Beastly's Arc

Chapter 8 of 11

The ledger is full, but the studio still feels incomplete. Beastly knows what comes next for any teacher with students who have progressed beyond basic combinations. A recital would prove their work to the families who paid in advance and to the town that still watches from outside. But a recital means the auditorium in town, the one with arches and rows of wooden benches set in a garden outside where audiences gather before performances. It means printed programs with student names listed beneath his own. It means bringing his students before the same people who called him a monster three months ago, the ones who passed his door every day until the newspaper made ignoring him impossible. He could teach in private forever and never risk that. The first girl arrives on Tuesday and asks again about learning to turn. Beastly watches her stand in fifth position without prompting, her posture straight and her focus steady. She has earned the right to perform, and so have the others. He tells her they will have a recital in four weeks. Her face lights up, and she asks if her friends from school can come watch. Beastly says yes before he can stop himself. That evening, he walks to the auditorium and arranges to rent the space. The manager takes his deposit without comment, then hands him a stack of blank programs to fill out. Beastly carries them back to the studio and sets them on the shelf beside his award. He will put his students on that stage, and the town will see what he has built. If they still call him a monster after that, at least they will have to admit he can teach.