Chapter 7

Nat didn't let herself sink deep into the depression that was open and waiting to engulf her. She and Tanya had a fun-filled weekend, seeing the sights of New York that they had not been able to visit yet, and as soon as Monday came, she started looking for something to do with her time. Something that would preferably bring in some money.  She had no desire to return to her homeland and face the ridicule of her friends and family there - Yuri was bound to tell the whole story his way, and for now she didn't have the time or energy to correct the untruths that he would be spreading around about her and her new non-existent love-interest in New York. She could imagine him running to her family and getting their sympathy - so for now she decided to have as little as possible to do with folks back home.

She was standing in the doorway of the employment agency at 9 sharp.... reading through the ads in the window, waiting for the staff to come and open the doors. She laughed as she imagined herself as a cook, a maid, a receptionist - trilingual - a pool attendant...

But one ad grabbed her attention. A school needed a ballet teacher to teach the little pupils. As she stepped in she asked about that work immediately.

"The former teacher is pregnant and can't teach now, so the school wants a new teacher. Do you have experiences in this field?"

"Yes, I'm a ballet dancer" she added and handed her papers.

"I see" said the brunette putting on her glasses "It's a bit too light for you, isn't it? I mean you were dancing in serious plays."

"I wanted to try something new" she added hiding the truth.

"Well, alright, I tell you what you must do."

As the agency woman skimmed over Nat's credentials, nodding her head, writing down a few details, Nat explained to her that she was looking for just this kind of "lighter" work, as she found touring with the prestigious ballet company so draining. And when they moved on with the show, she intended to stay on and discover more of the States, and there was always a need to perfect her English.

"Oh" the woman raised her head from the paperwork "your English seems fine, I mean for the purposes of this job, you'll be dealing with 5 to 15 year olds and their parents ... hardly gonna stretch your English .... you still interested? It's mostly evening and weekend work, when the children aren't in school.

"Yes, that's fine, I'd really like to busy myself as much as possible - this would even leave me time to find a day -job ... " Nat was musing on how to erase Dave from her mind, and knew that keeping busy would be her chief ally.

"Well, I can give you a few more ads for the day-job. You can read them at home and decide later, if it's okay with you."

"Yeah, that'd be fine. Thank you for your kindness and help" she smiled at the woman, who just nodded and gave her a dozen of papers and the notes about her new job. She said she can go even today, and it was fine for her. The sooner she can start to work, the better to quickly forget that man.

After a quick lunch she decided to visit the school and ask more about the work.

---

Nat took the subway to the stop nearest the school and found that the entrance was literally across the street. She went straight into the hallway, past the cloakrooms, following the sound of piano music, to the bright and airy dance hall, where a group of about twenty tiny pink girls were jumping around excitedly to some lively music - it sounded like a polka.

The teacher was encouraging them - "That's it - jump and twist and turn to the music - imagine you are lighter than leaves in the wind! Lovely, keep going!" she clapped her hands as the piano playing seemed to quicken and become louder - the end of the dance was approaching ....

"Ready?" shouted the teacher ... "and ...... drop!" suddenly the music stopped, on a loud triumphant chord, and the children all curled up into balls on the floor. The pianist began to play a slow and lyrical piece.  "Now stay like that until the music changes again" instructed the teacher.

Nat walked into the dance hall, and the teacher saw her, so took the opportunity to come over to where she was - "They are nearly finished this is when they work on their expression interpreting the music. I see you are holding a pile of papers and I'm guessing you have come from the agency?"

The teacher rubbed her large round tummy as she spoke - Nat imagined her to be at least seven months' pregnant. Her gaze lingered on the teacher's full forms - her breasts seemed huge for a dancer, but as she was heavily pregnant, it was bound to be a result of this.

The teacher laughed and whispered "I usually weigh just over 100lbs, you know, but here you can see three people - I am having twins - in three months' time!"

Nat was suddenly aware that she had been daydreaming - about one day living through what a pregnancy could do to her body and started to apologize…

"No need, I'm used to the stares .... in fact I love it - these babies are highly desired and I am so proud to be pregnant up to my eyebrows!" she broke into a small laugh, which put Nat at ease.

"I was wondering how many hours' teaching there are here for me - and what the times are" she asked, smiling now and warming to this woman by the minute.

"Why don't we wait until these little horrors have gone and then go for a coffee somewhere? They have another two minutes ..."

Nat agreed to this and sat down with the teacher on a bench near the doorway, as the music changed once again to a dramatic piece, which could easily evoke a storm at sea. The children were on their feet now and swaying around - trying to grab each other as if they were in a strong wind ... "That's soooo good, keep going!" the teacher winked at Nat as she called out this encouragement.

