Michele Bravo Playing With Fire, Ch 2

Michele had been bouting with some fencing students. When class started, they all gathered round their instructor, while Michele returned to Fitz’s side. He looked at her disconsolately.

“I don’t like this real fencing,” he said. “It’s not a patch on the stuff you see in movies.”

“I agree with you,” said Michele. “Movie fencing is incredibly sexy. Real fencing…it’s just good exercise.”

Fitz looked at her, puzzled. “What do you mean, movie fencing is sexy?”

“Well, I think it is. I always have. When I was a kid I watched all those old movies. Robin Hood, Mark of Zorro, Captain Blood…”

“You had a crush on Errol Flynn, didn’t you,” agreed Fitz, nodding.

“Not at all,” said Michele indignantly. “I had a crush on Basil Rathbone! But it wasn’t only him. Stewart Granger in Scaramouche, Stewart Granger and James Mason in Prisoner of Zenda…Harvey Keitel in The Duelists…”

Fitz chuckled. “I never knew you were a fencing groupie.”

Michele grinned. “Yeah…I used to videotape all those duels. I’d watch all these movies, and just tape the fencing scenes. Then, I’d watch that collection while I…you know.”

Fitz stated at her. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. You can keep your romantic small talk, and your soft music and your sexy lighting. Want to get me in the mood? Put a copy of the duel from Princess Bride on the TV.”

“Well, then,” said Fitz in a breathy voice. “Are you in the mood now?”

“Not yet,” said Michele with a grin. “Like you said, real fencing isn’t erotic, it’s just a workout. But movie fencing…”

"Actually," said Fitz, "that's kind of weird, isn't it? I mean, two guys fencing..."

Michelle laughed. "Well, but it wasn't two guys fencing, you see. It was me against Rathbone. Or Mason. Or Depp. I was the opponent. Each duel was like a courtship, you see? They'd try to break through my defenses, I'd rebuff their advances...they'd persist, I'd resist, until ultimately..." she lunged, "Right through the heart."

She paused, then grinned again. “Hey, Fitz. How’d you like to learn to fence? Just enough so that we could do a little duel, movie fencing wise. I’ll choreograph it.”

“Sure, said Fitz. “Well, there’s plenty of room here. Do you think they’ll mind if we work on this while they’re having their class?”

“Can’t hurt to ask,” said Michele. She went over to the fencing instructor, who had set his five students to some advance-retreat-lunge drills across the very long floor, and made her request. “Go for it,” he replied….”Over in that corner, though, okay?”

“Sure, thanks.”

Dancing studios, gyms and fencing halls all have one thing in common…they are very long, with wide open spaces, and at least one wall is completely covered, floor to ceiling, with mirrors. This is so people practicing their advances, lunges, retreats and ballestras can ensure that they are keeping good form.

Michele and Fitz walked over to the far corner.

“First off, let’s learn some terminology and proper form,” said Michele. “I’ll show you the basics, and then choreograph a very simple duel.”

“Okay,” said Fitz, taking his foil and swishing it through the air a few times, as he’d seen them do in his movies.

“Okay, first of all there’s the stance. Crouch down a bit, with your weight centered between your legs. Your back leg has your foot pointing side to side, and your front leg has your foot pointing forward. Hold yourt back arm out beside you, fingers pointing up in the air. That’s so you don’t get it hit by an errant foil. Bend your sword arm slightly…”

She demonstrated, and Fitz followed suit.

“Right. Now, we advance. Step forward with your lead leg, then bring your back leg up just enough to maintain the same distance between the two.”

“Easy,” said Fitz, nodding, and advancing.

“Very good. Now to retreat, you just reverse the process. Back leg moves first, then the front leg.”

Fitz retreated a few steps.

“Very good,” said Michele. “Now, just for the hell of it, let’s do a simple exercise. We’ll advance two steps, and retreat once, then advance twice, and then retreat. Keep your right arm up…yeah, like that…and hold the foil a little higher than parallel to the ground.”

She and Fitz went, side by side, down the piste for several yards. Then Michele stopped. “Now, if we were really learning fencing, we’d do that from one end of the floor to the other, and back again. Great for the legs, and great way to learn patience, too.

But since we’re doing this for only one reason…”

“A very good reason,” put in Fitz.

“Let me show you how to do a lunge,” continued Michele.

Fitz watched carefully as she settled down into the fencing stance, then extended her arm and in one motion lifted her front leg and stretched it forward, keeping her back leg stiff, so that in her finishing stance her arm was extended directly over her thigh, and her front thigh was parallel to the ground. She checked her form in the mirror, then recovered to a normal stance again.

