Sapphire III: Chapter 1

1. New Chance for Romance

November 7th, 1988

At first, it seemed as though Alec could never get over the death of his beloved Ivanka.  The shock of it all sent him into a deep depression, for which he had been given six week's leave.  Although he didn't dwell on it as much as Ivanka's death, it was lucky that he managed to bring down Boris as well.  With the Omega Order in apparent disarray, there was no other work for him to miss.  Eventually, after a few months, he had built up enough courage to begin seeing other women.  One year had passed since the incident and Alec was back to an old flame: Rachel Tohng, the secretary from his boss's office at the Delta headquarters.  The couple was enjoying a game of tennis at a health club in Philadelphia, but once again, Alec's thoughts were slipping back to that fateful day.

"It's your serve, Al!"

"...?  What...?  Oh, right away, Rachel," Alec stammered as he tossed the ball up and swung his racket.  Rachel returned the serve but Alec failed to connect with her shot.  "Oh, bad luck, Al!" Rachel called, with a jocular air intended to make Alec feel better about losing.

"That's alright.  Why do you think we're not keeping score?"

Rachel was briefly flabbergasted upon hearing this.  Wait, now we aren't keeping score?  She had secretly been keeping score for herself throughout the game.  Forty-Love with her in the lead.  Rachel snapped out of her confusion soon enough to return Alec's sudden serve.  They rallied for a long time until Alec shot the ball to the other side of Rachel's court.  In a panic, Rachel dove for the ball but could not make up the ground in time.  The ball bounced off the court and Rachel rolled awkwardly about the floor to break her fall.  Ever the gentleman, Alec hurdled over the net and pulled Rachel up.  "Are you okay, Rachel?" he asked.

"Perfectly fine," she replied.

"Very well, then.  I'll go get the ball.  I believe it's... your serve now, Rachel," he said as he retrieved the ball.  Tossing it to Rachel, he added, "Oh, and that last hit was good."

"I thought we weren't keeping score!" Rachel protested with a smile.

"I know you were," smirked Alec.

Rachel blushed.  Forty-fifteen.  She could still win the game.  And then they would play for fun -- unless Alec wanted to keep score of the next game.  That could happen if he lost.  She mentally prepared herself as she served.  Before long, she and Alec were caught in the middle of yet another lengthy rally.  However, for a split-second, Alec started to drift away again as thoughts of the day Ivanka died clouded his mind.  The way Boris made him powerless to do anything...  The ease in which he sent that poisoned rose into her heart...  All his love for her... wasted.  All the repressed memories that flooded over Alec imbued him with a burning wish to be able to change the past.

This spark of desire within Alec soon fanned into flames of rage that rapidly spread into his subconscious.  At that moment, he snapped out of his bitter memories and noticed the ball coming straight at him!  Having no time to restrain himself, he transferred all his inner rage to his racket and swung at the ball with extraordinary strength.  Having no time to react to Alec's inhumanly fast return, Rachel brought her racket to her chest to protect herself.  The ball slammed into the racket with such great force that it pushed the racket into her chest and knocked her to the ground.

Realizing his mistake, Alec sprung over the net once again to help Rachel up.  But this time, she was actually hurt and would not simply shrug off the incident.  Alec tried to calm her down, begging, "Oh, I am so sorry, Rachel!  Are you okay?" but Rachel reacted with hostility.  She yanked herself away from Alec's helping hand and sent her racket crashing down onto Alec's head.  Then, without saying anything, she turned her back to him and left in a huff.  Not daring to say anything either, Alec collapsed onto his hands and knees, looking like a fool with Rachel's broken tennis racket dangling from his neck.

--------------------------------------------------

Alec was not badly hurt from getting his head smashed by Rachel, but the attack left him with a serious headache.  All he wanted to do now was to go to the men's locker room and change, but he could not concentrate with all the pain in his head.  Stumbling down the hall, he groped for a doorknob at random and opened it.  What he found on the other side of the door made him forget all about his headache.

He was in a dance studio, with a long barre lining the mirrored walls.  The ceiling was painted with dots and wavy lines that complemented the jazzy music playing from a boom box in the corner.  But it was the person in the room who really took Alec's breath away.

