The Strongman
26
Love of My Life
“I HOPE you don’t think this is too downscale for our date,” I said when we arrived at an Italian chain restaurant in Henderson. “I just wanted someplace quiet enough to talk and not be distracted.”
“It’s perfect,” she said. “You know I love pasta.”
“I think I can stand a meal of rich sauces and carbs,” I laughed. “Besides, I tell myself I come here for the great salad.”
“I can’t believe we’re out together,” Tara sighed “I was so certain you were with Sydnie and I was determined not to mess it up. I figured I had lost my opportunity.”
“I’m glad you think being with me is an opportunity. I had no idea if you were in a relationship either. At least none of your social media profiles listed a significant other.”
“No. There hasn’t been one in a long time. I admit, I tried. There was always something missing. I think… well, maybe you were the only one who never really seemed to recognize my disability. Even though I get along pretty well, my legs are skinny and marked from the braces I wear. I’m never in a skirt because it’s ugly.”
“I learned to know you as a partner on the mats. There was no room for a disability there. And I’ve always thought you were the most beautiful woman I ever met.”
“It seems so long ago. Didn’t you ever find someone who could… um… be with you?” Tara asked.
“I thought I had once. I stayed in Bulgaria for a year and a half because of a woman. It turned out that we both had higher commitments to our goals than to each other. She was an entrepreneur with a rising tech company, and I still thought I could make the Olympic team. It came down to either her quitting her job or me giving up on the Olympics. Neither of us could give in. Then I failed to make the team anyway.”
“You should have made it. The committee really damaged their reputation among the gymnasts by making the decision they did. It’s threatened to blow up like the whole women’s world did back in 2016. Even the athletes who were chosen made statements that the selection hadn’t been fair. And the kid they decided to put on the team because you were too old, didn’t perform as well under the Olympic spotlight.”
“I don’t wish them any ill-will. I feel happier doing these circus routines with Sydnie than I ever felt doing gymnastics. Isn’t that weird? I always thought I needed to be a gymnast in order to be me,” I said.
We took a minute to dig into our salads and munch a breadstick. After all the preparation and excitement over finally going out, I wasn’t sure where to take the conversation.
“I spent five years at the university in California,” Tara finally said. “I had some good students. But I just didn’t find a fit for me as a person. Every time I took a student team to a competition, I kept thinking of what it would have been like if I was competing. It just made me too sad.”
“Is that what prompted you to move to Las Vegas?” I asked.
“Yes, in a way. One of my teams came here to perform in a show. It was a short contract, but I came with them and coached them through their act. When they decided to go on tour, I decided to stay. One of the directors who had seen me coaching them approached me about doing the art direction for the New Trop acrobatics. I was ready for the change and signed on.”
“So, this is the second year of the show?”
“Yes,” Tara said. “The first year of National Talent Search didn’t yield as good a selection of acts as this year did. I guess that’s been typical of just about every talent type show in the past fifty years. The real talent doesn’t show up until the second year. Lee will probably hold one or two acts over from last year, but he really wants a whole new show.”
“Well, a year working wouldn’t be a bad thing,” I sighed. “I suppose they’ll replace everyone again next year.”
“Don’t count on it. The intent behind the Talent Search is to find one or two new acts for the main show. Sam’s plan is to get a touring company together as well. He’s even got an option on a Broadway theatre for a run in New York.”
“Wow! I didn’t know shows like a revue did tours.”
“It’s all about driving audience. Sam wants the New Trop Revue to be a driving force for national entertainment. He hired Lee to make it happen.”
“That’s a lot of pressure.”
“I’m thankful that isn’t my job,” Tara laughed.
Our entrees arrived and we had to spend several minutes just enjoying the food and commenting on how sinful it was to be eating so many calories. I didn’t really worry about that too much. I probably burned three times the calories each day that a normal person does. Maybe more. I just tried to have really healthy intake.
