MYSTERY OF THE TEXAS TWOSTEP

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR:

CHANGE OF HEART

Written by Rick Archer 

LIMBO MONTH five Monday MORNING, NOVEMBER 26, 1979 second thoughts

It was Monday morning, November 26.  Tonight I would face my Western class alone.  The stakes were high.  Fearing my dance career would end tonight in some sort of ugly confrontation, I spent the day going through various stages of grief.  I felt very sad.  It had been one heck of a ride and I would miss it.  I laid all the blame on Jennifer.  She had seriously upset me during last night's phone conversation. 

"No, you need to count me out.  I have no desire to visit a kicker club.  I saw some pictures of Gilley's in the Houston Chronicle this past week.  Oh my god, I have never seen anything so ugly!  Anything has to be better than being forced to learn kicker dancing against my will."

Her news about Jeff coming to town was bad enough, but her negativity about joining me at Cowboy had seriously poisoned my already weakened attitude towards Western dancing.  Drained of any remaining willpower, I had allowed my disappointment to obstruct the last thing that could possibly save my career.  What was there to fight for?   Feeling hopeless and bleak, what was the point of trying?  Two years ago, no obstacle was great enough to stop me from visiting a Disco and working my tail off to continue my career.  Western?  I already knew I did not have enough material to finish this class.  I could just see me playing the Cotton Eyed Joe over and over again to kill time.  And what about those two middle-aged women who had ruined my class?  What was I supposed to do with them?

Jennifer's words had been the last straw.  Thanks in large part to her pessimism, I didn't give a damn anymore.  Turn out the lights, the party's over, time to look for another job in January.  But what tonight?  Clueless when it came to the inner workings of the Texas Twostep, I was facing almost certain humiliation when my fraudulent dance patterns were exposed.

Then I thought about Ted Weisgal.  Against long odds, there he was on a freezing Saturday night handing out catalogues.  Ted told me his wife not only gave him permission, she praised him for it.  What about my woman?  Did she praise me?  Hell no, she practically buried me. 

Speaking of Jennifer, had I misjudged her?  It seemed like every single time Jennifer had let me down in the clutch.  Last night Jennifer had acted more like a modern-day Delilah than my supposed friend.  If Jennifer had given me even the slightest bit of encouragement, I would have gone dancing last night with or without her.  However, given how vulnerable I felt, I was unprepared for Jennifer to more or less spit on my offer to take her Western dancing.  Jennifer's rejection had been so blunt that I had lost all remaining desire to teach Western.

Whether it was intentional or not, I felt like Jennifer had cut me off at the knees one time too many.  The more I thought about it, this entire Doorstep mess with Victoria had been started by Jennifer's reckless charge into Jeff's arms at the first sign of trouble.  Last week she had pulled the same stunt again by ditching me on Thanksgiving.  Now she made things worse by announcing Jeff's upcoming visit to Houston.  I was starting to realize Jennifer would probably always fold under pressure.  But that was not the worst of it.  Jennifer had every right to refuse to be my girlfriend, but that should not stop her from being my friend.  She knew full well the importance of making a visit to Cowboy on Sunday night, but she had refused to support me in any way.  She did not even have to go with me.  All it would have taken would have been one word of encouragement.  Jennifer knew I was having fits making myself go dancing at a Western club.  I had told her about my procrastination problem several times.  In fact, last night she had even asked me about it...  "What about that visit to the Western club you promised you were going to make?"

When she said that, I thought she was offering to lend a hand, so I had spontaneously asked her to join me at Cowboy.  Her companionship would have given me the courage I needed to cross this major hurdle.  But Jennifer said no.  Then she shared her negativity about Western dancing.  Add that to Jeff coming to town.  Boom!!...  Jennifer's 1-2-3 punch had knocked me flat on my back.

