Apparitions

Renaldo was a ghost.  A mere shell of the man he'd once been.

The oldest son of migrant farm workers, he was tasked as a child with not only keeping himself out of trouble, but his younger brother and sister as well.  Of course, moving a lot and missing more school than they attended made it difficult for the Rivera children to gain the benefit of the doubt from their teachers. As kids, they were often unjustly punished and their protests were not well-received, to say the least.  But, they all graduated high school. His little sister even went to college and is teaching in Orlando. For Tomas, though, the military was his best bet.  Even if he had qualified to go to a university, he couldn't afford the costs of out-of-state tuition they charge non-citizens.  Nevertheless, his bedroom as a teenager was decked out in orange and blue and he never left the house without his Florida Gators ball cap.  Less than a week after he walked the stage at graduation, he was at MEPS in Miami, signing up for active duty.  His mother was an emotional wreck, so it was his father who drove him to the bus station when he left for boot camp.

It was less than six months later that destiny showed her face.  On leave for an Iron Bowl game that his bunkmate scored two tickets for from the local rock station, he saw her sitting on a tailgate and was done for.  He struck up a conversation with some of her friends and when they ran into each other at a local bar late that night, it wasn't entirely by accident.  He'd also picked up her brand of cigarettes on the way.  Jeff was a perfect wing-man and by the end of the night, he'd snagged Jill's phone number and a piece of her heart.  By the time he was shipped off to Iraq the following year, she was an army wife, much to her father's dismay.

Jill was as sweet as she was beautiful, and all that kept him sane these days.  Dead now for 7 years, she was ironically the only thing keeping Renaldo alive. That, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Zumba Queen

Suzy is in her zone.  At the front of the room, dark red hair down and dripping in her face, leading the charge.  There are a couple of new faces this afternoon.  In addition to the Samba girls up front and her loyal older crowd, there are a few newbies.  A shy overweight woman with some rhythm but little enthusiasm, and a tall black woman, beautiful and vaguely familiar.  She makes sure to give quick instructions before each dance, veiled as review for her more experienced students and reminds everyone to hydrate every third song.  Aside from that, she doesn't acknowledge that everyone here isn't part of her Wednesday routine.  They slid right into class just fine, for the most part.  A few turns in the wrong direction, but nothing drastic.  Good. She was free to just dance.  This is the best part of the job.  She got her certification really just for this.  To dance.  She was dancing when she met John, in fact.  Mid-shift at Rick's down in Key West, someone had put on a very danceable number.  She shimmied around, checking that everyone was okay when Tall, Dark and Handsome took her tray, handed it to a friend, spun her around and they salsaed until the next song was over.  At that point, she realized her partner wasn't single, but her tray holder was.  He smiled as he handed the tray back and ordered a round of tequila.  The glare the blonde he was with was giving TDH sent her off in a near sprint.

The trio hung out most of the night.  They took off at some point, but came back in laughing with their Fat Tuesday's cups.  The blonde seemed far more relaxed and her tray holder's eyes were down right sexy.  He was not her type, but he had the cutest boyish smile that drew her in something fierce.  So she smiled, and laughed, and lit the couple's cigarettes, all the while aware of the looks old blue eyes was giving her.  She was not typically fliratious, especially after a few years working Duval St.  Lots of cuties, here only until their cruise ship heads out.  She was used to being part of the scenery on other people's vacations, but this guy was different.  When he'd handed her his credit card earlier, their fingers touched with a jolt of electricity and that was enough.  She saw her own smile in his hands.  She was the most important moment in his life.  How could she be expected to act normal after seeing that? So, yeah, she smiled a lot that night, and most nights since.

She met up with the small group over lunch and learned her dance partner and the blonde were down for their wedding.  John, she learned, was to be the best man, but the maid of honor had ditched them at the last minute.  They were getting married at sunset, and did she want to step in to witness?
She left her apron at work two days later and gave John's address for Rick to send her last check. Despite their rocky start, she and Sherry became fast friends and she went on to be very supportive when Suzy and Tomas entered a dance contest together, holding JJ during their performance and cheering louder than everyone else.

Suzy also dances with an Irish group down in Naples on Sundays, but her Wednesdays and Thursdays are for Zumba.  Here there are no rules, save her own.  Here the music is all her.  She loves to look in the mirror and see a room full of people dancing with her, sharing in this moment, without the burden of seeing their parents die, their children graduate, their rejections at the altar.  Here, in this moment, she felt like a normal girl.  She never did feel like that much, when she wasn't dancing.

At the end of class, the taller woman approached her. "Great class.  It was a lot of fun."

"Thanks. Are you new to the gym?"

"New to town actually, I'm Marguerite."