Page 79 of Mafia Scars
“Does she ever find out? Odette,” Luc asked.
“She watched the whole thing. She was there too. She watched her beloved prince, whom her heart belonged to, and this person pretending to be her.” I moved around as I explained, the soft grass tickling my bare feet. I turned, and as my mind conjured up the music, I swayed with the gentle breeze.
Luc watched me with fascination.
I smiled down at him and continued the story. “Siegfried realized his mistake when it was too late.” I said breathlessly bringing my hand to my heart. “He watched Odette flee the palace and followed her to the lake to beg her forgiveness. She forgives him, but Baron von Rothbart pursued him insisting that he stuck to his word and marry Odile. They fight and Siegfried tells von Rothbart that he’d rather choose death with Odette than marry Odile. So he takes Odette’s hand and they jump into the lake. To their deaths.” That part always got me. It seemed to get Luc too, because he was watching me completely intrigued. “That broke the spell for the other swans who then drove Von Rothbart and Odile into the lake too. On doing that they watched the spirits of Siegfried and Odette ascend into the heavens.”
I’d looked up to the clear blue sky above us then back to Luc who was looking at my feet.
I looked down to see what had fascinated him, and my jaw dropped.
I was standing on my toes. I didn’t even know…
How? It had been well past eleven years since I did that, and as I lowered myself, my feet instinctively stepped out of it as if I were actually doing the dance.
Luc stood up and came closer to me, taking hold of my waist.
“You were dancing,” he stated.
My eyes widened. “What? I was just…”
“Dancing, goddess. You were dancing.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, I could tell.”
I gazed at him. “I remember that piece even in my dreams. It was a part of me. That was one of the pieces I auditioned with to get into Julliard. I got in, Luc. I got in, and I never went. Do you know how hard it is to get into that school? And only the very best go there.”
I couldn’t help it. I’d been waiting years to say that.
His eyes grew heavy with a sadness that spoke to me. He took my hand, brought it up to his lips, and kissed it.
“Amelia… why didn’t you just go there instead of LA? It breaks my heart that you never got to live your dreams.”
I pressed my lips together to force away the memories from that time. Of the reasons why I couldn’t dance anymore.
“I just couldn’t go after… Mom. I couldn’t dance after I lost her. The pain was too much. Then, when I found out Dad had a part to play in her death, it made it worse. That part of me that loved to dance died.”
“It’s not dead though. My sweet Amelia… you must dance again.”
“It’s too late. I’m too old to accomplish the dreams I wanted. I wanted to dance with a company and teach. I was going to teach at Julliard and then set up my own school. I wanted to discover new dancers and give them all the love and chances I got.”
Now he pressed my hand to his cheek and smiled. “Goddess, there’s still a heck of a lot of that dream that you can still do. Time is just time. Nothing more. If you can catch up, you can do whatever you want. Don’t waste the rest of your life doing something that isn’t you.”
He was sweet to think that. Sweet to accommodate my world and my dreams in his mind.
I couldn’t express how much I appreciated it. Appreciated him.
“I wouldn’t know where to start, Luc, and I don’t know if I could dance again.”
“You just did it without thinking.” His amazing smile widened.
The excitement I saw in him reached out to me. The vibrancy of it was like a living force that rippled through me, but the pain… the pain was still there.
Pain I still hadn’t addressed.
“I can’t do it without her.” I shook my head as a tear ran down my cheek.