Tu Es Mon Soleil - Chapter 34

"Attention, all dancers. 10 minutes to final rehearsal performance. Take positions."

Portia swallowed her pills and looked at the speaker that was hanging on the ceiling at the corner of her personal dressing room. She closed her eyes for a moment, did her breathing ritual, then opened her eyes back and observing her reflection on the mirror. She knew her face was severely pale underneath the thick make-ups she had put on, but what mattered was for everybody else not to find out.

Just as she was standing from her chair, the door blasted open and Aaron was standing there. "Hey, ready?" he asked and smiled widely.

Portia turned around and forced a smile back towards Aaron. "Yeah," she replied. "Let's go."

When they were walking side by side in the corridor filled with dancers and the stage crews preparing for the performance, Aaron looked down to Portia and asked, "You're very quiet today. Is everything alright?"

No. "Yes," Portia answered and forced yet another stiff smile,hoping it was convincing enough. "Just nervous, you know."

Aaron laughed. "Yeah, right. Portia, you're never nervous," he said. "You're never nervous because you know that you'll do it perfectly."

Portia smiled weakly. "I can see that there are many press coming, fulfilling Dee's invitation to watch our final rehearsal," Aaron commented. "Looks like they're really interested on seeing the Portia de Rossi who has been said as one of the best contemporary dancers in the US, if not the world."

"Yeah?" Portia mumbled nervously.

Besides some invited guests, including the parents of the dancers, the press were also invited to watch the final rehearsal of the show so they'd be able to write the reviews in the medias that each of them represented for. The reviews would surely determine the overall success of the show. Meaning, Portia had to do her very best for the show to get a nice review. 

"Are your parents coming to watch you today?" Aaron asked again.

"Yes," Portia replied briefly. She invited her parents and Ellen to come and watch the final rehearsal. Of course they would also come on the D-day of the show with the whole big family.

"2 minutes!" another stage crew announced when Portia and Aaron were already on their position on the stage.

Please don't fail me on this, Portia said to herself when she could feel her arms began to feel numb. Grains of sweats had started to appear on her forehead. Her sight was kinda hazy. But she couldn't back down now. The music was started, the curtain was lifted. All she had to do was to straighten her body, forgot about her condition for a while, lifted her chin up, and ran to the center of the stage, towards the thunderous applause of the audience, and started to do what she had been doing for her entire life.

She started to dance. 

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Ellen glanced at Portia's mother who sat next to her. The woman wiped yet another tears from her cheek with the tissue that was already wet due to repeated use on her hand. Portia's father, who was sitting next to his wife, held his wife's hand tightly while his eyes were glued on his daughter that was dancing on the stage. A shine of pride was shining from his eyes, creating a lump on Ellen's throat.

Portia's mother wasn't the only one who shed tears in the theatre. Ellen could see some other audiences were also pressing a piece of tissue and handkerchief to the tip of their eyes or their cheeks. All of the audience were completely hypnotized at the very exact moment. They all were unable to look away from the one dancer who devoted her whole body and soul on that stage.

Ellen fixed her eyes back on Portia's figure that was now being uplifted and spun around by Aaron Rogers. Even though this wasn't her first time seeing Portia dancing, somehow she was still astonished. The way that girl moved was fairly different from any other dancers on the stage. She moved and danced with such grace, class, and talent of a world-class dancer.

Moreover, she wasn't merely dancing. She was telling a story. She was telling a story by the way she moved her body and by the way her expression constantly changed. A real dancer should be able to deliver a story. And the story that Portia was delivering that night had made everybody there trapped inside her magic.

When the final rehearsal finally ended, a deafening applause and cheering were echoing in the theatre. Ellen herself clapped her own hands so hard that they almost went numb. She was 100% certain that the show would get a great review on the media. Ellen and Portia's parents hurriedly go to the jammed up backstage to see Portia. They finally found Portia in front of her dressing room, talking with Dee. Dee looked so happy, it seemed like she could just blow herself up anytime soon.

"Oh, Portia, Portia, Portia, you were absolutely magnificent up there!" Dee exclaimed while giving Portia a big hug. "I'm sure that our show will be extraordinary. I'm super super sure about that."

Portia looked exhausted, but she smiled widely. And when she saw her parents came to see her, she quickly released herself from Dee and hugged her parents one by one. And then she approached Ellen who was standing behind her parents. 

"You did it, de Rossi. And I have to admit that you were magnificent up there. Your mom couldn't stop crying," Ellen muttered and smiled at the girl who was panting before her. 

Without saying anything, Portia tiptoed a bit, embracing Ellen's neck with her arms and hugged her tightly. "Thank you, Ed," she whispered, still sounded out of breath.

Ellen hugged Portia's thin body back. But she quickly frowned when she felt that Portia's whole body was strongly trembling. "De Rossi, are you okay?"

Portia stepped back from the hug, then looking at Ellen and her parents. "Come on, let's go inside," she mumbled quietly. "I need to sit down."

"Honey, what's the matter?" Portia's dad asked once he realized that her daughter didn't seem well. She held Portia's face gently and stared at her with concern.

But Portia didn't get the chance to answer, because right at that moment, her head fell back and she would've surely hit the ground, hadn't her father immediately caught her body.