Chapter 17

At this point it became a private conversation between the two of them, but I did hear Claire say, “You have heard the song before, Mother ... you even thought it would be a nice song to dance to. Charles and I decided to have a wedding, so to speak, during the song.”

They finished their conversation. Claire was smiling and enjoying what just went down.

“My mom’s parting words were, ‘Make sure you don’t really get married dear.’ I think she’s gone mental, as the brits say.”

“Are we finally ready to start learning this routine, young lady?” I said with a bit of an attitude.

Annie immediately jumped on this remark and said, “Kalista, their first fight and just before the ceremony,” causing both of them to start snickering.

That did seem to calm Claire down a little. We proceeded to go through every Cha-cha step from the beginning, starting over with the Basic Movement steps and proceeding quickly to more advanced steps and getting a well-rounded body of steps to use for ‘our wedding.’

Annie was helping us with the details surrounding getting married, explaining how there is a proposal and acceptance, looking at rings, looking for a dress, final preparations and finally going down the aisle.

We have a lot to do in three and a half minutes.

We decided that during the first sixteen measures equaling twelve seconds of music, I’d drop to one knee and pull a ring out my pocket and put it on her hand. We practiced that until we got it done with half of a measure leftover.

Mom and Kalista were really enjoying watching us go through this over and over again.

Next, we decided to go traditional hold and show off some steps. With Claire having gotten taller and me now starting my steps with my hip, our steps are more pronounced, looking more professional. Annie really liked that.

Claire was really picking up on the nuances of the more difficult steps, like the Fan, the Advanced Hip Twist, and the Time Steps, which we had done before, but now they looked better.

We are really packing a lot into this dance. Claire even picked up on the Alemana Turn, which is very different from what we’d previously learned. We even added some steps, that are considered difficult for college dancers, called the Spiral, the Curl, and Rope Spinning. We had enough different steps now ... we just had to integrate them correctly into each other.

We went for another hour and then Annie recommended that we take a break.

Annie had contacted Jimmy and got the OK to get the new clothes. We would be at the mercy of whomever it is that’s making or fitting the clothes to us. She called the number Jimmy gave her and they said someone would be over in under twenty minutes.

When they arrived, it was an older Italian gentleman with silver hair and glasses, along with his daughter, a beauty with long black hair. Annie let them in and the old man stopped in his tracks.

“Oh, mya goodness ... Alessandra, we been chosena to makea some clothes for de marvelous Charles & Claire. We lovea you dances. What can we doa for you?” He was such a wonderful old man with his halting accent.

Claire and I explained what we wanted. Mom got out the NDCA requirements and told them my outfit must consist of: Dress pants, a plain or ruffled shirt, optional tie and/or vest. Seeing no restrictions, I asked for it all to be white.

For Claire, there were the following restrictions: Leotards and wrap skirts or party/cocktail dresses without excessive adornment. We decided she’d wear a full-body white leotard, under an all-white party dress.

I’d also read that the ring would be considered a ‘prop’ and props aren’t allowed. We will change the beginning to where I will pretend to give her the ring and she will simply turn her ring around and flash it to the crowd.

I stepped away from everybody else and asked Annie to as well, saying, “I wanted to ask your permission about something, Mom. The Friendship Promise Ring I got her isn’t really big enough to flash under the lights. Could Claire and I ... borrow your wedding ring for the dance, please?”

Claire’s ears perked up, probably with the words ‘Wedding ring’ and she turned, to listen to us talk.

“Charles, honey ... I haven’t taken this ring off since the moment your father gave it to me on our wedding day. I have been hoping he might just come to his senses, but it appears he will never leave that bitc ... bimbo, he left me for.”

She looked down at her hand, rolling the ring with the fingers of her other hand and started to cry. I went up to her and patted her on the shoulder, saying, “I am sorry Mom, I should have never asked ... that was un-thinking of me. Claire and I can use her ring; it’s not that big of a deal — I am really sorry.”

We cried together for a moment.

