Chapter 9

“Yes, a Terrible Tango routine,” I said. “Must find just the right music,” as I started rummaging through our music collection.

“What about ‘Hernando’s Hideaway,’ Charles? We have practiced to it a couple of times?” Claire suggested.

“No, Claire ... it’s a great song to Tango to, but I want something that works for only you and me ... so nobody else will dare dance to it, after we do.”

“Aren’t we getting a little full of ourselves, Charles?” mom asked.

“No Mom, the music is important; important enough to make or break a dance routine. I found it! It’s “Whatever Lola Wants” by Sarah Vaughn. It’s got four measures before you dance, to add a flourish to. Play this CD please Special K — cut six?”

Kalista had started the music and I had Claire listen to it for a minute. She smiled at me and said, “Let’s dance.” K restarted the music and Claire and I started to dance and talked to each other and we quickly got a roughed-out routine.

“Charles,” mom said. “There’s something about the two of you ... when you two start to dance — it looks to me as though, you have both blocked out everything else around you?”

“That’s what happens to me,” admitted Claire. “When the music starts, my eyes lock on his and everyone else is gone ... until the music’s over.”

Kalista added, “You mean music is playing out loud? When Charles is dancing with me ... I don’t even hear the music; I feel it. It’s difficult to explain.” She quickly blushed.

“You are right, K,” mom said. “I understand what you mean. The few times I have danced with X, I know that all there is, at the moment, is you and him. I am his Mother and I feel it too.”

Claire said, “OK Charles, again. We need to do this at least six more times. K, you get him in about an hour? Is that all right with you?”

K responded, “Sure, Claire ... I know how to share.”

The way Kalista said that made us all smile. Claire and I went back to work on the routine, stopping and refining and we added some nuance to her promenades. After about thirty minutes passed, I thought it was time for a break.

The doorbell rang, and I got it, “Sarah!”

She was dressed very nicely and Claire said, “Are you here already to come get us?”

“No, don’t worry. I have become enamored ... of the process of watching you dance. Also, I needed to see Annie for a few things. Really, don’t worry even a little.”

I took her hand, kissed it, and walked her to the sofa. “I am glad you are here, Sarah. Your smile brightens a room.”

“I wish my husband was as much a gentleman as you are, Charles.”

“Who was at the door?” Mom said as she and K walked in with food. “Hello Sarah, are you here to watch?”

“If you all don’t mind. Our house was empty, and I knew where to find my favorite male dancer.”

“Mother!” Claire said to her.
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With the look of concern off her face, K came up to me and asked, “Charles; I know you and Claire need to perfect a routine for your next competition, but could we please do some waltzing, please?”

“Sure, Special K ... Are you ready to learn a new step?”

“Yeah X, I would love to.” She is so eager!

“OK, what I am going to teach you next, is called The Natural Spin Turn. Let’s do it first with you standing on the tips of my toes. Take your shoes off or you will break my feet.” That made her giggle and she got up on my toes.

“OK, K ... feel the tempo, one two three — one two three — one two three, yeah ... you feel it, K. I see it on your face that you really feel the music. Now, put your shoes back on, quickly ... and let’s do it again. Yes ... you are really getting quite good at the Waltz, K.”

Claire put on ‘Moon River’ — K and I nodded thanks and started to Waltz. K really felt the beats and was doing the Spin Turn quite comfortably. We danced until the end of the song. Then we sat down with Claire, Sarah, and Mom to have a snack.

“Kalista,” mom said. “We need to find a young man for you to dance with. You could enter competitions — you are getting that good at Waltzing.”

“Annie, I don’t want a young man ... I want Charles!”

Claire almost spit out the bite of the sandwich she had in her mouth when K said that. She coughed and said she was OK, but I think she was a little taken aback by Kalista’s unexpected remark. Sarah just quietly watched all of this.

“Are you all right, Claire?” Kalista asked.

“Yeah, honey ... I am fine,” she said cleaning up her mess.

“So, when and where exactly is this next competition?” Sarah asked.

“In Bloomington, Indiana,” Annie responded. “Come with us, I know you will enjoy yourself. It’s four hours by car.”

“It’s a week from today, Sarah. The Tango this time. Claire and I have a wonderful routine. I ... everyone would love it if you were there.”

“We have another training tonight, just to remind you with the eighteen-year-olds.”

“OK Claire,” I turned to her and said. “Let’s go through our new routine a few more times.”

She responded, “Ancora una Volta con Sentimento, Carlo” (Once More with Feeling, Charles)?

