Page 49 of Clara's Secret Garden
‘Of course. Come on. Let’s check it out.’
But when we find the room and stand in the doorway, my heartsinks. The place is abuzz with chatter and laughter, children of all ages incolourful dancewear, some with their mums, and I can almost feel Elsieshrinking back in fear. The room is smaller than I imagined and quite stuffy –almost claustrophobic. She won’t go in. I know she won’t. It’s all toooverwhelming for her.
‘Not fancying it?’ I ask her, and she shakes her head,running her tongue around her lips.
‘Me, neither. Okay. Ice-cream it is, then.’ I smile. ‘Comeon.’
We leave the place and start walking along Sunnybrook HighStreet towards the village store.
‘It was very crowded in there, wasn’t it?’ I point out.‘There wasn’t enough room to swing a cat. Or a hamster. Or a goldfish.’
She giggles. ‘Or a pig.’
‘Or a pig, indeed. There was definitely no room for that.’
A group of women are walking ahead of us with sports bagsover their shoulders, heading for the village hall. There must be some kind ofgym class on tonight. And then I realise that I recognise the person standingat the entrance, greeting everyone.
It’s Jaz from the café, in colourful pink and grey lycra. Imet her the other day when I went in for my induction session.
She sees me and smiles. ‘Hi, Clara. Coming to the Zumba?’
‘Oh. No. Are you taking the class?’
‘Yup. It’s such a great atmosphere. Really relaxed. We justhave a lot of fun.’
I smile down at Elsie. ‘Actually, we’re on the trail ofchocolate ice-cream.’
‘Oh, we have a great selection here. Ice-creams, ice-pops,slushies. You name it. Why not come in and have a look?’
‘What do you think, Elsie?’
She nods so we go in, and I explain about the dance classbeing a bit of a disappointment. And Jaz says, ‘Why not try a Zumba classinstead? You can both do it. Elsie, you’re all kitted out already. But there’sa lost property box full of gear you could borrow, Clara. It’s all clean.’
I glance at Elsie. She’s doing the anxious thing with herlips again. But I can see that the room is spacious and airy and not crowded atall.
‘You could stand right at the back?’ suggests Jaz, catchingon that Elsie is shy. ‘That’s what most people do. Until they’ve learned themoves. You just have to wiggle your hips a bit.’ She grins at Elsie anddemonstrates with a wiggle or two. ‘Like this. Can you do that?’
‘Not sure.’ I try a wiggle myself and start to laugh. ‘Comeon, Elsie. You have to be better at it than me.’
She copies Jaz and then all three of us are wiggling awayand laughing.
‘Well, I’m game. What do you think, Elsie? Shall we give ita go?’
She looks at me doubtfully. ‘Will you do it as well, Clara?’
‘Of course. It sounds like really good fun. I’ll probably berubbish the first time.’ I shrug. ‘But we could be rubbish together, couldn’twe?’
Elsie nods and I glance at Jaz, signalling my relief with myeyes.
We’ve made a breakthrough!
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
The Zumba class with Elsie is a big success.
She’s a little shy and inhibited to begin with – but let’sface it, who isn’t, doing something like that for the first time? It helps thatwe’re standing right at the back of the class, though, and the only person tosee her is me. I make a bit of a fool of myself, getting the moves wrong tomake her laugh.
And actually, it’s not all an act. I haven’t danced or evenexercised properly for so long, I’m scarily out of breath after just tenminutes.
