Here's the final installment of Lost In Sunshine! Enjoy... and let me know what you think! ~lucky_marlees

A baby stands in her crib. She bounces up and down in time to the music that is coming from the hanging mobile above her head. She is laughing and smiling. A ray of sunshine falls from the open window onto her head, making shadows fall across her face. Her mother comes in and praises her for being such a clever baby, clapping her hands to the beat. The baby stops bouncing and begins to cry. A cloud passes over the sun and the ray of light is gone.
~
Cecilia’s days are very busy, as she tries to please everyone. She is one those hapless souls born never knowing when to cause a ruckus. She never learned that the only way to survive is to make someone unhappy at some point in time. Instead she tries to please everyone. It is Friday, a day many students and people in generally long all week for. This is not the case with Cecilia. It means that her mother will have no excuse to leave her alone for forty-eight hours. The only thing that prevents her from taking Cecilia out of school is that she knows she will be dancing all day, anyway. Cecilia longs for Baton Rouge, she misses her friends. But she knows better than to try to tell her mother anything. Thea D. Solaris is only interested in hearing from Sunshine.
Cecilia walks briskly home from school, barely controlling her urge to walk like a dancer. She hates it when people recognize her, hates being singled out as a dancer. The truth is Cecilia hates to be the center of attention. She walks up to her room and flops down on her bed. The house in strangely quiet. In fact, Cecilia can never remember it being silent when she returns from school. Her mother has always been there to greet her and give her a verbal rundown of the day’s schedule. As much as Cecilia loathes this, she feels lost without. She casts her mind around for something to do.
Read.
Cecilia has always loved to read. Ironically, she learned to read very late in life. It took her until second grade to be able to read fluently but since then she has devoured every book that comes her way. Her parents never seemed concerned. Reading wasn’t much of a priority of Mr. and Mrs. Solaris. They never pushed her to read. Cecilia looks around her room for a book that is not about dancing, dancers, or performances. She can’t find any. She turns on the lights. Somehow, she thinks that illuminating the room will reveal a book. It doesn’t work. Feeling slightly frantic she goes off to search the rest of the house for a book. They are all about dance. Helpless, Cecilia enters the kitchen. Without her mother there she is free to eat whatever she wants. Theoretically. A search of the kitchen reveals that there is no junk food. Cecilia does find something to read however.
~
Mr. Solaris is a small man. Unlike his wife he makes no effort to look younger than he is. He looks much older. His gray is thin and wispy. His clothes are gray and loose. He works hard being the owner of successful factory that manufactures toothpaste. While it cannot be said that he was an overly generous man, he certainly was not stingy and above all he was fair. He worked hard all day and every first, second, and fourth weekends keeping his workers and stockholders happy. Every third weekend he came home and tried to keep his wife happy. She was not an easy woman to please but he had discovered that the path of least résistance was easiest where she was concerned. He loved her very much but it was not her he missed three weeks out of the month; it was his daughter.
~
Mrs. Thea D. Solaris grew up in New Orleans, as a Smithson. Her family was called well to do by the kindest observers; filthy rich by their enemies. The Smithsons have always been a prominent family in the southern world. Thea belonged to a society of girls who were taught to stifle their brains. Her mother, a former Miss Louisiana, told her only daughter that the most important was to marry rich. Thea, who somewhat idolizes her mother, followed her advice quiet directly. She graduated from high school, spent two years and married on the Eve of the third year.
In spite of the fact that Mrs. Smithson, while she was lacking in other maternal areas had taught her daughter well. Thea grew up to know how to get what she wanted from store clerks, maitre’ds, and airport staff. While she never was a stellar student she did win homecoming queen. All her life Thea D. depended on her father for all-important decisions and her mother for fashion advice. When she married the big world choices transferred to Mr. Solaris and she’d learned enough about fashion from her mother to muddle through on her own. The only real decision she ever made was to enroll her daughter in Madame Perdue’s School of Dance.
~
Cecilia stands at the kitchen counter, her mother’s note in her hand. She reads it once. Again. A third time. The she reads it again because she can’t quite believe it. Finally, she reads it aloud her voice echoing through the empty apartment.
“Sunshine! Barry Walters, from the agency just called. He said that an offer just came through to take Sunshine and the Boys on a nationwide tour! Isn’t wonderful! I’m at the agency right now, looking at the details. If we push this we could be on the road by August 18th! So head straight to the gym and we’ll talk over our new routines when I get there! We’re going to have to work really hard.
Kisses!
Thea D.”
Cecilia lets the note fall from her hand. She knows she doesn’t want to do this. She knows she can’t do this. She also knows that her mother won’t let Sunshine miss an opportunity like this. A word from junior high comes back to her, a word they’d shout when you played volleyball in gym. Pressure.
~
Sunshine stands on the stage, at age six. The music starts and she begins to dance but something is not quite right. Her smile is a little too broad; she’s off the beat by a half second. As the unofficial back-up dancers enter the stage, there is a mix up and somehow Sunshine ends up too far upstage. She attempts her pirouette and succeeds but ends up air born, landing in the front row. Fast-forward a half an hour. A very tall woman is standing over the small dancer. She isn’t smiling. She talks in a scary, clear, slow, voice. And she says just ten words
“Don’t ever let me catch you making such a mistake onstage again.”
