Rick Archer's Note:
Victoria's brutal confrontation
revealed that deep down I desperately
wanted to
continue my Dance Career. I could have called
Victoria's bluff and told her if she wanted to burn
it down, be my guest. But that was not my
reaction. Every protective instinct in my
being came forward: Do not let Victoria hurt My
Dance Program under any circumstance!
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I loved teaching
dance with all my heart. It made me happy. It
gave me satisfaction.
In
addition, at the deepest core of my being, I believed God had moved a
mountain to put me in this position.
If
teaching dance was my Calling, I had an obligation
to do everything in my power to save my career.
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"What
career?"
you ask. It was true my dance program barely had a pulse.
However maybe it did have a future. Don't
get me wrong, I still despised the thought of teaching Country
dancing with every ounce of my being.
But I reserved the right to change my mind. Prior to Victoria's
Blackmail Threat, I was 98% in favor of giving up
once Disco faded away. However the combination of
Joanne's 'slow slow quick quick' Ray of Hope and
Victoria's Blackmail threat had flipped me to 51% in favor
of giving C&W a fair chance. In other
words, although I was not even remotely committed to a future as a
Country-Western teacher, I intended to keep the door
ajar.
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Tuesday night, SEPTEMBER 25, 1979
MORE CAR TALK
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You might think
after ruining my life in the morning, Victoria would ease
up. Not so. On the same
night as the Coffee Shop Showdown, to my
chagrin Victoria wanted to talk after dance class. I was so
disgusted, I brushed her off.
"Victoria, leave
me alone. You made your
point this morning. I acknowledge your power over
me, but if you expect me to cooperate, you might
consider being nice to me once in a while. As for
now,
I've had enough for one day. I'm going home, it's
late."
Victoria gave me a
look that bordered on homicidal.
"Like
hell you are. Get in my car. I want to
talk to you."
Reluctantly, I
complied. Victoria wasted no time reinforcing the
message that I did not have the right to expel her from the
studio. Well aware that her two nights of teaching
were the only tie that still bound me to her, Victoria made
it clear she would decide when to leave the program,
not me. Then to my
surprise, Victoria abruptly changed her tune.
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"Rick, I don't know what is wrong with you.
Why do
you ask me to move on? Does your love just die
on your command? I know I've made mistakes, but I won't stop trying. I have to
follow my heart and see where it takes me or I
will go crazy. I
believe we can still make this work, but first
you have to give me another chance. You
can't just close your mind and quit. We
have a future, I am sure of it."
Unbelievable.
It was a nice speech, but I was far too bitter from her
Blackmail threat to let my guard down. How does this
woman switch personalities so fast? I doubted it would
do much good to contradict her, so I did my best to deceive
her as to how I really felt.
"Okay, Victoria,
I see your point. Maybe you're right, maybe I give up
too easily. I am willing to give our relationship
another try. Listen, I'm exhausted. It's been a
long day, so good night."
As expected,
Victoria protested,
but I left anyway. Then I drove straight to
Jennifer's apartment.
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TUESDAY
NIGHT, SEPTEMBER
25
JENNIFER PANICS
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Jennifer was
shocked to see me at her door. "Why are you here?
It's late. Is something wrong?"
I nodded.
"Yes. Can I come in?"
As expected, Jennifer was horrified to hear
the news.
"Why would you tell Victoria you will
give the relationship another try?"
"Because
Victoria is out of her mind. She refuses to listen to
reason, so what is the point of infuriating her?
Sooner or later, Michael's pressure is going to
cause her to give in. I would rather let him be the
bad guy, so for now I will continue being her listening board."
Jennifer shook
her head. "I don't get it. What is this woman's
problem?"
"I wish I knew.
Do you remember
I told you about the Dance Curse?
As far as I am concerned, Victoria is
ignoring omens
that are
biblical in their intensity!"
"Have you told her
that?"
"Yes, of course I have."
"What does she
reply?"
"I spoke to her about the bad omens shortly before you
and I met.
Although Victoria is just as superstitious as me, she did
not agree. She said her instincts are telling her we
are meant to be together. That's all the explanation
she gave.
Victoria
refuses to listen to my warnings."
Jennifer turned white.
