Page 23 of The Virgin's Dance
After she had showered and dressed, she went into the kitchen and laughed. A plate piled high with steak, spinach, and eggs was waiting for her. “You just happen to have all these iron- rich foods around?” she asked Pilot, who laughed.
“Hey, look, I used to love Popeye. Eat up, Dali.”
She ate every bite and regretted it when she saw the food baby in her stomach. “Leotards are unforgiving,” she groaned, then grinned. “But that was wonderful, thank you. I probably won’t need to eat again for about a week.”
“Ha, just try that around me.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Food, sex, art with a beautiful man. I’m the luckiest girl alive.”
Pilot smiled, his eyes merry. “Yeah, you are,” he drawled, tickling her and making her giggle. “Now, are you sure that you’re okay to work today?”
“Positive. I’m Popeye strong now.”
“Is that a thing?”
“It is now?”
Pilot chuckled and grabbed his keys. “Come on then, Popeye, let’s get you to work.”
“You realize that makes you Olive Oyl, right?”
“Does not.”
“Does too.”
They joked all the way to her work, and Boh was still smiling when she walked into Kristof Mendelev’s studio—and into a nightmare.
Chapter Eleven
“Late again,” Kristof barked at her but Boh ignored him. She wasn’t late; she had made sure of that. Still her fellow dancers looked beat up already—clearly, Kristof had surprised them.
“You okay?” she mouthed at Elliott, who shook his head. Serena gave her the finger surreptitiously.
“Now, seeing as the rest of you look like a bunch of football players, Boh, I want you to go through the combination for them. Hurry up and change.”
Boh had already put her leotard on, so she quickly strapped on her shoes. “Which combination?”
Kristof looked at her. “The combination for the ballet we’re doing, Boh.” He said the words slowly, as if she was a child, and Boh flushed, annoyed. Bastard.
“We’re doingthreeballets, Kristof, unless you forgot to count.” The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them, and she felt the atmosphere change in the room.
Kristof’s eyes took on a dangerous look, but he merely said. “The Lesson.The Pupil’s murder. I’ll dance the Teacher for the first few times.”
Boh knew he wouldn’t hold back but she would die before she let him intimidate her. They went through the combinations a few times, Kristof criticizing her at every level. When it came to the murder scene, he would force his fist against her stomach until she felt she would be bruised from the force of it. But she didn’t say anything, continuing on and on as he made her rehearse it over and over again.
On the seventh run through, she felt the dizziness return. Push through it, push through it. She danced and kept dancing even as her vision blurred and she felt herself move outside of her body. She heard the rest of them begin to murmur but it sounded like the sound was coming from the end of a very long tunnel. Her ears buzzed, her throat burned. She felt herself falling, then her body was jerking uncontrollably, and she gave in to the darkness as she heard people screaming.
Boh opened her eyes to find herself on a hospital gurney being wheeled through the stark white halls of an emergency room. She tried to sit. “Sweetheart, lie down, they’re just going to check you out.” She heard Nelly Fine’s voice and felt comforted. Nelly slipped her hand into Boh’s.
Boh opened her mouth, but she found she couldn’t speak. What the hell? She knew it had to be the anemia, but she’d never thought it could feel this bad.
While they waited for the doctor, Nelly stroked her hot forehead. “I called Pilot,” she said in a low voice, and smiled at Boh. “I know you two are close, and he’d want to know. Grace is also on her way.”
Boh felt a pang of loneliness despite her relief that Pilot and Grace were coming. Her boyfriend of a week and her college friend. They represented her family now. When she’d joined the NYSMBC, she’d bonded with Nelly quickly, and over time had asked her to be her next of kin, so Boh had no worries about the hospital contacting her birth family, but still. It was a small group.
Her fears fled though when Pilot and Grace arrived, one after the other, both of them looking fraught, and sighing with relief when they saw her awake. “Thank God.” Pilot bent over and kissed her gently. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, but Nelly interjected. “She’s having trouble speaking. I think it’s just shock at collapsing but I’m no doctor.”
