Do you know a back-handspring?
Setting: Gymnasium.
Characters: Annika, Vera, Nadia, Olga, Larissa, and Bela are gymnasts. Miss Károlyi is their coach.i
Olga: Do you know a back-handspring?
Nadia: I can do a quadruple-back-handspring.
Vera: That's impossible.
Annika: It's real.
Vera: Evidence?
Olga: La la!
Vera: You're a monkey!
Olga: Monkey see, monkey do.
Annika: [
to Vera] You could if you would but you won't so you can't.
Vera: You're talking out of your leotard.
Nadia: I pull quadruple-back-fulls all the time.
ii
Larissa: I've seen it.
Vera: I haven't.
Larissa: I have. Seeing is believing.
Annika: Sort of...
Olga: Wires!
Larissa: It wasn't at the circus. It was at
Nationals!
iii
Larrisa: Here is a very excellent description, with diagram. I quote, "Start with a short run and end it with a skip or skuff on the right-foot, as weight goes forward on left-foot whip arms down fast, crossing right over left, bend at the waist, not at the shoulders, the hands should be almost together, this immediate twist of the upper body gives faster and closer turn and snap down, feet should be together in inverted position, keep elbows straight throughout, get a good shoulder push for the snap down, land flat-footed, facing the starting position, with arms up."...
Vera: So?
Larissa: It's from the E - G - C. European Gymnastics Committee.
Vera: You're from the E - G - C! You're from the moon!
Larissa: I'm from my mama. And my mama told me she saw a quadruple-back.
Olga: My mama told me you're a Hippopotamus.
Larissa: She said: Minsk, '82, third-round floor, open, Nastia Liukin --
Vera: Shoosh!
iv
Annika: Where's Miss K?
Olga: Can Miss K do back-quads?
Vera: She's with Bela doing bars. Why?
Annika: Miss Károlyi! Miss Károlyi!
Miss Károlyi: Yes? What is it?
Vera: Miss Károlyi, these girls say there is such-a-thing as a quad-back-handspring; but I say: no, that's impossible!
Nadia: That's my usual warm-up!
Vera: Yeah right!
Larissa: Oh Miss Károlyi! Tell her it's so!
Annika: Teach us a back-quadruple-handspring Miss Károlyi!
Miss Károlyi: Girls, do you really want to know a back-quadruple-handspring?
Vera: No way! I won't even try!
Miss Károlyi: My God girls...
v
Announcer: Score from judge from Poland?
Judge from Poland: Dziesięć.
Announcer: Score from judge from USA?
Judge from USA: Nine.
vi
Olga: Woo!
Annika: He he!
Nadia: You stuck that back-quad girl!
Vera: Now I know.
Larissa: Wow. She did it Márta!
Miss Károlyi: That's right girls. You can't just believe everything people say. You have to believe in yourself.
н.