Chapter 8 Facing Father´s darkest side
\- Madame, Monsieur could be back from work at any moment.
\- I don't think so Sammy. Tonight we must make a special reunion. I'm on my way back to town. But you're right..." she admitted, placing the drink on the glass table.
\- My annoying husband could be back any minute.
Sammy felt relaxed, intimate and close, and although he never stopped to think if it was truly because of the music, the bourbon or the sight of his boss so ardently willing to give herself to him, the memory of their last encounters in the limo left him with that feeling of pleasure that memory gives you, and that pleasure stayed with him for a few days until work, touring, negotiations and the turbulent world of his boss, made him return to his chauffeuring habits while his boss, mistress, mistress and sexual goddess, was probably having fun with another nobody in the United States.
\- Now Sammy give me the phone and pour yourself a drink, - it's time for my daughter to find out that her perfect father is a liar and a cheater. And that, heartbroken and disappointed, she will assign her inheritance patents from her Leuvonicienes estate to me.
Birdy hangs up the private call in tears, her eyes brimming with tears. Victor who is warming up in front of the bar, interrupts the class and walks over to Birdy, she remains in the side dressing rooms to the wooden lounge. Sitting on the wide carved wooden couch, among the bags and sneakers of her fellow dancers she makes her way to her locker to put her cell phone away.
\- What happened?
\- My mother is moving out, and the part of the house that was my grandmother's is my inheritance.
\- That's great.
\- It would be if my mother didn't want to buy the whole house, including my share. She says she's buying it for me, but she's lying, I know she's doing it so that way she can ask for more expensive child support from my father. I don't want to be part of her game full of revenge and manipulation.
\- Mon amour, you can live with me. We practically sleep together every night - Victor says tenderly. But Birdy, far from being comforted by those words, adds in tears:
\- I don't intend to sell that house, the house cost more than half a million francs. Besides, it belonged to my grandparents.
\- I understand - Victor looks at her with frustration.
\- I don't want to owe him my happiness, my happiness is mine," Birdy exclaims in despair.
\- I don't want to, I don't want to have to pay her back with tears, with sadness, with misfortune and ugliness because that's the way she asks me to pay her back," she added with tears running down her cheeks.
\- Birdy, no one can hurt you. You are free - We will pay you I promise, you can talk to your father and ask him for some time, then you could buy your mother's share. - Victor affirms.
\- Victor, I would have to work forever for it. I would dance all my life to buy Leuvonicienes. My grandmother was rich, that's why I inherited the house in her will. It has a ballet studio built by themselves - Birdy said remembering the old ballet studio located on the back porch.
\- I don't want to sell Leuvonicienes, and I don't want to pay her anything either.
\- Mon love, I understand you - Victor whispers - Maybe you can pay the new seller, the person your mother sells her part of the house to, you buy it from her.
\- She's probably going to sell it to my father, for a large sum.
\- Whether your father is the seller or she is, it doesn't matter, you are the heir of Leuvonicienes and you can buy her share. Take it for granted - She says firmly.
\- I don't have that kind of money.
\- Ask your father for it as an advance on your next presentations.
\- If my father hadn't been unfaithful with another woman, I wouldn't be in this situation, I won't ask him for anything Victor - Birdy sighs and wipes her tears, this situation causes her great discomfort. At that moment some dancers enter the wooden room where others are already warming up. Angie and Miguel pass by her and enter the dance studio.
\- If he is an honest man your father will not allow your mother to sell the property, he will get the money to your mother and buy her part of the house, and it will be completely yours- Victor takes her face and stares at her for a brief moment, just long enough to affirm: "Don't be afraid, I will be by your side, we will work it all out.
Birdy removes her sandals and puts on her ballet shoes for class. She gets ready to enter the classroom.
Teacher Pilar, a young woman with dark brown skin and long wavy blonde hair falling down her hips, enters the rehearsal room. She wears red ballet tights that cover her curvaceous body and lace that lines the sides of her waist. A skirt with light waves covers her waist, black in color, as well as her ballet shoes.
\- Good morning - Pilar says hello. Victor and Birdy look towards the main hall. Victor whispers:
\- I will do anything in my power to make you happy. He wipes a tear that springs from her sad eyes, and looks at her cheeks and face with adoration, he is always amazed at her beauty so natural, even in the simplest moments like in the middle of crying, she looks serene, majestic, full of peace in the midst of sadness, like an unwavering goddess in her spirit. She sits up and puts on her wristband, walks to the dance class and Birdy follows.
