Patricia Rockwell - Essie Cobb 03 - Valentined (22 page)

“Yoga, here I come!” she announced.

Chapter Twenty Seven

“Age does not protect you from love. 
But love, to some extent, protects you from age.”

—Jeanne Moreau

Departing the elevator on the second floor, Essie turned in
the opposite direction from the arts and crafts room and headed down the
opposite hallway which led to the small gym at the other end of Happy Haven. 
‘Gym’ was actually a misnomer.  It was not as if they had a basketball court
with bleachers.  There was only a small, open room with bright lighting.  As
Essie rolled into the large room that she’d only been in a few times before,
the difference in the atmosphere was noticeable.

The room was now dark.  Several candles placed on a table
near the far end of the room provided the only light.  As her eyes adjusted to
the dimness, Essie could see that a number of residents had already arrived and
had gotten into position for class, or she guessed that’s what they were
doing.  A few women were lying down on the hard floor on some sort of colorful
mat.  Essie glanced around the room.  Near the door, residents had parked their
walkers and dropped their canes.  She could even see that one woman who used a
wheelchair had stationed it near the far side of the room and she had scooted
out of her chair and was also lying on the floor on a mat.

The yoga teacher—or yogi—or whatever she was called was
visible near the far end, just finishing lighting one of the candles.  She was
a young woman, her hair in a ponytail.  She was wearing a lavender leotard with
white tights.  She smiled warmly at residents as they all found a place and
unrolled their mats.  As she glanced up and saw Essie, she held her hand up in
the air as if to say,
just a moment
.  She put down her matches on the
table and headed over to Essie.

“Greetings,” she said softly, her hands together and bowing
politely.  “Welcome to yoga class.  I don’t believe we’ve seen you here
before.”

“I’m Essie Cobb,” replied Essie.  “I signed up downstairs.”

“Of course,” said the yoga instructor.  “We’re delighted to
have you join us, Essie.  I’m Nora.  If you have any trouble keeping up, please
don’t be discouraged.  Just proceed at your own pace.  Remember, the purpose of
yoga is for your enlightenment and peace.”

And hopefully, to catch a drug dealer
, added Essie in
her mind.

“You can leave your walker by the door and grab a mat over
there,” said Nora, pointing to the pile of colorful rubber mats by the
entrance.  “Just pick a spot and make yourself comfortable.  We’ll begin in
just a moment.”  Nora bowed again, in that formal Indian manner and Essie
nodded, feeling somewhat guilty that she didn’t return the appropriate yoga
class greeting.

Essie rolled over to where the other residents had parked their
walkers and deposited their canes.  She pushed hers to a prominent position as
close to the entrance as possible.  Now how would the drug dealer know this
walker was hers? she thought.  So many of the walkers looked alike.  Of course,
she always recognized her walker, but then she never was really parted from
it.  Giving her basket seat a little good luck pat, she carefully inched over
to the group of residents already on their mats near the far end.  Her bones
creaked as she lowered herself to the floor and unrolled her pink mat.  Once
flattened, the mat had a squeaky, bouncy quality.  Essie crawled cautiously
onto the mat and smiled at the residents nearby.

“Welcome to yoga,” whispered one lady on her right, her
right leg up in the air.  Essie wondered if the leg raised perpendicular to the
floor was the traditional yoga greeting.  She attempted to force her leg into
the air, but she was able to extend it only as far as her knee. 

“That’s as far as that one will go,” she noted.  “Maybe the
other one has more stretch.”  She put the first leg on the floor and attempted
to raise the other leg to no avail.  Plopping the leg back onto the mat, she
lay there exhausted from this minimal physical exercise.

“And class hasn’t even begun,” she said to herself.

At that moment, Nora came away from the candles and out to
the front of the group.  She performed a deep bow, the top part of her body
remaining clutched to the lower half for a painfully long period of time.  At
least, that’s how Essie viewed it. 

