Page 15 of The Life of Chuck

Chuck went stag to the Fall Fling, which turned out just fine, because all the girls from Twirlers and Spinners wanted to dance with him.

Especially Cat, because her boyfriend, Dougie Wentworth, had two left feet and spent most of the evening slouched against the wall with his buddies, all of them sucking up punch and watching the dancers with lordly sneers.

Cat kept asking him when they were going to do their stuff, and Chuck kept putting her off. He said he’d know the right tune when he heard it. It was his bubbie he was thinking of.

Around nine o’clock, half an hour or so before the dance was scheduled to end, the right tune came up.

It was Jackie Wilson, singing “Higher and Higher.” Chuck strutted to Cat with his hands out.

She kicked off her shoes, and with Chuck in her brother’s Cubans, they were at least close to the same height.

They went out on the floor, and when they did a double moonwalk, they cleared it.

The kids made a circle around them and began clapping.

Miss Rohrbacher, one of the chaperones, was among them, clapping along with the rest and shouting “Go, go, go!”

They did. As Jackie Wilson shouted that happy, gospel-tinged tune, they danced like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, and Jennifer Beals all rolled up into one.

They finished with Cat spinning first one way, then the other, then collapsing backward into Chuck’s arms with her own held out in a dying swan.

He went down in a split that miraculously didn’t rip the crotch out of his pants.

Two hundred kids cheered when Cat turned her head and put a kiss on the corner of Chuck’s mouth.

“ One more time! ” some kid shouted, but Chuck and Cat shook their heads. They were young, but smart enough to know when to quit. The best cannot be topped.