I replied, “Se tu sapessi come mi sono davvero sentito, Clara” (If you only knew how I truly feel about you, Claire).

Annie gave out a nervous laugh, does she know Italian? I don’t know what Sarah knows.
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After practicing our new Tango routine to the point of distraction, Claire asked, “Charles, are there any more Quickstep moves we haven’t learned? I would like to do the Quickstep at a competition before too much longer.”

“Yeah, pretty girl -- there are a bunch more. I just didn’t want to overload us, all at once. We have only learned eight of the twenty-nine total Quickstep patterns. Let’s just do them in progression from easiest to more difficult. That’s what I have been doing with all the other steps we learned so far.”

Claire added, “Then let’s go over what we have learned and get those steps even better.”

“Sure, I got a piece of music on my phone called ‘Down With Love’ sung by Michael Bublé and Rene Zellweger. Kalista honey, could you please start the song for us?” I asked handing her my phone.

“Sure X,” K replied flashing her marvelous grin.

Claire smiled at me and muttered ‘remember’ under her breath. I nodded to K, who was waiting for me. The music began. It’s hard to explain what goes on in my head while I am dancing ... it’s roughly 25 percent thinking about the music, 25 percent thinking through the dance steps, but the other 50 percent seems to be thinking about the girl in my arms and how I never want to stop dancing with her.

We were moving from step to step, seamlessly. All I saw was Claire, with her sparkling red hair, those beautiful brown eyes, that cute little nose that turns up, and her perfect dimples smile, which is infectious. I could sense that the song was coming to a conclusion, so I got us back to the center of the room and we finished in sync with the music.

Everyone stood up and applauded. Claire and I turned and bowed to them.

“Food Break,” Annie said.

I had to run to the bathroom ... as I was walking back, I saw Claire waiting in the hallway.

“Hey Beautiful — holding the wall up, are you?”

“No, Charles ... just was waiting for you. I want to tell you something important. Stand still for a minute, will you? All right, you know how I feel about you, right?”

“Yeah, the same way I feel about you,” I responded instinctively.

“Well, what do you think about this?” My girl grabbed me and pushed me against the wall and smashed her lips and her whole body into mine and really gave me a very remarkable kiss ... easily the most emotional full-bodied kiss we have yet shared.

It really knocked my socks off. I actually felt it, deep down inside me. It felt like a lover’s kiss, but what brought this on? Nothing changed between us ... we’re still only thirteen years old and shouldn’t be doing anything like this until more time has passed.

“I love you so much, Charles,” she said.

“I love you too, Claire. Is there something specific that’s wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong Charles. I just wanted to share my love with you.”

“Claire, there are limits to how much love ... even two thirteen-year-olds, are able to ‘share,’ you know?”

“I know, Charles ... it’s just that I care so deeply for you.”

“I understand, Claire. Come on ... Let’s catch up with the ladies, they should have something ready to eat by now.”

We walked across the room. They were eating and they looked up at us as we came over to the sofa.

“Claire,” Sarah said, running her finger across her lips, telling Claire that she needed to clean me up. “Where did the two of you go off too, exactly?”

I picked up some tension in her voice and said, “Claire just wanted to ... talk about some thing’s between us that aren’t appropriate in front of K. Don’t worry ladies, no wedding announcements are forthcoming.”

That made Kalista giggle and she announced, “Charles, if something happens to Claire, I will marry you!”

The silence was obvious.

She couldn’t have possibly realized exactly what she was saying and how it affected all of us, especially me. I tried, but couldn’t hold back, as the tears started to drop down my face.

Annie came up to me and held me, saying, “She really cares so much about you, dear. More than she probably realizes, but you are such a good person inside that I know you care deeply about her, as well.”

I never told my mom about the ‘soul mate’ conversation that Claire and I had. Maybe, when I am alone with her, we could talk. I went up to K and I said, “Special K, I know you think you mean what you just said, but you are eight years old and I am only just thirteen and concepts like marriage and love ... are for people much older than either one of us. So, let’s keep things a little more carefree for right now, OK?”

“All right, X, but I know what I said, and I will be there for you, whenever you need me,” Kalista replied, very seriously.

“Yeah, K — That’s a deal. Let’s seal this with a kiss ... Mom, Sarah, OK with you guys? Claire, is this all right?” I turned to them and they were dabbing at their eyes and nodded. I got on the sofa, patted my lap for K to get on it and gave her a short, but firm lip kiss.

“Breaks Over!” Sarah said.

“Claire, let’s go through our Tango routine again. Mom, could you please put on “The Pearlfisher Tango?”

