by Paul Kelly
Sylvie came home with a very happy smile on her face. She had not only been accepted at the college, but with a test given to all new recruits she passed with flying colours and was asked to stand aside whilst five other girls who were new recruits were give the test but not one of them came out on top and that included Celia the ‘purfessional’ which sent Barney Wentworth into a fury when he sat waiting for the final results and Celia came up to him in tears, however Sylvie went singing through the house until she came across the letter and she looked at me as if I should know what it was all about even although it was addressed to her but I waited until she opened it and watched her face, waiting to throw my arms around her if it was something insulting, but she looked dazed as she sat down on Alfie’s bed and let the letter dangle from her fingers.
“Can I ask what it is Sylvie?” I asked and Emily came through the bedroom door as I was talking, but Sylvie said nothing. She just stared into space and I thought I saw a tear in her eye as I took the letter from her intending to throw it in the bin, but she stopped me and held my hand firm.
“I am sorry Dad. I am truly sorry. I knew nothing about this,” she said and I opened the letter and started to read.
“Dear Sylvie, I am sorry if this letter upsets or offends you and for that I apologise. You do not know me, but I am one of the dancer at the London Ballet School and I went into the office secretly in order to get your address. I am sorry you have left us as I knew you were an excellent dancer and the only one that I had such pleasure and pride in dancing with. The other girls were good, but you were very good. Once more, please forgive me if I sound offensive, but this much I would like to say before I conclude this little note. You will be sadly missed by all here at this college and I am going to be very brave and bold and say that I am in love with you. My name is Jason Rogers.”
I handed the letter to Emily and as she read it, I could see her smile, but there was a sadness in that smile as she shook her head.
“Didn’t I say there was more to that talk that Celia told us when she was here. I think Celia is jealous and she was trying to annoy us in her own stupid way. Congratulations Sylvie and you can invite Jason to our house any time you want. Do you know where he lives and you could reply to this letter?”
“Mum, I truly do not know what is in that letter. Yes, I have danced with Jason and he is a wonderful dancer, but I have never spoken to him privately and I did not know how he was feeling towards me. Yes, the other girls used to ogle over him and he did look smart in his tights, but Mum. .. all young men have to endure being that way if they choose to be ballet dancers. It’s a natural issue and should not be laughed at.”
Being the rude old bastard that I am I couldn’t help feeling jealous of what Jason had and even although I pulled a bit at my crotch, I could find nothing that would make any young girl ogle...
I persuaded Sylvie to respond to Jason’s letter as I felt he was being very sincere in what he wrote and she did write, but she wrote a simple little letter telling him that he had been very kind in his manner of writing and if ever she would be in London, she would be pleased to see him again if he was ever free... and that did it. Another letter arrived from Jason to say that he would love to come to Glasgow to see her again and that he was free the following weekend.
Needless to say, the house was cleaned from top to bottom in every way and Emily did all that herself, singing all the way, hoping that when Jason came to see Sylvie, he would come not just come for the weekend, but for every other weekend whenever he was free as we would make him very welcome.
Sure enough, the following weekend Jason came to Glasgow and the atmosphere in 97 Mansfield Road was wonderful, but Sylvie kept a reserve over all she said or did whilst Jason was in the house and I started to realize just exactly what my daughter’s nature was like. Jason was a gentleman in every way and he seemed to match the nature of Sylvie as she was quiet, but warm and he followed her everywhere with that same ‘reserve’ that I thought was a thing of the past for the youth of today. Sylvie was so very different to her friend Celia who was brash and even rude at times and it was only when Sylvie was on her own with Jason that the two seemed totally matched and I was delighted. The more I saw of them together, the more I wanted to watch them dance together and hoped it would not be long before I would have the opportunity to do so, There was a tranquillity about them and I was beginning to love Jason as I would if he were my own son and when I told Emily how I felt she said she felt exactly the same.
It should have been a special and wonderful day for all of us when Freddie and Georgia came to see us bringing little Adam with them, but I experienced a sadness that I was loathe to admit. Freddie was alive with his dreams of Adam and his joy with being so much in love with Georgia, but he was so much an intelligent man to have given birth to such a lovely but imperfect child, whereas here was me... an idiot in comparison to Freddie with my lovely wife and two children that were budding with health and intelligence, one with a horse and the other with a dancer... but Sylvie was sweet as she cuddled Adam and thanked Freddie for the phone he had given her as a present when she first left home to start her dancing career. Georgia thought Jason was a dream as I expected she would. After all there were over thirty young female dancers at the training school and every one of them saw Jason as an angel from heaven.