Then — my mother did the unthinkable, taking the ring off her finger for the first time, in, I would suppose twenty-two years and handed it to me, with no tears, saying, “Charles, this ring is for to you to use, when you get married. It was always going to be for you to give to the girl of your dreams.”

Claire had started to sob. I was close as well.

I went down on one knee, astonishing even myself and put it on her ring finger and it fit ... perfectly.

All other conversations had now stopped. Kalista had covered her mouth in surprise, Alessandra and her father were tearing up and the look on my mother’s face ... was unforgettable.

We had “Marry You” in such good shape, we had both wished our first time showing it to people, could have been at Nationals, but as Mr. McArthur once told me, ‘Charles, there are things you can do something about and then, there is everything else.’

Yeah, that surprised me too!

It was the day before our second competition of the season. We were packing up, so we could leave first thing in the morning. Annie and I went through the music list,

“Two copies of each:
‘A’ Choice; “Marry You”
‘C’ Choice; “Skyfall”
‘B’ Choice; “At This Moment”
‘D’ Choice; “What a Wonderful World”

“Charles, why did “At This Moment” become our ‘B’ choice?” Claire asked.

“Claire, we will be in our ‘wedding white’ dance outfits. If we don’t get “Marry You” the only other song that would work well with the outfits, is “At This Moment.”

“OH, that makes sense to me. Thank you, Charles, for taking care of the decision-making like you do. That way all I have to do is show up and dance.”

“Believe me, Beautiful ... You do much more than that, you inspire me to be better at everything I try and to love you with all of my heart.”

Kalista had walked in during this but walked right back into the kitchen. I yelled to her, “Why did you leave, Kalista?”

From the other side of the door, I heard, “Because when you say something like that to Claire, I am usually being ushered out of the room, so you can kiss and make out. This time, I was just saving Annie the trouble of pushing me into the kitchen ... Is it safe yet?”

“No ... not yet, Kalista,” Claire snickered, “Give me 60 seconds, please?”

I looked over to Claire and she was coming at me with both lips on high alert. We kissed each other, really enjoying ourselves for a bit, until we heard Kalista, coming through the door with her hands over her eyes, saying, “52, 53, 54, is it OK yet, 55, 56...”

Claire and I finished up as Kalista hit, “60 – Can I open my eyes?”

Annie chose this particular moment to come downstairs from changing into different clothes.

“Why is Kalista asking if she can open her eyes, Charles?” Annie asked with a smirk.

“You had to be there, Annie. Whoa! Hubba-Hubba, Mamma-cita. You look great ... What’s the occasion?” I was impressed, and she looked H-O-T!

“I am taking my son, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s cousin out to dinner, so you have five minutes to get ready. And ... GO!”

We all ran up into our various rooms and changed into Cotillion clothes, faster than I thought possible. I was out first, then Kalista and then Ms. McArthur made a grand entrance in a new dress that her Mom had gotten her, apparently. It was the prettiest shade of blue I had ever seen. I went to the bottom of the stairs and offered my hand to her.

She giggled and took it and we walked arm in arm, up to Annie and Kalista.

“You sure have that wedding walk down pat, don’t you?” Annie said with a smile on her face. “Charles, I think you have what Brian used to call, that googly-eyed look on your face.”

“Come on Kalista, let’s give them a moment.” We all laughed, but Annie didn’t get it.

I took Claire and we did a spin together and stopped and kissed each other as we heard the car horn.

We left, not knowing where Mom was taking us. We pulled up to a massive place that had music coming from it. A live orchestra it sounded like. We all got out of the car and somebody got in it and drove away.

“Annie,” Kalista said, “That man just stole your car!”

“No Kalista. He’s just parking it for us. It’s called ‘Valet parking.’ He will get it for us, when we leave,” Annie said with a smile on her face.

“Oh,” Kalista said duly informed.

We walked into a very nice restaurant, that I don’t remember ever being at before in my life. There were maybe thirty or more tables, semi-surrounding a very large dance floor.

