Chapter 41

“MOTHER!”

She was on a roll, so Sarah kept going, “Sorry Claire, but the truth is the truth. Most girls your age are getting ready to go to high school and plan to sleep with every boy they meet, until they find the one to bring home to Mom and Dad. You, however—hit the mother lode; he’s cute, he’s smart, he treats you like he’s known you for a dozen years, but it’s been barely over a year and a half, from when you first met.”

“I know I didn’t originally understand what was going on with you two, but I support my daughter, I approve of her fiancé and I can’t wait to see the beautiful children the two of you make. But, that won’t happen until after you are married, will it, Charles?” she made her point by wagging her finger at me.

“No ma’am, it won’t,” I said very assured of myself, with my arm around Claire.

“So, that means we can kiss now, whenever we want, doesn’t it, mother?” Claire questioned.

Suddenly, there was a bit of tension in the room. Everybody was looking around at everybody else.

Annie stepped forward and said, “I want to put my two cents in on this discussion, Charles. I have always thought that you were a very special young man, even when you were Kalista’s age. You got every Cub Scout award available and you also got straight ‘A’s in school. You opened doors for your sisters’ and me, even talked back to your father on more than one occasion. I have been proud of you, your entire life.”

“To me ... the seminal moment in our relationship was when you had the opportunity to have your father beaten up—which he would have deserved—and instead you chose to give him a hug and told him to go on his ‘Not So Merry’ way instead. That’s the mark of a great man, Charles.”

“I will go to my grave telling everyone I know that my son is a great man and has found the thing he loves most and the girl he loves most.”

I walked over to Mom and gave her a great big hug. I then went to Sarah and I did the same with her. Kalista was next and lastly, I went up to Claire and I said, “I want to take you jewelry shopping, so we can give back to Annie her ring, because I want everyone to know that you are my fiancée ... and my destiny.”

I started a kiss with her standing there, with everyone else in the room, not caring about any of them, except the girl I had my arms around. I dropped both of my hands and placed them directly on her butt cheeks, pushing her into me. I heard a gasp or two and a giggle, but there was no clearing of the throats or gesticulations to make us stop.

When the kiss was finally over, Claire whispered to me, “That was so naughty.”

As we turned to see Annie and Sarah, they were locked in a similar kiss with Sarah’s hands all over Annie’s butt, again causing a few gasps along with Kalista’s nervous giggle.

“Ladies, time for bed—go to your room and finish ... whatever it is you may have started.” Claire and I pulled them apart and pushed them out into the hallway.

“So,” Kalista said, “Are you two gonna start feeling each other off all the time, or was that all just a show for your Moms?”

“The expression is ‘feel each other up’ and most of what we just did was for their benefit, although your butt also feels really nice, Claire-Bear,” I said.

Claire giggled. K grinned!

The next morning the girls were up and stretching, so I joined them for a while, letting them help me. We all showered and changed into performance clothes and carried a change in our go-bags.

Annie and Sarah knocked and came in ready to go.

“Did everyone get a good night’s sleep?” I asked.

Everyone nodded and we were on our way to our rehearsal at the UIC Pavilion (University of Illinois at Chicago) that according to our original email that came with our schedule can hold 9,500 people.

From the outside it doesn’t look that big, but when we got inside—it was amazing. Apparently this place was renovated about ten years ago, but it still looks really nice. It’s sunken like a football stadium, but it’s entirely enclosed.

Off in the distance we saw Michael and the gang. Kalista ran up to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. He picked her up and asked, “What’s that for?”

“Because I missed you and your pretty voice,” Kalista said, as Michael put her down and kissed her on the cheek.

“Your Ambassador certainly knows how to make an entrance. Welcome you guys, you ready to Wow Chicago?”

“Well, Michael—we have two new numbers for the show,” I said.

Sarah walked up to Michael, like a shark that just smelled chum in the water and said, “We think the second one they’re about to do, deserves to be the last number of the evening Michael—Charles & Claire have put in over a dozen hours of practice on it. I think you will agree when you see it.” Sarah was playing with his tie the whole time she was talking to him. She was wearing her black strapless dress and Michael had yet to even look directly at her face.

“Show me what you got, kids,” Michael said, clearing his throat and glancing again at Sarah, this time making direct eye contact.

Claire and Kalista were changing into their ballet slippers as Annie gave me the CD and I found the system to pipe it through.

“Michael, this number is only Claire and Kalista,” I said as I grabbed the remote to start the number, ‘My Heart Will Go On.’ I stood next to Annie as I saw the girls get into position. I saw a nod from Claire and I started the music.

The girls both went into matching Rondés and then each did what they had practiced. I watched Michael as he watched them. He seemed very emotional, whether it was the music or the girls, I couldn’t tell. They’d just performed side-by-side Battements and they were both full of emotion themselves, however, they stayed focused and kept performing.