“Ready Claire?”

“Ready, Charles,” she said leaning in to give me a kiss just before the song started. The music started, and I suddenly had wings. I don’t know if it was the ‘K kiss’ or not, but I felt a new energy surge through me.

Claire and I were dancing among the clouds. Our promenades were startling. Claire was focused and smiling and dancing better than she ever had.

As usual, my focus was on her face, which really is beautiful, like one of those porcelain dolls, with a little wisp of makeup on it. The Rock Turn we put in the routine went perfectly for the first time. Our Back Corte went very well. I knew the ending was coming and, to borrow a term from the Olympics — ‘We nailed it.’

All three of them had jumped out of their seats and came up to us and told us it was perfect ... Now, if we can just do that for Jimmy and the eighteen-year-olds, later tonight.

I knew that Kalista was eager to dance. As Claire sat down, I asked, “Miss Kalista McArthur ... would you be so kind as to dance the Waltz with me? I have a new step for you to learn. This is definitely more difficult, but I think you can handle it, if you can really focus.”

“OK, Charles,” she nodded excitedly. Sarah giggled.

“Don’t laugh, Sarah, you’re next!”

“It’s called the Chasse from the Promenade position. The count is slightly different from what you have learned so far. The count goes 1, 2 ‘and’ 3 — 1, 2 ‘and’ 3. We take four steps during the three counts. You take a quick step on the ‘and’ count. Got it?”

“I think so, Charles.” Kalista sounded a little nervous, but I wanted her to try something outside her comfort zone. “Mom, would you please play ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ for Special K and I?” I looked over at Claire and she seemed annoyed at my using this music. I mouthed to her, ‘I love you,’ and she grinned and mouthed, ‘go ahead’ to me.

Mom was pulling the music out and was ready to go. Kalista’s eyes actually sparkled for a moment, as she looked up to me. I nodded to my mom and she began to play. I spoke the words to K, as we danced:

“Is this the little girl you carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday
when they were small?”

We finished the dance together and Kalista’s eyes had gone moist. She said, “Thank you, Mr. Newman, you dance divinely.”

That made us all laugh out loud, although I think, we were all dabbing at our eyes.

I recommended a rest, even though it was a few hours before Cotillion would begin. I moved over in between Claire and Kalista and we all just rested our eyes for a while. I felt K’s hand falling into mine as my eyes closed.

Once again, I awoke first ... with Claire leaning on my shoulder and Kalista with her head on my leg, using it as a pillow. I learned my lesson from the last time and didn’t try the ‘Snow White Wake-up Kiss’ this time. Mom and Sarah were up and in the kitchen, probably letting us rest up for our evening’s upcoming festivities. We had been dancing for a long time.

Eventually, Annie came in and pointed to her watch, which told me, we needed to get up and ready to go. I shrugged my shoulder a little and that woke up Claire.

Now, how to wake up Kalista? I decided to tickle her nose with the end of my fingertip. I touched her nose and she gave a twitch. I tried it again and she put her hand to her nose; I did it one more time and she giggled and said, “Stop it, Charles ... I was dreaming about you!”

That made me stop!

Claire tried to hold back a chuckle and mom left the room, but I heard her snort from the other side of the kitchen door. Then, I saw Sarah in the doorway.

Kalista arose quickly and said, “The dream was so vivid, Charles. You and I were dancing for a national something or other, but you woke me up before we got the trophy.”

We were all amazed at how much detail she was giving us.

“Charles, you and I were ... were married, at least that’s how I remember the dream. Your Mom was there. She was our manager, but I didn’t know where Claire was ... she wasn’t in the dream with us.”

She began to sob seriously at this point, but went on, “I am scared Charles. I — I — I don’t want anything to happen to Claire ... she’s my big sister.” Kalista was still sobbing and couldn’t seem to stop. “Oh, Claire. I am so afraid!”

Claire got up and moved over next to Kalista and she gave her a comforting hug. She said to her much more calmly then I would have, “What you dreamed, might happen and it might not. Have you ever had the dream that you were flying?”

“Yeah, I seem to have that dream a lot,” K answered.

“Well, unless you grow wings with feathers, that’s not going to happen!”

That remark made Kalista stop crying and smiled. Claire took her into the bathroom and they got cleaned up, changed, and ready to go to Cotillion.

Mom came up to me and said, “She was really scared, Charles. Treat her like a Princess for the next couple of days ... Claire will understand — I am sure. I have got your Tango music in my purse. Go to the other bathroom and splash some water in your face, honey. I will get the girls. Sarah is coming with us.”