Tara had definitely put on a few pounds since I’d last seen her. I was sure I could still pick her up and toss her into a handstand, but I could see a slightly more womanly shape. Not that she’d had a doubtful shape when we were dating. I still remembered being slapped by Penny for grabbing her boobs and not having realized it. I’d known it every time I touched Tara.
Wow! What a woman!
“You know, when I went to the academy, they auditioned me immediately for pairs or group acro-gym,” I said, thinking about having worked with Tara. “They never pushed it, but they always let me know it was an open avenue. Maybe I should have gone straight into that like Sydnie, Eva, and Lena did.”
“Don’t shortchange your gymnastic training, Paul. You were… are a fantastic gymnast. If you weren’t so skilled and confident in your gymnastic abilities, you would never be able to do the kind of acrobatic tricks we’ve been asking of you. And Sydnie is able to shine because she’s confident in your ability and in your commitment to never let her fall. You can’t imagine how much that means to a flyer.”
“I started toying with the circus tricks while I was still committed to gymnastics. Karov encouraged it while I was in Bulgaria. He felt circus acrobatics were basically what you would get if you didn’t have all the rules governing the sport of gymnastics. Everyone would be trying to do a two-and-a-half with a one-and-a-half out. Even if it killed some of them, others would relish the challenge,” I said.
“You have common sense the bulk of athletes don’t have,” Tara insisted. “You know to work in a gym and to have spotters and instructors when you are learning new acts. You know, by the way, that either you’ll need to truly integrate Stef and Jon into your act or you’ll need to work without spotters when you hit the stage bigtime.”
“That’s a little frightening. The question is, ‘Will Stef and Jon want to make a career move as spotters and setup men?’ I don’t know what that would pay, but they’re both talented acrobats in their own regard.”
“Your agent will take care of that. You do have an agent now, don’t you?”
“Yeah. He signed both Sydnie and me as an act. I’m not sure how he’s handling Stef and Jon,” I said. “Did you know we’ve already received offers from other shows? One scout even offered a place with a team in China!”
“I should have warned you about that. The New Trop is footing the bill for this entire competition, and they will try to tie up everyone before the finale. Your contract, that pays you while you’re training, has a stipulation that you will not accept any offers from other sources as long as you are competing in this one,” Tara said. “Of course, if your agent found a fantastic deal that you couldn’t pass up, you could withdraw from the competition and leave.”
“I’m not going to do that again. I’m not going to leave you to follow a hollow dream without you. I wanted to marry you then and I should have followed you to California when you left,” I declared.
“Shh. It’s too soon to make declarations. I’ve never stopped loving you, but I don’t know if I could still say that if we’d gotten married and moved to California together. I’d guess we’d have had a couple of good years, a few bad, and we’d be divorced by now instead of dating.”
“Are we dating now, Tara?”
“Isn’t this a date, Paul?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
Neither of us were willing to end our date and go home. Of course, I wondered if Tara and I would make love later tonight, but like it had been eight years before, I was not going to push things. I shouldn’t have mentioned marriage already, but being with Tara unlocked all the feelings I’d hidden away when we broke up. I was still very much in love.
We decided to order dessert and coffee as we continued to talk. Every so often, one of us would reach across the table and touch the other’s hand. The touches became longer and longer, until we had scooted our chairs closer together and just held hands.
“Honey, as much as I’ve been looking forward to this, we should take it slow. Especially, during this time when you are in competition and I’m your mentor. Do you think you’ll be able to accept me as a coach and director if you win it all?” she whispered.
“I’ve never had a problem taking direction from you.”
“Well, then. We can date, but we shouldn’t… um… you know. Not for now.”
“We can date, but not have sex,” I laughed. “Sounds familiar.”
“I know. I know.” Tara shook her hands in front of her and bounced in her chair a little. “I’m just so worried about how things will go. Can we do that again?”
