Page 37 of See You at the Sunset

“This is the start of the very best day! Who’s with me?” Jia enthused over the speakers.

Cheers erupted in the room as people all stood and took their spots.

Henry wasn’t sure what to do. He should leave. But he wanted to keep an eye on his granddad and make sure he wasn’t pushing himself, or being pushed, into a dangerous situation.

“All right, we’re going right then left, right and left, in four, three, two, one.”

The crowd moved and followed her lead.

“Jia,” a group of women called out. She looked over her shoulder at them as they began to point... in Henry’s direction.

Jia’s back was toward the crowd, but when she faced forward into the mirror, her eyes caught his. It wasn’t hard to spot him. The entire crowd was moving.

But Henry just stood there stock still.

She narrowed her eyes at him in the mirror.

“What’s the first rule of Zumba?” she called out.

“Everybody moves,” the crowd called back, the ladies that had ratted him out to Jia answering her the loudest.

A wicked smile crossed her face.

“And when someone doesn’t move?” she asked.

“They go to the front!” someone squealed.

“Keep it going. Step right, step left, step right, step left. In the next eight count, we’re going to add a clap. In four, three, two, one!”

The room moved right and clapped. Then left and clapped. It was a basic dance. Even those sitting in chairs leaned to the right and clapped and then to the left.

Henry looked at his granddad trying to step right, but he was bound by his walker, like a cage.

“Sunseters, I spy someone not moving!” Jia called out.

“Front, front, front, front,” they began to chant. Those tattlers. If Henry didn’t know better, he’d suspect they were trying to make a fool of him.

But he couldn’t think much more on that because, suddenly, Henry was being pushed by the crowd toward the front.

“Wait a minute, wait, oh no, I’m not going up there,” he tried to refuse. But the crowd kept nudging him and pushing and chanting, “Front, front.”

Next thing he knew, he was standing face-to-face with a tutu-clad Jia.

“Everyone moves in Zumba,” she said.

“I gathered that,” Henry said. “But I’m not here to Zumba,” he insisted.

“You’re here early in the morning at a Zumba class. I beg to differ,” she said. Jia continued to move, right clap, left clap, while talking to him.

“Well, if I promise to move from back there...” Henry suggested, leaning his head toward the back of the room where he’d once stood.

“Are you gonna try to escape?” she asked.

“Maybe?”

“The class seems to like having you up front.” She raised her eyebrows at him, as if asking for permission. He let out a deep sigh and gave in.

“Fine. Use me and abuse me.”