CHARLES, CLAIRE & KALISTA
Chapter 16

 

The Announcer came on:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls; school’s out and guess who’s back joining us? Charles & Claire!”

A wonderful round of applause came up from the crowd, the returning kids smiled at us, the new kids glared at us.

“But they are last today, so let’s get started.”

He went on to announce the first competitors and it began.

Things were moving along, I felt a bit more nervous than usual. Claire came up to me and said, “Charles, remember we’re waltzing today, this is for lovers and dreamers,” and she kissed me. That settled me down.

It was now our turn, so we walked out to the middle of the floor.

“Today, performing a Slow Waltz to ‘The Rainbow Connection,’ sung by Kermit ... are Charles & Claire.”

Claire gave me our kiss — and nothing happened.

The Announcer came back, saying, “The CD broke in the player, we’re very sorry, Kids.”

Suddenly, a young girl with long black hair, stood up and started to loudly hum the beginning of the song, some others joined her, so Claire and I started to dance.

Multiple voices started singing,

“Why are there so
many songs about rainbows?
And what’s on the other side?”

Claire and I didn’t miss a beat as they went, with more voices adding to it.

“Rainbows are visions,
but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.”

About half the crowd was singing now,

“So, we have been told
and some choose to believe it
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we will find it,
the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.”

I could hear harmonies from the crowd
— Beautiful harmonies!

“Who said that every wish
would be heard and answered?
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
Look what it’s done so far.”

If this happened before, I don’t know — I felt an extra special kinship ... to these people.

“What’s so amazing
that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we will find it,
the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.”

Everyone was swaying and singing now.

“All of us under its spell,
We know that it’s probably magic...”

It did, indeed felt like magic in this place today.

“Have you been half asleep
and have you heard voices?
I have heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound?
that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same.”

It was about over, so it was time to focus on the ending.

Just about everybody was standing and singing as it ended. Amazingly, we finished together, the crowd and us.

Claire gave me the biggest kiss, right on the dance-floor.

There was applause from every corner of the auditorium; even the other competitors were applauding, including the grumpies.

The Announcer came back on, saying:

“We are terribly sorry for the technical problem, but it seems that Charles & Claire handled it just fine. We replaced the player and whoever wins today will be dancing again in just a couple of minutes.”

“The results are in. Will all the competitors, please come to the floor?”

We never left the floor, so everybody else came back on and we all shook each other’s hands and waited.

The Announcer started:

“I have three words for everybody — CHARLES & CLAIRE!”

It felt so good to hear all these people applaud for Claire and me, but the audience helped us, so Claire and I started applauding for them, putting up our hands in thanks to them all.

The Announcer finished naming the rest of the dancers who placed second and third. Then he got a little silly.

“The CD we were given for Charles & Claire’s Encore Performance, simply says, Vitamin String Quartet, ‘Bad Romance’ and the word ‘Six-Pack,’ so Charles & Claire ... Please show us what a Six-Pack is?”

Claire gave me our kiss and the VSQ music began...

We waltzed and fluidly went from each change of rhythm with confidence and with each sixty-fourth note riff we spun in place.

We went on to the next of our Six-Pack of dances being very smooth and careful to keep our shoulders up and my hips were leading as newly trained.

We heard people yelling out each step as we changed ... most of the time they were right, but that’s OK, they were all having as much fun watching it, as we were performing it. That’s always been my goal.

We came to the end, which was ‘Quickstep,’ finishing with a set of Rhumba spins. We were right on tempo, as the final measures were coming through the speakers.

We finished with a new style of end position, very Broadway-esque, but technically ballroom.

The second the music ended, you could have heard a pin drop.

Somebody to our left singularly yelled, “What the hell was that?”

Somebody else from our right, responded very loudly, “A SIX-PACK!”

Quickly, the whole place started chanting, “SIX PACK — SIX PACK — SIX PACK.”

The Announcer came back on saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been doing this for forty years. I have never, ever seen a dance as complex as that, done by anyone. Let’s show them again, how much we enjoyed that?”

Once again, the crowd went ballistic, standing up, screaming our names, this time we heard a young man scream, “Marry me, Claire?” Her response was to show her ring to the crowd.

Next, the crowd started a chant, “Kiss her — Kiss her” and it just kept going and going. My guess was that it wouldn’t stop until we kissed, so I walked up to her and gave her a wonderfully sincere knock-your-socks-off kiss, much to the delight of the entire crowd. When we separated, her smile was perfect!