Victor's upper middle class family also has money, although they are not rich like Birdy's parents, their capital is mostly based on different farms they have in the Spanish countryside in Seville. Victor joins the bar behind Birdy, she turns to him.
\- I can help you buy your mother's share - She assures him.
\- Victor, it's crazy - Birdy admits with a smile, she finds it funny the way he always thinks everything has a solution. She mounts her leg on the bar and stretches her body to the left side and then the right. Some dancers take the bar and hold on with their hands as they spread their legs on the wooden floor and perform a Split. He takes her hand, decorated with a huge ring of a large, silver carved pearl. It's a rather old ring and a bit rusty, but Birdy loves it, as it belonged to her grandmother.
\- Baby... don't be afraid... - She starts singing-...everything will be fine.
\- We have a singer - Pilar says. She looks at Victor with a smile and the whole class lets out some giggles.
He takes both of Birdy's hands and kisses her knuckles, she sighs slightly and smiles at his affectionate gestures.
\- Just protect yourself and be happy - He assures her.
\- I do, that's why I don't want to be near my mother, I protect myself from her... - Birdy whispers stretching her feet, instep and ankles.
\- When I am close to my mother is when I feel most unprotected; noticing how she doesn't know how to give me love and only lives for her ambition, I faint. - He continues speaking while warming his other leg.
\- I'm here - Victor assures as he makes a Split on the floor and holds on to the bar with both hands.
\- Love, I know, with you on the contrary I feel so protected that it scares me, I feel like I'm in a cage, that you take care of me so much that you don't allow me to make my own decisions.
\- So, you are free, get out of my cage.
\- Victor to the boy’s bar - Pilar says with a stern tone.
Victor walks to the side bar to the main mirror of the room, where Miguel, Leonard and other fellow male dancers, who dance in the company.
Her fellow dancers greet with a "Good morning" and an "Au revoir" saying hello briefly, Alix smiles at Birdy and enters the wooden room where they have their next class with teacher Pilar. Victor follows her, although there are usually more men than women in the company, Victor is undoubtedly the most handsome, he is 6'2" tall. His eyes and blond hair always seem to absorb the most imperceptible scraps of sunlight, which make his hair shine. His body possesses a broad, square chest with large shoulders, toned back and breasts, with every abdominal marked where dancers should have their muscles marked, he has them made of steel. Without looking overly muscular, his silhouette is tall and lean.
Master Pilar greets everyone and begins a warm-up in front of the barre.
\- Good morning guys, now that everyone has done their personal warm-up. Let's start with our warm-up.
Pilar plays music and stands in front of the only bar without a dancer, besides her, who marks the warm-up sequence, saying the French names of each step, one after the other.
The dancers begin to dance, Pilar observes Birdy, who has always been, along with Alix and Angie, one of her favorite students. Pilar can notice that Birdy constantly wipes her tears and interrupts the position of her hands, one firmly on the bar while the other one does the ballet sequences, she abandons the position every time she brings her hands to her face to wipe her cheeks.
\- Birdy," he says reprimanding her, "you must always dance for yourself, never for others.
Birdy nods her head and continues doing the sequence at the bar. Pilar walks up to her, who is at the beginning of the bar, leading the other dancers.
\- You must dance with strength, feel powerful and never look at the floor. - Pilar says, and although it is not like her to call the attention of her students in class, she feels that Birdy just at that moment needs to let go of the burdens that do not allow her to dance with strength.
\- And as I always tell you, as I always tell everyone, you have to work hard to be the dancer you want to be.
\- That's what I do.
\- Work hard on your emotions Birdy, that's what I mean. Dance comes crashing down on you if you can't control your emotions.
\- I control them.
\- Repressing them is not controlling them.
\- Go to the center - Pilar orders - I want you to dance all that sadness - she says softly, with a melodious voice -, make it yours, make it foreign and face it - she says analyzing, meditatively the situation -, but use it to dance.
Victor watches Birdy leave the bar, he and Leonard, Miguel and Andie dance in a bar for gentlemen only. Master Julles enters the room and greets Pilar with a smile.