The weeks flew by after the bombshell my mom and aunts dropped on me and my cousins at our girls’ night. I channeled my confusion and concern into performing the best routines I could muster as I got regular gigs at the park. Ramiro insisted he wasn’t showing favouritism but would still ask me out after performances. We had gone out a few more times and I was really enjoying getting to know him. The revelations from aunt Melody had kept me up late on many nights as I considered my role in what was to come. I found it hard to imagine a world where I was a mother, let alone raising a cursebreaker.
Marlene and I had met up after girls’ night and discussed my plans to introduce a coffeehouse venue downtown where the diner had stood long ago. The diner had sat across the street from the business towers that housed the bistro and I thought back to the days of my foremother Blair and her rivalry with Edmond Alto. He had pursued the diner out of greed and it was eventually bulldozed unceremoniously. I hoped the town would see my moves as positive for the community as a whole, not just my own career.
I did benefit, though, from being invited to the opening night to perform my new routine. Despite my brothers’ teasing and my parents’ worry I had taken up the art of baton twirling, a fire baton to be specific. I was so excited to show it off at the opening and managed to convince my parents and Xavier to come and watch.
While the town had begun to call me a Performance Artist, Vince Lilac was making his way out of Professional Sing-o-Gramming and into amateur performing himself. He captivated the town at the park and a record label had signed him. He was recording his debut album and his very first single New Glitz would be out in time for his first coffeehouse gig. They had already signed him up as soon as I agreed to do the opening and I resisted the urge to ask them why they didn’t want him to do it instead.
I brought the fire baton on stage and no feeling could match the exhilaration of the gasps and concern in the audience’s faces as I began to twirl it around my head and across my shoulders. I saw my mother covering her eyes at one point and X snapped photos on his camera phone. As my show came to a close, I received a standing ovation from the audience as well as dozens of diner-goers that had left their tables to get a better look. My nerves faded quickly as I saw my dreams coming to fruition before me.
Later that evening was Xavier’s presentation evening in his last days of High School. Mom and I attended to watch him receive awards for his leading roles in Debate Club and Drama Club, as well as the announcement that he would be Class Valedictorian. I knew he was smart but to see him achieve something neither I or Vince had was all the evidence I needed to know he was about to come into his own.
“He still won’t tell us what he’s going to do after he graduates.” I teased in the hot tub the next morning.
“It’s ok if he doesn’t know, Win. Not everybody is as ambitious as you.” Vince winked at me.
“Hey! I have ambition! I just don’t need to go on about it like you two.” Xavier sulked into the bubbles.
“See, you’ve upset him now.”
“I haven’t upset him! It was you who said he wasn’t ambitious!”
“Why do I have to tell you anyway, all you’ll do is laugh.” His brow creased, squishing his lips to meet his nose and I nudged Vince under the water.
“We would never laugh, not seriously.”
“You can tell us, we’re your big brother and sister!” I added. The sound of the jets and the bubbles grew in the silence that followed until Xavier finally spoke.
“I want to be a performer, too.” He mumbled. Our faces lit up and we asked simultaneously, “an acrobat or a singer?” To which he replied. “Neither. I want to be a magician.” I squealed with excitement and his face softened.
Since I managed to get Marlene to push through my idea of turning the Saloon, once the Shearwater, into a karaoke bar where people could perform live shows indoors, I would be their first performer. I learned a lot from what unfolded that afternoon.
I was so used to arriving to prepared stages and a proprietor that in hindsight probably mollycoddled me. Imagine my horror when I walked in two hours before my gig and found an empty stage and a proprietor typing away on a laptop in the corner. I introduced myself and barely earned a glance let alone a conversation.
“Stage is over there, if you need anything let me know.” She nodded her head in the direction of the blank canvas behind me.
“Uh, thanks.” I hesitated and she looked up.
“Problem?” She peered at me from behind her screen.
“Well, the stage, there isn’t anything on it.” I felt my cheeks burning as she fought hard not to laugh.
“Yeah, at this kind of establishment performers usually do that bit themselves. If you haven’t got anything we have a store cupboard that has a few things you could make do with.” She shrugged and pointed behind her to what was most likely a broom closet. I nodded determinedly and came back about half an hour later with an array of light up props and a circus themed backdrop.
The show went on but I quickly realised that lighting and special effects don’t manage themselves and became distracted by their constant flashing and flowing. I stubbed my toe on a light up arrow mid performance because I wasn’t used to the space and tried desperately not to let my watering eyes ruin my facepaint. The audience was made up of three people who awkwardly left in short intervals well before I had finished. I didn’t even bother returning the props to the closet before I practically ran out of the building.
Marlene was outside waiting for me like I had asked earlier that day and I found myself sobbing into her arms after she innocently asked me how it had gone. We had plans to look at a new site for some more of the town expansion project we cooked up together and she reassured me it would make me feel better to tell her about my vision.
We visited the hospital where I talked her through my ideas of a whole new research wing to be created out of the work from the Science Lab. I hoped that would mean we could recommission the gigantic lab space into an arena venue for the best performers around the world to visit. The Landgraab family had long since devolved into my own and the facility was run by distant Landgraabs in a whole other city. Marlene knew exactly how to get the Council to make it work. She was right, I instantly felt better.
Xavier’s birthday came around quickly and I invited Ramiro to the party at the House. Mom and dad were happy to meet him and she managed to stop dad from asking if we were going steady.
“How was the gig at the karaoke bar?” Ramiro asked.
“I really don’t want to talk about it.” I laughed sheepishly. “Can we just have fun tonight? You could stay over?” I proposed.
“That would be fun.” He winked.
Xavier grew into the genius I had always known him to be. Several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins showed up to celebrate his birthday and I realised it wasn’t long before Matilda’s. They were in the same class and that meant it would soon be time for she and I to put our heads together about breaking the curse. I decided to enjoy my time with Ramiro for that night and deal with it in the morning.
Vince snuck off after the cake to talk to someone special he had invited to the party. I wasn’t used to him being so coy but I honoured his wish to keep it under wraps for now. It didn’t stop me bursting in ‘accidentally’ to meet his friend, Ash.
“He’s cute!” I whispered as Vince span me around and shoved me back into the hall. It turned out not to be just me that had a sleepover that night.
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