Upheaval: Day 4

Word Count: 25,015

Summary of Events:

Leon woke up with a headache and took some of his mother's painkillers to get rid of it before meeting with Miss Corrine. Leon started to feel strangely tired late in their meeting and ended up collapsing and losing consciousness. When he woke up he discovered he was in the hospital because his mother's painkillers had made him sick. Due to action having been taken quickly, Leon's recovery was swift and he was back in ballet class on Monday, where Miss Corrine showed the class the poster advertising the contest, and Leon became particularly captivated by a black and white photo of a woman in the costume for Odile . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Leon remained fixed on the picture. He knew that picture. He'd seen it before; but he couldn't, for the life of him, recall where he'd seen it, or who was in it.

"We'll work a little bit more on preparing for the competition tomorrow," Miss Corrine said, rolling up the poster again. "See you then."

All the girls filed out of the room, but Leon stayed, he had to ask Miss Corrine.

"That was alright Leon?" Miss Corrine asked.

"What was alright?" Leon asked.

"Class today," Miss Corrine replied. "It wasn't too much for you?"

"Oh, no, no it wasn't," Leon replied.

"Are you alright Leon?" Miss Corrine asked.

"That picture," Leon said. "That, the Odile."

Miss Corrine unrolled the poster to reveal it. "What about it?"

"I know that picture," Leon replied.

"I should think you would," Miss Corrine replied.

"Why?" Leon asked.

"At the time she was Valentina Kozlova, but it wasn't long before she became Valentina Bogomolova," Miss Corrine replied. "She's your grandmother."

"But we don't have the same last name," Leon said.

"Like French, German, Italian, well pretty much every language aside from English, Russian has pronounced masculine and feminine words," Miss Corrine replied. "And in Russia specifically, if not all Eastern European countries, the surnames are different between men and women. You are a man, so your are Bogomolov, your mother, technically, should be Bogomolova, just as your grandmother was Bogomolova."

"Oh," Leon said. "And that's my grandma?"

"Yes," Miss Corrine replied. "I bet you know the photo because it's at your house somewhere. Valentina told me that your mother wanted to be like her, but unfortunately she never got there, she got injured or something."

Leon nodded. "Her ankle."

"That is a shame," Miss Corrine said. "Valentina actually enrolled you here."

"How do you know?" Leon asked.

"Zinnia told me," Miss Corrine replied. "I'd met Valentina just before I left the Netherlands, that's when I was told about your mother. I have to admit, when I first became your teacher it was astonishing to think I was teaching the grandson of Valentina Bogomolova, a brilliant dancer whose career was sadly shortened by her husband's diplomatic assignment to Canada, and the fact that he wanted her to have children."

"I don't remember her," Leon said.

Miss Corrine chuckled. "Valentina was in her fifties when I met her, grey was coming into her hair, and she'd lost her dancer's figure, much like Zinnia. She probably didn't look like a dancer to you."

An image of a woman with a kind smile, a softly creased face, and blue eyes snapped into Leon's mind. "You mean this is бабушка?"

"Yes," Miss Corrine replied. "I do believe that's Russian for grandmother anyways."

"She danced for the Bolshoi?" Leon asked.

"Yes," Miss Corrine replied. "I recall reading they had a sendoff of epic proportions for her when she had to quit ballet to join her husband on his diplomatic assignment. I think your mother was young when that happened."

Pronunciations:

Odile: ohdeel

Kozlova: kohzlowvah

Bogomolova: bohgohmohlowvah

Бабушка: bahbooshkah