Into The Orchard

III

The last few weeks passed quietly, but intensively. As you can probably guess, this was mainly due to Apolonia, who after receiving the news that I had qualified for the semi-finals imposed an incredible training regime on me. Her motivation to train me was bolstered by the fact that I was to meet Prince Malcolm in the spring. The old woman expressed no positive emotions toward me. She was not proud or pleased. She was always looking for imperfections in what I was doing, which, objectively speaking, was good. Apolonia told me that she would personally teach me courtly etiquette. She wanted me to get to know the future monarch of her homeland with respect and dignity. She said that I had undeservedly received an incredible honor. The old woman had a habit of being harsh and brutal, but over the past few days, she had outdone herself. Whenever I made a move she didn't like, she would stop playing the piano, come over to me, and use her cane to hit with all her might the part of my body that didn't play to her liking. She gave up throwing insults in my direction. The woman at this point was limited to contorting her face and sighing. The workouts were at least twice as demanding as before. This was also due to the fact that during the competition in the Philharmonic Hall the participants of the semi-final would be obliged to present two dance routines. However, the requirement was that we would dance to live music. So all the songs with vocals were out. Me, Andy and Wilhelm had a week to choose the songs. The old woman, who luckily I managed to convince to make concessions, was watching over my selection. The woman wanted me to dance to, among others, "Swan Lake", but my argument that I should feel the pieces I dance to changed her attitude. I had already lived in the house for a while, so I started to allow myself more. For example, when Apolonia hit me on the calf with such force that I almost wept, I argued with her about it. As if I understood that old people are unreformable and her old, Russian school of ballet required perfection in every inch, but this did not justify her to treat me like a thing. Apolonia was not in the habit of apologizing and always said - "If you want to dance beautifully, you have to suffer. Suffer physically and preferably mentally too." Although for my taste it was sick what she said, she was somewhat right. Every time I got a hard blow from her, I remembered well to make the kind of move the woman had thought of. As for the mental suffering I will say this. There's no fucking way I'm going to bring any more unpleasant situations upon myself or participate in them just so that my dancing pleases the woman. March was fast approaching, and the end of April would see a competition. However, that was not the only event that was to take place then.

Gregory and my mother Catleyn's wedding was planned for the end of April. Mine decided to invite only her brother and his family to the wedding. I was sincerely happy about this because Uncle Larry and Aunt Debby were among my favorite part of the family we left behind in the United States. Unfortunately, along with them would come their daughter, Margaret. She was about Aurelia's age and in character they were not far apart. Although I didn't know if my cousin drank alcohol like Kevin's cousin, I knew for sure that she was an extremely annoying person. I had disliked her ever since, at one of our old family gatherings, Margaret had suggested to everyone at the table that I was gay. Even then there were problems, big problems, because of that. Of course the subject was swept under the carpet, only my mother understood and supported me. As for the rest of the family... better not to think about it. In that respect I preferred the Von Rostovs. They didn't treat me much like a family member, then they also had no reason not to accept my sexual orientation. I guess that's how it worked, I wasn't entirely sure. Anyway, my family back in the States, were not thrilled with the rumors, which later turned out to be true.

As for Aurelia herself, sadly, our contact had become very tenuous. Aurelia of course guessed what had happened between me and Rayan and could not forgive me. She felt betrayed by me having done to the doberman what she herself would have liked. We didn't talk about it because we hadn't said much of anything to each other since then either. Aurelia didn't play nice, so when she was having a bad day and she saw me going to the kitchen, for example, she automatically left the kitchen herself. Aurelia also cut down on the mean comments in my direction. I guess she really had to be affected by this situation. Maybe she even finally looked the truth in the eye that there was no chance of a relationship with Rayan Cory.