The Black Widow

Ballet

I am ecstatic to be back home. I love ballet and I learned so much but it feels like I've been gone for an eternity. I missed daddy so much and my real ballet school, Voskresensky's Academy of Ballet. I like all my teachers and all the other girls there. And I am excited about our winter showcase more than anything else. I am the best dancer there and I will get to be the center of it all. My instructor said it was so that all of Russia could see their little star.

As soon as I return we have to start rehearsing. At six years old I will be the youngest ever dancer to perform in it. Daddy can't stop telling me how proud he is.

We get home very late, the car ride was long but I slept most of the way. I can hardly contain my joy when we pull to our house. We live in an apartment above a bookshop. I remember spending long evenings there after ballet school helping the owner put books on the shelf. For the most part the shop was pretty empty. When I asked why the owner never had a real answer. Only, "That's just the way things are Natalia."

I bound up the stairway and burst into the apartment. My excitement falters the moment I step through the door. It all looks the same but something feels different not that I could say what it was.

"What's wrong Natasha?" Daddy smiles, turning on the lights.

"It feels different."

I look up at him for an answer but he just continues to smile but even that seems off now. Fake. Forced. 

He laughs and gestures to the window, "I left a window open for all that time. All the outside smells and air have gotten in."

I nod unsure that the outside air would have made that much of a difference.

"And besides I did redecorate a bit." 

Before I can say anything else it all seems to click in my brain. That makes a lot of sense after all I have been gone for two months. I might have gotten taller too which would make everything seem smaller, "Of course! Silly me! I must be tired."

He smiles at me but it's fake... no, it isn't I am being paranoid. I am looking for something to be wrong. Nothing is wrong. This is my life. No one is trying to trick me. This is my home and I am happy to be back.

"Why don't we get unpacked tomorrow and you head to bed, your first rehearsal starts at ten."

I smile and nod. Rehearsal tomorrow at ten. This is my life. This is who I am. A ballet prodigy ready to shock the world. I repeat that to myself over and over again as I fall asleep but somehow it still feels wrong.

When I wake up daddy is already in the kitchen making me breakfast. I grin at him as I eat and smile while I get ready for the day. Normal practice clothes and I tie my short red hair into a bun. I can't wait for my first rehearsal.

We arrive about ten minutes early but almost everyone else is already there. They are stretching and warming up for rehearsals. All of them are adults, I surpassed my peers long ago. Some of them scowl at me when I walk in. I don't think they want to work with me. I wonder if it is because I am a child or because I am better than them, perhaps it is a little of both. 

I begin to warm up just like the rest of them and eventually they shift their eyes away from me. I am just starting to relax when a woman approaches me. If I had to guess I'd say she is about 18, her last year at the academy.  She has a thin mouth that seems to take up too much space. Her nose is long and her face has a lot of sharp edges. She has long red hair, like me and clear blue eyes. 

"Natalia?"

"Natasha. You?"

"I am Olga. We will be performing together at the winter showcase," she smiles making her thin mouth expand revealing an endless cavern of perfect white teeth. She doesn't seem at all upset to be working with a child.

"Great!" This is my first time doing something this big." I admit.

She takes hold of my hand, "Don't worry I have heard great things about you."

I blush, "Really?"

She nods, "Yes, everyone calls you the little prodigy. I am excited to see you dance."

I smile at the compliment. I don't think she will be a bad partner at all.

"Come," she stands up, "let me show you where we will be rehearsing. Our choreographer is wonderful. Wait until you meet him."

She is right. Our choreographer is a short man with a big black bushy mustache. The moment we step into the room he begins teaching us the dance, he doesn't even bother with any kind of introduction. I get the feeling he doesn't care. The dance is hard, really hard and at first, I am nervous but the minute I start dancing all my fears melt away. Soon he releases us for our lunch break, after lunch we have classes and then more practice.

"Wow" Olga laughs as we walk outside, "You are good, I am going to have trouble keeping up with you. Do you have plans for lunch?"

"Yes I.." Wait a second. Plans for lunch. Plans for lunch.  I turn the phrase over and over in my head until something clicks. I do have plans for my lunch break and they do not include eating. It involves a target... a man and... I shake my head. That is ridiculous. Daddy is going to pick me up for lunch and we are going to go eat at a cafe. That is what he told me. I don't know where that other thing came from.

"Natasha? Natasha?" I realize that Olga has been calling my name.

I smile, "Sorry. What?"

She stares at me oddly, "I asked if you had plans for lunch, I thought maybe we could go out."

"Sorry, my dad is picking me up." I don't think daddy would mind me going out with someone else but for some reason, I feel very insistent that I have to go with him. I walk out the building at a brisk pace. I am in a hurry. I can't seem to remember why though... oh right, yes my lunch plans. lunch plans with daddy. His car pulls up and I hop in.

"Hi-" I stop when I see the look on his face like he wants to throw up, "Daddy are you okay?"

He nods slowly, "Natasha Romanov you have a mission. Please report for duty." 

"What are you talk-" I hear a loud high pitched ringing.It gives me a splitting headache. I cry out but daddy doesn't come to my aid. Why isn't he coming? I start to see pictures, pictures of things I have never seen and didn't do. Scary pictures. I can't remember-

When my headache passes I am me again. Not some idiotic dancer but me. I have to admit the cover was a clever one. Being a ballet prodigy gives me an excuse to travel anywhere in the world. I couldn't have done it better myself. I turn to Ivan. 

"My mission sir?"

Before he can answer the mission pops into my head as if I had always known it. How odd, but very efficient. "Never mind Sir, I have it."

Ivan's mouth is half open and his eyes are wide. Something glistens in his eyes but I can't quite tell who it is, "first something to wear."

He hands me a package wrapped in brown paper. "What's this?"

"Something to wear," he says again, "ts strong durable and contains anything you'll need for the mission."

I rip open the package and examine the contents. Just like with the mission everything I need to know about it appears in my head. There is a black full body suit made of a thin flexible material. Attached to the end of each sleeve are cuffs with the small metal disks I spent time training with in the Red Room. I smile as a new name for them appears in my brain.

Widow's Stings.

Next, there is a utility belt with two standard issue handguns, a variety of grenades, knives others things that I learned how to use in the Red Room. All of those things are familiar. It is the belt buckle that catches my eye. A red hourglass-shaped turned on its side. 

That names comes appears in my head too and I grin wider than I ever have before. So this is the name of the mysterous job I have spent my life training for. This is who I am.

I am The Black Widow.