Chapter 30 – The Dance

A few weeks later, Lana hears music in the ballet room. She slips out of the man cave and looks curiously through a crack in the ballet room. She quickly retreats and runs back to the workshop where Noa and Jean Paul are.

“Come quickly,” she calls inside. “Mimi and Marc are dancing!” Then she rushes up the stairs and into the house to call Lisa and Claire.

Very quietly, the housemates slip through the massive door and gather in a corner of the small room. Jean Paul takes Lana’s hand and pulls her against him. Noa stands stock still in front of the side wall. Claire and Lisa join him.

The music blares loudly through the room. Beautiful sensual sounds and a passionate dance. Lisa thinks it is beautiful music. Curious, she looks at the CD cover by the music system. Agnes Obel with Fuel to Fire. ‘How appropriate,’ she thinks. ‘The sparks are flying from those two dancers.’

Claire stands next to Noa. She studies his rigid, hungry face. He seems to devour Mimi with his eyes. “Are you okay?” she asks softly. He doesn’t hear her, she gently touches his arm. “Are you okay?” she repeats. Her eyes go back to the dancing couple. Marc looks stunning in his ballet outfit. She can see all his beautiful muscles. He easily lifts a figure like Mimi and then gently puts her down.

After a moment of hesitation, Noa nods. “She’s already very beautiful in everyday life, but now she’s at her most beautiful.”

Claire nods. “She was made to dance.” ‘Marc too,’ she thinks with a warm feeling in her stomach. She plops down next to her friend on the couch and sighs softly. Lisa puts a friendly hand on her friend’s shoulder.

Marc has seen them come in. He notices that he is especially happy about Claire’s arrival. With a smile, he lifts Mimi a little higher, stretches a little further, so that his muscles bulge a little more. Mimi notices it, because she knows her dancing partner well. She has also seen the sparks between him and Claire. Mimi loves Noa intensely and does not want to hurt Marc. She is happy that he has fallen in love with someone else. The fact that it is Claire makes her even happier. That is how it is. Unconsciously, a change has occurred in their dance. They dance to impress. Not each other, but others. They are freer, more expressive. They smile at each other and enjoy this change in their dance.

Together they enjoy the game with two beautiful bodies. Two wet trails appear on Mimi’s cheeks. She enjoys dancing intensely.

The housemates give a thunderous applause when the dance is over. They are proud of their little Mimi. When she dances, she is a completely different girl than in everyday life. Self-confident and tired, Mimi and Marc bow to their audience. Mimi’s knee has done well, although Lisa, who knows her young friend very well, has seen that she has hurt her knee a few times. Lisa also witnessed the accident that happened to Mimi, which prevented her from continuing at the academy. Marc now guides Mimi professionally and together they made sure that Mimi could not put too much strain on her knee.

Lisa stands up. “I have something for you,” she says and disappears. A moment later she returns with large pictures. Everyone comes closer, curious.

“You hung the ballet pictures here, but they are very small in this room. So I had them enlarged to poster size,” Lisa explains.

“What a wonderful idea,” Mimi exclaims. “How nice, thank you!”

“We’ll hang them up,” says Jean Paul and nudges Noa, who can’t take his eyes off his girl. While the men are busy hanging them up, Lana suddenly sees an inscription at the top of the wall. “Hey, what’s that?”

Jean Paul deciphers the Roman script. “MCMLXV, M is one thousand, C is one hundred. That has to go, because it’s in front of it.” Lana looks at him confused. He thinks for a moment. “That’s nineteen hundred and sixty-five.”

“What’s that for?” Lana wonders out loud.

“I guess we’ll never know,” her boyfriend says, shrugging.