Butterflies and Bumblebees

Sophie climbed into the back seat of the car and scowled. On the seat beside her was a pair of new pink dance shoes.  Big ones.

“What’s your problem?” Mum asked.

“Nothing.”

“Yes, there is. It’s about the end of year concert, isn’t it?”

“Does she have to be in it?” Sophie wailed. “It’s so embarrassing.”

“Listen, Pet, just because she’s older doesn’t mean she can’t try new things. The concert will be fine, you’ll see”

Sophie pushed the offending shoes onto the floor, slumped back on the seat and didn’t speak all the way home.

In their bedroom, Sophie’s older sister Emily was practicing some dance steps.

“Hey, watch this,” Emily said. “Chassé, pas de bourée, and relevé. How does that look?”

“I don’t want to talk,” Sophie replied.

“You’re not still upset about the concert, are you?”

“Yes, I am. Aren’t you? If she forgets things now, what if she forgets the dance. What if she stops in the middle of the stage in the middle of the dance?” Sophie flung her bag on her bed and stamped off over the road to Jackson’s house.

Jackson was trying on his costume. “Hey, look, how cool is this? Duhn, dunh da duhn duhn.” He clonked across the room in his Tin Man outfit. “Can’t do much leaping about in this.”

Sophie laughed.

“That’s better,” Jackson said. “You’ve been miserable for days. What’s the problem?”

She sighed. “I can’t tell you, it’s too awful”

“I’m your best friend. You have to tell me.”

“Jackson! Well, you know how the ballet school is doing a special dance at the end of the show.  My Nana is dancing in it.”

“And?” said Jackson. “What’s wrong with that?”

“But she’s terrible!” Sophie cried. “She’s all out of time, and ungraceful, and she’s not exactly slim. In fact she’s quite round. Which is great for a Nana, but not so good for a ballet dancer.”

“Sophie Larsen! That’s mean! Get OVER it! Now help me practice that bit where we go along the Yellow Brick Road.”

“You’re right. That was mean. I just won’t watch.”

The evening of the concert was a blur. The orchestra screeched and scraped, and the little children ran around.  Sophie and her friend Casey watched nervously from the wings as the hall filled up. The older dancers glided around the back of the stage in their long tutus.

“Emily looks lovely,” said Casey.

“Yeah, she does. I’m so jealous my sister is the Good Witch. She hasn’t been dancing as long us.” 

“Our turn will come. We’re too short to be witches.”

Sophie giggled. “It would look silly, wouldn’t it? I love our fantail costumes. Oh, my goodness, look at that!” The littlest children, who were dressed as Munchkins, ran onto the stage and curtsied to the audience.

“But they are so cute!” Sophie whispered as Casey dragged her away from the stage where the tiny dancers were performing their piece. One dancer was a step behind the whole way through. One went the wrong way.

“What if Nana goes the wrong way,” Sophie thought.  She imagined all the dancers going one way as Nana went the other.

One little girl cried.

“What if Nana gets upset,” Sophie thought. She shuddered.

A few mums and dads had tears in their eyes as the Munchkins danced off the stage.

When Sophie and Casey’s turn came, their class had the role of escorting Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion along the Yellow Brick Road. Then they danced their own dance as the main characters moved off stage. Sophie twirled, leaped and flitted with a passion she had never felt before. She came off the stage grinning.

“That was the best ever!” she said to Casey as they changed back into their jeans. They stepped softly into the auditorium and watched the rest of the concert from the back of the hall.

But Sophie’s joy gradually drained as she remembered that soon it would be Nana’s turn. She imagined her Nana’s feet thumping loudly across the stage. She heard and saw in her mind the audience laughing as Nana fell onto her bottom as she tried to pirouette. As the concert came to the finale, Sophie’s imagination had turned to a nightmare.

Sophie could take no more. She slid quietly along the seat and got up to go.  Jackson, still in his costume, clanked as he leaned back to Sophie.

“Hey,” he said. “Where are you going?”

“I can’t watch. It’s going to be too awful.”

“You can’t leave!” Jackson hissed at her. He got to his feet and rattled his way along the row of chairs.

“Shhh!” the people around them said.

“See? You’ve got to sit down and stop making a fuss!” Jackson pushed her into the nearest seat and sat beside her.

Sophie shrank down into her seat. As the final dance began, Sophie held her breath. She prayed for nothing to go wrong. On stage, the Butterflies and Bumblebees were going through the complicated moves a little stiffly, but they were all in time and no-one turned the wrong way or made a mis-step, until the very last, when one of the Bumblebees stumbled.

The audience gasped!

The Bumblebee tottered to the left, tottered to the right and then fell flat on her front. The audience half stood; Sophie slumped down, her face in her hands. The other dancers ran across the stage to the fallen dancer.

The Bumblebee lifted her legs and waggled them. She lifted her arms and waggled them. The audience laughed nervously. She lifted her head, feelers askew, and grinned at the audience. Then she leapt to her feet, turned and waggled her large stripey bumblebee behind at the audience and ran off the stage with the other dancers following her.

The auditorium erupted with applause.

Jackson turned to her; his smile wide

“She was fantastic!”

“She was, wasn’t she,” Sophie grinned at him. “My Nana’s a star!”