Variation

Allie wakes up, disoriented and in pain. Lina stands over her, pressing something to her face and reassuring her that everything is going to be okay. Lina tells Allie that she needs to “take care of what [Lina is] leaving behind” (16). Confused, Allie wonders where Lina is going.

Lina takes off their mother’s ring and puts it in the pocket of Allie’s skirt. She then turns and runs toward a tower of flames. Allie realizes they’ve been in a car accident. Her mind tells her to stop Lina, but she can’t form the words. The car explodes.

Ten years later, Allie prepares to dance the lead role in Giselle. She is a professional dancer with the Metropolitan Ballet Company, the same company that her mother, Sophie, danced for decades ago. Sophie ruthlessly trained Allie and her sister Eva since childhood for roles like this. Allie decides that she is going to deliver a perfect performance for Sophie, who is in the audience, and in memory of her sister Lina.

As Allie prepares, she ignores the excruciating pain in her ankle, a remnant of the injury from the car accident 10 years ago. She promises herself that if she can just make it through tonight’s performance, she can rest.

Allie’s older sister Anne, who runs events for the company, comes into the dressing room. She helps Allie stretch while trying to convince her not to perform that night. Their younger sister, Eva, is also in the dressing room. She is one of the corps, but Allie believes she will be a star by the next season. Eva changes the subject to Isaac, one of the company’s writers, with whom Allie had been choreographing a ballet called Equinox.

Allie and Eva prepare to go on stage, and Allie spots Sophie and her best friend, Eloise, in the family’s box. She then looks at the center seat in the last row. It is empty, as it has been for the last 10 years. Allie refuses to let the Company sell the seat, saving it in case Hudson ever returns to watch her perform.

During the performance, Allie has intermittent pain in her ankle. Each time she uses it, the pain becomes excruciating but then subsides. She keeps telling herself to push through and thinks of Hudson’s words when he rescued her from the rowboat: “Anything is doable for five minutes” (29). 

Allie starts her most difficult sequence of the show, 18 piqué turns that take her across the stage. On each turn, she grimaces through the pain. On the 12th, she thinks that she sees Hudson sitting in his seat. Shocked, she checks again on the next turn and is unsure if she sees him or not. She convinces herself she is imagining it, then forces herself to focus on the last few turns. She ends on her knee like she is supposed to, but when she tries to stand, she can’t. Overwhelmed by “bone-rattling anguish,” she lets out a scream that “silence[s] everyone in the theater” (30).

Hudson is a rescue diver working off the coast of Cape Cod. He saves a man whose boat is sinking, then goes back to save the man’s dog. His boss scolds him for risking the helicopter’s crew over the rough waters, but he insists it was worth it.

After work, his friend and coworker, Erich Beachman, invites him to go out for drinks. However, when Hudson checks his phone, he sees messages from his sister, Caroline, about watching her adopted daughter, June. Hudson goes to Caroline’s house, and they briefly talk about June’s desire to take ballet. Caroline doesn’t want to let her hang out with the rich summer children, complaining about the Haven Cove Classic ballet competition that the Rousseau family puts on every year.

Once Caroline is gone, June begs Hudson to help her convince her mother to allow her to take ballet. Hudson promises to help if he can, knowing that there will be no way to convince Caroline. However, June surprises Hudson when she points out that Caroline’s problem isn’t with dance but the dancers. She points out that Hudson used to love Allie Rousseau, and maybe Allie could help them convince Caroline. Hudson is shocked—he believes that no one but Gavin knew about his friendship with Allie. He asks June how she knows, and she shows him an old picture of Hudson and Allie after one of her competitions.

June tells Hudson that Allie is at her family’s Cape Cod home recovering from an injury. She begs Hudson to take her there, and Hudson reluctantly agrees. When they get to Allie’s home, no one answers their knock. June insists they check out back, and Hudson spots someone out in the ocean. The person keeps going under the water, and Hudson realizes it is Allie and thinks that she is drowning.

Allie works on her lung capacity by repeatedly going under the water and staying under as long as she can. She thinks about her injury and the following surgery and hopes to be back dancing in three months.

Hudson interrupts her thoughts when he pulls her from the water. She is shocked and then her surprise turns to anger as she insists that she wasn’t drowning. Once they are out of the water, Allie is rude and dismissive. She reminds him that he went to basic training without saying goodbye. After her car accident, she never heard from him again. He has no excuse, other than that he was young and unsure. Allie remembers that he was her best friend, and it hurt her to lose him.

They walk back up to the house, but Allie stops short when she sees June standing there. She remembers that Caroline and her husband, Sean, who died a few years ago, adopted June when she was a baby. Hudson apologizes to Allie and tells June that she has to tell Allie what she wants.

June immediately tells Allie how she has followed her career and compliments several of her performances. She wants help convincing her mother that ballet dancers are not bad people so that June will be allowed to take up dance. Allie feels bad for June but knows how Caroline hates the Rousseaus. She recommends that June ask another ballet family to speak to Caroline. June grows desperate and insists that Allie has to help her because she is her biological mother.

Allie tells June that she can’t be her mother, but June shows her that they have matching birthmarks on their necks. Then she dances, showing Allie that they move the same and have similar hands. Hudson steps in and tells June that he knew Allie 10 years ago, and she was not pregnant.

June insists that they must be wrong. She tells Hudson that she ordered a DNA test and sent in her DNA. She then produces another test for Allie to take, thrusting it into her hands. Hudson insists that June go to the car. Allie can see that June is crushed, but the girl complies.

Alone with Hudson, Allie asks if he knew June was going to do this. He says he had no idea, and Allie can tell that he is being honest. Anne arrives home, interrupting their conversation, and Hudson and June leave.

Inside, Anne confronts Allie about her recovery. She insists that Allie call Kenna, her best friend and the Company’s doctor. Allie has been avoiding calling Kenna because she does not want her friend to be disappointed with how little progress she has made in her recovery.

Allie goes to her room to rest. She realizes that she still has the DNA test and decides to take it to pacify June.

Six days after seeing Allie, Hudson still can’t stop thinking about her. He is on a double date with Beachman, his girlfriend, and another woman, but he can’t focus on the conversation. Their dinner is interrupted by Allie, who asks to speak to Hudson in private.

Hudson takes her to a quieter room. He decides he will do whatever he has to do to get Allie to forgive him. However, before he can talk, Allie tells him that he needs to see the DNA results. Allie is June’s biological aunt.

Two days later, Hudson goes to Allie’s house to talk about June. Allie tells him that Lina must be June’s mother. Allie was with Anne and Eva a lot during the year June was born, but Lina had been in San Francisco with Sophie. Hudson insists that they can’t tell Caroline, who doesn’t want June to know about her birth parents until she turns 18.

Hudson stops their conversation when June arrives—she has skipped school. She tells him that she came over because she got an email notification about Allie’s test results. Allie admits that she is June’s aunt.

Allie, Hudson, and June go to Allie’s home dance studio. As they look at photos from the Rousseau girls’ childhood, Allie realizes how much June looks like Lina. June tells her that she has already figured out that Lina must be her mother. She asks how Lina died, and Allie struggles to tell her. She only remembers parts of the crash, and her memories don’t match the accident report. 

Allie suggests that they talk with Caroline, but June insists that they can’t. Instead, she proposes that they invite Allie to her birthday party as Hudson’s girlfriend. Hudson and Allie both disagree, but June explains that it will give Caroline a chance to get to know Allie. If she realizes that Allie is a good person, it will be easier to break the news about June’s mother.

They hear Anne come into the house. She walks into the dance studio and, when she sees June, stops in her tracks and drops the vase she is carrying.