The piano chimed softly in the background, swaying bodies littered the glimmering dance floor with soft thuds of shoes and clicking of heels. Elaine couldn't take her eyes off of Henrietta Leek's ballroom dancing shoes and how they seemed to catch the light every so often with the quick movement of her nubile feet, noticing the way her ankle bones jutted in such a feminine and appealing way. Elaine followed John's movements, but her mind was dancing in her own pair of ruby red T-strap heels that sat in the pristine lavender box in her closet. She saw herself as young again, her legs no longer dotted with liver spots and spider veins, her arms toned with the slightest inflection of muscle, and her hair was curled up around her head like the woman in the movie. She wore a curve flattering navy blue dress with a swooping neckline and a swathing of pink pearls were strung around her youthful neck, no longer the victim of age and gravity. She was now dancing with Larry, as youthful and handsome as she pictured him in her mind, and he was grasping tightly onto the middle of her back with a certain possessiveness that a husband has for his wife. At that moment, she was in a blissful state and perfectly content to dance the rest of her days away.
But her feet stumbled, and soon she was stepping on the toes of her actual dance partner, John, who tried to contain a yelp under his breath. She sighed, shaking her head as she came back into reality which meant no T-strap heels, no pearls, and certainly no Larry. John brought their dance to a halt, sensing that Elaine was no longer present. He smiled at her, but the undertones of concern marked his face.
"Am I just not cutting it tonight, young lady?" John asked, chuckling to himself.
Elaine adamantly shook her head, because John was more than capable enough and she was quite impressed by how quickly he was learning to dance. "No, my dear, nothing of the sort. I'm just in another time, another place," She said, listing off into her imagination for a second before snapping back into reality.
"Problem with your dance partner?" Madame Lenore called out to the two of them, keeping her eyes on Gordon as he attempted to dance with me.
"The opposite. I think we're too good for each other," Elaine called out, reaching up to stroke the side of John's youthful face. "I feel like this is borderline bragging by us being partnered together. Besides, wouldn't you rather be sharing your dances with the beautiful young lady next to us?"
I overheard the two and blushed as I tried to continue focusing on Gordon's uncoordinated movements. John melted into her hand as lovers often do, and nodded. "You know you're my hearts desire, Elaine Baker, but I would more than enjoy dancing with Ellion."
"Save the last dance for me," She whispered, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek in a way where her lips barely grazed his skin, leaving the slightest impression of her lipstick. She thumbed it away as soon as she saw it, using a little bit of her saliva to do so. He whispered thank you to her before she turned around and gently tapped Gordon on the shoulder, who nearly jumped out of his skin due to the fact that he was in such deep concentration. "I could show you a thing or two, if you don't mind."
Gordon's cheeks flushed bright red, tearing himself away from me as he nervously nodded and joined Elaine. She was poise in and out, graceful was only one adjective of many that I could use to describe Elaine, whereas Gordon was a hot mess with two left feet. I chuckled as I watched Elaine quickly correct his posture and the position of both his hands, guiding him step by step as if he hadn't been to the class the week before, or even the week before that. Gordon had been attending for a little under a month and still hadn't gotten the hang of it. But I knew by watching Elaine that if she kept at it, she could have him dancing in no time.
John walked over to me and we set up our position, my hand in his and his hand on my lower back, holding me tightly in place. We took our first step together, smiling at each other shyly as we moved in sync.
"You're not going to pass out on me this time, are you?" He said quietly, looking down briefly at our feet before making the next move. "Because if you are, you should make some sort of bird call to let me know beforehand."
"Like the caw of a crow?" I laughed.
He rolled his eyes playfully. "I was thinking more along the lines of a mourning dove."
"A turkey call, you say?" I mimicked the noise under my breath, causing him to lose focus so that he stood still, breaking our synchronicity. He shook his head, composing himself as he saw the glare of Madame Lenore.
"Stop – I'm afraid of that woman," He whispered, looking at Madame Lenore from the corner of his eye before beginning our dance again. "Nothing good ever comes from a woman that refers to herself as madame."
"I'm sure she is as harmless as the many cats that she has back at home," I said, snorting a little. He laughed at my snort and I glared at him, but then laughed as well. "Don't judge me."
"Wouldn't think of it," He said, hiding the big goofy grin that begged to be freed from his mouth. "I think it's cute."
"It's not," I snapped back. "But I think she's a good woman underneath all of that mascara, she just loves the power of her job. She gets to yell at people all day – can you blame her for being intimidating?"
