AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My stomach gave a wobbly groan like an aging door hinge. I kept my expression neutral.
Mom glanced down at her creased tap shoes. “The problem is me.”
“Okay…”
She looked up. “I’m very nervous, Fran.”
“Aww.” I stepped forward and hugged her, and she made a little very-nervous sound into my shoulder. I held her for a while. “Don’t be, Mom. You’ll do great.”
She shook her head against my neck. “I don’t know.”
“You’ve been practicing hard. You were great at that lesson I went to.”
She stepped back and waved a hand. “Oh, everyone was just so distracted by you fudging it up, they didn’t notice how bad I was.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Can I try to teach you Linda’s part? And then you dance the song with me?”
“Uhhhh…well, good luck. Teaching me, I mean.”
Her expression was serious. “Please, Fran. I’m really scared.”
I huffed a sympathetic laugh. “Okay. Yeah, sure. Why not.” I paused. “Isn’t it gonna be weird if I don’t have tap shoes, though? Isn’t that, like, the point? Don’t we have to tap in unison?”
She gestured to the far wall, where a pair of brand new tap shoes had been set on the floor.
“You got me tap shoes just so I could rehearse with you?”
“They’re Jake’s. I…” She cleared her throat. “I bought them hoping he’d take lessons with me. But he doesn’t want to.”
“Aww. Aww, Jake. C’mon.”
She gave an unsteady laugh. “I really thought maybe he’d like it. Or that he’d at least…like it because I liked it, you know?”
Well, that was the saddest thing I’d heard all day, after the stuff about Mullins and the stabbing. “You don’t need Jake,” I assured her. “Dance with me.”
She laughed, and some of the tension seemed to leave her shoulders.
I changed into the tap shoes, and she tried for the better part of an hour to teach me Linda’s steps. I was terrible, but we laughed a lot. The girls came in to criticize me, and Pebbles raced around Mom and me, nipping our ankles and finally leaving to pee on the Ruggable. All told, I hadn’t had this much fun in a while.
“How does Linda have the suppleness of spine to do this?” I asked as Mom tried to dip me. “I don’t, and I’m way younger.”
She dipped me a little further, and one foot started sliding out from under me. “Don’t! Let me up!” She helped me straighten and we fell against the counter, laughing.
“See?” I panted. “Your performance at the recital can’t be worse than dancing with me.”
“I do feel a lot better,” she admitted. “Thank you. I don’t know why I get so…so nervous about things.”
I came by my anxiety honestly, at least. After my dad had left, Mom had lost a lot of her confidence. I didn’t remember her being quite so anxious when I was little. So afraid of what other people thought. I was glad she was doing this recital, glad she was going to get up in front of the town and show Christmas Valley a thing or two about tap dance.
“You’re really good, Grandma,” Em said.
“Thank you, sweetheart.” Mom smiled at her gratefully.
Ada chewed her lip. “Daddy needs a lot of practice.”
“Daddy kissed a guy in the Christmas tree,” Em said, apropos of absolutely nothing.