We finally got to see Annie and Kalista. Of course, Kalista jumped up on me and did her ‘all over the face’ kissing, but Claire was keeping an eye on her, making sure Kalista didn’t overstep the boundaries that Sarah and Claire, had expected from her.

Claire in turn, went up to Annie and hugged her tightly. Annie was indeed becoming a second mother to Claire.

After receiving our trophy, we gathered up our stuff and we were about to leave the building, when the young girl who started the singing came up to us and asked us for an autograph. She couldn’t have been any older than ten years old, but she got up and helped us win this. Her name was Joan Prefontayne. Her whole family (Mother, Father and three sisters) had come from Vincennes, Indiana to see the competition.

I gave little Joanie a great big hug, Claire was watching closely and then we were on our way home.

I leaned forward and said, “I really am sorry, Mom?”

“For what, Charles?”

“For not making additional copies of “The Rainbow Connection.”

“Everything turned out just fine, Honey-Buns,” Annie said.

“Next competition,
“Skyfall” will be our ‘A’ number
“At This Moment” will be our ‘B’
“What a Wonderful World” will be our ‘C’.

“We get two more routines ready and that could get us through the rest of this month in competitions. After we perform a number, we let it fall out the rotation and will be brought back into the discussion, when we start to discuss next year’s Nationals.”

Claire said, “I love it when you are so forceful, Loverboy?”

Ignoring that for a moment, I said, “Everybody ... like that plan?”

I heard a chorus of ‘yeps,’ so all was well.

“Claire, is there anything specific, either musically or dance step wise, you would like to do?”

“Well, Charles ... we haven’t performed a Cha-Cha yet, in competition and that dance looks so sexy...”

BUZZ

“Just a minute, Claire. My phone is ringing.”


“Charles. you have a smart-phone? When did this happen?” she said crossing her arms.

“Just a minute, OK?” I asked.

“This is Charles Newman, who is this?”

“Hey, Loverboy ... it’s me Brian, you didn’t recognize my number?”

“I am talking to you on my smartphone, that my mom bought me late last week, Brian. I haven’t put in any numbers yet, so I didn’t recognize your number. Sorry!”

Claire was still glaring at me.

“But I called your home phone, how did it get to you?”

“It’s called ‘call forwarding’ dummy ... so what’s happening any way, we are on our way home from a competition. We will be there in about twenty to thirty minutes or so.”

“I know you were at a competition ... it’s all over the Internet. Congratulations, by the way ... to you and Claire, of course.”

“He said ‘Congratulations on winning the competition, Claire.’”

“Charles, put it on speaker?” Claire suggested.

“I ... don’t know how?” I said sheepishly.

“Here ... Hello Brian?” Claire said.

“Hello, Bri,” Kalista yelled, from the front seat.

“Hey girls, ... I was telling Charles how your dances are on YouTube, both of them. That was amazing that your CD broke and that pretty young brunette started to sing and then everybody was singing. That video has had over ten thousand hits on YouTube already?”

“No way,” said Claire. We heard a couple of gasps from the front seat.

“Yeah,” said Brian, “And it’s not even the most popular video on YouTube, your ‘Six-Pack’ is. Over twenty-five thousand hits so far and it’s not slowing down ... even a little bit.”

“But that was only, what ... sixty-five minutes ago. How could there be so many people looking at it so quickly?”

“It’s called ‘going viral,’ dummy,” Brian retaliated.

“Apparently, somebody was there videotaping the whole competition; so, it’s a really good video, not a cellphone. And they obviously broke it into the two dance numbers and sent it to YouTube, where it has exploded.”

Claire interrupted, “Did they get the kiss, Brian?”

“Oh yeah, both of them. That one after the ‘Six-Pack’ was really hot, is the wedding gonna be soon?”

After hearing a snort from the front seat, I replied, “Ha-ha Brian. We will look at the videos when we get home. Thanks for the ‘heads up’ dude?” I said hanging up.

“Charles, that’s incredible,” said Claire.

“Claire and Kalista,” mom interrupted, “Where am I taking you two, to your place or our place?”

I saw the two girls look directly into each other’s eyes and say, “Charles’ Place, Annie.”

Everybody laughed at that and we got home in less than fifteen more minutes.

As we pulled up to the house, Claire said quite demonstrably, “So, Charles ... when were you going to tell me you got a smartphone?”

