Читать книгу Christmas in Enchantia - Darcey Bussell - Страница 8

Delphie Durand stood by the window, pointing first one foot forward and then the other. The clouds in the sky were grey and heavy as she looked out. People were hurrying along the street, their faces buried in their scarves, their gloved hands full of shopping bags.

Oh I hope it snows tonight, Delphie thought longingly. She was nine and she hadn’t once had a Christmas Day with snow.

“Delphie, do you want a mince pie?” her mum called from the kitchen.

Delphie ran through, leaping into the air on the way, to where her mum was washing up. A freshly baked batch of mince pies was cooling on a wire rack nearby.

“Well, would you like one?” her mum asked, nodding at them.

But Delphie’s stomach felt full of fluttering butterflies. “Not now, thanks, Mum.” Holding on to the back of a kitchen chair, she bent her knees, pulled her toe up against her leg and pointed it out to the side, her arm following gracefully. She just couldn’t seem to stand still that afternoon. She was too excited.

Not only was it Christmas Eve but that night, Delphie’s ballet school was doing a show at the town hall. Each class was going to be performing a dance they had been learning. Delphie’s group was going to be doing one from a ballet called The Nutcracker. They had been practising for weeks.

Mrs Durand checked her watch. “We should get going. We don’t want to be late.”

“I’ll get my things,” said Delphie eagerly.

She went up to her room and brushed her long dark hair. The nutcracker toy that she was going to be using in the dance was on her dressing table next to her red ballet shoes. Delphie picked him up and danced a few steps around the room, pretending to be Clara, the girl in the ballet who was given the nutcracker for Christmas.

Delphie smiled as she remembered another time when she had done the dance – and done it for real! For Delphie had an amazing secret – her red ballet shoes were magic! Sometimes they would start to glow and sparkle and then they would whisk Delphie off to a magical land called Enchantia where all the characters from the different ballets lived. That was where Delphie had met the real Nutcracker and danced with him.

I wonder when I’ll go to Enchantia again, she thought.

“Delphie! Time to go!” her mum called.

“Coming!” Delphie grabbed her shoes, ballet bag and the nutcracker toy and hurried out of the room.

It was exciting to get to the town hall and get changed in a proper dressing room with everyone else from her class. The mirror in front of her even had lights all round it. Delphie had a space between her two best friends, Poppy and Lola.

Sukie Taylor, who didn’t like Delphie much, was sitting on the other side of the room. “You’re the last to get here,” she said as Delphie sat down.

But Delphie ignored her. She wasn’t going to let Sukie spoil her evening and although she may well have been the last to arrive, she knew she wasn’t late.

“Hi, Delphie!” Poppy called over. She and Lola were fixing pink, blue and green ribbons in each other’s hair. Delphie felt a flicker of longing. Her mum had only managed to get her plain white ones. She’d seen her friends’ ribbons at the dress rehearsal and wished she’d had some the same, particularly when Sukie had laughed at her for being the only one with boring white ones. Sukie’s own ribbons were big, wide and gold. Delphie thought they looked a bit silly.

“We’ve got a present for you!” Lola jumped up and handed her a small package wrapped in Christmas paper. “Here!” she smiled. “It’s from both of us.”

“Oh, thanks.” Delphie felt awkward. She hadn’t realised they were getting each other Christmas presents and hadn’t brought anything for her friends.

“Well, open it then!” Poppy urged.

Delphie unwrapped the paper. “Ribbons!

Just like yours!” she exclaimed as she pulled a set of green, pink and blue ribbons out of the paper.

“Now we can all be the same!” said Lola.

Just then their teacher, Madame Za-Za, poked her head into the dressing room. “Hurry up, girls.”

Delphie started to get changed. They all had to wear white leotards and knee-length white nightdresses. Over the tannoy system, Delphie could hear the sound of the audience coming into the town hall, talking and taking their seats. The orchestra was tuning up. A violin was playing a string of notes. Another musician blew a few deep notes on a tuba.

Poppy and Lola helped Delphie do her hair and then they started to warm up. Delphie bent and straightened her knees and thought about the dance ahead. It had been interesting watching the others at the dress rehearsal and seeing what they were good at. After the rehearsal, when she was practising at home, she had tried to skip as lightly as Poppy and to spin without wobbling like Lola and to lift her leg as high as Sukie, but the only problem was, the more she tried to be as good as the others at the different bits, the more her dancing just didn’t feel right. I hope it’s going to be OK when I get on stage, she thought nervously.

The tannoy crackled and there was an announcement. “Beginners to stage please. Beginners to stage.”

Delphie’s stomach clenched with excitement. “Good luck!” she said to Lola and Poppy and they all hugged. Even Sukie was looking anxious and as they got into line ready to go up to the stage, she caught Delphie’s eye and gave her a nervous smile.

Delphie smiled back. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Sukie said, her nervousness making her nice for once. “You too, Delphie.”

As they all hurried up the stairs on to the stage, they had to be very quiet. Standing out of the way of the stage hands, they watched the older girls before them go forward and get into their opening positions, waiting for the curtains to rise. Delphie didn’t think she’d ever felt so nervous or excited. The lights in the auditorium went down and a hush fell. There was a moment’s silence and then the orchestra started to play.

The curtains rose. The older girls were dancing a scene from Cinderella. One was a winter fairy, another was a summer fairy, then there was a spring fairy and an autumn fairy. It was the bit of the ballet where all the fairies danced together. They had to do lots of quick footwork including dancing on their pointes and spinning together perfectly in time. Delphie watched, entranced, as they each took it in turns to do a short solo. She couldn’t wait until she was old enough to have pointe shoes! One of the stage hands came over to them. “Time to get into your places, girls.”

Delphie’s class moved up to the curtains. Delphie had to come on alone from the entrance at the back of stage. She waited in the dark, out of sight of the others, hearing the loud applause as the older girls finished and curtsyed.

This is it, she thought, her heart thudding. I’m about to go on!

But just as her nerves almost started to get the better of her, her feet started to tingle. She glanced down at her shoes and stared. They were glowing! Surely she couldn’t be about to go to Enchantia? Not at that very moment? Quickly she put down the nutcracker doll she was holding. Bright red, green and gold colours rushed around her as she was lifted up and swept away. Where would she land this time?

She couldn’t wait to find out!