When the piccolo plays after the bridge, Kalista dances alone beautifully, but when the full orchestration comes in they start again to dance contrasting moves with each other. I looked over at Michael again and Sarah had her hand on his shoulder as he started to wipe his eyes. It’s over five minutes long, but their last moves were as beautiful and as graceful as their beginning moves were.

“That HAS TO start the evening, that number does,” Michael said rather assertively. “That song has always been my personal favorite number, since Celine first recorded it. I know her—I will make sure she comes to your wedding and sings that herself, with my orchestra.”

Sarah leaned into him and said, “Thank you, but as the Great Al Jolson once said, ‘You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, Michael!’”

Annie gave her the other CD that she changed out. I handed the remote to Mom as Claire and I got into position all the way upstage. Everyone moved, the orchestra people got up to watch this themselves; possibly anticipating that something ... wonderful was about to happen. I hoped so!

I nodded to Annie and she started the music, which of course starts with Bill Medley singing, ‘Now I have had the time of my life... ‘ which is Claire’s cue to start dancing. As we started the routine ... we heard gasps from all around us.

We were ‘in the zone’ as we went from move to step and back to move again. Our close-in dancing was our best ever as we danced as one person, but the song moves on and so did we, as we were doing some salsa type moves and some merengue type moves, but this may just become our new signature song and dance. It was getting to ‘that’ point, so I went to the furthest downstage point, dancing in place, as Claire started the run towards me and she left the ground at just the right spot and in just the right point in the music—I got ready and WE DID IT!

I heard K and the ladies scream out as I brought Claire to her feet as we finished the dance, adding a Charles & Claire flourish of one-handed spins to finish.

The song was over.

Everybody clapped and whistled and applauded as we clinched each other and kissed. We bowed to our audience of the orchestra people and Michael, Kalista, and the Moms.

I kept hearing “Wow” and “Fantastic” from everywhere. Claire and I went to Michael ... who was speechless.

“Well, what do you think Michael? Does that deserve to be the last number of the evening?” Sarah said, as Michael was still emotionally silent.

“Oh my Fucking Goodness, you two,” he blurted and quickly realized his gaffe and said, “I am sorry, but that was, I—I don’t have words for that, that’s how good that was. Amazing—the most outstanding piece of dancing I have yet to see in my lifetime just happened in front of me. Did you guys really take twelve hours to learn that?”

“Something along those lines, Michael,” Kalista confirmed.

“Sarah, if I got the sheet music for that, would you please sing it with me, while these young people blow the roof off the place with that dance. I can have it here by this evening. You and I can practice and be ready by tomorrow, if you’d like to do it? Please say you will sing with me? Please?” he got down on one knee, trying to get Sarah’s answer.

“You had me at Please, Michael—Yes, I will sing it with you.”

Turning to his orchestra, “OK, you overfed and underworked musicians; let’s practice and show these professional dancers what we all do for a living?” Michael said.

We went through the set, not bothering to do those two numbers again, but everything else. The girls were now going to pretty much stay in their slippers all night. We had no number that specifically necessitated heels.

With the Campus being less than two miles from our hotel, we left for an hour before we came back to perform. I needed a bit of a rubdown and Sarah helped me out by popping my back and the back of both of my legs like before.

I also took a hot shower to keep my back loose. After we all relaxed for a bit, we headed back to the Pavilion, finding a parking space that had our name on it.

A few people had started to arrive, with a few asking for our autographs. We got inside and we got an applause just walking through the crowd. I turned and said, “Thank you for coming this evening—I hope you enjoy the show.”

We left as they all lined up, heading to the green room. With no costume changes and only having to change their shoes if they wanted, we all had enough time to get little nervous. A young man came up to Sarah and said, “Are you Sarah?”

“Yes, I am,” she replied, giving him one of her great smiles.

“I have something from Mr. Bublé for you,” he responded.

“Thank you,” she said as the boy left quickly, after handing her an envelope. She opened it—it was the sheet music to ‘I have Had the Time of My Life.’

To say the evening was a success would be a tremendous understatement. After our opening number, we had applause for close to five minutes. The evening was amazing all night. As we were preparing to go on for the last number of the evening, Michael came out with a microphone. This wasn’t scheduled?

“Ladies and gentlemen, I want to remind you that these young people performing aren’t yet fifteen and Kalista is only 9 1/2 years old. These youngsters are the finest dancers of their generation, I truly believe that. They make me very proud ... to be on the same stage with them and they are the standard for young people everywhere.” His eyes were glistening.

Michael took a breath as the crowd started applauding.

