Page 67 of His Smile
After a few minutes of silence, she spoke again in areluctant tone. “I’m still angry with them…but I will call them…later.” Good,Roman thought selfishly, he wasn’t sure how long he was able to politelydecline her mother’s calls any longer. Tilting her head up and leaning her chinon his chest, Rahina gave him a wide-eyed stare. “I love you.”
Smirking, he bent down and scooped her high into his arms.Practice was over as far as he was concerned. Whispering the words, she couldnot understand in her ear, he walked with her back to their room.
“Are you ever going to tell me what you keep saying?”she groused as she nuzzled his neck.
“How about, I show you?”
~*~
Misha smiled up at his arrival as Roman sat down next to herin the theater's private booth. Sitting to her right was her husband, Mikhail,and next to him, Christelle and Alexei. Unlike the other crammed seats in thetheater, Roman had bought out all the seats in their booth giving them andtheir men plenty of space. Two of his and Mikhail’s men guarded the inside andoutside of the curtained entry doorway while the remainder of the seats wereeither left empty or taken up by Mosca, Sergei, and a few of Mikhail’s men.
Every seat below them was filled to capacity with overeager,formally dressed attendees.
Misha turned to him, speaking over the din of noise. "Ihave a feeling it's going to be sad, so I brought tissue," she held up adainty pack of pink and blue tissues with an angelic smile.
Giving her a slow mischievous smile, he resisted the urge tochuckle when he felt her stiffen in response to his smile. Above her head,Roman could see Mikhail’s simultaneous narrowed gaze on him as he stared downat the man’s pregnant wife. “That’s very kind of you Misha,” Roman spoke deeplyin Russian, knowing Misha could understand him perfectly. “Ever since you werea little,littlegirl,” he added an extra little just to goad Mikhail,“you’ve always been so sweet and kind.”
"I have no qualms shooting you…" Mikhail began butwas hushed by Misha.
“You two, stop,” she whispered in their language with thecutest Boston accent underneath. “The lights are dimming, now be quiet!”
Nodding at her command, Roman gave Mikhail one last glanceand nearly laughed at the man’s refusal to look at him. The hard set of theman’s jaw was indication enough his tiny barb had gotten under his skin justlike it always did. He swore tormenting Alexei and Mikhail about theirtoo-young wives just never got old.
The lights around the theater dimmed lower and a spotlightactivated over the heavy red curtain. The performance was starting.
Playful notes from the orchestra drifted through thesuddenly quieted theater as the curtain rose to reveal an empty royal throneroom with a large marble statue of a woman reaching for the sky, bearing acrescent moon on her head. In the throne room, three young women carrying thesame moon insignias emblazoned on their chests ran around the room unchaperonedwith sneaky smiles and laughter. Playing with the regal suits of armor thegirls danced before the empty throne in time to the lively notes of music.Looking to the left of the stage, the girls cupped their mouths and mimed awhispered call to another, not yet seen by the audience.
Poking her head out from behind a suit of armor Rahina, themoon maiden, who wore a silver crescent moon on her forehead, scared the girlsfrom her secret location. Immediately the chords of music changed to boldernotes as the moon maiden boldly led the other girls in mischievous fun. To thegirls’ horror, she danced and pranced close to the throne, alarming the girlswith the threat of sitting in the honored seat. The music rose each time sheattempted the transgression and fell when she laughed and stepped back. With afinal taunting fluttering dance to the girls, Rahina crossed her arms andlifted her chin in defiance and sat with a plop on top of the throne.
Deep thundering notes that boomed in response from thepercussion section. Scattering away, the girls left their deviant friend behindon the throne where she sat just as a line of guards stomped in escorting thePrince. Jason Davies was almost unrecognizable for a moment, Roman noted.Standing tall and foreboding, he stared at Rahina's frightened face with a lookof superior command. With his normally brown hair dyed black and slicked back,Jason dismissed the guards with a wave of his hand and stepped forward, leavinghim alone with the unruly girl.
Their dance was one of opposing views, Rahina skirted andskipped around the Prince as he tried to get her to behave. Giving him astubborn look, she danced in defiance around the throne room. Quickly, thescenes changed as well as the seasons, and the Prince and the girl’s love-haterelationship changed to one of growing affection. In each scene, there wasalways the presence of the Moon Kingdom's marble statue of the woman with amoon on her forehead, reaching up to the stars. A statue that the citizens paidhomage to and danced around often.
With the arrival of act two, the Prince and the girl’sblossoming love was suddenly challenged by the arrival of a faraway piratePrince to the Moon Kingdom’s court. Yuri Gosev’s arrival to the stage emittedsmall, high-pitched sounds from seemingly every female in the audience,including Misha. Roman only wished he could have taken a photo of Mikhail’sdeep scowl at his wife’s adoration for the Russian dancer. With his normallybrown hair bleached blonde and dressed in a sparkling gray top and blacktights, Yuri enchanted Rahina with his reckless attitude and bold movements.Pulling her further into his world and farther away from the moon Prince andhis kingdom, the Pirate Prince and the moon maiden lit up the stage. Though thePrince tried to keep her away, the girl kept finding her way back to theforbidden pirate Prince.