John leaned in, pulling me closer to him as his breath gently grazed across my ear. "Yes, but is it really necessary to carry the walking stick around like she's about to bend someone over her knee and whack them a few times?"
I titled my head in against his cheek, feeling our feet flowing like steady moving water beneath us. "You're one to talk – mister I-have-bruises-all-over-my-face," I whispered back.
"I swear I'm not a violent man," He replied, his fingers pressing into my skin slightly, as if he was trying to assure me. "I have bad luck, that's all."
"Yes, because Ryler and Atheson simply walked into your knuckles."
"Pretty much," He laughed, pulling away to get a better view of my face. "But it was the right thing to do at the time, I didn't feel like there was any other way to go about it."
"Sometimes people use their words," I teased, but then shook my head. "You don't need to justify yourself to me, John, I understand why you did what you did."
He nodded in return and continued dancing without saying anything. It took me a moment to realize that most of the other dancers had moved away from us, probably because of our talking. I hated to think that we were being a nuisance. I looked into John's brown eyes, finding myself lost momentarily before snapping out of it. "Is she okay, though – Nora, I mean?"
He shrugged. "Hadley said she went back to Brook a few days ago, so I assume she must be coping. I haven't heard about Ryler, which is probably a good thing."
"I wonder why he would do such a thing," I pondered.
"He's an idiot, plain and simple."
"Was he jealous of her talking to you?"
He didn't reply for a minute, thinking something through before once more shrugging at me. "I don't understand much about Ryler's motives these days, he's not the same as he used to be."
"Since he got together with Nora, or was it something before that?"
"Getting together with Nora definitely changed him, but he was already acting strange long before that. I don't know, maybe it had something to do with his dad dying – but something definitely went wrong there."
"What was he doing that made him different?"
"He used to be really easy going, just a really relaxed guy with a good head on his shoulders. But before his dad died, he started getting really angry all the time about the most ridiculous things. I remember one time we were watching a hockey game and he got so upset that he was physically shaking. He was never like that before – Ryler was always cool and collected. Hadley thinks he's into drugs, but I don't know – it just doesn't seem like something Ryler would do."
"So he was acting out before his dad died? How did his dad pass?" I questioned.
John took a moment to rearrange his hands and then continued dancing with me. "Suicide, unfortunately. It really messed Ryler up, especially since there wasn't a note left behind. His dad had just remarried and seemed happy, no one knows why he did it. But I guess that's how those things happen, it goes unnoticed so often."
"That's awful," I replied. "Maybe Ryler knew his dad was struggling with something? Did he ever talk to you about it?"
"Never," John said. I noticed a hint of sadness on John's face as he sighed. "I tried talking to him about it, but he just shut down. One day he was Ryler, the next he was angry and moody. It never would have occurred to me that he would do the things he did, especially dating Nora. Ryler and I always respected each other enough not to meddle in the others life, and he knew how difficult the break-up had been for me. But he made his decision, and I'm not sure I'll ever know why."
"He never cleared it with you if it was okay that he started dating Nora?"
"Nah," John said, trying to act as if it didn't bother him but I could tell that it had. "One day he was just there, and that was it."
I could see that John was trying to hide how it actually made him feel, and figured that I better not push the subject any further. The music came to a stop and so did our movements, but I linked my hand in his as we pulled away from each other, squeezing it slightly. He smiled at me, the light returning to his eyes as he saw the comforting look on my face. I truly felt bad for John; not only had he lost his girlfriend, but he lost his best friend, too. I hated to think that he only had a limited amount of time to get the answers he needed, and even though Ryler had done him and Nora wrong, he deserved to know the truth. I hoped, for his sake and Ryler's, that they would be able to discuss where everything went wrong, and that maybe Ryler could get the help he so clearly needed.
I heard giggling nearby, pulling my attention away from John to see Elaine and Gordon seemingly getting along well. Elaine had a slight rose colour to her cheeks, the way she did when she was smitten with a man, and Gordon seemed captivated by the smile that engulfed her face. His eyes often lingered on her lips, as if at any moment he was going to wrap his arms around her and kiss her, but he was too timid to do anything of the sort. My heart glowed as I watched the two gently tease each other, Elaine extending her foot to show Gordon how exactly to loosen up. Part of me really hoped that this would develop into something, if not for Elaine's sake, but for Gordon's. He was a lonely man and deserved happiness, frankly he and Elaine may very well be good for each other.