"Rick,
I am very
frightened.
Victoria is
obsessed and you
need to take
her at her word.
When she said she is acting on Instinct, she
means that.
Something is driving her that defies
understanding.
There
is darkness present and you are powerless to resist
it. I believe you when you say you will stand up to
Victoria and ask for your freedom, but it will do no good. I fear you will never be able
to get rid of Victoria without incurring great harm to the
studio."
That was hardly what I wanted to hear, but I had reached the
same conclusion. I felt miserable.
"I agree with
you. Victoria is not a normal woman.
If you had any idea how pitiful she looked at the coffee
shop, you would never imagine this woman had any
willpower left. But once Victoria caught fire, it was
like she rose from the dead. I hate
to admit it, but I have underestimated Victoria.
Assuming she was on the ropes, I expected her to fold the moment I said that Disco was dead and
that I wouldn't support her. Instead she came at
me with both guns blazing. In her words, 'No one tells
me
what to do.'"
I
scrupulously avoided sharing Victoria's continuing threat to move
in with me. Jennifer was upset enough as it was.
As she
listened, Jennifer turned a deeper shade of pale. "Good God, I would hate to cross swords with that
woman!"
"You have
good reason to feel that way. I cannot begin
to explain how little I understand what makes her tick.
Nothing she does makes any sense to me and never has.
When I confronted her this morning, I
expected she would
cave in and go back to Michael.
Instead she told me I had better watch my step or she
would destroy my dance program. That didn't
exactly work out like I planned."
Jennifer eyed me
cautiously.
"What would happen if Victoria finds
out about me?"
This, of
course, was
my worst nightmare. "That
would not be good. I think Victoria would go
berserk. In her soul, Victoria feels like I belong
to her. If Victoria suspects your
presence, she will force me to choose between losing you
or losing the
studio."
"What
would your choice be?"
Holy
guacamole, I did not expect that question. I
gulped. What a terrible choice, the woman I loved
or the career I loved. Both would be impossible to
replace. But was it really that tough of a choice?
Given that Disco was nearly dead, I would be an idiot to
toss away a special woman like Jennifer. "I would choose you.
Without you, the dance
career is no longer worth fighting for."
Jennifer
hesitated before responding. "I don't know, Rick, this
is very disturbing news. I
guess I am upset because getting rid of Victoria
seems impossible.
You
can try as hard as you can to extricate yourself, but it will do you no good.
Victoria will never give up. She is determined to self-destruct and she
has promised to take you with her. Listen, it
is late
and I am upset. We will talk tomorrow. You
should go. I need to be alone."
My heart sank. I
did not expect to be sent away. Clearly Victoria's threats had
a serious affect on
Jennifer. In the days to come, whenever we discussed
Victoria, Jennifer became the Voice of Doom.
She was so convinced something was going to go
wrong, I called her the Soothsayer. 'Beware
the Ides of Victoria!' Although I dismissed Jennifer's attitude as overly pessimistic
to her face,
privately her growing hopelessness reinforced my
alarm.
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What did
I accomplish by standing up to Victoria in the coffee shop? Not much.
I suppose I made
it clear that she was unwelcome in my home, but that was
about it. Victoria
could write all the poison pen letters she wanted, but I
would never let her through my door. However, she had
made a fool out of me today. As if I ever thought
Victoria would meekly cooperate when I told her she was no
longer needed at the studio. Furthermore, now that I
knew how low Victoria would go, if she ever caught a whiff of
Jennifer's existence, there would be a terrible price to
pay. I would probably lose Jennifer AND the studio.
Victoria refused to set me free. Based on the terms of
her Blackmail Threat, she expected me to stick
around as her pretend boyfriend and maintain the status quo
during her power struggle with Michael.
So what was I going to do? Call her bluff? Would I
dare fight back and give Victoria reason to pick up
the phone and destroy my reputation? She was certainly
angry enough to do it. Should I defy Victoria and risk losing my
good name and probably my business? Should I challenge Victoria and try to start over
in this miserable business climate? Should I allow two years of hard work and
a countless lucky breaks go to waste? Should I jump now or stick it out?
If I remained on this runaway train, would it get worse?
I had no clear direction.