Together when they danced everything around them faded intogray mist, the images of the Moon Kingdom becoming a far-off memory with onlythe faint gleam of the ever-present statue glittering in the distance. Rahina’sjumps became higher than Roman had ever seen as she danced her new foundexcitement and joy for the pirate Prince’s presence. Together they laughed anddanced, synchronizing perfectly as they performed complicated aerial moves.Excited gasp peppered the audience as Rahina leapt in the air and reached bothhands back and touched her extended back foot before landing with gracefulquick silence. With a beautiful solo, the pirate Prince extended his hand tothe daring moon maiden asking her to run away with him. Not ready to give himan answer just yet, she kissed the Prince and ran back to home to think of herresponse.
But during her absence, the people of the Moon Kingdomsuffered. Everyone’s skin, including the Prince’s, was becoming pale. Gone wasthe lively jaunty music that they danced to in the square, the now sullen deepnotes of music matched their movements as they expressed their pain andlonging. Seeing that she had returned, the Moon Kingdom’s Prince grabbed her bythe shoulders begging her to stay, pointing to their people and begged her toremember their love as the song they danced to earlier replayed around them.But the maiden refused; and just as he called the guards to lock her away, thepirate Prince stormed in. The Princes battled but the moon Prince, who was muchpaler now, lost. Taking her hand, the pirate Prince guided the reluctant moonmaiden, who stared back at her fallen pale Prince in sadness as she was ledaway.
The scenery changed to that of a ship preparing to depart,and just like the moon Prince, the pirate Prince sensing the moon maiden’sheavy heart danced the same dance he enchanted her with the first time theymet. Realizing she was abandoning her people; the moon maiden ran back to herkingdom and away from the man she loved only to find her people all frozen inplace where she left them—all of them as statues. Crying she danced a slowdance of agony in front of the ever-present statue, the sad, mournful notesbeginning to pick up as her movements became faster and stronger before thestatue until suddenly the statue glowed. With everyone else on stage fadinginto the blackness, it left only the moon maiden and the glowing statue as shedanced tribute to the statue of the moon. The lights went out, leaving thestage black for a moment before the statue suddenly pulsed blue, and thespotlight came on with an audible snap to the quiet air around them. Centerstage dressed in the sparkling crystal outfit on all the posters for theperformance, Rahina danced her complicated solo. The fast spinning movement andquick footwork moving even faster than the rapidly rising crescendo of themusic until she was performing a continuous, non-stop pirouette.
With a clash of the cymbals the lights went out and whereshe stood exploded in glittering sparkles that slowly trickled to the ground.With the lights still off and the theater nearly pitch black a glittering blueholographic image appeared. Misha grabbed Roman’s hand and gasped along witheveryone else in the audience as a huge holographic version of Rahina stoodnearly to the ceiling of the theater, continuing her dizzying pirouette. Theaudience clapped and went wild for a moment, seemingly forgetting the story. ButRoman didn't, he watched and waited as the lights slowly came back on, and theholograph and heart-pounding music faded leaving a stage of the fully restoredMoon Kingdom’s inhabitants, a fallen moon maiden clutched in the Prince's armsand the statue that now looked just like Rahina.
“My God, I have never seen anything so good in my life,”Misha who hadn’t stopped gushing about the performance stood in the middle ofthe small half circle the men made around her along with Christelle.
They were standing backstage in the exclusive VIP room whereonly a few carefully selected members of the audience, investors, and pressstood waiting for the dancers to come out from the back.
“Oh, I know,” Christelle sighed with a hand to her chest. “Icried when I realized she had died. Did you know she was going to die?” Turningto Roman, she gave him a curious stare.
Glancing away from the door where the dancers were supposedto come out of, Roman looked to Christelle with a wry smile. “She has died ineverything I have seen her in thus far, I will be surprised if she ever livesto the end of a performance.”
Both of the women laughed, just as the door opened. A roundof applause went up as the cast walked out and greeted everyone. Still dressedin her final glittering moon maiden outfit, Rahina was rushed by reporters andpeople wanting to take photos with her and the two Princes. After nearly tenminutes of greeting and photos, she was able to extract herself with the helpof security and come over to them where they stood in the far-off corner.
Misha and Christelle pounced on her before anyone else.
“You were so good…the holograph was amazing…I was so surprised…willthere be DVDs?” All three men watched with silent amusement as the women fawnedover the tall dancer. Answering all their questions with a warm smile, Rahinacould only share quick glances with him over the excited women’s heads beforetaking a few pictures with them.
Knowing that she was going to be called back to the throngof admirers any minute, Roman captured her hand in his. “Before you go,” hebegan, tugging at her hand to follow.