Tara’s voice went up a notch thinking of the painful time we denied ourselves to each other until after the exhibition. But she was right. We’d been dating for months before we made love in Minneapolis. This was our first date in eight years.
“As long as there’s still a chance of kissing,” I said. “Tara, I’ve waited eight years. I’ll wait as long as it takes.”
“I don’t know if I can compete with Sydnie’s friendly kisses.”
“It’s not a competition. All I want is you.”
In fact, even if it was a competition, Tara would have won, as I found out later that evening.
“Well? How did it go? Did you spend the weekend together?” Sydnie asked when we met Monday morning.
“Sydnie! No! We had a really good time and I took her home. She had a commitment on Saturday, but we went to brunch Sunday morning. Then we went out to drive through the Valley of Fire. It was really nice.”
“But you didn’t…?”
“It was our first and second date. It’s going to take us a while to get back to where we were.”
“But?”
“But we’re dating,” I said, grinning.
“Yay! I want to kiss you, but I don’t want to jinx things. Throw me in the air and catch me instead!”
Sydnie dropped into position for a cannonball. I launched her and she did a tuck salto, coming down into my arms. She glanced left and right and planted a kiss on my lips. It wasn’t as deep as Sydnie’s friendly kisses were prone to get, but it left us both giggling.
We got to work on our routine for the next show. It required all our focus.
Tara and I went out the next weekend. At the theatre, we’d seen her nearly every day as we were starting rehearsals on stage and she was there to watch and make sure our props and background were correct. She even had some additional comments on our music and lighting.
We maintained a professional distance while working together. As perceptive as Nicole was, though, I figured she knew something was up.
Tara and I decided to see a couple of the other shows playing in Vegas. We saw one show that was entirely in, on, and over water. We even sat in the splash zone and walked out of the theatre dripping. It was a great show and had been running in Vegas for nearly thirty years. Tara explained that most of the show was the same as it had been when it first opened—before we were born!—but the actors had been replaced over time and sometimes an act was modified for the new performers, each of whom brought some unique talent to the stage.
The next night, we saw a show billed as ‘The Sexiest Show in Vegas.’ It had also gone through a lot of cast changes and Tara said that, according to her sources, the revue was nothing like the one that opened there years before. Not only had the cast changed, but the music was constantly updated, the routines and costumes changed, and they had cycled new acts in and out rather than keeping the same sequence and trying to get performers to fill existing slots. That was a lot more like they expected the New Trop Revue to be.
We had a great time and capped the nights off with plenty of personal time for kissing and just talking with each other.
Mom and Dad drove up from Sedona for the semi-final. They picked Mikey up at the airport. Poor little Polly was left at home with Rob to watch on TV. This was a live broadcast and the viewers on television were invited to vote via text message. The audience would also vote on their phones.
The key question on the form people filled out was a true or false statement. It said, “I would vacation in Las Vegas to see this act.” T/F. The producers were focused on selecting acts that would not only get Las Vegas visitors to our show, but that would draw people to visit Vegas because of our show.
Over the past several years, sports had become the major draw to bring visitors to the city with the prospect that once people were there for a single event, they’d also go to shows, gamble, drink, and carouse. The New Trop was the first ‘theme’ resort to be built in several years, opting for a retro look rather than the typical glass and steel towers that had been built in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It was decidedly for adults, as well. You didn’t see a bunch of kids running around the grounds.
We didn’t really get a chance to see my family before the show. We’d say hi afterward, but would get together the next morning for breakfast at an Egg Nest Restaurant. Sydnie and I were backstage with the other acts who had made it this far. Our position in the order had us working with the trampoline act early in the first act.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked.
“I’m ready. I’m so excited, I might need to kiss someone!” Sydnie said. “Don’t worry. I won’t embarrass you in front of your girlfriend.”
“Thank you for that consideration,” I laughed. “We’re going to kill them tonight,” I said.
