keeping your feelings to yourself

the girl's pigeon-toed ballet prompted her mom to start from her chair four different times in an instinctive gesture of protection. the mother thought the little one was perilously close to tumbling, but each time, bethie would gracelessly regain her balance and continue with her twirls as though the near-fall were part of her routine.

the older sister, loralee, sat next to her mom, rolling her eyes theatrically at her best friend. they laughed behind their hands, mocking loralee's knock-kneed little sister. thankfully, bethie danced with her eyes closed, swaying to the piano music tinkling away behind her.

mother noticed the older girls exchanging glances from their seats on the back of the worn davenport. she waited until bethie's choreography spun her away, back to her audience, and mother, who was lying on the couch below the older girls' perch, lifted her leg and sharply kicked loralee in the shin, silencing her just in time for bethie's final, tiny leap into the patch of sunshine streaming through the window. bethie made a shy, pleased curtsey, as she opened her eyes to applause.