Maybe I should
make a confession. During today's lesson with Glen,
when he confirmed this mysterious Aggie Twostep was probably
a form of Foxtrot, for a fleeting moment I thought of
Joanne's promise that there was some sort of New Country out
there. If that was the case, then maybe there was more to
Western Dancing than I had previously realized. I knew
it was a long-shot to believe Western Dancing could save my
career, but it was the only door open to me. No matter how
much I despised everything to do with Country, I was
back to my original vow to do ANYTHING I could to save my
dance career even if it meant teaching a form of dance I
despised.
However, if Victoria went scorched earth on me, I could say
sayonara to my last chance to continue my dance career.
That left me with no choice but capitulate and play for
time.
Since I believed Victoria's blackmail threat was
real, I resigned myself to the fact that I was
hostage to this woman's vengeance. I decided my best move was to play
along and see what developed.
With great
reluctance,
it was back to my Appeasement Strategy. I would keep
doing the exact same thing I had been doing for the past
three months and let her continue to Negotiate. Maybe Victoria would calm down and become more
reasonable the next time we talked.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER
26
A VOW TO DO BETTER AT MEYERLAND
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Imagine
Joanne's shock when she discovered I was finally
willing to try harder. When I introduced
Joanne to Glen's
Foxtrot patterns on Wednesday the 26th, the poor
girl nearly went into shock. If I had not felt
so grim about Victoria's threat, I might have
smiled at Joanne's bewilderment.
"Okay,
Joanne, this is what I want to do. Yesterday I
met with Glen. I told him about my suspicion
that your New Country Twostep and a Ballroom dance
known as Foxtrot are somehow related. When he
said he agreed with me, I told him to review the
Foxtrot with me. So now I want to teach you
what little Foxtrot I know and see what you think."
Since I only knew
the Travel Step plus the three new Foxtrot moves,
it
did not take Joanne long to pick
them up. Then came the big test. It was
time to put a Twostep song on the phonograph and
dance the Foxtrot with Joanne. As I
moved her around the floor, Joanne began to nod.
Then she stopped and looked at me in shock. "That's it!
That's the new Twostep! Well, kind of.
It's pretty
close. There's something wrong with your rhythm, but the footwork
is very similar. How did you figure this out?"
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I
explained how her Aggie friend's 'Slow Slow Quick
Quick' tip was the breakthrough. "Thank you, Joanne. That
was a big help."
Joanne
smiled. "You are more than welcome. So
what comes next?"
"You
told me you like it when the man goes backwards.
Why don't we do the same thing with the Aggie
Twostep that we did with the Polka?"
"What do you mean?"
"Let's
work on Transitions. Let's figure out how to
use Slow Slow Quick Quick footwork to move the lady
out of the way so the man can pass her and go
backwards. Then we will figure out how to
swing the lady back in front of the man using
Slow Slow Quick Quick footwork."
Joanne
nodded. "Yeah, I like that. That's a
good idea."
To my
relief, the work we had put in to create Transition
Polka was easily transferred. In fact, I was
pleased to discover this Aggie Twostep was actually
kind of fun. In addition, I had a hunch
Twostep would be much easier to teach the Meyerland
students than Polka which moved so much faster.
The one thing that stuck in
my mind was that this Aggie Twostep was a huge
improvement over the 'Step-Touch, Step-Touch,
Walk Walk' Old Country Twostep. Who knows,
maybe I could build on the progress we had made
today. As they say, hope springs eternal.
"Joanne,
I have a favor to ask. Is there some way you
could drop by tomorrow afternoon so we can double up?"
"Sure, I don't mind, but why?"
"I like
what we did today. Maybe there's a part of me
that is warming up to this material."
"That's great! I'm glad to hear that.
Western isn't nearly as bad as you think it is.
If you would just go dancing with me, you would
learn that for yourself. Would you like to
go dancing with me on Sunday after class?"
"Not
really, but maybe. Ask me again Sunday.
In the meantime, see you tomorrow at 5:00. We
can do an hour lesson and you can leave before
Victoria gets here at 7."
Joanne
smiled. "I don't want to be anywhere near
Victoria, but if it means you will try harder, I
will risk it."
