Chapter23: Love Somebody
“Dance
as though no one is watching you, Love as though you have never been hurt
before, Sing as though no one can hear you, Live as though heaven is on earth.”
- Souza
Lucy walked over to the club from
her house. The first snow of the year
was on it’s way. The clouds were low on
the mountain ridges. She got lost in the
music she was listening to and couldn’t help but have a skip in her step. As she walked the few blocks, she thought
about what an interesting month it had been.
People in their valley seemed happier than usual and love was definitely
in the air. She looked forward to her
Saturday morning Zumba class. They had
all become so close, sharing their joys and successes and crying with each
other through life’s trials. Lucy was
happy to listen to anyone’s problems and she said a silent prayer thanking the
Lord for her wonderful health, her amazing husband, her sweet children, and
just for life in general.
She
could see the pink balloon archway in front of the club entrance from a block
away. Tonight was the big Sprinkle Pink
Zumbathon. Jamarcus had decided to have
a fundraiser to raise money for Maddie’s cancer treatments. When he brought up the idea in the employee
meeting, everyone had been super excited to be able to help “one of their own”. Every employee was helping out whether
helping with food and decorations, gathering items for the silent auction, or
soliciting donations from local businesses.
Pierson Photography volunteered free photo booth pictures to anyone
wearing pink, Throwback Thursday Theatre offered free tickets for one month in
a raffle, and the local bakery had donated hundreds of mini-cupcakes decorated
in pink frosting. The whole community
was coming together to help Maddie and her family during their time of
need. That’s how things worked in
Boomerang Valley. Everyone was always
looking out for each other.
Lucy thought of how
Anton had made it his mission in life to look after Samantha. She loved watching their relationship grow
from Zumba buddies, to close friends, to flirting, and now steady dating. Everyone had said they were a match made in
heaven. Samantha’s husband Darryl had
done a lot of damage, but Anton had been there to pick up the pieces. Anton’s ex-wife had ended up moving back to
town claiming she wanted another chance.
Everyone was shocked to see Liv so desperate. She had convinced Anton to let her stay with
him until she could get her feet on the ground again. How could he say no to a pregnant woman? The girls were happy to have their mom around
but their relationship with their mother had been forever changed, for the
worse. Anton had been trying to figure
out a way to get his ex-wife out of the house but all the low-income housing
was full so she was on a waiting list.
Samantha had felt threatened by Liv at first, but Anton proved himself
trustworthy as no spark was rekindled with Liv in the picture again. If anything, Anton wanted to be with Sami
more and more each day. Anton had been
stressed out one day after class and had gone to Lucy for advice after Samantha
had already headed to the locker room.
Together, Lucy and Anton had devised a plan that would solve everyone’s
problems. Lucy smiled as she thought
about the plan that was to be put into action tonight.
“Hey Jamarcus, the
place looks great!”
“Hey Lucy, not too
shabby, huh. Although it looks like the
whole fitness center is covered in Pepto-Bismol,” he joked.
Danielle greeted Lucy
from the receptionist desk, “Oh Lucy you look darling! I love your pink cargo pants and where did
you get that Breast Cancer Awareness Zumba shirt?”
“Misty got it for me at
the Zumba Convention..isn’t it great! I
love the way it sparkles. Check this
out..”
Lucy pulled a hot pink
Zumba belly dancing skirt out of her bag and handed it to Danielle.
“For me?” she squealed
with delight. “But I’m supposed to let
my knee rest one more week…I can’t Zumba tonight, I thought I told you…”
“I know you can’t dance
tonight my dear, but when you are ready….well, you’ll be ready! I can’t wait to have you back in class. It just hasn’t been the same without you and
we can’t wait for your doctor to clear you to dance again.”
“Oh Lucy, this means so
much to me. She tied the jingling skirt
on over her jeans and hotpink halfzip pullover.
“How do I look?”
“Why don’t you ask
him?”
Jamarcus laughed and
said, “Oooh, girl, you are lookin’ fine!”
Lucy had noticed that
since he took Danielle on their first date, Jamarcus no longer had
butterfingers around Danielle. He
actually was more suave and debonair than ever.