She was a beautiful lady in a black leotard, with her legs outstretched in front of and behind her in a perfect split.  The vivid green leg warmers she had on made her legs appear even longer.  At the same time, the woman's trainer knelt beside her, bending her torso backwards so that her head pressed against her backside and her furiously wavy, dirty blonde hair cascaded to the floor.  Neither the gymnast nor her trainer seemed to notice Alec as he entered the studio.  The gymnast withstood the pain with all her might as her trainer counted, "vingt-huit, vingt-neuf, trente," before gradually straightening her pupil's body.

Alec applauded the gymnast, who still remained in her splits.  "That was an amazing stretch, Madame!" he said with enthusiasm.  "Oh, forgive me for intruding," he hastily added.  "I was looking for the locker room.  If I'm bothering you, I can leave now."

The woman's trainer responded first.  "Ah, non, it is no problem!  You may stay here if you like!"

With that invitation, Alec seated himself on the mat.  "Well, in that case, you'll forgive me for not introducing myself.  My name is Alec Langley."  He stuck his hand out for the gymnast to shake.  "And who might you be, my lovely Mademoiselle?"

The gymnast blushed profusely as she rotated her body until she was in a straddle split, her legs sticking out on either side of her body to form a straight line.  "Enchanté, monsieur.  I am Elodie Duchamp, and this is my trainer, Madame Landry."

Alec vigorously shook Elodie's hand, followed by Landry's.  "The pleasure's all mine," he insisted.  Elodie laid her body down to the ground, her chin propped up with her arms.  "You are one very flexible girl," complimented Alec.  "Tell me... how did you get so good?"

Elodie brushed her hair away from her face as she pondered an answer.  Then she took a deep breath and said, "Well, I've been more flexible than a lot of people for as long as I can remember -- no offense, Monsieur."

"How could I?"

"But I also joined a circus in Paris during the 1960s.  There I was able to train my body even further and practice on new equipment.  I discovered I was quite talented on the trapeze as well!" she added with a laugh.  "But, they let me go in the '70s, and I've been training ever since, waiting for my time to come again..."

Landry cut in.  "Come now", she instructed.  "We must continue your stretches on the other side. Monsieur Langley, you are welcome to stay.  I may even have some stretches for you!" she joked, chuckling at the thought of what she could have Alec do.  Then she brought herself to reality, adding, "Of course, monsieur, your stretches won't be nearly as difficult as mademoiselle's."  With that, she helped Elodie face in the opposite direction.  "Thirty seconds," Landry reminded Elodie while bending her pupil's trunk backwards to the floor.  She waited until Elodie's head was once again touching her backside before counting, "Un, deux, trois..."  Alec felt like his back hurt just from looking at Elodie, but now that he finally had a chance to view the stretch in its entirety, somehow he could not take his eyes off of her.

Once the thirty seconds were up, Elodie was once again brought upright.  "You may rest now", instructed her trainer.  Upon hearing those words, Elodie excitedly swung her rear leg in front of her and sat in a regular pose, hugging her knees.  Alec applauded the contortionist once more.  "That was spectacular, my darling!  Tell me, is that as far as you can bend?"

"Moi?  Probably..." she answered with a giggle.  "But if you think I'm good, you should have met Nikolai, my old flame.  He was so flexible that he could bend backwards until he put his head between his legs!  But he didn't stop there.  He would bend even farther until he hooked his shoulders in front of his knees.  Then he could walk around like that as he pleased!  Ah, it used to entertain me so..."

"If you don't mind my asking," inquired Alec, "what happened to him?"

Elodie grew sad upon answering this question.  "I haven't seen him in years, and I probably never will again... I'd rather not talk about what happened."

An awkward silence followed, which Landry broke by asking Alec, "Monsieur, would you like me to lead you in some simple stretches?"

Alec shrugged and answered.  "Sure, I guess I've got the time for that.  But you'll stop if it gets too much for me, right?"

"But of course, Monsieur Alec.  In fact, that's how I do it with Madame here; I hold the stretch just below the threshold of pain, and eventually your maximum level of tolerance will increase.  Although, don't expect to be able to do anything nearly as advanced as what Madame is capable of.  It takes months, maybe even years, to work up to her level."

"And what about your level?"

"Madame is a little better than me.  Although, I was on the 1948 French Olympic gymnastics team."

"Hm, spectacular!  How did you do?"

