Balance (13 page)

Positioned
at the end
of the beam in front of him, Michael
closes his eyes, focusing his thoughts, trying
to recall the course to mind.

“
As before, w
hen the tracer identifies the first destination, you are free to begin
… Michael
,
are you ready
?
” Takada asks.

Mi
chael nods and opens his eyes.

The tracer light appears on a pedestal at the far corner of the course
.
Michael launches himself onto the beam in front of him
.

I
t happens
instantly, his perception changes
;
the crowd disappears, the floor and arena
fade away
, Takada and the throwers
vanish
, even Rena
is
strip
ped
from his
mind
.  All he can see are the tops of the beams and pedestals, looking like glowing surfaces floating in
space.  In the distance, a glowing red light,
visible on a square
surface at the far corner of his perception
.

He moves without hesitation
,
across the long surface under his feet, no regard for balance
or footing
. 
Seeing
a
yellow
glowing ball arc in the
distance and race toward him, h
e leaps
,
spinning,
as
the ball
soar
s
past
.

H
e
lands back on the
beam
,
taking two steps before jumping
up toward a
nother
small
square
surface
,
several feet away. 
Landing
with one foot on the
pedestal
, he
t
wist
s
his body
completely around
,
at the same time
,
he
catch
es
the arc of another glowing ball appear
in
the distance
,
on a
trajectory
to
ward
him.

His second foot, suspended out away from the floating surface, instinctively kicks forward and up, as the leg supporting his weight on the
pedestal
pushes his body
up
into the air.

H
e tips his head back and
identifies
the landing spot
, crunching his mid-section, pulling his knees into his body, performing a tucked
flip in the air
as the glowing orb
passes below his head.

Another orb appears out of the distance.

Mid-flip, h
e rotates his center of gravity, causing his
body
to c
orkscrew
.  T
he
orb races
past
,
just
behind
h
is back.

Landing
on
both feet
facing forward
,
his
legs
bend to absorb the impact. 
Channeling
the momentum of the aerial
to continue
through
his center of gravity,
Michael launches
himself hard
off the surface
with both legs
.  The upward force of his legs
coupled with the momentum of the
previous aerial,
propels
his body into a
diving leap
.

Another orb
from in front of him
arcs and speeds at
his position
.  Midway through
the leap
,
he tucks his body into a b
all
,
generating
rotation,
passing above the ball.  Maintaining his tucked
form
, he rolls along a long length of surface, feeling it pass twice along his spine.  Afte
r the second pass
,
Michael performs a handspring
to a standing position
at
the center
of the
beam
.

Again
directing
his momentum, h
e takes several
long strides along
the
beam
,
then jump-skips across fifteen
floating
surfaces of varying
elevation
, bounding from
pedestal
to
pedestal
,
never
changing speed,
all the while avoiding a
salvo of glowing orbs racing to
ward him from every direction.

Continuing
onto a long surface, accelerating to a full sprint,
he
leap
s
off
the far end into a tucked side-spin, allowing
a ball
to pass beneath him.
L
and
ing
full stride onto another long
glowing
surface,
he
repeat
s
t
he side-spin off the end
,
avoiding two
more
balls, the first past his fac
e, the second behind his back.

He lands with both feet on the square
pedestal
at the far corner of the course
illuminated by the glowing red light
. 
T
urn
ing
, lowering his body into a crouch,
Michael
scan
s
the course.  H
is heart
beating
like a drum
,
he prepares
to pounce like a predator at
the reemergence of the light.

It never
appears.

Michael relaxes
,
his surrounding
s
fad
ing
back into existence.
 
He immediately
locates
Rena, standing next to Takada, her mouth open and eyes wide, unmoving, looking as though she just
witnessed an
explosion in the distance.
Michael’s sur
roundings come fully into focus,
t
he explosion witnessed by most in attendance
.

He
jumps down from the pedestal
,
t
he
crowd erupting in celebration
.  Returning to
Takada and Rena’s location, he overhears several exclamations
,
mostly questioning
the reality of
what they’d just witnessed.
 
Takada
, smiling,
congratulates
him
on an inspiring display
.

Shifting his attention, Michael watches
Rena
regain her composure
only to
appear
to be
come engrossed
in deep thought, looking right through
him
.

“Well my dear, I am afraid I underestimated the daunting task it would be to follow Michael on the course
today
.  If you feel uncomfortable, I can have this test rescheduled.”
Takada offers
.

Rena
refocuses
,
“Excuse me?”

“I can reschedule this test, if you
’d
like.” Takada restates
,
sympathetically
.

Michael watches Rena’s expression shift in slow motion, going from polite indifference
to a steely contained anger.

“Hell No!”
she
snaps
.

Removing her
j
acket, tossing it at Michael, she walks to t
he beginning of the course,
performing
some stretching exercises in
preparation of the task ahead
.

Michael stares at her, confused
by
her anger. 
The form-
fitting clothing she wear
s
reveals every curve of her
lithe
body. 
L
ean, yet toned, her
physique
falling somewhere between
dancer and gymnast, f
eminine without looking frail, t
he
lycra
tank revealing
her
muscular arms, shoulders
and abdomen
.
 
It’
s
immediately
obvious
she was no
t one to sit around
pampered
.
Based on the attention directed at Rena,
he’
s
not the only one to notice her physique.  Most odd
is
Takada’s reaction
; t
hough very subtle, he
alternates
his
interest
between Rena and Michael.

Rena
warmed up, positions
herself at the end of the beam.
  She looks
straight-ahead
, avoi
ding eye contact with Michael.

Takada takes notice of her
hostility
.

Michael re
gards her with admiration, finding
her undaunted determination
,
extremely attractive.  In the last day
,
he’
s seen her looking exquisite and refin
ed in the amazing dress earlier;
visceral
and dangerous at the tryout;
confident and determined
at this moment.
  He feels any animosity she has for him at this
time
,
warranted,
even if
he
doesn’
t understand why
. 
A
ccept
ing
her anger
,
he
hopes he
can continue
to spend time with her, as
she ha
s
become
someone he wants to learn more about.

Rena waits fo
r the tracer.

As with Michael
’s
first run of the course, the tracer light appears at
the far end of the same beam.

Rena jumps, cat-like
,
gliding
across the beam
breaking the tracer
,
causing it to disappear, reappearing fifty feet away on top of a pedes
tal.

She leaps
headfirst
over the end of the adjacent beam,
tucking
into a roll
,
into
a
handspring
to a standing position on the top of the beam, gen
erating cheers from the crowd.

Gliding
to the end of the beam, she do
es a round off into a back hand
spring onto a pe
destal, into a second back hand
spring to the next pedestal
,
into a third back hand
spring to the last pe
destal, contacting the tracer.

The tracer again reappears across the open space populated by several pedestals of various height and diame
ter.

Like a cat
,
she bounds weightless from pedestal to pedestal straight to the tracer.

The
beam of light
relocates to a high pedestal with
four parallel beam
s of varying
elevation between her and it.