Dance of a Lifetime

by Frank Downey

  "Yes!" Kristin hissed softly. Then looked chagrined. "Jeez, it’s not nice to root against people."

  "It’s only natural," Warren laughed.

  Bladanikov completed the rest of his program without error, but blowing the combination was a huge mistake. That was an automatic .5 deduction on the technical mark.

  However, his presentation marks were so high that he still managed to finish the short program in third place. That kept him in contention, because anyone in the top three would win the gold if they won the long program.

  "What a gift," Sophia snorted.

  "Of course. He’s the three-time defending world champ and he’s Russian. Two things that move him right to the front of the gift-getting line," Warren said.

  Tom wasn’t upset, though, when they talked to him afterwards. "I expected them to somehow keep him in the top three. The big thing is, though, I have momentum."

  "That’s the spirit," Warren told him.

  The next day, Wednesday, after a morning practice, Warren and Sophia headed off to the luge run.

  It was the second day of the women’s luge. Warren wanted to come and watch Marta, the Estonian luger who carried their flag in the Opening Ceremonies that Warren had chatted with. Sophia and Warren got there, and checked out the scoreboard—after the first two runs, Marta was in third, behind two German lugers.

  They found a place near the luge run—and were surprised to see Marta walking along side, working out the kinks in her muscles. "Warren! You came!"

  "Sure did. We love all these sports, anyhow." He introduced Marta to Sophia.

  "This is great! I love the Olympics, you get to meet so many people," Marta grinned. "I’m going to be watching you guys skate, too, but there’s a reason for that. There’s an Estonian dance team. They have no shot," she laughed, "but the female of the team is a girl I’ve been friends with for years."

  "Inga Taalsen," Sophia smiled. "We’ve met her—she’s a sweetie."

  "They’re great, she and her partner. Like you said, they have no chance—top 15 would be a coup—but they love to skate," Warren said.

  "I’m gonna love telling her that the Olympic Gold Medallists came to watch me luge."

  "Don’t count those chickens, we haven’t won anything yet," Warren warned.

  "She says you’re a shoo-in," Marta teased. "Anyhow, got to go slide. Thanks for coming!"

  Sophia looked at Warren for a minute, bemused. "You flirt with every girl in the world, don’t you?"

  "I wasn’t flirting!"

  "Oh, sure you weren’t," she teased.

  "I was not. Her boyfriend’s a biathlete. They shoot guns while on skis—do I look stupid to you?"

  Sophia cracked up.

  Marta ended up moving up to second over the last two runs, winning the silver medal.

  The next day, Thursday, Sophia and Warren watched some more skiing, hung around the village, and then headed to the rink for the men’s long program.

  Kristin was still nervous. "I think I’m more nervous, because he’s definitely got a shot," she said.

  The rest of the skaters skated first. Tom was the second-to-last to skate, and Bladanikov the last. So, they just watched and chatted through the rest of the skaters.

  Then Tom took the ice. Skating the program that Warren and Sophia had choreographed for him, he was wonderful. He hit every jump cleanly and sold the program wonderfully.

  Then came Bladanikov. His first jumping pass was the same combination, quadruple toe-triple toe, that he had put a hand down in the short program. He didn’t put a hand down this time—but he did, ever so slightly, two-foot the landing. The rest of the program was clean as a whistle.

  That little two-foot was all it took. Tom beat him by one-tenth of a point in the technical mark on every judge’s card, and that was the difference. By a 6-3 split, Tom became the Olympic champion.

  And, when the results were posted, you could’ve heard Kristin’s scream in Montreal!

  Afterwards, talking with the rest of the American team, Sophia said the same thing that she had said after the pairs’ competition: "American sweep! American sweep!"

  "Not only that, it’s a Kelleher choreography sweep," Andrea teased.

  "Well, the only person that can beat Liz is Allison," Tom pointed out. "So, Sophia, that whole American sweep thing? That’s all up to you two!"

  "PRESSURE!" Warren shouted, to laughter all around.

  Friday began the ice dancing. The Quickstep original dance was the first phase.

