The Dancer

Arabesques were her favorite - showing off her statuesque beauty to its best advantage as she balanced effortlessly on one leg and reached, seeming to beckon to the sky. Breathlessly the audience watched her hold this position, motionless as if time had stopped. Colin, her partner for this dance, moved back, giving her center stage as was her right as both the prima of this company and the very heart of the troupe. Dancing was her life, her passion, her soul.

Eternity ended as she lowered herself, hands clasped dramatically over her breast as she mimed her heart breaking. Following her lead, Colin knelt before her, begging forgiveness with his movements and his eyes, only half acting as he tried once again to atone for his indiscretions with her understudy. Giving him a pitying look, she rose, dancing The Parting as if her heart were truly breaking - and in truth it was - the man before her had been so much more than just a lover. Holding her arms out to him, she turned away, trusting him with her body despite how cruelly he had betrayed her heart, trusting him to catch her in this dangerous move. In that last instant as she fell she wondered if he had betrayed her again.

*****

Jewels danced before her eyes, glittery and indistinct in their brilliance while around her was the sound of music, uncomfortably loud and off key, thudding against her eardrums until she could feel the rhythm shaking her whole body, making her tremble until it felt as though her whole body were being lifted and moved - but that couldn't have been right because the jewels were moving too, still too brilliant to be clearly seen - and she wondered briefly what had happened to the parakeet she'd once had but had flown away, and why there were so many people dancing on her stage and where in the world Colin had gotten to.

*****

"Keep him away from me!" she said firmly, gripping the blanket to keep from shouting. "Leave me alone, Colin."

"Maybe you'd better come back later," the nurse suggested to the man in the doorway, barring his entrance to the room. Nodding once, he handed the flowers he carried to the nurse and walked away, never bothering to return.

*****

"Only you can decide if you'll dance again," the doctor told her sternly, refusing to give in to her quiet despair. "People recover from these kinds of injuries everyday and you can too." Quietly she turned away, limping as she favored her injured leg; the doctor watched her go, sadness in his heart for the broken Copelia.

*****

Reminders of her old life, of her beloved dancing, filled 3 large boxes consigned to the depths of a closet. She had really wanted to throw them away but he hadn't let her, making her promise, instead, to keep them packed away for a year, and if, at that time she still didn't want them, only then would he allow her to throw away her past.

*****

Time moved slowly for them both, each struggling to live without their passion; the desperation of daily existence drawing them together. Unable to deny themselves any longer, they learned another kind of dancing; one that bonded them forever.

Vibrant again, she completed her therapy and returned to the stage, no longer the prima, but still the heart of the troupe.

With her help, he returned to his life as well, no longer the aloof reserved leader who stood apart from those he cared for most; he was now the vital spirit of his company as well as it's brain.

*****

"XOXO" was how she signed her note to him that morning, telling him not to wait up, that she would be rehearsing late and would get a ride home from one of the other dancers.

Years of denying his feelings had hardened him; yet the need to see her was too strong to deny and he found he could not wait for her tonight; before he thought better of it, he snatched up his coat and ran.

*****

Zephyr was the name of the piece she was dancing when he arrived; a special piece she had choreographed just for him as an anniversary gift; he watched her dance it from the darkened theater, not wanting to disturb her until the final moment, when some sixth sense told her of his presence and she held her arms out to him, beseeching, until he moved into the circle they created, and they were both complete.

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