Chapter 51 – Legs
Stirg and Nev sat in the kitchen, staring at the screen of their laptop. They were at the Mariinsky Ballet website, looking at photos of ballerinas.
Nev said, “Those are some legs.”
Stirg said, “Those are more than just legs. Those are Donatello legs.”
They both watched as the pages flipped by: ballerinas in the air, ballerinas doing scissor moves, ballerinas contorted into parabolic shapes, ballerinas in their tutus. Legs, legs, and more legs. Everything and everybody was beautiful beyond description.
Finally Stirg said, “Did you know about this ballet stuff? You ever go to the ballet, see these babes in person?”
“Yeah, I actually know a guy in Moscow. One of the dancers. Good guy.”
“How do you know him? I got to learn about this if Anna is doing it. Composing music for ballet. On my piano. Plus, I gotta see some of these legs, in person.”
Nev said, “A few years ago one of the Russian ballet groups was in Tel Aviv, putting on shows. Some Chechens kidnapped some of the dancers and tried to trade them for some Chechens in a Russian prison. Snatched ‘em from the hotel they were staying at.”
“What happened?”
“Russians said they would come down, handle the situation, but the Israelis said no, this was on their ground. So they sent in Mossad. I was one of the backup team, waiting if things didn’t go right. But they did. First team got the dancers out. End of Chechens.”
“I never heard about that?”
“Some things like that the Israelis publicize. Some things they don’t.”
“So how do you know one of the ballet guys?”
“Well, they were happy they didn’t get blown up by the Chechens. There was kind of a party, them thanking us. I met the guy there, and we hit it off. I took him around the city during his time off.”
“He have nice legs?”
“I didn’t notice.”
“Well, I got to learn about ballet so I can talk about it with Anna. I gotta kind of try to live in her world. Her new world. Right?”
“Yeah, that would be good. That’s good thinking. Easy does it on the thinking stuff, Boss.”
They looked at some more photos of legs. Stirg said, “You think you can get in touch with this ballet guy you know? Maybe I can talk to him, ask him questions.”
“I’ll send him an email right now.”