  Amy and Ryan skated very early, and very well. Their marks were probably a little low, but that was a function of how early they skated. Courtney and Evan skated shortly thereafter, and were just behind their American teammates.

  The first of the contenders to skate were the British team, Brenneman and Watts, and they skated lights-out. They’d had a good quickstep all season, but here they really nailed it. The ovation was rapturous and the marks were very high.

  Sophia and Warren were next up, and skated their Scott Joplin program perfectly. It was fun and upbeat and got another thunderous ovation. However, when the marks came up, they had been beaten by the Brits by the slightest of margins.

  The Canadians, Damphier and Gaudler, the defending World Champions, had a few problems, which dropped them down to third. The Russians were in fourth.

  Saturday was the second original dance, the rock and roll. Sophia and Warren knew their Ramones program was as difficult as it gets. They knew that, if they skated it clean, it was unbeatable.

  They skated it clean. In fact, they nailed it as perfectly as they ever had before. Even with all the rest of the contenders still to skate, they got a few sixes on the technical mark.

  Brenneman and Watts skated well, but not nearly well enough to challenge Sophia and Warren. The Russians were decent, but finished behind the Brits. The Canadians skated fantastically in front of the home-country crowd, and finished second.

  Going into the final phase, the free dance, Sophia and Warren had a clear lead. The Brits were in second and the Canadians third. However, it was so close that any of the top three teams could win if they won the free dance. The Russians were fourth. Amy and Ryan, and Courtney and Evan were tied for fifth.

  Sunday was an off-day. Sophia and Warren relaxed, saw some other events, and hung out. They were ready for the free dance Monday night.

  Chapter 170 - Finale

  Monday night, the Ice Dance finals, the free skate.

  Amy and Ryan defeated Courtney and Evan by the slightest of margins to win the battle for fifth place.

  Then, the top four couples took the ice for the warm-up. Sophia and Warren would be skating last. They ran through some footwork and warmed up, then stepped off the ice. They went backstage, but in range of a TV, so they could watch the other couples skate.

  The Canadians skated excellently. They got top marks and a standing ovation from their home country crowd.

  The Russians were just OK, and came nowhere near to the Canadians. Sophia, in fact, said to Warren, "Amy and Ryan should’ve beat that. Courtney and Evan, too. That was weak."

  "Ah, well, you know how it goes," Warren laughed.

  Then came the Brits. They were good, but not as good as the Canadians.

  So, it was all up to Warren and Sophia. The medal winners were set. (Sophia and Warren would have to finish the free dance lower then seventh to not win a medal at all, which wasn’t going to happen.) And the Canadians were higher than the Brits. The final color of the medals would be decided by the Kellehers.

  "Ready?" Warren asked Sophia as they waited to take the ice.

  "All ready already," Sophia laughed. "It’s been a long road."

  "It certainly has."

  "We can do this. We can win this thing," Sophia declared.

  "Yes, we can. We’re the best ice dancers in the world. Let’s go prove it."

  "Damn straight."

  They took the ice to thunderous applause. They moved to the center of the ice, to thei
r starting position, and waited for the music.

  Warren was dressed in all white. He was wearing a white sweater vest—with black and red trim at the v-neck--over a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and white pants. He was also wearing a white hat. Sophia was wearing a blue dress with ‘wings’ on the sleeves that fluttered when she skated. It was a precise reproduction of the costumes that Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds wore during the ‘dance on the soundstage’ scene of Singing In The Rain.

  The music started, the opening passage to the song Singing In The Rain, complete with Gene Kelly’s doo-n-doo-doo’s. The Kellehers started simply, with some side-by-side steps with arms linked, into a spin.

  25 seconds in, the music shifted—to You Were Meant For Me, the same music used by Kelly and Reynolds in that soundstage dance scene. It was contrary to ice dance convention to have the ‘slow section’ this early in the program—but Warren and Sophia never let themselves be ruled by ice dance convention. This section was a little over a minute long, and was a tribute to the sustained romanticism of the original movie scene. It was gorgeous and still complex.