Finally the class was over and the little ones all flied past to go and change, leaving Nat and the teacher to lock up the school and walk along the street. Stacey was curious to hear all about Nat, even before she explained what replacing her for six months would entail. The two women talked for over an hour, and found they had many things in common apart from their love of dancing. Stacey decided that Nat would be the perfect person for the job, and Nat decided that she could not pass up this chance to earn money and keep busy.

They agreed that she'll visit the lessons this week and learn everything from Stacey what she'll need in her work. How to teach, what to teach, which usual and unusual performances can come in the groups' life during these six months, and after the week ended and Stacey didn't help her on her last lesson just watched her teaching, Nat was the new dance teacher of the noted school.

There were a lot of changes in her life and she needed to get used to them and live after the disappointments. Tanya and the others moved on to New Jersey with the show, so she needed to search for a smaller and cheaper flat. But it seemed that she had enough luck and found a nice one not that far from the school.

On Monday evening she was there again, standing excited next to the piano and while she was waiting for the little girls, she placed her light hands onto the keys and started a long forgotten melody from her childhood, when she was on summer holiday by her grandparents. She remembered now clearly as her grandfather sat next to her and taught her how to play the piano. She closed her eyes and let her hands move. She smiled faintly as the memories came back and opened her eyes just when she heard the girls arriving.

“Well, my little pupils, change your clothes and start to loosen up. We’ll work hard today!” she smiled at them.

As the little ones arrived in their dancing gear, she finished playing her favourite childhood piece, and made way for the official lesson pianist to sit down - she was a middle aged woman, kindly looking and a very versatile pianist, Stacey had said. Nat counted the children, saw they were all before her, waiting eagerly to start, and she began the lesson....

---

Three weeks had passed and Nat was teaching a smaller group of girls and boys - it was a Friday afternoon, and they were working on positions - precise bar work - which always made the pupils irritable. However hard some of them tried, their positions would be less than perfect ... but at the same time it gave Nat lots to do - she was completely lost in her teaching - holding the children's legs a little higher, raising their arms, getting them to look at how they arched their bodies ... these were the details that counted when it came to choosing future stars!

The kids had worked so hard today - one little girl was perhaps Nat's favourite, although she tried not to have any! Her name was Stella - a little blonde girl - so keen to learn! Always to be seen drinking in every word Nat said. After this particular class, Stella came to Nat and asked

"Did I improve with my arms today? I was really trying ..." and Nat replied:

"Yes actually you did - see how I didn't come to correct you once today?" and they both laughed, as Nat tousled Stella's hair affectionately, before she ran off to change.

"I'll tell my Dad I worked hard, cos he said he'll get me an ice-cream!"

"MMMMM - can I have one too?" Nat asked - trying to look hungry, but Stella hadn't heard her, she was creeping up on her father in the corridor, as he had his back to the dance studio while he talked on his cell.

Nat turned away and thanked the pianist, as she always did, before picking up her light cardigan and bag. It only remained for her to lock up the hall, and she could really go and have an ice-cream herself - this was her last class and it was a hot day - perfect for an ice-cream on the way home.

Natasha crossed the street and hummed a nice song in her head while she walked to the ice cream shop. On this hot day she was wearing just a thin blue top and white shorts, her white cardigan tucked into her bag. As she entered the shop, she saw a long line, but it didn’t bother her, she was happy after the successful lesson. She pulled out her little book from her bag and continued reading it while she was waiting, moving along the line absentmindedly. It was another habit of hers that she had a book in her bag for situations like these.

As she got nearer to the counter, she heard her name.

“Natasha! It’s funny that we meet again this soon, isn’t it?” asked Stella and ran to her with a big chocolate ice-cream.

“Yes. So your daddy brought you here after all?”

“Yep, and he bought me choc syrup onto the top of my ice-cream too, see?”

“That’s nice from him” Nat smiled.
 

“Wait here, I bring him here, I want to introduce him! I guess he’s talking on his cell again” she rolled her eyes and disappeared.

Natasha just smiled and put her book away as she stepped to the counter choosing from the choc and the lemon ice-cream and paid for it. When she stepped out of the line, she faced David Gahan. This sudden turn of events hit her, she wasn’t prepared for this.

Dave was mid conversation - his soft voice could be heard saying "Yeah - I need to go now - I have a date with an .... " and it was then that he raised his eyes to what Stella had been tugging his sleeve about. There before him was Natasha - looking almost panicked, about to bolt out of the shop in embarrassment.

And yet she was able to speak first. "Hello, pleased to meet you - Stella's father?"

