to express my condolences about your marriage and everything.”

“It’s OK, Sarah ... I have never felt so empowered in my life as I do these days. I am almost glad the stupid sonofabitch left,” Annie said with a good deal of self-satisfaction in her voice.

I heard a shriek coming into the room, or was it two shrieks? Claire running up to me while Kalista was running up to Annie.

Claire practically screaming into my ear said, “Charles, why are you here? I thought I was coming to you tomorrow morning?”

“I couldn’t wait to see all of you, and we have to get ourselves practiced up for Cotillion and eleven competitions this summer.”

“Eleven competitions. Isn’t that more than last year, Annie?” Sarah asked.

“They added one more, earlier in the summer ... remember we didn’t start going to them quite as early last year.”

Kalista walked up to me and I ignored her, saying, “Where is Little Kalista ... I don’t see Little Kalista anywhere. Does she still live here?”

Grinning, K said, “Very funny, Charles ... ha — ha. You grew taller, I grew taller and Claire’s got boobies now.”

Claire’s hands went up to her face as she started to cry, I think? She turned around and ran back into her room. I looked over at Sarah and she gave me the OK to follow her and console her.

I knocked on her door. “Go away,” was all I heard. I tried knocking again. I heard her get up off her bed and walk towards the door and she asked, “Who is it?”

“It’s Me, Dimples — Loverboy.”

I heard a giggle and she opened her door. I walked in, asking her to keep it open for our ... everyones’ sake.

I sat down on her bed and patted next to me, for her to sit down. She came over to me and hesitantly sat on the bed, but about three feet away from me.

I scooted over to her, putting my arm around her and just held her for a moment. No kissing, no talking ... just comforting.

After a minute or two had passed, she laid her head on my shoulder and I heard a sigh come from her.

“I don’t mind if you have boobies, Claire — if you didn’t, you would be one strange girl now, wouldn’t you?”

She picked up her head off my shoulder, picked a pillow up threatening to hit me with it as if to say something, but decided against it and put her head back down. It felt real nice. I heard a giggle from her.

“What’s that for?”

“You don’t mind if I have boobies. Of all the things I expected you to come in here and say to me. That wasn’t one of them.”

She giggled again.

“Claire,” I said raising her off my shoulder and looking directly into her big beautiful brown eyes. “I am certain of a few things in my life right now; one, I love and adore you, no matter what size your breasts become; two, I also love and admire, your mother, Kalista, and Annie; third, we need to learn all new dances to all new music; and fourth, I am certain that Sarah, Annie, and Kalista are right outside the door, listening to every word we’re saying to one another.”

With that Kalista came in first, saying, “I’m sorry Claire. Charles was being a big butt. I apologize, tell me you forgive me, please?”

Claire got up and walked to Kalista and gave her a great big hug and they both cried a little, but they seemed OK.

“ANNIE, SARAH ... all clear, come on in,” Kalista said also too loud.

Annie walked in snickering saying, “Mister, you seem to have the luck of the Irish. You seem to be able to talk yourself out of just about every situation you get yourself into. I sure hope I am not there when your luck runs out.”

“Who needs luck when I have the four of you to keep me in my place. Are you girls ready to go? Claire and I have some new dances to learn and just as importantly, new routines to learn. Everything from last year must go ... all new music, all new routines.”

Sarah responded, “Does everybody do that Charles, change it all?”

“Charles & Claire don’t do anything like anybody else does ... that’s how we’re going to break our own record and win all eleven summer competitions.”

There was a group ‘Wow’ that went through the room, but that’s OK. I wasn’t going to let anybody ever forget that Charles & Claire were here and they could out-dance anybody!.

“Get out of my room, Loverboy,” Claire said. “I need to pack.”

We all got out, with Annie and Sarah both laughing under their breath. Kalista also giggled as she left.

Ten minutes later, Claire, Kalista, Annie and I, were on our way home. Claire promised to check in at least once a day, so Sarah knows what’s going on. I’ll miss her not being around, but I need to keep focused on my girl, my dance partner, my love!