Mom went up to a man and handed him a twenty-dollar bill and he snapped his fingers and a very smartly dressed young lady, took us to a table. She smiled and seated Mom, while I seated first Kalista, then Claire, on either side of me. Both of them were in awe of this place ... everything was quite shiny and glittering. I hadn’t seen my mom this dressed up in a very long time, she is so pretty!

I got up, excusing myself from my two girls and went over to my mother and asked, “This place is fabulous, Annie! Are you sure, we can afford this?”

“Sit down Charles and enjoy your father’s money at work. We are eating dinner and if you feel like dancing, there’s the dance floor. The orchestra plays until the last people leave. We can’t stay that late, but we don’t have to rush, either.”

I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek saying, “I love you so much. Thank you for this. You, all of you, deserve to be at a nice place like this, every night of the week.” I walked over and gave K and then Claire a quick kiss as well, as I sat down to soak this all in.

A waiter came by and took our order from the menus that had been pre-placed on the tables. We all ordered different things, just as a brilliant live version of ‘What a Wonderful World’ started. I got up asking Claire to dance and we went to the dance floor, she gave me a kiss and we went to town.

There were a few people already dancing, but everyone quickly moved to the side as we started our routine, startling some of the people. You could hear, “Who are they?” and “They are so young,” and my personal favorite, “Don’t they make a beautiful couple?” I think so too!

We were close to finishing and we did a few spins, ending with a kiss. The orchestra leader doffed his hat to us. The now full building of people all stood up and applauded. This felt ... different than performing for judges. This felt really good ... inside. We bowed and curtseyed to the throng of people.

As we left the floor, an older couple approached us, and the gentleman said, “It’s wonderful to see young people dancing and enjoying themselves so much. Thank you for that kids. May I ask your names?”

Shaking his hand, I said, “Sir, my name is Charles Newman and this young lady is Claire McArthur. We humbly thank you for your very kind words. We have been dancing together for a little over a year now.”

“Well, you two must be the cream of the crop then, Charles & Claire ... wait a minute, Charles & Claire — Are you the same Charles & Claire who were on the Internet dancing without music, or something like that?” The older gentleman asked.

“Yes Sir. Our music at our competition got eaten by a CD player; fortunately, we muddled through and still won the competition.”

“Won the competition? Amazing, how many competitions have you won exactly, Charles?” his wife asked.

“Well, ma’am ... that’s not important. Claire and I just love to dance so I teach us the steps and we go out and dance, just like we just did. Dancing is what we do for fun.”

Claire interrupted for a moment, “We have won a total of ‘Ten’ competitions, Sir, which includes a National Award, just this past March in Salt Lake City. Thank you so much for saying such nice things. We need to get back to our table, but you and your wife can dance too, it’s not just for us fourteen-year-olds.”

“Fourteen-year-olds?” his wife said. “You two are only fourteen years old?”

“Yes, ma’am, we turn fourteen in July, actually. Again, thank you, but I believe our dinner has arrived at our table,” I answered.

I took Claire by the arm and we got back to the table and Annie and Kalista were waiting for us to tell them everything that happened. We brought them up to date and got into our food, which was delicious, each of us sharing with each other. Next time, if there is one, Sarah needs to be part of this. I really miss her, and the sexy dress she would likely wear.

We were through with dinner when the band leader announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have some celebrities with us tonight.”

We all looked around to see who was there, but the lights were down, and a spotlight was moving around making it difficult to see anything.

“Maybe, if we give them some encouragement ... We can get Charles & Claire back up here to dance for us again.”

The spotlight stopped at our table, I looked over at Mom who was waving her arms saying she didn’t do it ... so I stood up and took Claire and helped her up and the place became alive with the sounds of applause and people responding to just our names.

We walked out to the dance floor. The bandleader asked what we wanted to have played, I asked if they knew “At This Moment,” and I heard the bandleader, say to the orchestra, “At This Moment.” He looked back at me asking, “tempo, please?” I said, “Medium speed waltz, please?”