The Lost Ballet

  Chapter 43 – Catherine’s Influence

  Over the last weeks The Whosey, Selgey, and Bart had worked out a system of alternating their focus on music and choreography. This was because Townshend had two responsibilities: transcribe the Stravinsky composition from small orchestra to synthesizer, and play the music for Selgey and Bart while they created and danced the movement. He would spend a day working on the music, doing the transcription and recording it into the computer, and then would spend the next day playing it on the synthe in ways that Selgey and Bart could understand how it expressed one of the four stories, and how the stories could be expressed in the choreography.

  Now that the press conference was over, the woman had gotten serious about finding the dancers. On the days when Townshend was doing the musical transcriptions, Selgey and Bart would hang out at The Hall, sometimes playing with the choreography without the music, sometimes helping Gale and Helstof with the costume design, sometimes hanging out with the Ps. Now they started hanging out with the woman, helping with the search for dancers. Today, though, was a day when Townshend was supposed to play for them. They were doing the choreography chronologically, from Act I to Act II, and so on. They were working on the principle pas de deux for Act II, and it wasn’t happening. Townshend kept drifting off, when he should have been watching them, playing for them, stopping and starting over, when they stopped and started.

  Selgey said, “Let’s take a break,” and went to the offices at the rear of the stage. Bart went and sat on the bench next to The Whosey, keeping him company. Selgey asked Gwen for a private word. “Pete’s not here today. He’s distracted. Bart and I are doing well on the pas de deux; we have it going. We need him to stay with us, play, replay, keep up with us. We need the music. Can you do something?”

  Gwen said, “We’ve all been working hard. Maybe he needs a break. Maybe I’m pushing too hard.”

  Selgey shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. We’re hot, and he’s been hot. He’s incredible, which is why I can tell there’s something different today. I don’t think he’s tired. He’s really into this ballet thing, because it’s new and different for him, and he likes it. It’s something else that’s distracting him. Instead of watching us working the movement, and playing for us and with us, he keeps staring at the keyboard.”

  Gwen said, “Ok,” and went out across the stage to where Pete and Bart sat. She looked at Bart, said, “Can you go back to the woman’s office? She wants to ask you and Selgey about some dancers she has a line on.” When he got up from the bench in front of the synthe, she sat down next to Pete, facing away from the keyboard, loveseat style. “Your mind isn’t on Stravinsky today, is it?” He shook his head. “What did Catherine say to you at the airport?” He looked at her, surprised; then shook his head. “I know what she said to you.”

  “How do you know?” he said.

  “I just do. Tell me.”

  “It’s private.”

  “She asked you to write a song for her, didn’t she?”

  Townshend swiveled his hips away from her on the bench so he was facing her directly. He said, “Yes. How can you know that? Did she call you and tell you that?”

  “No. She didn’t.”

  “Then how do you know?”

  “I just do. It doesn’t matter how. What are we going to do about it? What are you going to do?”

  “I guess it’s distracting me. I should be working with Selgey and Bart. It’s just that….”

  “I know what it is. I know what Catherine does to people. This is a good thing. She has given you something special, and you have to take it, and use it.”

  “She’s given me something? What? She asked me for something.”

  “No. That’s not how it works, with her. That’s not what she does with people. She does special stuff. It doesn’t take a lot from her to influence another person. Sometimes a little talk. Sometimes just a smile. A question. A request. She did this with you, and you have to act on it.”

  The Whosey sat for a minute, alternately looking at Gwen and the keyboard. “Yeah, she has me. That’s right. She does. I gotta write a song for her.”

  “Yes, you do. But not today. Today you have to work on our project, with Selgey and Bart. They have it going, and you have to commit to them. Now. You can write the song for Catherine another day. That will be all right.”

  Townshend smiled at her and nodded. She got up and went back to the office where Selgey and Bart were talking with the woman about dancers. From out on the stage they heard the middle chorus from Act II. Stravinsky was online again; the Whosey back at work. Selgey and Bart jumped up and ran out on stage, where Bart picked Selgey up with one arm, inverted her, and carried her over to the synthe, where she high fived Townshend. The music flowed, and the movements followed.