“So you’d actually met when you were children?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Tyrone. “She was the smartest kid in the whole school.”

“No, you were,” said Kimberly.

Naomi shook her head. “They’re always like that. It’s awful.”

Jason added, “We bought them matching T-shirts that read ‘Most Disgusting Couple.’”

Everyone laughed. Now that the ice had been broken, they all seemed relaxed as we finished going around the room.

“What about you, Charlie?” one woman asked.

I hadn’t expected this. “Oh, well, my name is Charlie Wong. I’m a professional ballroom dancer and I don’t want to meet anyone special.” This wasn’t really true, not anymore, but I wasn’t ready to talk about that in front of my students.

The group burst into laughter. “I’d be glad to help you change your mind,” a young man said.

“I appreciate the offer,” I said, smiling. “I’ve just got a full plate with my dancing and family right now.”

Kimberly said, “Your time will come, Charlie. Just wait and see.” There was something honest and generous about her. I hoped she was right.

“Thanks.” My throat felt tight. I quickly started the lesson so that no one else would notice.

Kimberly and Tyrone had a wonderful time during the lesson but they were both terrible dancers. Kimberly was laughing so hard, she was almost crying. “You always told me you had rhythm,” she gasped.

Tyrone was marching like a soldier, trying to find the beat and failing. “I did, I swear. I don’t know what’s happened to me. Too much Chinese food, I think.”

Kimberly kept moving left when she was supposed to go to the right.

I said to them, “You guys are overthinking it. You need to turn off your brains and let your bodies take over.”

Kimberly sobered up. “That is such an intelligent thing to say. You’re right.” Then they bumped into each other again.

I left them to it and moved on to Jason and Naomi, who were doing much better. He lifted his arm and Naomi did a neat underarm turn.

After the class, Kimberly and Tyrone came up to thank me. “We had such a wonderful time,” she said. “But I’m afraid we’re not going to take the risk of injuring you or one of your peers. We’re hopeless.”

“Oh no, you’re not,” I said. “You should have seen me when I started.”

“You are so kind, Charlie,” Tyrone said. “Maybe one day when we’re feeling especially brave, we’ll be back.”

Jason and Naomi did sign up to come back for their private lesson and requested me, as did a number of the other students.

—

I danced hour after hour. I was either being taught or giving lessons to a student. Nothing can teach you something so well as needing to pass that knowledge on to someone else. I knew I wasn’t as good as the other professionals, not even as well trained as the best student dancers in the studio yet, but I’d come a long way in a short time. I could even keep up in most of the professional dance sessions. And although I loved sweeping across the room in a waltz or foxtrot, I had already learned that it was the freedom and exhilaration of Latin that called to me.

One day, while I was practicing by myself, Dominic approached me. “You’re getting better. Much better. You should think about competing.”

“Professionally?” I gulped.

“Why not? You are starting to look like a professional. Nothing will improve your dancing more than doing a competition. Not that you’ll win, not yet, but the training will sharpen your skills like nothing else. I know a few professional men you could try out.”

I thought about Lisa and Pa, and the costs of doing a major competition. There would be dresses and new shoes and coachings. I was still wearing my one pair of Latin sandals, which had sprouted holes just like Katerina’s. “I appreciate it. But I don’t think I’m ready yet. I’ll just concentrate on my students for a while.”

—

I woke to find Lisa sucking her thumb in the night. Despite all of my hopes, she had started getting worse again. I told myself it was because we didn’t know the results of the test yet but I knew it was a lie. I was so disappointed. The nightmares and bedwetting had started again and she also complained of dizziness and headaches. What if something really was wrong with Lisa? As I gained mastery over my body, Lisa lost control over hers. I realized that it was exactly as the Vision had said. What one sister lost, the other would gain.

I couldn’t sleep any longer and slipped out of the apartment into the deserted streets. In the moonlit sky, the clouds rolled thick and close to the ground. The sky was tight with withheld rain. I stood at the foot of the bridge in Gossip Park, which arched over a large artificial pond. I didn’t know what was happening to Lisa. My entire life had changed in the past months. I felt like a blind person heading into my future. I was so afraid for her and myself.

I climbed up the broad steps onto the bridge. Pausing, I leaned out over the water and then straightened. I closed my eyes. Slowly, I began to walk, holding on to the stone railing. Keeping my eyes closed, I paused to listen to the wind swirl through the branches of the trees directly over my head. I stepped forward and my fingers trailed over small freezing indentations in the rock.

My feet seemed to drop themselves into the darkness before me. I wanted to make it all the way across the bridge with my eyes closed but the wind across the water was loud and, suddenly, at the halfway point, the bridge seemed to slant more sharply than I’d remembered. Going down, it seemed that any moment, I would fall off the end of the bridge, off the steps, into the unknown.

I opened my eyes. I shook myself and went back to our apartment.

Fourteen

Now that Ryan was officially in private lessons with me, I had to teach him how to dance for real. I’d already shown him all of the different dances and it was time for him to start learning how to lead. We’d managed to wrestle our way through until now, but it was hard to move together with him. Even so, I found myself looking forward to his lessons. Since Ryan worked for an urban landscaping company, the winter was a quieter time for him and he often came in the late afternoons.

“Mmmm hmmm,” said Irene as the elevator doors opened and he strode out. We both watched him from the mirror in the reception area. His winter work jacket made him look even broader as he pushed through the first set of double doors, and I noticed the snowflakes on his hair and shoulders. He spotted me, then shook his head in my direction like a dog.

“Hey!” I jumped off of the couch and out of his way.

“Whoops,” he said.

“You can shake anything you like my way, honey.” Irene gave him a broad wink with her thickly mascaraed lashes, then took his jacket from him to hang it up in the closet. He was dressed casually as usual, in jeans and a dark gray long-sleeved cotton shirt.

His smile lit up his entire face. “Good afternoon, ma’am. May I say that you are looking lovely today.”

He never said anything like that to me. “Are you done flirting with the studio owner’s mother now?”

Irene came out of the closet, pulled down her bifocals and pretended to look severe. “Widowed mother. And just because you don’t know how to have any fun, don’t begrudge the rest of us.”

“I’d be afraid to have as much fun as you,” I muttered as I walked toward the ballroom doors Ryan was holding open for me. I turned to him. “How’s your girlfriend doing, by the way?”

“Fiona’s just fine. Really busy.”

“Must be hard being long distance.”

“Yeah, it is. And she’s the type of person who’s always on the go, so it’s not like she’s that good with e-mail or on the phone. But we catch up when we see each other again.”