“Earlier today, they showed me a new dance they had spent 12 hours perfecting—one dozen hours, ladies and gentlemen—so here they are ... Charles & Claire performing to the song ‘I have Had the Time of My Life.’”

Michael left the stage as we walked on, getting into position. Claire leaned in and gave me a quick kiss, starting chuckles all through the ten thousand plus people watching, as our music started...

MICHAEL
Now I have had the time of my life
No, I never felt like this before
Yes I swear it’s the truth
And I owe it all to you
SARAH
‘Cause I have had
the time of my life
And I owe it all to you

MICHAEL
I have been waiting for so long
Now I have finally found
someone to stand by me
SARAH
We saw the writing on the wall
And we felt this magical fantasy

BOTH
Now with passion in our eyes
There’s no way we could
disguise it secretly
So we take each other’s hand
‘Cause we seem to
understand the urgency

MICHAEL
Just remember
SARAH
You are the one thing
MICHAEL
I can’t get enough of
SARAH
So I’ll tell you something
MICHAEL
This could be love

BOTH
Because I have had
the time of my life
No, I never felt this way before
Yes I swear it’s the truth
And I owe it all to you

SARAH
With my body and soul
I want you more
then you’ll ever know
MICHAEL
So we’ll just let it go
Don’t be afraid
to lose control, no

SARAH
Yes, I know what’s on
your mind when you say
“Stay with me tonight”
MICHAEL
Just remember
You are the one thing
SARAH
I can’t get enough of
BOTH
So I’ll tell you something
This could be love

(Everybody knew why I’d moved downstage and I was dancing and preparing myself for the moment. As Claire prepared for her flight ... I positioned my hands ready to go.)

(The moment in the music came and she ran and jumped and I got her—as the crowd erupted as one—I brought her down and we finished the routine, with thousands of people singing along with the music. The very end was coming and we did our one-handed spins, as the music was finishing up)

BOTH
Because I have had
the time of my life
No, I never felt this way before
Yes I swear it’s the truth
And I owe it all to you
‘Cause I have had
the time of my life
And I have searched
through every open door
Till I found the truth
And I owe it all to you

The audience had all started cheering and standing long before the song was over, as we bowed and left the stage.

Michael came out and said, “Goodnight—Have a safe drive home everyone.”

Many people rushed the stage yelling and wanting autographs. Annie came out to dozens of wolf whistles to give us pens, as the people came forward with our posters and to have their pictures taken with us. Some wanted pictures with Michael and Sarah. We all signed autographs for a solid two hours after which security started directing people out of the pavilion.

When we got back to the hotel, we were so wired we stayed up ... and talked for a while about a lot of different things.

Finally, at one-thirty am, Annie and Sarah went to their room, leaving us to get to sleep, because we had another night in Chicago.

The next night was even more incredible. However, at the end of the evening some very special guests came up asking for autographs.

The first one looked like she could have been Sarah’s mom and she was just as beautiful, Raquel Welch, who had been born and now again lives in Chicago.

She came up on stage and over-whelmed Michael with her smile. My god this woman is over 70. Each of my ladies gave her a hug, even Sarah. Them hugging each other looked almost obscene – but, a good obscene.

An older man, with a ponytail and glasses came up and instead of walking up to Michael; he came over to Claire and me.

“My name is Kenny Ortega, that’s my choreography that you copied ... and I am glad as I can be, that you did! That really was fabulous. Did I hear correctly, that you choreograph all of your own numbers yourself, Charles?”

“Yes sir, that’s quite the compliment, coming from you. Didn’t you choreograph that number of Gene Kelly’s in XANADU?”

“Yes, that was one of my first jobs as a choreographer. You have a future ... all three of you. This Kalista has not only got skills as a dancer, she has the face of a star! If you weren’t going off on tour, I would have offered you a dance sequence in my Dirty Dancing remake, Thanks for keeping dance alive!”

As he left, a gentleman with long unruly-looking hair that I also didn’t recognize, came up and started shaking Michael’s hand. Michael introduced him to us, “Everybody, this is Josh Groban. I asked him here to bring you some of his music, since he sings the slow romantic stuff you like so much.”

I put out my hand to shake his and he handed me a half a dozen CD’s saying, “This is everything I have ever recorded guys, if you find something you want to dance to, feel free. I could use some more sales. Michael has told me that his music sales have jumped almost 20 percent since you guys started dancing to his music. Good luck to you all as you grow up and get even better, if that’s possible! When you are through with Michael, give me a call.” He handed me a card, which I handed, along with the music, to Sarah and Mom. I saw him look over at Sarah—She blushed a little.

“We have a contract through September of next year, Mr. Groban. After that, this cute hunk next to me and I are getting married and then going back out on our own Tour starting the following New Year’s Day. Does your allowing us to dance to your music extend to when we go out on our own, Sir?” Claire asked flashing her demure smile at him.