This was so that Dave didn't launch into a "where have you been? I've missed you" routine in front of his daughter ... Dave played along and replied:

"And you must be Natasha the new teacher that we hear about every Friday - how do you do?" He even shook her hand, taking the pretence to the extreme, but holding onto her hand, once he saw that Stella had gone off to get paper napkins for them all. So Dave had the chance to ask his questions now:

“Where have you been? I’ve missed you. I thought you went back to Russia or to Yuri, moving on with the tour. Why didn’t you call? And why are you teaching?”

“Whoa, a little bit too much of questions at once” she managed to put a tiny smile onto her face “I didn’t want to cause more problems. And my quit was definite. I’ve started a new life” she shrugged.

“Yeah, but why don’t you dance by a company?”

“I wanted something new” she answered and licked from her ice-cream, because it started to run on her hand. She didn’t tell him the fact that in the other hand Yuri made her life heavier.

“But… teaching small children?” he asked with doubt in his voice.

“Hey, I love doing it!”

“Okay, okay!” he raised one hand as a sign of defense “I’m happy that you found your way. But I have one more question.”

“And that’d be…?”

“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked again waiting for the answer he wanted to know the most, but his daughter’s approach stopped the conversation.

“Here you are Natasha” she handed the napkins seeing her dirty hand “You must eat it quickly or else your clothes will be crappy too. Daddy always says this.”

“Thank you, Stella, I’ll take care” she smiled and cleaned her hand then licked a big one before it could fall down.

The store was crowded now, so they walked out together and sat at one of the tables in front of the shop window. At Stella's insistence, Nat stayed with them, and while they ate, they talked about classes for children, for adults, for boys.... Dave asked, Stella grinned, and Nat talked ... she had taught before, it came out, while she was recovering from a knee operation and had to take a whole year's career break. Dave sat, mesmerised - basking in this unexpected treat that was her presence.  He hadn't been far from convincing himself that she was gone for good, and yet there she was.... his fragile little ballerina - and now he had an excuse to see her regularly.

As if reading his thoughts, Nat visibly squirmed on her chair - in the past three weeks she had immersed herself in her work - learning the kids’ names, inventing little dance sequences for them for each lesson - and making her new little flat homely.

Now here was Dave, again, and from the twinkle in his eye, he still had feelings for her.

She also felt something stirring inside her, but she knew this would happen. No - what bothered her was that HE still felt something - she could have coped with a broken heart at seeing this amazing man again, but something told her that he would not be walking out of her life again so fast this time.

She was afraid –partly of him- because she didn’t want to get hurt again. She wasn’t fully recovered from her last relationship and of course of the feelings Dave evoked in her and which she wanted to grain down in the past three weeks. What if she yields to him and he breaks her heart again? But she shook her head. Only time can tell what’ll come…

After a few minutes she said goodbye and thanked for the napkins and the nice chat. Rosie didn’t want to let her go, but her father warned her lightly.

“There’s no problem, David” she said and turned to the girl “I’ll see you next Friday, right?”

“Of course! Can you tell me what we will do?” she jumped up and looked excited.

“Well, we’ll work on your hands and we go up to your heads again to rehearse the right attitude.”

“Wow! Then we’ll balance books on our heads again?”

“Yes, darling, of course” she smiled and stroked her hair missing a warm gaze from Dave as he was watching her speaking with his daughter so naturally.

“That’s cool! I almost never drop it!”

“Yes, you are a talented little girl” she smiled and rapped her nose “But now I must really go, tomorrow I must go to work early in the morning.”

“Why? As I know the lessons on Saturday are in the early afternoons” noted Dave.

“I have another job, too… you know, so I can pay the bills and everything else” she shrugged “Then see you next week. And don’t forget to practice!” she said to the girl.

“I won’t!” she smiled up at her.

Natasha turned around and walked down the street till she disappeared in the mass of running people. David was thinking about her with a little bad feeling in his chest. She must work in two jobs, he asked himself and sighed, then let Rosie pull him towards a playground.

They went home via a bookshop, where both Stella and Dave looked around in their favourite parts of the store ... but all the titles and book covers were just a blur to Dave after a while .. He kept thinking of Nat, alone in the city now, since he knew from Jen and Stella that the ballet company had moved on. He hoped she was coping - it seemed that she was - and as he walked around the various bookshelves, he found himself drawn to the arts section, in the middle of which was a section of books about performing arts.

He let his hand wander along the spines of the books, halfheartedly looking for a book about ballet - for some reason he wanted to read up about what made his little ballerina function. He could pass the book off as a present for Stella - this would stop any questions from Jen - and picking up the book, he went around the store looking for his daughter.

As he walked he flicked through the pages, seeing girls and young women who resembled Nat but were all less attractive - less vibrant.....

Stella eagerly peered into the book and asked why her Daddy had chosen it ...so the present story was explained ... in fact Stella had wanted a large ballet picture book last year, so it was no secret. 

Next chapter

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