How Can I Keep Dancing? [ON HOLD]

How Can I Keep Dancing? ~~~ Chapter 5 ~~~

The weeks continued mostly like this. My life was split into two – my mother’s world and Elijah’s world. Of course I receive another letter from father, sending me Belgium chocolates and describing brilliant sights just like in France. I send him letters back, as well, wishing him the best, telling him of how I was to be the next Swan Queen and how I miss him so much. As days flew by, my loneliness left from my father is dulled by Elijah’s presence and each time I see him, I feel a small flutter in my stomach, much like the feeling you experience when you are falling, but somehow it drives me to further adrenaline. And I can’t help but love the feeling. And each time when I do see Elijah, I see a small twinkle in his eyes and a beaming smile brighten his face when he lays eyes on me, and that too sends a thrill through my body, and I wasn’t sure why. A few weeks ago, I’d almost hated his existence. Now, I felt myself yearning for his presence, feeling hollow when he’s not around – almost like I can’t breathe.

He introduces me to his family one Sunday, and I was shocked when I saw the house. It wasn’t exactly as grand as mine, but it certainly wasn’t lower class like I’d first imagined. It was large and white with a blue roof and a porch that wrapped around the entire house. His father, Jonathan, I liked as soon as I saw him. He was a burly man who loves to dance swing and was also a war veteran, with the scar to prove it. He lost his left eye when he was fighting in France, and now had a false one, which made him look terrifying to most people, but he was truly a soft hearted man. Elijah’s mother, Mary, was the mother I’d always wanted – always baking cakes and mending your wounds, which came in handy when she was a local nurse. His sister, Anne, was also a nurse but preferred to be located in New York, where bigger career opportunities were at bay.

During one of my visits, he shows me his truck that was much joltier than the Rolls Royce’s at my home, but were much more fun to ride around in. He also taught me how to milk a cow, which ended up with us getting into a milk fight, and me having to borrow one of Anne’s dresses which practically swam around my tiny physique, until my dress was clean. I loved his family almost more than I loved my own.

One Sunday, mother was in the other side of the house, so therefore, I had the privilege of using the grand piano. Mother never liked it when someone played the piano (“I don’t believe that girls should play piano – they become bold and outspoken…”), but really I think it was because of her mother, who always played to her as a child. But today, I was free to run my fingers over the pearl white keys, and play the tunes in my mind that had been bursting to get out. I first start with a few scales to warm my fingers up. Pulling out my sheets of music, I begin to move my fingers into Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata; slow, but graceful and certainly one of my favorites. Closing my eyes every so often, I sink into the beauty of the chords. Soft tunes fill the room, slowly getting louder and more emotional. Before I finish the song, I change my chords to end in my own dramatic manor. Then I switch songs to something faster. Antonio Vivaldi’s Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four seasons): Winter I was always a powerful song, sometimes my hands would be almost a blur against the keys, my fingers like spiders, but the melody that it produced always blew me away.

“I always knew you were a talented ballerina,” comes a voice when the final note echoes around the room, “but I never realized how brilliant a musician you were as well.”

“Daddy!” I scream with joy and surprise, bolting up from my chair.

There Steven Rhodes stood in his tall glory with the tiniest twinkle in his sable eyes and high cheekbones pink from the heat. His full lips were turned up in a broad smile, and I could tell he thought my astonishment to be amusing. The last I had seen him, it had been at the end of May. It was mid July now, and since then, I felt I had changed to a completely different woman – which was largely because of some witty-headed boy with eyes like the ocean. I threw myself into his arms, and breathed a sigh of happiness.