No Sensible People Chapter Four (part 2)

Previous

"There's only nine weeks left in the class, it's a twelve week class and we're on week three," I explained to Jennie as I drove to the Academy, "And no little kids. Every one is at least eight, the oldest is eleven. I started with twelve students, but two of the girls dropped out, and the boy.

Jennie looked at me oddly. "A boy?"

"Sure," I said. "It's too bad he had to drop out. He was very coordinated. I guess his mother signed him up without telling her husband, and he didn't approve once he found out. It's too bad when people have to judge like that. He could've been another Gene Kelly."

****
When we walked into the studio the girls had already assembled themselves into groups. A huddle of six were congregated by the stretching bar, two more sitting crossed legged in the corner playing Jacobs Ladder with a piece of string, and then there was Nadia off by herself, and still in her jeans.

"Nadia, where are your dance clothes?" I asked her.

"I didn't feel well," she explained. "My mother said I had to come, but I could just watch."

"Well, this is a dance class," I told her. "No one gets away with staying still."

Nadia pointed at Jennie.

"What about her?" she said, "She's not in our class,"

"This is Jennie," I told her. "She'll be joining in, starting today."

Jennie looked surprised, but thankfully I was able to give her a look that convinced her not to start an argument. I had almost forgotten what a challenge Nadia could be, and judging from the fact that none of the other girls wanted to sit by her, they seemed to find her challenging too.

She was the youngest and smallest girl in the class, about a year younger than Jennie. She had tried to bribe the other girls into liking her by bringing candy to the first class, and had done everything in her power to get out of trying. For most of the girls this was for fun, but unfortunately I had to give Nadia a grade. Her mother was homeschooling her, and my class counted as her P.E. class.

"Why didn't she come before?" Nadia asked.

"She dragged me here," she told Nadia. "I told her I'm not a dancer, but she didn't listen. She's my aunt, I moved in with her yesterday."

"You have to live with her?" Nadia sounded disgusted. I wasn't that bad, I didn't think. The other girls seemed to like me fine, but I was happy to see Jennie find someone to talk to, and Nadia for that matter. Both girls were far from typical.

"You know, Nadia, I make Jennie eat her dinner out of ballet slippers," I joked. She looked at me as if I were serious.

"She doesn't mean it," Jennie told Nadia. "But she does want things her way."

"Tell me about it," Nadia said.

"That's me. Mean strict bossy teacher. Don't you love me? Now everyone to the mats for some warm ups."

"But I'm not in dance clothes," Nadia whined.

"This is school for you Nadia, you'll have to do your best."

They both agreed, reluctantly, to participate, and I went on with the class. It was nice to have Jennie there, I thought. It felt a little like seeing myself in Mrs. Pearson's class, mentoring the younger kids. In the middle of the class I had the girls do an exercise where they climbed up and an invisible rope we imagined had fallen out of the ceiling.

This is when Stuart showed up. He taught the class after mine, and he sometimes popped in and helped me when he arrived early. The girls liked him. They joked around with him as he helped them with their balance or posture. He had far more patience than I did. Maybe it was why he was a better dancer. I had almost resolved myself to believing everything was going to be fine, when Stuart went over to Jennie to help her and she let out a sharp scream. Stuart jumped back and looked at me, bewildered. Everyone stared at Jennie, including me.

"What is wrong with you?" I asked.

She didn't answer me. The other girls were calling her a freak, and I didn't stop them. They were defending Stuart and I was glad. I knew I was supposed to be on Jennie's side, but Stuart was my best friend, and Jennie was only a smaller version of my older sister standing there judging me and the world I chose to live in. I finally snapped out of my shock long enough to react, to do what I was supposed to do. I grabbed Jennie's hand and turned toward the exit.

"Will you finish up class?" I asked Stuart. "There's only five minutes left."

"Sure," he said. He walked by me and tapped me on the shoulder. I was shaking from embarrassment. "Take it easy on her, Luce," he told me. "She's just a kid."

He stepped in front of the other girls and clapped his hands. He faked a thick Russian accent. Nadia told him he sounded like her grandmother.

Jennie kept looking over her shoulder as if she was making sure Stuart wasn't doing anything terrible to my class.

"Who do you think you are?!" I yelled once we were back in the locker room. "What kind of royal princess do you think you are? You don't treat people like that. Not anybody. Got it? Stuart is Frank's brother, and one of my best friends. He will be in our lives, and you will treat him with respect."

She stayed calm, almost eerily so. "I don't want him touching me," she said.

"That doesn't give you the right to scream like some two year old throwing a tantrum, Jennie."

"Mama told me if a man ever tried to touch me I should scream."

"Good Lord," I said under my breath, it wasn't exactly bad advice, just extreme. I paced around for a few seconds. I needed to get myself back in control.

"You don't have to scream," I told her. "Not every man in this world is out to hurt you. Stuart is a very kind person."

Jennie rolled her eyes. "Sure he is," she said. "Whatever you say."

"Don't do that, Jennie. This isn't me versus you. We're in this together."

"Only what I think doesn't matter." she said.

"Of course it matters, Jennie, but you're not making any sense."

"I don't like the way he is."

I knew what she meant; Molly had been an avid homophobe. I hadn't even told her that Stuart existed. Most of what I had accomplished in Minneapolis had some tie to Stuart. He'd coached my dancing, until I was ready to teach myself. He got me the beginning class to teach, and he had introduced me to Frank. Susie had helped me get settled when I first came as a teenager, but it was Stuart that had given me roots, treated me like an equal
when Susie sometimes made me feel like a screw up kid-whether she meant to or not. I couldn't stand to have anyone try and contradict what he meant to me. I took a deep breath.

"Did you hear what he said to me?" I asked Jennie. "The last thing he said before we left the studio."

She shrugged, started to walk away, but I made her look at me. She
was going to have to think about what she did.

"He defended you, even after you had been so hard on him, screamed at him like a wild animal. Did you notice that, Miss Holy Girl of the Lord? Did it remind you of anyone?"

She stayed silent. I wasn't much good at preaching, but I figured it had been Molly's way, and maybe somehow I could get the method to work for me-if only a little.

"It reminded me of Jesus," I answered for her. "It reminded me of when He was tied up on the cross with nails in His hands and thorns in his forehead, and he looked down at a whole city full of people who had put Him there and he asked God to forgive them."

She still didn't respond. I wondered if I would ever be able to get through to her at all.

"Are you surprised, Jennie?" I asked her. "Are you surprised that I remember who God is after all my years in the Heathen city? Is that what your Mama told you? Believe me, she had her share of sinful days. Don't think she
didn't. She wasn't always right."

Jennie finally looked back at me. "The way Stuart lives is wrong," she told me.

"Says who?" I asked.

"Says God," she told me. I took a deep breath. I knew she believed it, and as strongly as I disagreed, I knew I had no right to stop her.

"I suppose He whispered that in your ear, did He?" I asked. "You go ahead and believe that if you're dead set on it. But I'm not going to believe God is going to take a good kind man and throw him into Hell because of who
he is. But if God wants to keep Stuart from Heaven, then that's His business. In the meantime, while we're all still on Earth you better start behaving yourself. You got it?"

"Yes, Ma'am," she told me. Her sarcasm was beginning to break. "But I still don't want him to touch me."

"Fine," I told her. "I'll be sure he knows that."

End of Chapter 4 Next section

No Sensible People on Amazon

My Lulu Store