“Greetings, students,” Nora said in a gentle, almost
inaudible voice.  “Are we ready to begin?”  The residents nodded and some made
sounds of agreement.  Nora then began by announcing various positions.  The
first seemed relatively simple to Essie.  At least, at first.  Nora
demonstrated.  She lay face down on her mat and pushed upwards with her hands,
looking at the ceiling.  She then seemed to hold that pose as if she were
frozen.  The residents—most of whom seemed to be regular attendees—repeated
Nora’s pose, although none of them looked as lovely and relaxed as Nora did. 
Most of the residents had looks of pain and torture on their faces.

Essie rolled over with difficulty until she was on her
stomach. 
How hard can this be?
she wondered.  She pushed her body upwards
with her hands, looking at the ceiling, but glancing down at Nora at the front
of the group to see if she was capturing the pose correctly.  It seemed to be
right.  So why did it feel so uncomfortable?  Surely, no one could remain like
this for long, and yet when she glanced around the room, most the residents
were holding Nora’s pose. 
Egad, Chad!
moaned Essie to herself.  There’s
just too much of me to hold up like this for this long.  She could feel her
elbows starting to sway back and forth. 
Please, don’t buckle!
she urged
them.  She clenched her teeth in an attempt to maintain the pose that everyone
else appeared to be holding smoothly.  All of a sudden, she collapsed and her
chin hit the pink mat with a thud. 

“Don’t be upset if you cannot hold the pose for long,”
droned Nora as if she wasn’t referring at all to the fact that Essie had just
plopped noisily onto her mat.  “It’s the effort not the time that counts.” 
Essie panted on her mat in a prone position, her face to one side.  Finally,
she rolled over onto her back and sat up while she waited for the group to
conclude the pose
.  Now, how could that woman talk and hold that pose at the
same time?
thought Essie. 
It was all I could do to keep my head above
my shoulders for more than two seconds.  I thought yoga was supposed to be
relaxing.  Ha!

Eventually, Nora gently pulled out of the pose and the other
residents followed. 

“Now, for our second position,” said the yoga leader.  She
stood up on her mat and bent down and touched her toes.  The class followed her
actions.  Then gradually she walked her hands forward and away from her feet
until they were at least several feet in front of her.  When she had reached
the correct location, she appeared to freeze in place.  The residents followed
her, although Essie detected quite a number of grunts and groans along the way,
particularly as they reached down for their toes.

Essie hadn’t stood up and touched her toes since—well, she
couldn’t remember ever standing up and reaching down to touch her toes.  She
couldn’t think of a practical reason to do such a thing.  Now, obviously, there
was a reason.  Slowly she bent her body, dropping her hands lower and lower
towards the mat.  She could see the floor in the distance, but she couldn’t
quite reach it.  She realized that she couldn’t even begin this second pose
until she was able to touch her toes.  She bounced up and down, figuring she
might give herself a little push, but her hands refused to hit the floor.  She
continued this procedure over and over.  The other residents had all been able
to reach the floor and had moved their hands out to form the little triangle
that was created by this body position.  Nora spoke soothingly to encourage the
class.  At one point, Nora calmly stood from her pose and moved to Essie.  She
whispered in her ear.

“Don’t feel you have to reach your toes, Essie.  You can aim
for further out in front.  Here, let me help you.”  Nora grabbed Essie’s waist
and held tight as she directed Essie to reach out.  Essie stretched her arms out
and Nora gradually lowered Essie’s body until Essie’s hands were on the floor
about three feet in front of her feet.  “There you go.  Now just hold this
position as long as you can.”

Easy for you to say
, Essie wanted to snap back at the
sweet-natured yoga teacher.  Essie now found herself in an uncomfortable
position that she had no idea how to extricate herself from.  If she moved a
hand, her entire body would plummet to the ground.  She seriously thought she
might break a bone if she so much as moved a finger.  Nora came around again.

“Let’s bring you up, Essie,” she said.  She pulled up on
Essie’s waist again and Essie suddenly was upright. 
Forces of horses!
she thought. 
This little woman has a lot of strength.
 

After these opening poses, Nora had the class lie down on
their mats.  As she lay on her plastic mat with her legs stretched at an odd
angle, Essie felt as if there would be no way her poor leg would ever return to
its normal position.  She’d probably need orthopedic surgery.  When her classmates
carefully extricated their legs from their poses and put their feet back on the
floor, Essie realized that her feet were permanently stuck in this position. 
She probably looked like a human pretzel.  She’d be ready to join the circus
once she graduated from this class. 