As usual, Kalista got in the front seat with Annie, while Claire and I nuzzled each other in the back seat. I quietly told her about Annie’s concern about our dancing close and Claire admitted there might be a problem. She quietly told me she was a 30B cup, promising to explain what that meant at some point in the future.

Claire also mentioned that she thought we should keep “Sunrise Sunset” in our wheelhouse, since it was our first ever dance routine.

That was what we danced to on the David Letterman Show. I agreed with her to keep that song as her head fell on my shoulder for the rest of the drive to our house.

Back at the Newman house, everybody sat around and talked for a while. I was looking through the music for a new Waltz number. What is the name of that great Louis Armstrong number, it’s been in movie after movie?

“Mom, I have got a song in my head, by Louis Armstrong. It’s a waltz tempo, but the name of it escapes me!”

“‘What a Wonderful World ... could that be it, Honey?” she replied.

“Yep, you are the greatest, Mom. But I don’t want him singing, I want a more contemporary version just at the same tempo.”

Claire said, “I know that song ... Leanne Rimes recorded it just a few years ago. I have got it, back in my room. I am sorry Charles?”

“What for ... you have got it? Maybe we can get Sarah, or Josiah to bring it to us? Anything I don’t have to download. Now a Foxtrot, I want to make a statement with our Foxtrot. I think it’s one of our weaker dances. We need to spiff it up a bit. Oooh, Lady Gaga, anything of hers scream Tango, Claire?”

“How about “Bad Romance,” isn’t that a fast tango, Charles?” Claire said.

“Yeah, it is ... I wonder who’s covered it. Just a second ... I am going to the computer to find a different version. Her stuff all seems so over-produced. Be right back.” I went into iTunes and a group called the Vitamin String Quartet, covered “Bad Romance,” making it perfect for Charles & Claire to dance to.

“What did you find, Charles?” Mom asked hearing ‘it’ in my voice.

I replied, “An extraordinary version by a modern string quartet, Annie.”

“What else do you need, X?” Kalista asked hopefully.

“Maybe a newer song to Foxtrot to?”

“Charles honey,” mom responded, causing a giggle from the other girls, “Have you ever heard of Michael Bublé?”

“Oh, yeah Mom, he’s really good. Plus, he makes all those older songs sound fresh. You have a song of his in mind?”

“Yeah, look for ‘At This Moment’ It’s a Waltz, not a Foxtrot,” mom said.

I found it and listened to it. I really liked it. “Thanks, Mom — Honey.”

Everybody giggled again.

I turned around and said, “OK, Claire. Loverboy is ready to teach some new dances, how about you?”

I went over to the sofa and pulled her up and asked her, “Which of those — Waltz, Slow Foxtrot or Tango, would you like to re-learn, Ms. McArthur?”

“Re-learn?” she said with a quizzical look on her face.

“Yep, now that we are using all the proper techniques and principles, including dancing real close together, I think we should learn all the steps again, but with the knowledge that we have gained since we first began to dance together,” I said.

“I agree, Mr. Newman,” Claire responded with a giggle. “That’s a really good idea, this way we can rebuild our foundation of skills on a broader knowledge base.”

I heard giggles from the sofa. I looked over and said, “Did you have something you wanted to add to that, Kalista?”

“You two suddenly sound so much older, it’s kind of weird how you two have grown up so much in the last year.”

Annie responded. “I think Kalista was giggling because the two of you seem so intuitively in sync with each other.”

“Foxtrot, Charles ... I would like us to learn the Foxtrot. Think that Michael Bublé might have a song for us to Foxtrot to?” Claire said.

I looked and found Mr. Bublé’s cover of “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You” and said, “Found one.”

“OK, Claire ... first the Feather Step, oh yeah ... now the Three Turn, gosh Claire ... good memory, now the Natural Turn. Let’s do those again; You are right Claire, this song, this dance, and this girl in my arms ... will win us, our next competition.”