The trampoline act was good. It was a little hard to keep track of what was going on because people were flying and flipping all the time. We got our forty-five seconds blending in and then returned backstage to get ready for our acrobatic act.
We didn’t go on for our two-person performance—or four with Stef and Jon—until late in the second act. Tara had explained the positioning as being one of the big positives in the minds of the producers. They were saving the best for last. I hoped so.
All the week of the performance, we’d been rehearsing on the stage at the New Trop. That got us used to the scene changes and the space. The tech crew and camera crew all had to get their timing down because the show was broadcast live on Sunday evening. I was surprised at the timing, but while Saturday night shows are a huge draw in Vegas, the best television slot was Sunday evening. We still had a full house.
I felt bad for some of the magic acts. They were closeup acts, meant for an intimate environment. There were no bad seats, but a thousand-seat theatre could not be called intimate. For the live show, of course, cameras were set up all over; the audience could see a closeup view on the big screens on either side of the stage. Those might be missing in the revue that would perform as many as a dozen times a week. I just didn’t think those closeup card tricks were going to survive the competition, even though they might be popular with the television audience.
Regardless, we finally got to our performance. In very much the same way that we’d costumed and used Lena and Eva when Sydnie and I did our routine in Florida, we’d costumed Stef and Jon and integrated them into the movement and tricks in our act. They never touched either Sydnie or me unless—God forbid—we fell. So, it was obvious that the act was the two of us. But they scurried around with our equipment and tumbled and posed next to us so they’d be available in the event of a catastrophe.
I honestly didn’t know how we’d top this act for the finale. Our philosophy at every level of this competition was to bring the best to the stage and figure out something better for the next round. But everything went perfectly. The audience was shocked to silence when I did a handstand on the rola bola. They gasped when Sydnie started to climb up me, and cheered like maniacs when she stood on her hands on my feet.
I don’t think anyone realized how incredibly dangerous this whole act was. When she went to the handstand on my hand while I balanced the board, I almost lost the thing. I managed to keep it in balance only because Sydnie didn’t let the move throw her. She maintained her pose and let me worry about the balancing.
“Wow!” Donna Kapelle said when it was time for the judges’ comments. “We keep asking you to raise the bar and you keep delivering! That was just wonderful! So exciting! This is definitely an act I would come to Vegas just to see. I think our television audience will agree.”
“I agree and just want to watch you work,” Ariel Deneuve said. “Not only do I love watching you perform, but I get so inspired! Sam, I’m going to be coming to rehearsals for the revue just to get pointers from these two.”
“We might have to restrict access from the competition,” Sam Michaels, president of the New Trop, laughed at her. “This is definitely an act we would be proud to have at the New Trop. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the finale.”
“Well, yes,” Lee Remy, the managing director of the revue, said. “Just based on the work and progress you two have shown us during this competition, it is driving other acts to up their game as well. No one wants to look bad next to Sydnie and Paul. I can say with confidence that the Revue at the New Trop will be the most thrilling and exciting show on The Strip when we open. Television audience, get on those phones now and vote for Sydnie and Paul. This is a must-see.”
We got a standing ovation from the audience and finally got off-stage.
This time, Eva and Tara were waiting in the wings for us and Sydnie and I both got really friendly kisses.
“Are you sure they won’t hate me?” Tara asked as we headed for breakfast with my parents and sister before Mikey’s flight back to Minneapolis.
“Why on earth would they hate you. My family loves you!”
“But I left you. I broke your heart. And I’m so sorry!” she whined.
“Honey, don’t even think about that. My family loves you almost as much as I do. A little hiccup in our relationship doesn’t change that a bit.”
“I wish it was just a little hiccup. Eight years seems like a huge belch.”
“But you know what? We’re getting ourselves back together. And with the prospect of a real job performing acrobatics, I feel more stable than I’ve ever been.”