I watched Jason to see his reaction when he saw Adam as the little boy had obvious signs of being mentally unstable, as this was very often the conclusion with children who were born with cerebral palsy but there was a tender look in his eyes; a look that understood everything there was to understand and for the first time I saw him reach out and touch Sylvie’s hand. Sylvie did not respond in any way, but as she was a quiet and reserved little girl by nature, I wasn’t surprised by this until suddenly I am sure I saw her winking at Jason... and a bright smile crossed his handsome face.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jason went back to London on the Monday after he had come to see us and Sylvie went back to Edinburgh, but they had hardly left the house when Gerard appeared on the scene, where he had hoped to have met Jason before he left. I think Emily was the carer of such good news about the London dancer who was interested in her daughter as we also had a message on our computer from Steven and his wife Celine who wanted to come and see him, but as with all of them, they had to consider their business beyond their pleasure, but there would be other times and we had high hopes that Jason would come more often to Mansfield Road and that he would stay longer than a weekend and whether that was a dream or not, I will never know but shortly after Jason had left us, he telephoned us to say that he had been invited to Aberdeen to perform as the lead dancer in an Italian opera and he wanted to get Sylvie on the stage with him as his leading lady and astonished though Sylvie was she was delighted to accept Jason’s proposal so business or not, every one of the family was determined to be there in Aberdeen, regardless of the date or time.
Whether Assim could come or not was dependent on his surgery for that evening, but enthusiasm and joy was not far from his mind when we told him of this great event.
We knew that Alfie would be unable to come to the opera, but when we told him about the event, he was over the moon and said he would ask Umar if it would be possible for him to be there and much to all of our joy, Umar not only gave him the O.K. but had arranged for Farida and his mother to come over to Aberdeen also. It would indeed be a real family occasion and Emily in particular looked forward immensely to seeing Assim’s mother again, but it was a little surprise to me, being a man... that Emily wasn’t sure of Assim’s mother’s name and he told her it was Marianna... and it was then that she remembered.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The date for the opera was set for October sixth at seven-thirty to start and the title was ‘La Traviatta’ and even although I could not understand what that was all about or what type of music I would listen to, I was grateful t
o think that I would see my own lovely daughter dancing across the stage with a man who said he was in love with her. I was never an operatic fan, but even an idiot can enjoy something that involves his own family and Emily and I waited anxiously for the rest of the family to join us and hoped that Assim would have the time off work to come with us.
Freddie was thrilled at the prospects and he and Georgia decided that they would take Adam with them and hoped that perhaps one day when he had reached his manhood, he would remember something of the opera and of course Sylvie was pleased at that thought also. She had developed a particular love for little Adam, whether it was because he was not born to be a normal child or that she could remember the problems she had to endure with her eyes when she was a toddler.
We knew we were being impatient as the days went by and nothing of importance seemed to happen, but it was a time of thrilling expectancy as we had never ever imagined that such a thing could ever happen to our daughter and when we thought over the past when she had been born... she was just another lovely little girl who would learn to walk and to talk in time, but to become a famous ballet dancer... well that was something else, but as with every great thing in anyone’s life, the day arrived and everyone who should have been there was indeed there.
Assim’s mother who we now learned was named Marianna, together with her family Farida and Umar with our Alfie straggling on behind and then all the Scottish mob followed, complete with kilts and sporrans... even Alfie sported the tartan of the Stewarts and although he would rather had been at a horse show, I could not help but notice that certain lovely young girls had an eye for him, but Alfie being the Alfie we all knew so well, carried himself upright and self-opinionated threw the opera hall and stuck his impertinent tongue out at any girl who looked at him, much to the annoyance of Emily who told him to behave himself.
The show was wonderful and the music was heartrending to all who loved classical music. All eyes were on the duo who danced with such love and feeling that anyone watching would have really thought that this show was not an act and that Jason and Sylvie were only showing their love for one another and when the act came to a conclusion you could only hear the sound of silence for a few moments as it seemed that tears were flowing everywhere in the hall until a few seconds afterwards the sound of clapping and cheering was deafening. Everyone stood up and cheered and Jason bowed humbly holding Sylvie’s hand, but as she screens closed and they could no longer be seen, I peeped in at the side and saw Sylvie and Jason in a strong embrace and it didn’t take much for me to realize that his tongue was well inserted into her mouth.
I did nothing but watch, but it was quite some time before the pair of dancers came apart and as the curtains opened again, I could see Sylvie blush a deep red that overtook her makeup as Jason made another bow, but I hoped I was the only one to notice that Jason’s tights were a little tighter in pakces than when he was dancing and I began to realize what the girls in the ballet class noticed when they screamed that they knew that he was a man... and what made them shout WOW.
It was quite some time before we were allowed to leave the hall as some of the family had gone back stage to congratulate the dancers on their achievements, but we were prepared to wait knowing that very soon we would be able to congratulate the young dancers when they would be home with us at Mansfield Road and we hoped everyone would be able to stay the night... but there were only a few beds, so unknown to me, my clever wife Emily had arranged for three more beds to be put into the conservatory and another two in the house in both Alfie’s old room and what had been Sylvie’s room before she went off to Edinburgh, but Shindigger had to get into a kennel in the garden which didn’t please him at all, but I could see Emily muttering something to herself as we were getting indoors and she looked rather angry.
“What’s all that about?” I asked as I thought we were all pleased with the evening’s entertainment and she scowled as she replied.