  The complexity was quickly escalated with the next section of music, the brutally fast Moses. They started out with their side by side footwork, which was fast, powerful, and difficult—and a treat for the audience. It was fun and frisky, and the crowd responded. They continued through the Moses section of music, working in a couple difficult lifts amongst the snappy footwork.

  With almost two minutes left in the program, the music shifted again, back to Singing In The Rain. This time it was the end, the sustained instrumental to which Gene Kelly does most of his staggering dance solo in the movie. Warren and Sophia, of course, did it not as a solo, but as a duet. Even so, they tried their hardest to be as faithful to the mood of the Kelly piece as they could.

  It started with their circular footwork, in closed position, moving swiftly and surely through the moves. They moved out of that into a quick lift, and then a series of steps that could only be called ecstatic. They loved this program and it showed. They did a spin during a portion of the music that quieted a bit, then came out of that to a series of skipping steps during the crescendo.

  After that, the music almost stops—it’s the part in the movie where Kelly is surprised by the suspicious cop—and they pulled into a spin at that point. Then the main theme repeats slower, and they did a series of steps to that. Then they pulled into their final lift, a spinning one, at the part where Kelly sings, "I’m dancing, and singing in the rain." They come out of that into the final repeat of the main theme, which they skipped to, arm-in-arm. Then Warren spun Sophia towards him, and they ended the program on an embrace, grinning at each other, on the final note.

  The applause was roof-shattering.

  They left the ice ecstatic. "You couldn’t have done it any better," June told them. "Just perfect." They kissed, and babbled happily, and waited for the marks.

  In a mailbox in Oceanview, Massachusetts, sat a letter. It was addressed to Warren. It was from the admissions department of Boston University Medical School.

  In her purse backstage, Sophia’s cell phone had started ringing. Voice mail would, by the end of the night, have a number of messages from different companies, wanting to discuss more endorsement deals.

  Somewhere in Sophie’s body, a fertilized egg was making a journey. It had traveled down the fallopian tubes, and was now preparing, in the next couple of days, to attach itself to the wall of Sophia’s uterus. The creation of the Kelleher’s second child, another daughter, was well underway.

  And, in an ice rink in Quebec City, two very happy people skated onto the ice after hearing their name called. They greeted the thunderous applause from the crowd with waves. Then, deliriously happy, they approached a podium, and climbed to the top step. They beamed with pride as the president of the IOC placed gold medals around their necks. And then they beamed, and cried, all at the same time, during the playing of the United States national anthem.

  The past had been wonderful. Not without its problems, but wonderful.

  The present was plainly glorious.

  And the future? Well, that looked the best of all.

  Warren and Sophia took their well-deserved victory lap with the gold medals gleaming around their necks. They took a second one with their daughter riding on Warren’s shoulder. The crowd screamed its acceptance.

  Then, they stepped off the ice, and into the rest of their lives.

  THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Well, there’s an epilogue……..

  Chapter 171 - Epilogue

  (The epilogue takes place 14 years and 5 months after Chapter 170)

  Evan Pogdar looked out at his empire.

  Yeah, right, he chuckled to himself.

  Well, in a way, it sort of was. This was the Olympics, it was being held in the USA—New York City, to be precise—and Evan, as of the past year, was the president of the United States Olympic Committee. So, in a way, this was his big show. But he really didn’t think of it that way—this show belonged to the athletes. Having been one, he knew that.

  He was the very first president of the USOC to own an Olympic medal—a silver. Four years after Warren and Sophie had won the very first gold medal in ice dance, it had been repeated, but this time it was a one-two punch. Ryan Killen and Amy Lowell had won the gold. Evan and Courtney had won the silver. After that, Evan had decided to go into administration. He’d thought about the USFSA, but decided he wanted to work with more than figure skaters. It had been a rapid ascent to the top of the USOC totem pole.

  Of course, he still had a soft spot for figure skaters. But he couldn’t think of that now—considering the Olympics that he was about to preside over was the Summer Olympics!

