Genius

by Clare Nonhebel

CHAPTER 62

  Eldred was running for the exit when a woman came out of a room ahead of him saying, 'I'll be back in ten minutes, Lulubelle; you carry on.’

  He stopped, and moved into the open doorway. Lulubelle, in a silver leotard and tights, was upside down in a corner of the room, standing on her hands. She flung herself backwards and towards the door in a series of very fast backward flips. Eldred jumped out of the way but at the last moment she threw herself sideways on to one hand and changed direction without losing a second's speed.

  When she had travelled round the perimeter of the room in this way, she stood facing him.

  'That's my entrance,’ she said. 'Like it?’

  'Wow!’ said Eldred.

  'My trademark,’ she said, 'that change of direction. When I come on in the circus ring they have a fire in the middle of the ring and I head straight towards it, and just at the very last minute I go on to this hand and go round it. You can hear the audience gasp.’

  'Are you going to do that in the studio?’ Eldred asked.

  'Yes. Not with the fire, though. They'll use a big vase of flowers.’

  'Oh,’ said Eldred. He thought it was just as well he had decided to go home. The audience would be bored watching him do maths problems, after seeing Lulubelle. In fact, he thought, anything would seem boring after Lulubelle.

  'Shall I show you something else?’ she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she went over to a kitbag in the corner, took out a pair of enormous loop earrings which held a row of small bells and clipped them on. Another set of bells went round her ankles. Sitting down demurely cross-legged, she then raised her feet to her ears and rang the earring bells with her toes. Eldred giggled.

  Lulubelle lowered her feet again and, taking her weight on her hands, slid her body into a prone position, lying on her stomach, then raised her feet over her back, bending her knees outwards, and rang the bells again with her big toes.

  'That's amazing!’ said Eldred. 'How do you bend like that?’

  Lulubelle put on a deep, raspy voice and intoned: 'She's the Incredi-belle, the Sensation-elle, the Flexi-belle ... Lulubelle!’ In one smooth movement, she took her weight on her hands again, straightened her legs and moved into a perfect handstand. After remaining absolutely motionless for a few seconds, she changed to a frenzy of movement, shaking her head and her ankles so that all the bells rang violently together. Eldred burst out laughing.

  'Got to have an element of comedy,’ said Lulubelle seriously, standing upright to face him again. She stood on her left leg and, raising the right foot to her left ear, unclipped the earring with her toes, then did the same with the other foot. 'How are you getting on?’ she said. 'You don't look too happy.’

  'I'm going home,’ said Eldred, but as he said it he felt ashamed. He couldn't imagine Lulubelle running away from anything.

  'Oh,’ she said. 'Why's that?’

  He was grateful for the absence of condemnation. 'I can't do all this performing, like you can,’ he said. 'I'm not used to it and I don't think the audience will be interested anyway. I thought I was going to be interviewed. I can do that.’

  'And what are you going to do?’

  ‘Jump through hoops,’ he said grimly, quoting Keith. 'They're going to get the audience to call out maths problems, and I have to do something on the computer. I don't know if it's against the clock, or what. Janice wouldn't tell me too much. She said it would spoil the fun.’

  'I see what you mean,’ said Lulubelle. She raised her hands slowly in front of her and leaned over backwards till the back of her head was level with her bottom. She looked comfortable. 'If they're trying to show you off as this genius brainbox boy,’ she said, 'I don't suppose they want you to get things wrong.’

  'That's just it,’ said Eldred, agitated. 'What if I mess it all up?’

  'No, I mean that's up to them,’ said Lulubelle. 'It's their problem. So they'll probably be careful not to give you things that are too hard.’

  'But how would that show me off, if that's what they want?’ asked Eldred.

  Lulubelle bent still further, placed her hands on the floor behind her and shifted her balance so that her head hung down and her back was a perfect arch. Eldred, watching her, thought that she moved her body as he moved his thoughts, sliding from one stance to another without using the normal sequence of movements. No wonder it unnerved people when he changed from one line of reasoning to another.

  'You're equally graceful,’ he commented, forgetting himself for a moment, 'whether you're moving slowly or very fast. None of the movements are sudden; it all flows.’

  She flipped backwards and stood upright. 'Thanks,’ she said, going pink. 'No, what I meant about you was ... like you're a trapeze artist, right, and the television crew are the ringmaster? You're a new act and the ringmaster isn't sure yet what you can do because he's only seen you audition. Right?’

  'Right,’ Eldred agreed.

  'He knows a bit of what you can do and he puts you through your paces in front of his own audience for the first time. So what does he do? He starts you off on the easy stuff then he lets you work up to the real core of your act: things that you can do that other trapeze artists can't, things the audience may never have seen before. Okay?’

  'Okay.’

  'Then - only then, if you've performed without any faults, he'll signal to you to go on and do your really spectacular things. You finish on a high point, the audience clap themselves crazy, you go off, he takes a bow and gets some of the glory. You get me?’

  'Yes,’ said Eldred.

  'Now - if you start doing your moderately impressive stuff and you don't quite pull it all off, or if you're okay but you've let him know beforehand you're having an off-day, he plays it differently. He tells you to spin out the easy stuff, vary it a bit, speed it up a bit maybe. Throw in a few of your tricks on the trapeze but space it out, take a few more swings back and forth, make things look more tricky than they need to look. After a while, when you've had a few rounds of applause, he'll signal to you to come off. You won't be the most stunning act in the show that night but you've done all right, the audience is happy enough, you haven't looked clumsy or broken any bones. No one gets hurt.’

  'I see,’ said Eldred doubtfully.

  'Point I'm making,’ said Lulubelle, sliding down to prop her whole weight on her elbows and forearms flat on the floor and raising her legs slowly above her head, 'is that making your act a success is their responsibility, not yours, and as they don't know what you can do until you get going, they'll play it by ear - take it gently to start with then if you deliver the goods they'll hot up the challenge. Of course,’ she added, tipping her legs forward, placing her feet apart on the floor by her fingertips and popping her head through her legs to grin at him, 'I could be talking through my backside!’

  They both started giggling and found they couldn't stop. Rachel Hicks found them sitting on the floor, doubled up and gasping with laughter.

  'There you are,’ she said. 'Eldred, I want to run through a few points we want you to talk about in the interview. Lulubelle, have you finished your warm-up?’

  'Yes thanks,’ said Lulubelle, suddenly demure. Rachel led the way out of the room. If Eldred had any more thoughts of running for the door, he gave no sign of it as he followed Rachel down the corridor, with Lulubelle behind him.