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“My aunt and uncle used to argue a lot,” Bowie mentioned. “They lived with us for a while, so we all got to see it. He would get so mad that he couldn’t see straight. Once, just once, he raised a hand to her. He hit her right across the face. I’ll never forget the sound of his knuckles meeting her cheek and the sound of pain she made as she fell.”
“Oh, that’s terrible!” I said. “How old were you?”
“Probably about nine or ten.”
“What happened?”
“My father took care of it. He never says too much, and he didn’t say much then. He dragged my uncle outside and my mother told us all to go down to the basement for a while. My uncle stayed in bed for two days after that.”
I thought for a moment about that story. “Well, your uncle shouldn’t have hurt your aunt, of course, but your dad shouldn’t have done that, either. They shouldn’t have physically fought, if that’s what you’re saying happened.”
“That’s what happened,” he agreed. “What I believe is that no one, ever, should pick on someone smaller. It just about drives me crazy to see it. I never could stand a bully.”
“I understand what you’re trying to tell me, but Ward didn’t mean for me to get hurt,” I said. “You only saw us for a few seconds together, but we have six years of history that you don’t know. He’s a good boyfriend to me.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
He didn’t look very glad, because he wasn’t smiling at all, and I missed seeing that expression on his face.
“I should go,” I said, my voice flat. I stood up from the table. “I need to get my dad.”
“I thought you said he was done at midnight. You don’t have to leave yet,” he argued. “I won’t talk about that stuff anymore. I recorded a show last week and I was going to watch it, and you might like it, too. Stay a minute.” He got the remote and turned on his big TV. A screen flashed up with the words, “The Last Dancer.”
“You watch this?” I asked him. It was a dance competition where regular people were paired up to vie for a big money prize. They had instructors and every week they would try out a new routine in a new style.
“I’m just getting into it. I don’t really know what they’re doing,” he said. “The episode I saw was salsa, and that looked hard. I’m not a great dancer.”
“Really?” I asked.
“You sound more surprised than I expected,” he told me. “Have you noticed that I’m three hundred-some pounds?”
Yes, and according to the Woodsmen stats I’d checked on, he was six-eight. That meant he was one or two inches shorter because they always exaggerated, but he was still plenty tall. “But you don’t move like that,” I said. “I mean, when you’re playing, you don’t move heavy. You’re very light on your feet and very quick.”
“You’ve been watching?” he asked but then answered his own question. “You watch everybody. You love football.”
“I do. But I bet you could dance,” I told him. “I would start with something other than salsa, though.” I looked at his pelvis. “I’m not sure you’re used to loosening your hips.”
Bowie started to laugh. “That almost sounded dirty, Miss Frazier. Very dirty.”
“That wasn’t what I meant!”
“I know,” he said, “don’t be embarrassed.” He pointed with the remote at the screen and sat on the beige couch. “Maybe this one is more my style. Doesn’t seem like there’s as much hip action in the tango.”
Hip action. Had I really just been staring at that portion of his body and had he really just equated it with me thinking about…I sat also and watched the two novices try to master the footwork.
All through the show, Bowie kept up a commentary about dance and surprisingly, a lot about the Wonderwomen cheerleaders.
“I think you do that,” he mentioned to me, pointing again at the screen. “See the thing the instructor did with her toes? The pointy thing?”
“Sure,” I said. “We use all different styles in our routines.”
“I thought I recognized it,” he agreed, nodding. “I don’t see you doing a lot of this other stuff.”
“No, cheerleaders don’t tango very often. And sometimes, I’m doing something different from the other girls because I’m getting ready to throw a tumbling pass. I’m there for the gymnastics.”
“Not the dance?”
“I also dance, but they wanted me on the squad for my tumbling,” I explained. “That’s what I’m better at.”