Lovely Nora appeared as if from a cloud and amazingly
performed her magic again.  With a quick pull on Essie’s feet, Essie suddenly
found her body in one piece and herself lying in a prone position on her back,
panting as if she’d just run a marathon.  The instructor smiled sweetly and
returned to the front of the class.

Finally, after a few more of what she referred to as
“simple” positions, Nora announced that class was finished.  She rose and
calmly bowed to the class.  The class returned her gesture and then rolled up
their plastic mats and placed them back in a pile by the door where they came
in.  Some of the residents remained, chatting with one another.  Nora
disappeared as ethereally as she had come.  Essie had not seen her in the
building before.  She assumed that Nora was an instructor who came in from the
outside to conduct these classes and not one of the regular staff members at
Happy Haven.

Essie hobbled over as best she could to where the walkers
were parked.  She found her walker and realized that she had not looked up even
once throughout the entire class to see if anyone was disturbing her walker
while she was doing yoga.  She quickly but discreetly opened the seat cover and
glanced inside.  The cream-colored envelope remained on top.  She lifted it up
and looked inside; the homemade fake valentine she had concocted was still
there.  Apparently, the dealer had not used this opportunity to steal it from
her.  She would have to figure out another way to entice him to come looking
for it.

As she rolled out the gym door and towards the elevator, she
felt every muscle in her body.  And this was not a good thing.  Some parts of
her body she never wanted to feel.  So much for yoga being a gentle activity. 
Could
all that weird yoga stuff really be beneficial
? she wondered.   Certainly,
she’d never need to use any of those weird poses to do anything.  None that she
could think of anyway. 

The elevator door was open for which she was grateful.  The
cab was crowded with people.  As she glanced at her watch, she realized she had
plenty of time before dinner.  After all that activity, she’d surely need a
nap. 

Chapter Twenty Eight

“One word frees us of all the weight
and pain of life.  That word is love.”

—Sophocles

When she exited the elevator on the first floor, she could
tell there was something going on.  The number of people gathered in the family
room was far greater than normal.  The noise level was much higher too.  As she
pushed and shoved her walker through the massive crowd of people, many of whom
were not Happy Haven residents, and rounded the corner into the main lobby, it
dawned on her what all the commotion was about.  This was the crowd that had
gathered for that Dr. Love, the authority on the history of romance. 

Essie wanted nothing more than to make a beeline for her
room and take a nap.  Every muscle in her ninety-year-old body had made itself
known during the yoga workout. 
Ouch
, she cried out loud as a man bumped
into her and almost knocked her down.  She pushed ahead and could see the cause
of the excitement.

Standing at the fireplace was a tall, dark-haired man of
movie-star good looks.  He had exquisite posture and just a touch of grey at
his temples.  His beautifully tailored suit was probably made in Italy, Essie
surmised.  It fit every curve of his body to perfection.  Now if this man were
her secret admirer, she might actually consider giving him a tumble.  Sue
Barber was standing next to him, apparently waiting for the starting time. 
Essie glanced at her watch.  It was a few minutes before two.

As she stood frozen, staring at the guest speaker, she heard
her name called out.  Looking up, she spied Marjorie, Opal, and Fay—all seated
together on one of the long sofas near the fireplace.  Marjorie was patting the
seat between herself and Opal and motioning for Essie to sit there.

Nefertiti’s nipples!
she mumbled to herself. 
There
goes my nap!
  She maneuvered her walker through the buzzing crowd over to
the sofa where her friends were seated. 

“Come on, Essie!” cried Marjorie. “Sit here with us!”

“Put your walker by the wall,” ordered Opal.  Essie looked
over to a nearby wall where her pals and several other residents had parked
their vehicles.  Essie was too tired to argue so she nudged her walker among
the others and limped over the few feet to the sofa and plopped down between
Marjorie and Opal.  Opal had the end seat and Fay was beside her in her
wheelchair.