“You see how that works?” she said. “You extend the foil, then you step out with your front foot. Back foot doesn’t move, like this… then you recover to the same position.” She demonstrated again, and Fitz followed suit.

“So now,” said Michele, “let’s advance twice, lunge, and recover backward. Then we’ll advance twice, lunge, and recover forward.”

They practiced this for a bit. Then Michele said, “Very good. Okay, now we’re ready to get the foil into the mix.”

She extended her foil arm straight out, aiming at an invisible opponent. “This is a thrust,” she said. “Now, I’m going to block that thrust, with a parry. I hit your blade out of line with my own, either to the left or right. Now, in real fencing, that’s done with mostly wrist action, but for our movie duel, it’s mostly forearm action. Then, I riposte. That means that after I’ve just knocked your blade out of line, I then thrust at you myself. I either hit you, or you parry my blade and try a riposte yourself.”

“Got it,” said Fitz.

“Okay, let’s put it together.”

Michele moved around to face Fitz on one of the pistes, a series of mats taped together for 60 feet, each mat 6 feet wide. In competition, fencers could not step off the back of the mats, nor could they step off the sides. In movie duels, of course, they could go wherever they wanted – onto chairs, swing from chandeliers, and so on.

“Do a lunge for me,” Michele requested.

Fitz complied, and Michele stepped in front of the point of the blade that he was endeavoring to hold still.

“This is your fencing distance,” explained Michele. “That’s the distance that it would take you to lunge and hit any opponent. You always want to stay within fencing distance. And of course since I’m a couple of inches shorter than you, my fencing distance is also shorter than yours. So you’ll have the advantage of me. At least you would, if you weren’t a complete neophyte and I weren’t a master fencer.”

They exchanged grins.

Then, their foils met, and Michele enjoyed the metallic sound of blade on blade. She directed Fitz in his attacks, telling him to lunge here, parry here, riposte there, and Fitz was a quick learner and athletic with it, so soon he was giving a pretty good account of himself.

“Finally, the piece de resistance,” said Michele. “You double-dyed villain, you. You lunge in close to me, forcing me back against the wall, and the hilts of our sword lock. You mutter something like, ‘I have you now.’ I grit my teeth, say something like, ‘Not yet, you swine,’ and summoning all my strength I push you back. You do that sword swishy thingy, but I lunge forward and skewer you.”

Fitz completed this final maneuver, backing Michele against the glass-fronted wall, using his strength to keep her trapped. “You’re mine,” he hissed, “all mine.”

“Not today!” Michele cried, and shoved him backward. She didn’t use all her strength (she didn’t want Fitz to know how strong she really was – she didn’t want anybody to know how strong she really was, or how skilled in the various martial arts) and Fitz cooperated by staggering theatrically backward. Then he brought his sword down very quickly with a sweep of his arm, making a swooshing noise so beloved of movie choreographers, and while he was making that very broad movement, Michele lunged and placed her foil right on his chest.

He staggered back theatrically again, dropped to one knee, clutched both hands to his heart, and then fell over.

Michele applauded his performance, and he got to his feet with a grin.

“Okay,” said Michele, “I think we’re ready to go through the whole duel. It’s too bad. What we really need is a boombox and Loreena McKennitt’s "Tango to Evora". That’s the music for two lovers to play while they’re having a fencing duel.

“We’ll have to be better prepared next time,” said Fitz.

“Yeah. Well, here we go.”

They began the duel that Michele had choreographed…borrowing much from Tyrone Power’s duel with Rathbone in Mark of Zorro if truth be told, going slowly, with Michele counting out the moves if Fitz showed any signs of faltering.

And it was getting her hot, there was no doubt about that. The metallic sound of blade on blade, the sheer elegance of the mask-covered face and the body, the menace and the grace…

There was only one problem…

The fencing hall, or salle as it should more properly be called, didn’t have showers. So Michele and Fitz expressed their thanks to the instructor and took their leave. They returned to Michele’s car, strapped themselves in, and looked at each other.

“Those lunges really take it out of you,” said Fitz. “My legs feel like noodles.”

Michele, who’d been bouting or an hour before working out with Fitz, nodded. “I’m pretty tired, too. It’s been over a year since I did any fencing, and the muscles used in lunging…they aren’t used every day, even if you are in good shape.”

“I gotta tell you,” said Fitz, as they walked into their B&B room. “And it’s something I never thought I’d say…I’m too pooped to pop.”

“Et tu, Brute,” said Michele. Then, “Wait, that’s not right. I mean, me too.”

“I’m too tired to even take a shower.”

Such it was, therefore, that five minutes later Fitz and Michele had stripped, fallen into bed and were fast asleep.

The next day, though, Michele knew, would bring long hot showers, mutual massages, and perhaps a little morning delight…