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER
26
HIDING MY SECRET LOVER
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After class
on Wednesday the 26th, I drove straight to Jennifer's
apartment. She
was extremely subdued as I entered. "What's wrong,
Jennifer?"
"I
feel very pessimistic. The more you tell
me about this woman, the more convinced I am
that she will never let you go. Whatever
you do to extricate yourself from her clutches,
she is determined to make you pay a price."
"I agree
that Victoria is a more serious problem than I
realized. I assumed she would see the
dwindling size of her classes and be willing to
leave voluntarily. Now I am forced to admit I
misjudged her. Nevertheless, we have time on
our side. Victoria appears to be on the edge
of a nervous breakdown. The moment she falls
apart, the dance program will no longer matter to
her. All we have do is wait her out. It
might be as simple as waiting for October. When
no one shows up to take her October classes, maybe
she will see the utter hopelessness of sticking
around."
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Jennifer shook her head in despair.
"I
don't know, Rick. I feel caught in the middle.
If I stick around, you might very well lose your
dance studio which is your fondest dream.
While I appreciate your feelings for me, the thought
that I might cost you your dance career is a lousy
way to start a relationship. I would
feel much better if you could find a way to keep me and keep your
dance career as well. How do you propose we do
this?"
"For the present, we have to keep your existence a complete secret or face
some very messy consequences. I think if you
stay away from the studio, we should be able
to keep our relationship a secret. That will solve
our problem for the time being. The good news is
that I
think time is on our side. To me, this
Blackmail threat is a delaying tactic born of desperation. Victoria is in
far more pain than I am. With Michael demanding
she resolve this crisis, she has to make a move. I think if we
remain
patient, Victoria will eventually surrender. When
that day comes, she will hand me my studio and my
freedom. Are you willing to wait?"
Jennifer
looked fearful, but she quietly nodded yes.
"I understand the need for
secrecy. I don't want to do anything to make you
lose the studio."
"The most
important
thing you can do is avoid the studio like the
plague."
Jennifer understood the necessity of staying off Victoria's
radar. Once I explained what Victoria had done to
Joanne and Patricia, Jennifer did not want Victoria
coming after her too. Accordingly, Jennifer had chosen not to
return to her
Monday class this month. Nor had she returned
to Clear Lake a second time. Victoria was a born fighter while Jennifer was a gentle
soul. Seeing the
fear on her face, I
realized Jennifer was very intimidated by
Victoria's reputation for ruthlessness.
Jennifer would rather retreat to the shadows than deal
with confrontation.
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"I am
willing to be your secret lover. That is fine by
me. Just call me Madame X."
So we made a
decision. Jennifer would not be seen with me in public till the situation was resolved. In the meantime I would figure out a way to extricate
myself from Victoria's threats.
As Jennifer
slept that night, I laid awake. Victoria had turned evil. Her aggression had to be fueled by an overwhelming
sense of desperation. If so, that could mean only one thing... Victoria's marriage was more on the rocks than I had
previously realized. Was there any
hope of repairing her marriage now? If not, I was in
big trouble. Victoria already blamed me for her marital problems.
If she went down, she might just go ahead and take me down with her.
Misery loves company.
Recalling my
parents and their nightly battles, I was unsure how two
people could possibly mend fences once the fabric of trust has been
ripped away. I wondered just
how much Michael knew of his wife's obsession with me.
My God, I could not imagine how much that man hated me. Victoria had surely
put all the blame for her infatuation on my supposed sweet
talk. I believed Victoria cleverly played both men
against each other. But to what end? Fed up with her
constant manipulation, neither Michael nor I
wanted to have a thing to do with her. Surely this
neverending Negotiation about our 'Future' put a terrible strain on Michael's commitment
to the marriage. Putting myself in his shoes, I would not want to be
married to a woman who spent all her time pining for another
man. I could not imagine how Michael had tolerated
this situation for an entire year.
I got the
feeling Victoria had burned her bridge with Michael. That
would explain why she was
setting me up as her lifeline. Victoria
said I had no right to push her out of the
studio. Okay, I agreed with her there. But what right
did she have to insist that I let her come live with me? Victoria was out of her
mind if she thought I would cooperate. The woman I wanted to marry was sleeping
right beside me.
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