The class came to an end, but Elaine and Gordon lingered together for awhile as they discussed a few things. I motioned to Elaine that John and I were going to step outside to wait for her, and she smiled politely in return. Of course she took this as a sign that she needed to hurry up and not that we wanted her to spend more time with Gordon, so she bid her farewells to him and promised to dance with him again next week. As soon as Elaine followed us, I rolled my eyes and gently nudged her.
"I wasn't trying to rush you, silly," I said as she intertwined her arm with mine. "You could have stayed to talk for a while longer."
"I like to keep a man guessing," She said softly, her cheeky smile appearing once more.
"So is this a thing, perhaps?" I asked and she gently patted my arm as if to say that's enough now. I shrugged, "I figured I should ask instead of assume."
John helped the two of us into the truck before getting into the drivers seat, turning the ignition on. "Well, if it is, he better come ask for my permission first."
Elaine laughed and swatted gently towards John. We drove home listening to the country music station which Elaine happily sang along to, her voice as pleasant as the first time I had ever heard it. She had a knack for singing but tried to convince me that it wasn't as good as I let on, but I assured her otherwise. In my mind everything Elaine did was the best of the best, and it wasn't necessarily because she was actually trained in everything she did – it was the fact that she was able to bring her own spice to her activities.
John dropped us off and I could sense that he wanted to kiss me again, but it just didn't seem polite to kiss in front of Elaine. I wished him a good night and mentioned that we were planning to leave early tomorrow morning for Burnswood Park as it was a two and a half hour drive. I then took Elaine inside of her house, making sure to lock the door behind us. I helped her get ready for bed, running a comb through her gray locks as she gently placed her hair clip in the jewelery box set on her dresser. She hadn't stopped wearing the hair clips that we got her after the movie, finding every opportunity to match one to her outfit of the day. I loved how much she seemed to be obsessed with the movie, as if it had breathed new life into her. She went to put away her sweater in her closet, eying the lavender box that sat on the top shelf before turning to me.
"Would it be too much to ask if you helped me try them on?" She asked, a smile lighting up her face. "It's just that they have been sitting in that box for almost two weeks and I get the feeling that they might be getting lonely up in my dusty old closet. Such a thing of beauty needs to come out and shine once in awhile."
I sighed, nodding as I stepped up beside her to pull down the shoe box, bringing it over to her bed as we sat down side by side. I let her open the lid off of the box and awe for a moment at the heels, glimmering from the light that cascaded from her lamp. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at them, leaning in to carefully take one shoe out at a time before setting them in front of her feet on the ground. She used my arm for support as she guided her first foot inside, waiting for me to pull the strap over and tighten it against her skin. She wiggled her toes a few times, but it was a perfect fit. I helped her into the other shoe, and she stuck both of her feet up to get a better look at them.
"You would think they were made just for me," Elaine said, a little misty eyed as she admired her new heels. "Thank you, my dear, for getting these."
I gulped down the fear of who they had actually come from, nodding once. "Anytime, Elaine."
"Now," She declared, steadying her feet beneath her as she grabbed my hand in hers, "time to try these puppies out."
Slowly she rose up onto the balls of her feet, taking a moment to allow her weight to shift into the heels. I watched her carefully so that she wouldn't lose her balance, but I knew a woman like Elaine had walked in heels plenty of times – that wasn't the issue. The real issue was that Elaine's gait had been tapering off for the last few months, and if she wasn't careful she could easily injure herself. She seemed steady enough, so I rose to my feet to watch as she took a careful first step forward. It seemed like riding a bicycle for Elaine, something a person never forgets, but her body fought hard against her. Even though she moved with the same poise as always, her feet refused to cooperate in that they wanted to stay firmly planted on the ground at a level position. She began to lose her balance, but I caught her before anything could happen.
"Maybe that's enough for tonight? You've been on your feet all day," I said, helping her to sit down on the edge of her bed.
She stared down at the shoes, her heart warm with wonder and mystique as she admired the heels. "I hope one day I get to dance in them," She whispered, pulling her lips in against her teeth as she tried to hide her excitement. "I would hate to miss the opportunity."
"You will, I promise," I said, placing my hand over hers. "You'll dance the whole night away in them, no one will be able to stop you."
"Oh, what a thought," She smiled as I helped her out of the shoes, curling up into her bed.
I put away the shoes in the lavender box, storing them back at the top of her closet before returning to her. I tucked her in and gently pushed aside some hair that was on her forehead. "Goodnight, Elaine."
"Sweet dreams, my dear," She said softly in return, closing her eyes as she snuggled further into her bed.
I made sure to triple check all of the locks on her windows and doors before leaving, hoping that Mahala didn't try anything again.