  He left his office and headed over to the Athlete’s Village. Officials and stuff were also staying there, and he headed to the cafeteria, hoping Ilona was there. He quickly found her, and happily noted that she was chatting with some old friends.

  "Warren! Sophie! How are you?"

  "Evan!" Warren greeted him. "Hey, sit down."

  "Don’t mind if I do," he grinned. "You corrupting my daughter?"

  "Oh, Daddy," Ilona sighed. "I’m already corrupt."

  "Uh-huh," Evan grinned, looking upon Ilona with affection. He’d adopted the pretty 14-year-old 11 years ago, from one of those notorious Romanian orphanages. Ilona herself was part of Romania’s large ethnic Hungarian minority—that’s why Evan picked her, considering he was the grandchild of Hungarian immigrants. He saw her in an overcrowded, decrepit orphanage in Cluj, and immediately fell in love. They made a good team.

  "So, you’re doing double duty here, huh?" Evan teased Warren. "Daddy and Doctor."

  "Yup. That’s one of the great things about being a sports doctor—I get to go to all these Olympics. This is like the fourth straight I’ve been asked to help out at."

  "Well, we’ll get you for every one as long as I’m running the USOC."

  "It’s a deal. Just don’t expect much from me this time at the swimming venue."

  "No doubt," Evan laughed. "Betsy’s in a ton of events, isn’t she?"

  "Yup. Let’s see—the 200 and 400 free, the 200 and 400 IM, and the 200 fly. Oh, plus the 4x200 free relay," Warren confirmed.

  "And she’s the defending world champion in the two 400 meter events, and won a bronze in the 200 free, so she’s got a good shot at some hardware," Sophie added.

  "Of course, she’ll have to go some distance to win more swimming medals that her honorary Aunt Sheila," Warren laughed.

  "Too true," Evan agreed. "So how are your partners in crime at the practice, Doctors Carruthers and Bellamy?"

  "Sheila and Kris are fine. Well, overworked without me there. We’re going to have to find a fourth for the practice soon anyway." He grinned. "They’re both pregnant."

  "No shit!" Evan exclaimed.

  "Yup. It’s Sheila and Brendan’s second, they have a little boy, he’s three. But Kris and Tom have been t
rying for some time, this is their first. They’re thrilled."

  "I’ll bet," Evan laughed.

  "Well, that kid’s at least going to be born into a normal family," Ilona teased.

  "Oh, you love it and you know it," Evan teased back.

  "Sure I do," Ilona volleyed. "Two fathers and two mothers telling me what to do!"

  "Nobody tells you what to do," Evan returned. "Though I must admit, it’s an interesting situation."

  "How exactly has it worked?" Warren asked.

  "Well, the house is huge. Ilona has her own bedroom. Courtney’s two kids are sharing a bedroom, but that’s going to change. Shawna’s son has a bedroom. Matt and I share a bedroom, as do Shawna and Courtney, and then there’s an extra. Courtney and Matt sometimes use that, but we’re going to give it to the baby."

  "So, who sleeps with who?" Sophia teased.

  "Well, Matt sleeps with me and Courtney sleeps with Shawna. Except when Courtney’s sleeping with Matt, which generally happens once or twice a week. Sometimes Shawna and I sleep together," he grinned. "Actually, we generally do sleep together—and by that I mean sleep, and cuddle—if Matt and Courtney are together. And we’re just bi enough that we sometimes have sex—she’s the only woman I’d ever be comfortable doing that with, but we do it occasionally. It’s worked out amazingly well. Shawna and I got lucky. Having a relationship with a bi person can be difficult, especially for this long. It’s 15 years for the two of them, 9 for Matt and I. But Matt and Courtney have someone to scratch the hetero itch with, and they do genuinely love each other. And you know how I feel about Shawna. "

  "And it’s worked for making babies," Warren grinned.

  "Yes. Shawna’s son is mine, you guys know that. Both of Courtney’s are Matt’s. Shawna and I are happy with the one. Courtney and Matt may have another. And then there’s this one," he said, pointing at Ilona.

  "The black sheep," Ilona laughed.