It was the announcement that Jeff was coming to town that finished me off.  At the thought of Jeff's visit, something began to nag at the back of my mind.  It took a while, but then I got it.  George!!  Patricia's cruel New Year decision to visit George in Los Angeles had initiated the Year of Living Dangerously.  Jennifer's decision to allow Jeff to stay at her apartment had delivered a similar knockout blow.  However, the referee had not reached 'Ten' yet.  I was at 'Nine'.  There was still time to get up.  I shook my head in disgust.  Just because a fearful woman had turned her back on me did not justify throwing away my dance dream.  With that realization, my depression snapped and gave way to a considerable amount of anger towards Jennifer. 

Seeing things in a different light, I realized if Jennifer actually cared about saving this relationship, she would have at least met me halfway as a friend last night.  But Jennifer didn't do that, did she?  Instead she turned her back on me again.  No wonder I felt so abandoned.  My conclusion was that Jennifer wasn't trying very hard to make this relationship work.  I had spent the entire Thanksgiving weekend in mourning because I feared losing the finest woman on earth.  Now as the fog in my mind cleared, I realized maybe Jennifer wasn't quite as indispensable as I once thought.  I kept saying I wanted to marry Jennifer, but did I really want to spend the rest of my life with a woman who folded at the slightest complication? 

I felt ashamed of myself.  I think it was my sense of shame that caused me to rally.  It started the moment I realized I was likely to crash and burn in front of people I had long considered my friends.  Okay, so I didn't like teaching Western, but I did have an ounce of pride left.  As the time of my scheduled 8 pm execution grew closer, an interesting thought crossed my mind.  I realized if I could somehow survive tonight's showdown, I was willing to give Western another chance.  But how would I survive?  Something was bound to go to go wrong, I was sure of it.  Class had ended on such a bad note last week that further problems could spring up from any number of places.  In particular, Jerry's Twostep challenge was a major issue that I had failed to deal with all week long.  But there was no point in giving up.  After all, I was the Great Imposter, the Ultimate Smoke and Mirrors Artist.  If I had to sacrifice another Cat Life or two, so be it.  Suddenly I wanted to survive this challenge in the worst way.  With that thought, I picked myself up.   To be honest, I did not want to tackle this next chapter of my life all by myself.  However, if that was the only way to do it, then count me in.  Throughout my life, I had been self-reliant.  I could live with losing Jennifer if I had to.  But I could not allow my failed love affair with Jennifer to ruin my dance career.  It was time to stop being so self-destructive. 

Monday NIGHT, NOVEMBER 26, 1979 FACING THE DANGER

Once I decided I wasn't going to give up my dance career without a fight, I reviewed my Twostep/Foxtrot patterns in my mind as best I could.  The showdown was scheduled for 8 pm, but I still had my tiny 7 pm Disco class to teach.  To my surprise, Lynette, my assistant, was pleasant towards me.  I didn't trust her.  I had Lynette pegged as a ringleader for the dissent in my Western class, but now she was being nice here in the Disco class.  Was Lynette a covert assassin or was she on my side?  Hmm.  More than likely, she was on the fence.  Maybe all this worry was unnecessary.  But then the trouble began.  My first clue that something was wrong took place at 7:40.  Devin and Mona walked through the door with fire in their eyes.  Since their class was not scheduled to start till 8 pm, this was a bad sign.  I handed Lynette a song to play for my small Disco class to practice.  Then I told her to hold down the fort while I went over to handle the problem.

"What's wrong?" I asked Devin.

Devin replied, "When we went to the Winchester Club last week, they played a Waltz.  That Box Step you showed us worked fine at first, but then several different couples took turns running us over."

Mona chimed in, "I am almost certain those people did it deliberately!  We moved out of their way and they still tried to run us over.  We were in the middle of the floor and they changed their path just so they could bump into us.  Then another couple saw what happened and did the same thing.  Devin was so angry, he wanted to fight.  But we were outnumbered, so I begged him to leave instead.  I have never been more humiliated in my life!"

Mona paused to wipe a tear away.  Then she looked straight at me.  "Why would those people try to hurt us?"

Devin took it from there.  "I looked around and noticed everybody but us was traveling around the floor in a big circle.  Can you explain why we were the only couple on the floor dancing the Waltz Box Step?"