The woman turns on her heel and walks out of the auditorium.
Cecilia hates dancing at that moment.
~

Because it is a third Friday Mr. Solaris rushes home from work at 3 o’clock. He has to be at the airport by 4:30 so as to be home as son as possible. He tries to remember what his wife has planned for this weekend. He can’t. Mr. Solaris knows it will be something dance related. It has been for many years. The truth is, though, that Mr. Solaris has had more than his fill of watching dancer performances. He simply wants to see his family. The truth is he never really enjoyed watching his daughter dance. Mr. Solaris considers it to be his duty to keep is wife and daughter happy. And if watching endless boring dance recitals will do it, he’ll watch until his eyelids droop and then he’ll drink some strong coffee. He knows that it’s important to Thea and Cecilia- or rather Sunshine. Mr. Solaris always liked the name Cecilia; it was his mother’s name. But Sunshine he had been told to call her and do so he would until his wife told him otherwise. He knows that once off the plane he will stop at the penthouse and no one will be there. He knows he’ll have to go to the studio if he wants to see Mrs. Solaris or Cec-, Sunshine before morning.
~
Mrs. Solaris walks briskly from the agency to the studio. It is five and Sunshine still hasn’t called her to tell her when she will be there. Mrs. Solaris calls the house, Sunshine’s cell and no one picks up. She thinks this is odd because she was so sure that Sunshine would be thrilled. She tries the cell number again.
“Hello?”
“Sunshine, honey, it’s mean! Now we need to get you right here so we can go over our routine with John and the schedule with Barry. You need to be here now, young lady.
“ Okay, mom. I’ll be right over.”
Cecilia hangs up the phone and looks around. Why did I do that? I don’t want to go to the studio and I don’t want to do that tour. She shrugs and goes to get her shoes. I’ll talk to her there.
~
Cecilia is six, nine, thirteen, eight, five, eleven, seven or twelve. She is standing backstage. Her face looks very sad but she tries to hide it from her mother. She seems unsure of herself and scared to death. Every motion screams I don’t want to be here. A mantra runs through her head, Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. She paces in ever decreasing circles. Someone calls out “One minute.” You can see the effort on Cecilia’s face as she straights out her sadness. She turns away for a second and by thirty seconds to go she’s gone. Standing there in her place, grinning, ready to take the stage, is Sunshine.
~
Cecilia coaches herself on the way to the studio. She tells herself, that if she ever wants to be happy again she has to be strong, she has to put her foot down once and for all. Cecilia doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life doing something she despises. She tells herself that Thea D. will love her anyway. That’s what mothers are for. She enters the studio doors and automatically turns to climb the ten flights of stairs. John and Thea D. agreed that starting the workout with stairs was nothing short of brilliance. No! She thinks. Cecilia knows that if she’s going to start disobeying her mother he going to have to start now. Cecilia takes the elevator.
Upstairs she finds both her mother and her father. Her heart is thumping against her chest and she feels as if she can’t breathe. Cecilia knows that she has to do this now, say her say before she gets confused by all the plans her mother is undoubtedly about to throw at her.
“ I won’t do the tour.”
Mrs. and Mr. Solaris looked shocked but for different reasons. This is the first Mr. Solaris has heard of the tour. Thea D. can’ think of what Sunshine means.
“What are you saying? Of course we’re doing the tour. It’s all-”
Mr. Solaris takes his life in is hands and interrupts his wife.
“What tour?”
His small moment of defiance is short-lived. Both mother and daughter ignore him.
“I will not do this tour or any other. I hate dancing and diets and work-outs until two a.m.”
“Are you insane? This will open so many opportunities for us, honey. Do you know what this means? This is it, this is the big time.”
“ I can’t do this, mom, and I won’t. Can’t you see it’s killing me, it’s killing who I am!
“Sunshine-“
“MY NAME IS CECILIA!!!!!”
“You can’t give this up. It’s a dream come true. You’re not losing yourself. Your finding what everyone dreams of- a chance. This dream is who we are.”
Thea’s word hangs in air like a bomb everyone is waiting to explode. Cecilia looks close to tears. Mrs. Solaris still is confused. Her daughter couldn’t really be saying all this.
“Mom, I-“
For the first time since Cecilia entered the studio Mrs. Solaris remembers that, her husband is also in the room.
“Tell her I’m right, Harry”.
There is an awful moment while turns around. All eyes in the room are on his. Cecilia is sure he will agree with her. He’d never seemed to enjoy dancing all that much. Mrs. Solaris just stares at him, her eyes showing just what this means to her.
“Listen to you mother, Sunshine”
~
Fox News is interviewing a teen dancing sensation about her recent life changing career moves. The reporter begins the interview with a standard hello.
“Hello Cecilia! It’s great to have-…”
“Oh, please! Call me Sunshine!”
Sunshine is here to stay.