Chapter 19 - After the Applause
Ava woke in a hospital the next morning.
Nora was asleep in a chair beside her.
Madame Voss sat by the window reading three legal letters from the academy board.
Ava whispered:
“Did I die?”
Voss looked over.
“Unfortunately for my retirement plans, no.”
Nora woke instantly.
“Ava?”
Ava looked at her stomach.
She started crying.
Nora stood but did not touch her.
Not until Ava reached first.
Then Nora hugged her.
“What happened to my dancing?”
Nora pulled back.
“You tell me.”
Ava pointed her foot beneath the blanket.
Not impossible.
Nora tested her ankle.
Not magically perfect.
Madame Voss said:
“The doctors found no explanation for either of you.”
Ava laughed weakly.
“Of course.”
The academy called opening night a stage malfunction.
Videos online showed impossible things.
Most people called them projections.
Performance art.
The internet could explain anything if the alternative was a demon.
The board suspended Studio C permanently.
Voss resigned before they could fire her.
“You’re leaving?”
“I should have closed that room fifty years ago.”
Ava said:
“You didn’t know.”
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
Nora looked at Ava.
“So what now?”
Ava stared at the ceiling.
“I don’t know if I can dance.”
“You can.”
“I mean here.”
Nora understood.
Halcyon represented everything Ava had worshiped.
Maybe leaving was not failure.
Maybe staying was.
Three weeks later, Ava withdrew from Swan Lake.
Nora was offered Odette.
Madame Voss laughed when she heard.
“Idiots.”
Instead, Nora and Ava performed a short student showcase together.
No principal billing.
No competition.
Their piece ended with both dancers facing each other instead of the audience.
The applause was warm.
Ava felt nothing move inside her.
Afterward, Nora asked:
“Scared?”
“Yes.”
“Of applause?”
Ava shook her head.
“Of liking it.”
“You’re allowed to like being seen.”
Ava looked at her.
“That sounds dangerously healthy.”
“I hate it too.”
They laughed.
Then a stagehand brought Ava flowers.
No card.
May you like
Only one black feather tucked between white roses.
Ava’s smile disappeared.
