Louise took over for the next part, in which Nora had to swing to the left, stepping forward on the left leg and reversing the arm positions holding the ball. This took quite a few tries before Louise was satisfied.
Then we had the job of trying to unite these two parts into a smooth-flowing whole. With me calling “Over to red” and Louise shouting “Come to green, baby”, we managed to get the bits cobbled together into a reasonably acceptable form. We finished by having Nora try it on her own without our coaching from each side, and the look of surprised delight on her face when she did it was worth all the effort.
Louise and I burst into that song from My Fair Lady, “I think she’s got it, I think she’s got it”, and I invited them both down to my room for a glass of sherry to celebrate. This was another first for Nora. Actually, it was a first and a second, because she knocked the first one back so quickly I had to pour her another.
“Sherry’s like tai chi, Nora. It should be taken slowly,” Louise said with a grin.
On Saturday morning, we thought we’d be able to plunge right into the “White Stork Cooling its Wings”, but unfortunately we had to backtrack, as Nora seemed to have forgotten quite a lot of yesterday’s lesson. Still, we kept at it, and eventually she had it again. I suggested we have a break for lunch, and again we went to my apartment for a glass of sherry, which seemed to give us all fresh heart.
In the afternoon, we tackled “White Stork Cools its Wings”, but it didn’t go too well. We were all a bit stressed out when we finished, and I thought both Louise and Nora were going to suggest giving up. Before they could open their mouths, however, I jollied them along by reminding Nora how well she’d done “Parting the Horse’s Mane” and said I was sure we’d get it after another lesson with Mrs. Yee, and in the meantime, let’s all go for a glass of sherry. Nora didn’t come down for the buffet that night.
It was on Sunday afternoon, while I was checking the magazine rack for the latest issue of Crafts for Every Day in case there was something new we could introduce, that I overheard Merrilee giggling with her cronies.
“I understand she and Louise are giving her secret lessons, trying to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. Talk about the blind leading the blind. Eileen’s about as graceful as a cart horse, and Louise can’t even stretch her arms out properly. It must be like a performance by the Three Stooges.” And out came that irritating tinkling laugh. “Mark my words, this tai chi business won’t last more than another week. Everybody thinks Mrs. Yee spends too much time on Nora and that it’s time wasted.”
I was furious. Not about her aspersions about me and Louise, though they were aggravating enough, but if it killed me I was going to prove that Nora could and would master the tai chi moves. We’d just have to step up the practice program.
That Monday’s lesson was not too bad. Because most of the class was not too sure about the “White Stork”, a fact which Louise and I found very reassuring, Mrs. Yee only introduced one new move, “Playing the Harp”.
“You see, Nora,” I said afterwards, “lots of people have difficulty learning the moves. You’re not the only one. Maybe we should have a little session this afternoon while the ‘White Stork’ is still fresh in our minds.”
This time it was Louise who complained. “I need to have a rest this afternoon, Eileen,” she said. “My arthritis is acting up.”
“I’ll tell you what,” I said, “we’ll all have a rest. Then Nora and I will meet at four o’clock for a little session before dinner, and if you’re feeling okay, Louise, you join us. Nora really needs the two of us.”
“Perhaps we could leave it till tomorrow,” suggested Nora rather timidly.
“No, no,” I said. “We must strike while the iron’s hot, and that stork still needs to cool its wings.”
Louise and Nora went off together, and I had the impression that Nora was pleading with Louise to be there.
In the meantime, I nipped out and bought two more bottles of sherry. After all, we still had three more forms to learn.
Louise did come at four o’clock, but she had her walker, and she looked rather pale. We had been coaching Nora for about forty minutes, when she was totally thrown off balance by Merrilee suddenly appearing in the stairwell opening. We hadn’t heard her coming up, and it gave us all a shock, I must admit.
“Oh, dear,” she said, “did I startle you? I had no idea you were practising here. I sometimes walk up and down the stairs to keep myself limber, you know. You should all try it.” She gave her tinkling laugh and started down the stairs. I thought Louise was going to throw her walker after her.
Anyway, that finished practice for that session, and we retired for a sherry to restore our equilibrium.
The next day I could sense more rebellion in the ranks, and I had to exhort both Nora and Louise to stick with it. “We’ve already done five of the forms, and there are only eight in the first set. There’s just ‘Needle at the Bottom of the Sea’, ‘Wave Hands Like Clouds’ and ‘Repulse the Monkey’. So we’re almost through, and then it’s only a matter of repeating them until they become second nature.”
“I’m not sure I want a Chinese second nature,” muttered Nora. “I was all right with my Canadian one.”
They both declined the sherry that day, so I knew things were serious. I later saw them both coming out of Nora’s room. I wondered what they had been discussing without me.
That evening I read right to the end of Mrs. Yee’s book, and I discovered there was a form of tai chi which involved using a stick. Well, actually, it was supposed to be a sword, but I figured a stick would do quite well, and I thought the change might spark their interest again. I got a yardstick and coloured one end green and the other red.
When I showed it to Nora the next day, I went back to the baseball simile. “If the batter is right-handed, as you are, Nora, when he draws the bat back, his left arm is down and close to the body but when he hits and follows through, his left elbow comes up, and his right arm is close to the body. If he only held the bat in one hand, his right hand would drop below his left arm. It’s a nice circular motion, all from the waist. Let’s try it with the stick and see if it helps give you that feeling of drawing a circle.”
The stick helped for some of the forms, but at one point it clattered out of Nora’s hand and bounced into the stairwell. Nora burst into tears. I had to go down a flight and a half to retrieve it, and I was a bit breathless when I got back.
“I think I’ll just stand here, ready to stop it in case it takes flight again,” I said, still puffing. I decided to ignore the tears. “Right, now let’s try ‘Playing the Harp’ once more. You’re not concentrating, Nora, and I think you called her to the wrong side, Louise, and your walker got in the way. Okay, let’s go. Play the harp, Nora.”
Nora glared at me. “Stuff your stupid harp,” she hissed, and she ran straight at me with the yardstick pointed at my chest like a sword. I involuntarily took a step backwards, and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling head over heels down the stairs.
I heard a shout, “How’s that for ‘Needle to the Bottom of the Sea’?”
From my room in Pavilion C when they wheel me over to the window, I can watch the group doing tai chi on the lawn. Merrilee is out in front, but I don’t see Louise and Nora anywhere.
AUDREY JESSUP’S aversion to exercise changed when she read of a Manchester University study claiming that the body cannot distinguish between actually doing an exercise and thinking about doing it. So if you catch her with glazed eyes contemplating her navel she is, in fact, thinking herself into svelte perfection.
RACE
VICKI