“Oh, you’ll have the job. I don’t get to see the final list, but I was handed the list of acceptable acrobatic acts and told to choose my favorites. I could have one aerial act and one floor act. The list they gave me had the judges’ comments and preferences included. We’ll hear the results of the audience voting later in the week, but this isn’t one of those talent shows that just goes on audience favorites. Lee has to put together a balanced show that will be integrated and will draw a crowd. And he loves you.”
“I feel bad for all the magicians,” I said. “I know there are shows that are just focused on magic. They have close-up acts.”
“Well, if our show was focused on magic, we’d change the setup. The screens on either side would stay and a dedicated camera crew would be hired to rehearse the magic from the correct angles and project it on the big screens. Which might still happen. But it loses something. I know what Lee is looking for is big magic. He wants something that will make people disappear, have a miraculous escape, or saw a person in half. If they can make an elephant disappear, like that guy did a few years ago, so much the better. They’d have to hire a zookeeper, too.”
“That would be something to see,” I chuckled. “Well, here we are. Let’s go meet the parents.”
“Tara!” Mikey screamed from across the little restaurant. My sister came running to hug my girlfriend and welcome her back to the family. “You are back with the family, aren’t you?”
“Paul and I are dating again,” Tara said. “I’m the artistic director of the acrobatic acts in the new show. So, I guess we’ll be working together, too.”
“Does that mean the results are in and Paul and Sydnie won?” Mom asked as we sat at the table.
“There will be an audience selected champion for the show,” Tara said, hedging a little. “We won’t know who that is until the accounting service has the final tabulation of numbers and informs the judges. But there will actually be eight or ten winning acts who will go on to the revue. I’m pretty sure that whether the audience picks them as the champions or not, Paul and Sydnie will be part of the revue.”
“We bought our tickets to the finale before we left the theatre last night,” Dad said. “Michelle says Rob and PJ will be able to come, too.”
“It’s so nice to see you again, Tara,” Mom said. “We told you once and we’ll tell you again, you’re always welcome.”
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Bradley. We’re taking it slow and patching up some of the rough places we experienced before. We both hope this time we do it right.”
“Part of that is having realized this is all I really want,” I said. “I was off chasing rainbows, looking for a pot of gold. Or at least a medal of gold. The love of my life was here all along.”
“What you are doing with Sydnie is ample justification for all the work and training you had to do,” Dad said. “It’s a surprise to me how you’ve developed all this.”
“That’s something else, though,” I said. “I didn’t think I wanted to get involved in acrobatics and circus acts. I thought it was all about winning the gold medal at the Olympics. But when I saw Sydnie in the gym and heard about what happened to her team—to Lena—it was just a compulsion in me. I had to become her partner. I had to lift that girl up and twirl her around on my fingers. I needed to do it for her. And it turns out, it was the best for me, too.”
“The strongest in the pack are there to help and protect the weak,” Dad said. It was like a light coming on in my mind. He’d said that when I was a 68-pound weakling. I always looked up to him as the strong protector of our pack.
“Are you happy doing the performances?” Mom asked.
“Insanely!”
“You certainly upped the danger level on this performance,” Mikey said. “What’s next? Will you be walking through fire for the finale or will you do a combination of the acts you’ve done so far?”
I looked at Tara. I expected she would let me know what was expected for the finale.
“A little of both,” she said. Fire??? “We’ll pick some of the favorites from the first three performances. The flying entrance across the stage comes to mind. Also, Sydnie’s springboard mount to Paul’s shoulders. Probably a little bit of dance. But I want to shape it into something fresh. Do you juggle, Paul?”
“Um… a little, I guess. I mean, I’ve taken a lot of training in most of the circus arts, so I’m not ready to juggle chainsaws, but I can keep three or four balls in the air.”
“How about people?”
“What?”
“I’ve got an idea, but you’ll have to be straight with both Sydnie and me before we can go with it. We only have a month to rehearse and it involves props and setting.”
Tara started describing what she had in mind and it blew us away!
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