“Claire, Mom just got it for me, last week. I haven’t done much with it due to all the preparations going on.”

“That’s OK, Charles.” She picked it up and started entering something. “I am putting in my and Kalista’s phone numbers. Done ... and the call you got from Brian ... we will grab that and assign his name to it. There — now you at least got the most important people in there!”

“Yeah, I haven’t talked to Brian in a long time!”

BUZZ

She handed me back the phone, it was Sarah, “Hey, good looking!”

“Hey, Beautiful!” I responded missing her.

Claire put it on speakerphone, and heard her mother’s voice, and slapped me hard on the back.

“You just got me in trouble,” I told her. “Call me back!”

I felt a sofa pillow hit my head hard.

“Claire, I am beat right now, would it be OK, if we took a nap?”

“We ... Charles?” Claire said.

She had a smile on her face.

“I mean ... I am too tired to play this game with you right now. You wanna make Annie a little crazy first?”

“Sure Charles, go ahead and start ... I will play off you.”

“Mom!”

From the kitchen, she said, “Yes, Charles.”

“Claire and I are gonna take a nap together, up in my room?”

“OK, Dear ... I’ll wake you in an hour.”

Kalista was covering her mouth with both hands, trying to keep from giggling. I motioned to her to lie on the sofa. She understood and waved to us, still snickering.

Claire and I walked up the stairs and there wasn’t any yelling or screaming, coming from Annie. She must have been too busy to understand exactly what I had said to her.

Claire and I got to the door of my room, unsure of how far we were going to take this scenario. I opened the door, kept it open and offered Claire whichever side of the bed she wanted.

She giggled and got up on the right side. I walked around to the left side and got up on the bed. We were both keeping on all our clothes, except our shoes.

There was about two feet between us. I saw Claire roll to her left and smile at me. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

About fifteen minutes later I awoke, hearing a panicky voice asking Kalista, “Where are Charles & Claire?”

Kalista, not understanding why she shouldn’t answer said, “Charles’ bedroom, Annie.”

I knew Mom would either come up loud and crazed, or quiet and soft. I was a little awake, so I scooted over to Claire and put my hand on her tummy, which made her giggle. I asked her to be quiet and pretend she was still asleep.

I heard Mom come to the door and breathe a large sigh of relief. I pretended that this woke me up, yawning and saying, “Hi, Annie ... is everything all right?”

A wonderful smile came upon her face and she whispered, “Everything is just fine Charles. Let’s not wake up Claire, go back to sleep, we will eat when you are both up.” And she left the door ajar, just like she found it.

Claire said, “I love your mother, so much, Charles. She could have gotten really mad at us, but she didn’t. Can we hold hands as we go back to sleep, Loverboy?”

“Sure, Claire ... by the way, you were wonderful today, both as a girlfriend and as a dancer.”

“As long as you keep picking our dances and choreographing them ... I will be, in your arms.”

We must have fallen back asleep.

Somebody opened my bedroom door. I awoke and saw Kalista coming up to my bed. She noticed that Claire and I had been holding hands. She leaned over Claire and spoke in a non-whisper saying, “Claire — time to get up. Annie said to wake the two of you and get you downstairs.”

I said to Kalista, “We will be down in just a minute, OK, K?”

Kalista crossed her arms and said, “Nope, Annie told me to not come back down ... without the both of you!”

“OK, then ... you don’t have to be so loud, K, we’re both awake,” Claire said as she raised her head up off the pillow. I got up off my side and went around quickly to help Claire up. As I pulled her upright she landed right in front of me, lips at the ready. I leaned into her and gave her a quick kiss, grabbing her hand, and starting out of the room, pushing Kalista ahead of us.

As soon as Kalista was a couple of steps in front of us, Claire stopped me and said, “This is a wake-up kiss, Charles.” We kissed for about five seconds and I heard Annie say, “Where are they, Kalista?”

Kalista looked behind herself and said, “They must have stopped to smooch on the stairs, Annie.”

We came down, with Claire wiping off my lips and smiling a real charming smile.

Attempting to change the subject before Annie gets her teeth into our ‘nap,’ I took the offensive.

“Annie, can we afford a new outfit for both of us? It would need to be all white. I heard a song by Bruno Mars that I want us to make a routine for ... it’s a Cha-cha.”

“What’s the song called, Charles?” Annie asked, taking a drink from her water bottle.

 
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