What do you do after you've done something remarkable? Take a shower I suppose. I had had an experience I would never forget.
An hour of bloodthirsty handball, a half hour sauna and ice water later I was feeling human. Hungry, but human. The Orchid was just up the block, and chopsticks and plum wine seemed about right. "C Sean does Szechwan." I must have been a little dopey.
I reached the place only to find it packed. I turned to leave when I heard "Is that you Ricky?" No one has called me that since Reagan was President.
"OK Franki, where are you?"
Laughter. My guess is that no one called her Franki anymore either. Most Broadway divas seem to like French sounding names. Francine happened to come equipped with one. She certainly was a Broadway Diva. At least she was in New York.
"All right, I won't call you Ricky if you don't call me Franki. I didn't want to call you Clarance."
"Thank you for that. I go by Sean--it's my middle name in case you didn't know--or by Richards. You may choose either."
"Well C Sean Richards, we have a reservation for 8 and only 7 showed up. Would you like to join us? Please. I'm the odd man out"
I didn't try to pick up the names. They hadn't tried to pick up mine. Francine was right; the others were paired off. By the time the desert cart came by, we were alone. So I walked her home, she invited me in, I decided to stay for a few minutes and we talked for hours. At one point she went to get something from the kitchen and I wandered around looking at pictures of her with famous people. Then I stopped dead. There was a picture of her with Cynthiaβmay be 15 years old, but still Cynthia. She noticed me looking at the picture.
"What a waste. Prodigy at 14, tragedy at 16."
"What happened?"
"Dancers cannot have 38 D breasts. It doesn't work. She got too big and that was that."
Francine was 5'3", 95 pounds only because of the muscle in her legs.
"I met her. I think we hit it off. We certainly seemed to communicate without saying much."
We talked some more. A lot about dance. Some I knew, a lot more I did not. The subject of pain came up. Dancers, it seemed, were like runners. To get good you have to deal with pain. Make friends even. It was the slow controlled movements that really could get you.
"That was what Sheila was so good at. The impossible holds and the unreachable stretches." She meant Cynthia.
"I know her as Cynthia."
"Stage name. Francine Martel works fine on a billing, Sheila Schwartz doesn't. What's she doing now?"
"I see your point about the name. I always noticed yours whenever I saw it. She's teaching. Not dance, but a lot of the "control" that you've been talking about. Executive training, that kind of thing."
"So she has been training you?"
"Not exactly."