“Absolutely, you guys—anything I have performed to is all yours. I will just sit back and collect royalties on the sales I get from people wanting to hear my music. I even got your posters. Could I get each of your signatures by your faces?” He pulled out our 5 faces poster and we each signed by our face. I saw Mr. Groban also take a sharp look at Annie, but she looked away, rebuffing him. He said thanks as he left.

Lastly was a truly iconic face on a slender figure I would recognize anywhere ... the 1976 Olympic Figure-skating Gold Medalist Dorothy Hamill. She still has the same beautiful face from the videos I have seen of the Olympics from long before I was born. From reading her bio, I knew she was born in Chicago on July 26, 1956, making her almost sixty years old; holy moly, that’s amazing!

She walked over to Claire and me and told us that she thought that we both could become very good ice-skaters; due to our high-energy footwork we perform. We thanked her and signed the poster she brought, our original dance pose and she left giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“Look, Charles is blushing,” Kalista said.

We’d packed and checked out, so we all got on Michael’s plane and headed off to

21st City
St Louis, MO
Two Nights
Red Lion Hotel

22nd City
Little Rock, AK
One Night
Little Rock Marriott

23rd City
Bismarck, ND
One Night
Hampton Inn Bismarck

24th City
Rapid City, SD
One Night
Best Western Ramkota Hotel

25th City
Lincoln, NE
One Night
Graduate Lincoln

26th City
Omaha, NE
One Night
Hilton Omaha

Our stop in

27th City
Denver, CO
Two Nights
Denver Marriott

was the first of four cities in Colorado on the Something Special Tour.

We landed at Denver International Airport, maybe the prettiest airport of the ones we been to so far, although the Hawaiian Airport was quite beautiful as well.

We picked up our rental, a Dodge Grand Caravan and loaded it up as we left the airport to go directly to our hotel, which was relatively close to the Pepsi Center, where we will be performing.

We have a full day to ourselves before we practice or perform, so after checking in at the Marriott, we all gathered to decide what to do.

With the laptop in front of me, I talked about some of the places we could go:

“Elitch Gardens Theme Park—Water, Thrill and Family Rides”

“Heritage Square Amusement Park—All of the above plus mini-golf and pony rides.”

“Water World—40 water-based attractions to play in the sun and get third-degree burns from.”

“OK, Charles ... we get it, you think Water World isn’t smart to go to, is it?” Sarah said.

Bemused, I went on, “The Denver Museum of Nature and Science—Lots of different dead things to observe.”

“What was that first place you mentioned again Charles?” Kalista asked.

“Elitch Gardens—it has rides for little kids, what they call Thrill Rides and Family Rides, like an 82-year-old Carousel and...”

“Charles, does it mention height requirements?” Kalista asked sounding hopeful, but pensive.

“Yeah, Princess—from what I can see, if you are 48 inches tall or taller you can ride anything and everything. How tall are you Kalista?”

“I am not sure—do we have anything to measure me with, Annie or Sarah?” Kalista asked.

“K, I am 66 inches tall—stand next to me, we need to both take off our shoes first, OK?” Claire said.

They both took off their shoes and got back to back with each other and Kalista was 2.5 hands shorter than Claire.

“Princess, you are no less than 55 inches tall. It seems to me that you are plenty tall for everything in the park. Is that what everybody wants to do? It’s July and we need to dress comfortably,” I said to everyone.

They all seemed to agree that Elitch’s seemed like the perfect place. So, we all dressed accordingly and drove there, using Sarah and the laptop as our navigator.

Hoping there may be an opportunity to dance, I made sure the girl’s slippers were making the trip as well.

We got there, and of course we were recognized the instant we got out of our vehicle. As we walked to the ticket booth, we had people of all ages walking alongside us asking for autographs.

We signed all we could and Sarah got us all of our tickets to get in—They gave them to us at half price as they recognized us as well.

Annie took the girls to the Carousel, while Sarah and I asked to speak to whoever was in charge today. After waiting for about ten minutes, a nice looking gentleman and introduced himself as the Park Entertainment Director, Kevin Winchell.

Shaking his hand, I asked, “Sir, I am Charles Newman, of Charles & Claire—this is my business manager Sarah Rollins - if there’s an available slot sometime in the next 3 to 4 hours, Charles & Claire would love to offer our services as entertainers here at Elitch’s. Even if there is no use for us as entertainers today, we do plan on staying and enjoying what looks like a very nice facility. We have to meet the rest of our group at the Carousel, so let us know either way please. We wouldn’t expect payment or consideration of any kind. We just love to dance and people seem to love to watch us dance, so find us and let us know,” I explained as we turned away to head back to the ladies.