Page 21 of Love Hollow at Last
“I don’t have any energy at all,” grumbled Aya.
“Ooh, Aya-nene,” said Twyla.“When you dance, you’ll get your energy back.”
It was a maddening thing to say, but Twyla was right.When they arrived at the studio, Aya felt some of her stress dissipating as soon as she smelled the familiar scent.It was a combination of polish, sweat, and the faint aroma of energy bars.Everyone complained about the lack of designated parking, but the building her mother had rented in the historic downtown area was a beautiful one.And it was so ancient that the rent stayed low.It would probably have been hard to get anyone besides a dance studio to use the space.At night, most people just used the parking lot next to the bank down the block.
Aya’s mom had a warm-up routine that still made Aya laugh every time she did it.It was always obvious that she had come of age as a dancer in the eighties, as the Jazzercise moves owed a great deal to the kind of singers who paired tight leotards with huge hairstyles.And she quickly noticed that only some of the dancers were wearing costumes.
As soon as they got started on the actual choreography, Twyla left the room, returning with the one and only Noah Kato.
Everyone in the room gave a collective gasp.Love Hollow might be very proud of their famous Noah, but that didn’t mean they got to see a lot of him.Since the group was made up of a combination of community volunteers and the high school seniors in the Hanson Dance Troupe, some of the folks in the room had never met Noah at all.
“Okay, okay,” said Aya’s mom, smiling and gesturing at everyone to quiet down.“Since Mr.and Dr.Flores couldn’t make it tonight, we needed one more couple to take their place.And I amveryproud of having taught Noah Kato some of these swing dance moves myself!”
The audience gave a little round of applause.
“We need a follower,” she said.“Aya,kinasai.”
Aya didn’t move.“Twy knows it,” she said weakly.
Twyla was already standing off to the side with an older gentleman, grinning as she shook her head.“I’m already in the dance.But the two of you can stand in for the Flores family.Then we won’t be off.”
Aya was still shaking her head.“I don’t know the moves,” she said.
“It’ll stop you from back leading,” said her mother smoothly.“The followers don’t need to know the dance.I gave Noah the practice video.Okay, everyone!Places.”
Aya felt like it was a middle school dance.She wanted to stay far from Noah, and she didn’t usually find swing dance particularly exciting, but somehow, even the standard Lindy hop position made her feel both thrilled and unspeakably awkward.His hand was on her waist, her right hand in his left.
He shifted but smiled.“So you still back lead.Is that right?”
She frowned.“Only if the leader needs help,” she said.“I consider it a favor to them.”
“Well, I need a lot of help,” he said.“So take it away, Hanson.”
She couldn’t help laughing just as the music began, which almost made her miss the beginning.She was expecting a slow ballad, maybe even perhaps the ironically titled “Don’t Fence Me In” that played in the background of pretty much every single documentary about Japanese American internment.But her mom never liked that for their demonstrations, reminding everyone that everyday emotions like love and jealousy were always at play on the dance floor.“My parents are proof,” she always said.“I wasn’t born nine months after one of those dances, but my older sister was!”
Always burning with ambition for her students, Aya’s mother had gone and chosen an insane song for their dance.“Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” was just about as fast as those songs could get.
Aya started breathing quickly.If Emi had been the dancer, with her new pregnancy breathing problems, she would probably have passed out, so it was just as well that she was sitting on the side.Aya quickly abandoned the triple steps that she liked to do while swing dancing.There simply wasn’t time.Even if she did the bare minimum with her feet for every move, she still risked falling behind.
Noah grinned.“Not bad, huh?”he asked.
Aya stared up at him, her eyes wide.After the next turn, she shook her head.“Where did you learn to dance like this?”
“From your mom, remember?I did a bunch of demos.And I signed up for lessons in LA at the same studio as one of the owners of Booker Cadence.Ultimately, that’s why they signed me.”
There were a few more turns, so she couldn’t answer.When they got to the move where he spun her out and she kicked her way around him, she could talk again.“Why doesn’t everyone try to get a record deal that way?”
He smirked, which wasn’t much like the Noah she remembered.“Others tried.But it was a tough studio.They only let you into the advanced group if you were really good.”
And Noah was good.
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Aya
“Beautiful!”said Aya’s mom.
The group clapped, and somebody whistled.A suspicion began to dawn on Aya, but because she was a little embarrassed, she talked to Noah about it first.