Jamarcus honored his commitment to keep things professional during work
hours but Lucy got a kick out of watching the two of them once they got out to
the parking lot. Sometimes they would
race each other out to their cars, which was comical because Jamarcus would
pretend to limp so he could be at the same pace as Danielle. Another time as Lucy was walking over to
teach a night time class, she had caught the two of them leaning on his truck
locked in a sweet embrace. Danielle had
fallen head over heels in love with Jamarcus.
Lucy had seen them on the weekends at the movies, out to dinner, and
bowling.
One night, Drew had
taken Lucy on a walk around town square.
They had walked by a park bench where Danielle and Jamarcus were sipping
on hot cocoa and literally watching the stars.
It reminded Lucy of how smitten she had been with her husband when they
had just started dating. As Lucy and Drew
had waved to them that night, Drew had commented on how even though there was
no doubt that those two were in love, it was nothing compared to being married to
your sweetheart for 20 years. Drew
always knew how to fill Lucy’s love bucket and she cuddled in closer as the
strolled through the crisp night air that evening.
Lucy ran upstairs to
grab her mic headset and then raced to the indoor tennis courts where the final
touches for the Zumbathon were being made.
People were starting to arrive in all different shades of pink. She saw Kimberly come in without her baby’s
carseat so she ran over to give her a hug.
“Hey, you made it! Where’s the baby?”
“Oh John said I
deserved a night out on the town,” she beamed.
“John doesn’t like dancing or large crowds so really I am the one doing
him a favor,” she giggled. “This will be
my first night without kids since the baby was born…I hardly know what to do
with myself.”
“Well, I hope you
brought your dancing shoes cuz I’ve got two full hours of dancing fun
planned. So you look happy, how are
things going?”
“So much better! I still have down days…”
“We all do my dear.”
“But, my down days are
becoming fewer and fewer. Thanks for
being there to listen to me when I was at my darkest. You are a true friend.” Kimberly saw the silent auction items and
politely excused herself while Lucy got back to the task at hand. She pulled her ipod out of her bag to make
sure her playlist was set and ready to go.
The tennis courts were starting to fill with people in pink workout
clothes. Somehow Linda Weldon had found
some pink sweatpants for her husband Nick to wear. “Only Nick could rock those,” Lucy thought to
herself as she laughed. Soon all the
usual suspects were there, Lexie, Anton, his daughters, Samantha, Maddie,
Misty, and tonight there were many new faces that had come to try Zumba for the
first time. It seemed like the whole
town had shown up. Lucy recognized some
of the congregation in her ward that had come out to support the cause and she
was excited to get the party started.
She gave Jamarcus a nod and he took the mic.
“We’d like to thank
everyone for coming out to support our Breast Cancer Awareness Sprinkle Pink
Zumbathon!” He motioned to Maddie to
take the stage and the crowd cheered wildly.
“All the proceeds for this evening will go to the Maddie Strong’s
medical bills and the excess will be donated to the Susan G. Komen fund, so be
generous folks. Danielle will be
handling the bids for the silent auction at the table in the entry way. Now, let’s get this party started!” He pointed to the dj, Lucy took the stage,
and soon all 50 participants were starting a nice warmup to a Zumba Fitness
Original song called All Around the World.
“All around the world
We're rocking and rolling like crazy, eh, all the way.”
We're rocking and rolling like crazy, eh, all the way.”
Danielle looked longingly at all the Zumba people and wished she
could dance but she knew she needed her knee to heal completely before putting
in undue stress on it. Jamarcus could
tell the atmosphere was bringing her down so he pulled up a chair and sat down
by her.
“You’ll be back
before you know it,” Jamarcus tried to console her.
“Patience is not my
thing…I want to be out there now!” Danielle whined.
“Oh hey, nobody told
me you were having a pity party tonight.
You must have forgotten to send me an invitation”.
Danielle playfully
punched Jamarcus in the arm, “Am I that bad?”
“Yeah, but you don’t
have to be…you’ve got me now…isn’t that better than Zumba?”
“Ooh…what if I had
you and you could Zumba with me! That
would be something!”
“Not gonna happen”
Jamarcus said dryly. Right then a person
came to bid on the ipod touch. Danielle
looked around for a pen and there weren’t any to be found. “Danielle, would you mind grabbing a box of
pens from my office?”
“Sure, be right
back”.
Danielle noticed the
Laughing Waters Painting as soon as she walked into his office. The first time Danielle had seen it hanging
in his office was after their first date.