"The French team failed to win any medals.  We haven't really been competitive in the sport since, well, ever."

"Still, you made it on the team in the first place, so that's something to be proud of!"

"Ah, merci!"  Landry beamed at the compliment, then told Alec, "So now I will assist you in some simple stretches.  Sit down with your legs straight in front of you."  As Alec did as he was told, she gave a brief instruction to Elodie in French.  "Madame, work on what we were just doing, only hold it for a minute at a time, okay?"  Focusing her attention back on Alec, she instructed, "First, try to touch your toes.  Go as far as you can with out my help and hold it for fifteen seconds."

Alec couldn't quite make it to his toes; he ended up having to hold his ankles for the fifteen seconds.  But after Landry made him do a couple of repetitions of the exercise, he managed it.  A few more times, and he lost all feeling of discomfort.  Landry then had him reach farther and farther, until eventually he came close to touching his face to his knees.

Then Landry began a new set of exercise for Alec.  "Now, I want you to spread your legs apart as far as you can, comfortably."  Alec did so, but only managed to spread his legs at an angle of sixty degrees, just past shoulder width.  Landry said this was acceptable and told him, "Now I will pull your body forward.  Ideally, your body should lay flush with the floor, or at least, your face should touch the floor.  At any time during your exercises, you may tell me 'more', 'stay', 'less', or 'stop', and I will do so."

This made Alec feel a little more comfortable inside, but Landry grasped his hands and pulled him forward, that mental comfort vanished for a moment, to be replaced by a brief pain, coming mainly from his inner legs that were being stretched as well as his trunk.  But once again, he began to feel comfortable with the exercise.  He even asked Elodie, "Care to join me?"

"Oh, is that okay with you, Madame?"

"Sure!  Monsieur, don't be alarmed if Elodie shows off a little for you."

And show off she did; she went straight from her front splits into a side split and bent forward from there, her legs kinked forward slightly to provide resistance.  This show of ability did not offend Alec in the least.  On the contrary, he complimented, "Anyone would think I'd get put off by someone showing me up, but you...  You make it look hot."

Elodie giggled and said, "Ah, merci!"  An hour quickly passed together before she sadly sighed, "I'm afraid we must be going soon."  Then an idea struck her, and as quickly as the sorrow came over her, it vanished from her face.  "Oh, but before I forget, I'd like to show you this trick you might like.  Just let me stretch for it first."  She laid out her legs in front of her and bent forward so that her trunk was nearly parallel with her legs.  Staying in this pose, she described the move she was about to perform.  "What I am about to do is an advanced front bending maneuver.  In yoga, it is called the 'Two Feet to Head Pose'.  It is also more commonly known as the 'Human Knot'.  Well, here I go!"

Relaxing her stretch, Elodie prepared herself for the stunt with a couple of deep breaths.  Then she opened her legs up a bit and once again stretched her body forward.  This time, however, she bent her right leg up a bit, put her right arm through the gap, and, grabbing her foot with her other hand, pulled the leg behind her head until her ankle was comfortably nestled behind her neck.  Then she let go, her leg staying behind her head, and repeated the process with her left leg, locking her feet together at the end.  Letting herself fall on her back, Elodie rocked back and forth and with a flourish of her hands, exclaimed, "Voila!  The 'Human Knot'!"

Alec stared speechless at the twisted Elodie for a moment before bursting with applause and enthusiasm.  "Elodie, that trick is spectacular!" he exclaimed.  "Have you been able to do that for long?"

"Ah, oui.  But it is difficult for the first few times, like most advanced poses."

"I would have guessed."

"I'll tell you one thing, Alec.  I used to hold slumber parties as a child, and I would amaze my friends by sleeping like this all through the night!  I did have a hard time untangling myself in the morning, though..."

"I would just love to see you try that again sometime, but unfortunately, I must be going now, too.  When shall I see you again?"

Elodie thought about a good time to get together as she got out of her knot pose.  "Well, I'll be on tour with a circus for the next few months."

"Where are you going with them?"

"We're touring America.  We'll be all around the country and I won't be done for a few months.  But when I am, I'll call you and visit!"

"Madame, I can't wait."  Alec shook Elodie's hand and kissed it, saying, "Good luck with your tour, Elodie, and I bid you both adieu," as he left for the door.