Curtain call came and she relaxed. It was over. Her feet ached and she could not feel her legs as she gracefully took her second and final bow.
After every show, she nearly always felt an overwhelming sense of relief. She padded back to the soloist dressing room in her now retired pair of pointe shoes. She peeled them off and placed them in the trash bin underneath her dressing table. She quickly let her hair down, removed her stage makeup, and changed.
"What's the rush?" one of the other girls asked.
"Family's waiting," she responded.
"Ah, the congratulatory dinner," the other girl, Lucy, replied. "There's one after every major role, isn't there?"
"That there is," she responded.
Kathryn Shaw was an impressive ballet dancer for her age. She held the position of soloist at the young age of seventeen, and had just that night wrapped her performance as Juliet in Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. She had been dancing for as long as she could remember, and it had been the dream role. In the present moment, however, she was anxious to leave the theater and see her family. As she was readying to leave the dressing room, the director popped his head in.
"Congratulations Katie," he said. "Truly well done. I can't wait to see the reviews." He winked at her and she gave a small smile, acutely aware of the pairs of eyes glaring at her back.
"Thanks Shawn," she said, smiling humnly. Soloists were not typically given lead roles, and so Shawn's decision had infuriated many an ambitious young dancer in the company. "Oh," he said, before closing the door behind him. "This was dropped off in the office for you too." He handed her a bouquet of sunflowers and a small package wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string. She took them from him, and he left. She furrowed her brow. Her family wouldn't drop something off – they were waiting just outside. She returned to her station and unwrapped the gift, throwing away the packaging. Inside was a ring with an oval-shaped emerald laid in liver. It shone beautifully in the light. This confused her more, but she didn't want to linger with it in front of everyone. Shrugging it off, she threw the ring in her bag, shouldered it, and trotted out the door, exclaiming farewells over her shoulder.
A ballerina. A ballerina. He couldn't believe it. Why the hell were they sending a 5"1 dancer into a war? What skills did she have with a gun? What the hell did she even know about the time period? Janus didn't understand the choice one bit, but he knew Hemsut almost always got the job done. Why a ballet dancer though? It didn't matter. He had done what he needed to here, and now he would move on. He scoffed angrily and left the theater.
The post-show dinner was at the same restaurant as always. It was Katie and her family's regular spot in New York for post-performance celebrations, so much so that all the staff knew them.
After a long while of cheerful laughter and conversation, Katie excused herself to use the restroom. After washing her hands, she turned to leave, and put her hand in her pocket, and then stopped. She removed her hand, and in her palm was the ring that had been in the package from earlier that night.
Katie's heart skipped a beat. She must have put the ring in her pocket and only the package in her bag in her rush, she reasoned. She stopped and took a moment to admire the ring and, after a moment's consideration, slipped it on her left index finger. She liked it. She only wished she knew who it came from. Not knowing unsettled her.
She turned and exited the restroom to return to her family, only to find 1776 on the other side of the door.