Uh oh.  I was being blamed for a mishap that made absolutely no sense to me.  Seeing how angry they were, my brow furrowed.  This did not sound good, but I needed to buy time.  I replied, "I am still not sure I understand what happened.  Can you tell me a little more?"

Mona replied, "Those people were so rude, I swear those couples deliberately bumped into us as they passed by.  It had to be intentional.  Devin's right, no one danced the Waltz the way you showed us!  All the dancers moved in some sort of circle."

I frowned.  There was a lot of frustration in their voices.  Anger too, anger at the people who hit them plus anger at me for setting them up for the abuse.  This was exactly the kind of unpredictable situation Joanne had warned me about.  This was caused by Flying Blind.  Something had gone wrong and my lack of knowledge was somehow responsible.  Filled with panic, how was I ever going to fix this?  First I had to understand the problem better.  Dancing in a circle?  Run down while dancing the Box?  This made no sense.  Why would somebody deliberately run over a couple dancing the Waltz?  I had never in my life heard of something like this before, so I had no idea what they were talking about. 

As background to this story, the flow of traffic on Western dance floors moves counter-clockwise in a circle around the floor.  I had seen this done to Polka at the Cactus Club, but it never occurred to me they also danced Waltz in a Circle.  Due to my limited knowledge of Ballroom dancing, I thought the Waltz was a stationary dance designed to be used in one limited spot.  I had never heard of Traveling Waltz. 

Another thing I did not know about was the hostility brewing in the western dance clubs between rednecks and yuppies.  In particular, the movie Deliverance revealed the distrust city people feel towards country people and vice versa.  The theme that made Deliverance pertinent was the division between visitors from the city and country mountain men who appeared to hate anyone from the city.

Unbeknownst to me, Urban Cowboy had given rise to similar hostility, albeit not as serious as Deliverance.  The nerve of these city folk to think they would be welcome in Cowboy Country.  Following the Redneck war cry 'I was Country when Country wasn't Cool', silly turf wars had already begun on the country dance floors of Houston.  Veteran country dancers amused themselves by deliberately bumping into newcomers.  If they hit them hard enough, maybe these Fake Cowboys wouldn't come back.  

I would have known this had I gone dancing at a Western club, but last week's procrastination had backfired just like I feared it would.  I had been living on borrowed time, but now the bill came due.  The appearance of a very disgruntled Devin and Mona signaled serious trouble.  In my ignorance, I had taught a Ballroom Waltz pattern reserved for dancing in one place on small dance floors.  Since experienced dancers traveled in a circle on the cavernous dance floor, Devin and Mona's Box Step marked them for hostility.

Leave it to the malice of the old-time Western dancers to punish outsiders by knocking them down.  Maybe I should have paid better attention to the song I hated so much.  Kicking hippies asses and raising hell was the newest sport in Kicker Kountry.

He's 34 and drinking in a honky-tonk
Just kickin' hippies' asses and raising hell
And it's up against the wall, redneck mother

However, as it stood I had no idea what Devin and Mona were talking about.  The only thing I knew was the Great Imposter was facing the worst threat of his career.  Could I wiggle out of trouble before the full extent of my ignorance became apparent?  Probably not.  Devin and Mona were extremely suspicious.  And Lynette was watching me with a frown from the other side of the room as she kept my Disco class occupied. 

I had to assume something happened at the Winchester Club that directly contradicted what I had taught Devin and Mona.  Feeling the jaws of a trap closing in, one more misstep and I would be exposed.  Full of dread, I cursed my decision to fly blind.  This was my version of Gettysburg and Waterloo.  Where were my eyes?  Why had Joanne left me?  Why had Jennifer deserted me?  Meanwhile Devin and Mona stood there impatiently waiting for a reply.  Feeling awkward, my only chance was to stall until I could figure something out. 

Looking at Devin and Mona, in a sympathetic voice I said, "I cannot believe those people knocked you around.  I would be angry too if someone did that to me.  I will be honest with you, I am pretty new to the western scene, so I'm not sure I understand why they did that.  Can you describe what the other dancers did to the Waltz music?"