Excerpt:
I hadn’t needed
to prompt her. She began, pulling herself upward, drawing those silks around
her small frame as she went. Climbing high into the air as the two women began
their duet. The French lyrics pulled me in every time. It was perhaps one of
the reasons that while I simply tolerated most opera songs I’d heard, I adored
this song.
Every time I
heard it, every time I got lost in those little nuances of the language, it
brought me back to summertime in Melun, France. Playing on the hills
overlooking the city, lost in the grasses filled with wildflowers. Climbing
into Meme’s apple trees. Perhaps the time in my life when it had felt so
simple. All there were, were the memories of when I’d been happy.
And if there was
any place I wanted to be, as I watched Cassandra ascending above me, knowing in
seconds I would be right beside her, it was in those memories again. Bringing
her with me.
The first stanza
finished, and my mind immediately centered. My hands had already been wrapped
in the silks without having to think about it. She paused, and I saw her
attention drift downward. We fell captive to one another, and it was all I
needed to see. I knew it was my turn to go to her. She was waiting for me.
In the same
fashion she had moments earlier, I began my way up the silks beside hers, which
had been a deep royal purple color. The entire time I made my way high into the
room, I immersed myself in the French lyrics, the strings complimenting every
rise and fall of the two women’s voices. Some moments, I’d lose myself in what I
was doing, taking careful note of all the little adjustments my body was
making. Other times, my attention drifted upward. Until finally, I was just
beneath Cassandra.
When I paused
again, I took a few deep breaths, steadying myself. Focused entirely on the
beautiful woman above me, who was just as attentive to me. I nodded to her,
signaling I was ready, prepared to follow her in whatever she had thought to do
next.
At the precise
moment when I had met her, she had already begun moving herself into a sailor
pose above me, legs splitting, and much to my satisfaction, every single part
of her in perfect position. All the small details I’d shown her the first
lesson we’d had together were as pristine as when I’d helped her myself.
I would have
taken more time to truly enjoy how proud of her I felt if she hadn’t twisted
downward, dropping her torso straight toward me in a graceful fall. Before
she’d completed it, I knew what she’d done. A Rainbow Marchenko. A famous move
of Jeanne’s for many years. But watching her as she settled into it, I would have
thought it was hers alone.
Cassandra’s
hands dropped, releasing the silks. Dangling inches away. The only thing
holding her in the air was the precise folds of those green fabrics wrapped around
her legs.
Looking into her
eyes as she hung there, waiting for me to act, all I could do was smile. She’d
been focused, lost in her own world, but she’d come back to me. We were
together again in the very place I had wanted to be with her ever since I’d
seen her flying through the silks at her audition. I had dreamt about it every
time since, every lesson we had, every time I’d watched her from the shadows of
the theater while she practiced.
I had taken her
to those fields in Melun with me, high in the trees. Trapped us both in those
treasured memories, made all the better knowing she was there.
“I’ve got you,
Cassandra,” I called out to her, gently. Steadying myself, my body locked in
place. Breathing slow and rhythmic and calm. I watched her take the same breath
as I had, waiting for the little drop in the lyrics before the next few lines
began.
The moment their
voices bellowed into the theater again, she let herself drop in a salto. In a
gentle sweep of my body, I caught her gracefully into my arms. Twisted us
together, letting the silks take hold of the two of us as we swung across the
room, dozens of feet above the stage below us. Falling like two feathers locked
together, dancing into the wind.
When the fabrics
released us, I swung us outward. Our bodies drifted apart again as she spun
around me, both of us still descending toward the floor. As beautiful as she
looked, circling outward away from me, the moment she had, I wanted her back. I
used my legs to give myself enough momentum to swing forward, latching on again
once she’d appeared.
Cassandra had
been so close I’d felt her breath against my face while we dangled above the
stage. I got lost in the way it felt to be tangled up with her, a mess of
bodies and fabric. Consumed by it. Convinced I might never let go of her again.
As we’d
traversed the rest of the way back to the stage, I didn’t. The two of us
descended together as a singular unit, just her and I and the fabrics.
Improvising the graceful fall we were doing, finding little tricks and motions
to carry out, all the while never leaving her side.
We’d both
reached the floor, perfectly in sync with one another. I heard a gentle thump
as we landed. Followed by the sound of both of our light, audible breaths.
Steadying ourselves back on the ground.
Even having left
the air, the silks still wrapped around us. Neither of us had freed ourselves.
Cassandra was still in my arms, something I realized, when I hadn’t been so
caught up in what we were doing all those feet above us, was happening for the
very first time.
The sweet smell
of oranges overwhelmed me. Her beautiful hazel eyes, those captivating flecks
of grays and greens and browns, drowned out the world around us. I watched her
breathing softly, holding her to me and those silks holding me to her.
And in those
next few moments, every single solitary thing keeping me from her since the day
we had met no longer existed in the little reality we were trapped in. Every
fear I had, every reservation, disappeared. I tightened her to me, my hands
capturing the sides of her face in a gentle sweep, as elegant as every other
thing we’d done those last few minutes.
Our mouths fell
together, and I lost myself in her. Trapped in those profound and so
unbelievably relieving seconds in which the things that had stood in our way no
longer mattered.
I hadn’t thought
anything could have surpassed the experience the two of us just shared.
Undeniably, it had been the best minutes I had
ever spent in those silks in my entire career. As simple as it had been. And we
had barely started. This was only the beginning.
But this moment now was just as wonderful. As perfect as I could have hoped.
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