“Didn’t you see that rude girl touching Alfie as he was coming out of the door?... She was lifting his kilt to see what he had underneath.”
I had to smile and I hoped my reply was too quiet for Emily to hear, but she picked up something I had said as I whispered,
“Nobody ever tried to lift my kilt up, darling” and Emily grinned.
“Well you don’t have the legs for it dear,” she replied and I smiled, “Nor the bum,” I said and Emily gave me a filthy look.
It was a day or two after the concert that Jason had to return to London and Sylvie had gone back to Edinburgh when it suddenly dawned on me that I had never asked Jason about his parents and also that I had never ever thought that they should have come to the opera to see him when everyone else did and I approached him quietly hoping I could ask him my question without making too much fuss, but his reply shook me to the core.
“I cannot remember my parents,” he said “ I know nothing about them and I don’t even have a name of my own. The name Rogers is the name I took from the people who took me in when I was a baby. I have been adopted and I have lived in a flat in London with several other students. I don’t know if I ever had brothers or sisters,” and I felt so sorry for him when I considered the life Emily and I had led with our two lovely children and then I went back to the days when I was born and had a similar experience as Jason. I didn’t know who my parents were and I found another aspect of my life that was so similar to that of Jason, but how did he get a name like Rogers ? I asked him that question as I could not remember that he had already told me and I felt such a bloody fool and when I asked him again, he looked at me in a strange way as he told me that he had already answered my question and he repeated that Rogers was the name of the family who adopted him when he was only a few months old. He had used that name through his career in dancing, but he never had a proper name that he could claim as his own.
It was as he was leaving Glasgow to return to London that he got a telegram from the company who had employed him for their opera asking him if he would perform for them again in a month’s time in an opera cAlled ‘La Boheme’as they were very pleased with his dancing in ‘La Traviatta’ but this new opera would be staged for at least six months with performances twice a week, and what was even more important, many of the people of Aberdeen were making enquiries as to who he was and who was the young girl who danced with him and where did they came from.
When Jason got in touch with them and told them that he was going back to London they asked him to stay in Aberdeen for the time being until the opera was settled and they would pay for the flat that he would live in until that time, but Jason was hesitant and suggested that someone else he knew from the college in London might do a better job and he offered them a name to contact, but they asked him if this contact would work with Sylvie, and this made Jason hesitate and suggested another female dancer from the London College, but again the company would not agree to that and told Jason that either he would do the part WITH Sylvie or they would look for someone else themselves. He then agreed he would do the part and hoped that Sylvie would agree to dance with him, otherwise he was prepared to throw the whole idea up in the air and return to London. The next opera was not to be held in Aberdeen, but in Glasgow and for a period of six months, dancing twice a week in that time.
I watched Jason as he was making his decision and then I saw him reach into his trouser pocket for something which I thought might be his phone, but he turned around slowly and walked towards the lounge door.
“I have to make a telephone call to Sylvie,” he said, “but it is very late now and I think I would be best waiting until the morning. I know you have been so kind to me in allowing me to stay with you so many days, but I have a few pounds in my pocket and if it is not too late to get into a hotel I will”... but before he could say another word Emily pulled him by the sleeve and escorted him back into the lounge.
“HOTEL,” she called out, “Hotel indeed, never. You m
ust stay here as long as you need. Alfie’s bed is still available and he won’t want it now that he is back in Paris. Upstairs with you lad and have a good sleep.”
Jason slumped into the settee and I could see him rubbing his eyes, wondering what he had best do before he smiled again and turned to Emily.
“Sylvie has wonderful parents in both of you,” he said, “and I will never forget the kindness you have shown to me, but I would like Sylvie to decide what SHE wants to do about this new opera and whatever she decides I will do, but please do understand me when I say that if we both agree to this company, I will have to stay somewhere here in Scotland, most probably in Glasgow as it would be impractical for me to travel back and forward to London when this stage show in Glasgow will take months to complete and therefore I would have to stay in a hotel. I cannot impose on you unless you accept a rent from me or accept the suggestion this company have made to pay for my rent as long as required”
We all went upstairs to bed but Emily and I had a little talk before we settled down and we knew that Jason would talk to Sylvie on the phone the next morning, but we would also have to make an urgent phone call to Paris, just to let Alfie know that his bed would be slept in for at least the next six months.
The following morning after I had a very enjoyable sleep, I woke up to hear Jason talking in Alfie’s room and being the nosey old git that I am, I listened at the door.
“Is that you Sylvie?” I could hear him ask and it must have been she who replied because Jason went on to tell her about the new proposal from the operatic company and how they wanted her to dance for them again in a contract lasting six months and that the concert would be in Glasgow. I then heard him say very adamantly, “No, No Sylvie. They want YOU to dance for them and I have now to return to London,” but there was a long silence after that before he spoke again, “Do you remember Daniel Frost, Sylvie? He dances for the college in London and he is an excellent dancer and I am sure he would come to dance with you here.”