She recognized it to be the painting Jamarcus had told her about and she
loved it! There was something so
peaceful and calming about the Jamaican shoreline. She secretly hoped that he would take her
there one day. But what was she
thinking? They had been dating for a
full month and not once had he even hinted of saying I love you. She loved snuggling up with him to watch a
movie, and they had shared a kiss or two over the last few weeks. Jamarcus showed his love through acts of
kindness and service but not through words.
Most guys Danielle dated would utter the three of her most favorite
words by the second week. She couldn’t
figure out why Jamarcus wouldn’t come out and say it when it was obvious he
adored her. Maybe he thought she would
break up with him if he did…like all the others. Danielle grabbed the pens and hurried back to
the table where Jamrcus was visiting with the people in the line. She loved how he was always so happy and full
of life.
“Let the bidding
begin,”exclaimed Danielle as she held up the pens above her head.
The Zumbathon was a
huge success. Lucy kept the crowd
dancing and sweating. Towards the end of
the Zumbathon, there was a pause in the music and Lucy announced that she
needed help with the next song. She
looked over at Anton and winked. “Would
Samantha Dodson please come to the stage?”
Samantha looked around and put her hand to her heart, wondering why she
would be asked to come up on stage. She
looked over at Anton, and he just shrugged and said, “You better go see what
Lucy needs.” As Samantha climbed the
stairs up to the stage, the crowd cheered.
“Samantha, we have
had a special request tonight so we need you to sit on this barstool here on
the stage. You are going to have to sit
this one out…someone grab her a bottle of water please.”
The all familiar
intro to Love Somebody by Maroon 5 started. Lucy motioned for everyone to form a
line. Lucy’s sister Lexie brought out a
huge bucket of lowers and set it on the stage.
She motioned to her husband to start videotaping. Samantha sipped on her water as she realized
she had lost where Anton was standing in the line. She knew he had to be there somewhere though. Lucy cued the choreography with a grapevine
left and then right. After each
grapevine, one person in the line reached into the bucket and pulled out a pink
rose.
Adam Levine’s voice echoed through the tennis courts, “I know your insides are
feeling so hollow, And it's a hard pill for you to swallow, yeah…”
Kimberly rushed up on stage
and handed her a pink rose, which Samantha held delicately. The song continued, “But if I fall for you,
I'll never recover. If I fall for you,
I'll never be the same.”
Next, Nick and his wife grabbed roses
from the bucket and handed them to Samantha.
One by one, they grabbed a rose and came up. By now, Samantha knew something was up but
she still couldn’t see Anton. Lucy cued
a V-Step. As each person gave their
rose, they went back to the dance floor and followed along with Lucy’s dancing. Rose after rose fell in Samantha’s lap until
finally she was covered in roses. As
each rose was given, she was getting a little bit misty eyed. The bridge in the song was coming up, when
here came Anton’s daughters. They
grabbed the last of the roses and brought them up to the stage while everyone
danced.
Finally, Anton, who had
made a quick change into a tuxedo, came rushing over to the bucket finding it
empty. He dramatically ran up to the
stage and as if in a silent movie pantomimed that he had nothing to give her. All in unison, the crowd sang with Anton,
“I don't know where
to start, I'm just a little lost
I wanna feel like we never gonna ever stop
I don't know what to do, I'm right in front of you
Asking you to stay, you should stay, stay with me FOR LIFE, yeah!”
I wanna feel like we never gonna ever stop
I don't know what to do, I'm right in front of you
Asking you to stay, you should stay, stay with me FOR LIFE, yeah!”
As the last chorus rang
through the tennis courts, he pointed to himself and knelt on one knee. Samantha sat covered in pink roses and through
her teary eyes, she saw Anton pull out a small, velvet covered box. He opened it and there was the most beautiful
Black Hills Gold diamond ring she had ever seen. She leaped off the stool, knocking flowers
all over the stage, showering Anton with kisses. As the chorus continued, everyone danced
exuberantly, “I really wanna love somebody. I really wanna dance the night away…”
http://youtu.be/2En16dCL6Es Love Somebody
http://youtu.be/Cl9o_pcV0jUAll Around the World
http://youtu.be/2En16dCL6Es Love Somebody
Maroon 5. Love
Somebody. Rec. 14 May 2013. A&M/Octone, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment