A World Away

Chapter 5

“Did your internal plan include me ending up in this position?” She asked waking me up from my trance.

“No,” I said simply. “But I don’t regret it.” Her expression slowly began to change and suddenly it looked as if she was puzzled by my words. But how could she be? I knew she was smart enough to remember that I told her I wouldn’t lie to her. Now her expression only puzzled me as well.

“Isn dis a grrreat party?!” A man shouted from behind us. We both blinked ourselves out of our confusion and watched as a drunkard waltzed into the room with a mug of beer and right up to a couple that had stopped to see who he was. “Yerrr a pretty lady, ain’t cha?” He asked with slurred words to the woman and had reached up to grab her breast. The woman’s male partner was instantly positioned in front of the woman pushing him away.

“Keep your hands to yourself will ya?” The woman’s partner said angrily.

“But she’s pretty, and she likes me. Don’t ya, sweetie?” The forty something year old man with a five o’clock shadow said to the couple. The woman had a look of disgust on her face when the drunkard began to move closer to them. “Don’t you look at me like that, lady!” He shouted which then resulted in the gentleman punching him in the face. The crowd laughed in delight as the drunk man had fallen to the floor and clumsily gotten up to continue fighting. He thrust his fist out towards the other man and missed by at least three feet giving the gentleman an excuse to trip the drunkard causing him to fall. But now the drunk man was angry and seemed to slightly sober up as he got up and charged at the man wrapping his arms around his stomach pushing him through the crowd onto the floor. Luckily, I dragged Evelyn quickly enough away from the fight to prevent being caught in the crossfire.

“Do you think we should do something?!” I asked her loudly. We watched as the brawl continued and instead of stopping the fight the band continued to play rowdy ragtime music and the crowd continually repeated shouts of, “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!”

“No! Let’s just get out of here!” She pulled me past the people crowding the front of the hall and through the door where the noise level was lower and the air was fresh and cool opposed to the humid climate indoors. We were both laughing at the fight that ensued inside the hall and the ironic cheers of the crowd encouraging the fight. I watched as she was clutching her stomach from laughing so hard, and sometime later, the two of us calmed down and settled into the quiet streets of Philadelphia. “Well, that was fun wasn’t it?” She asked suddenly.

“Yeah. That was the most fun I’d ever had in my entire life even though it was only my first time dancing.”

“You’re kidding me aren’t you?” She asked sarcastically. “I had no idea that that was you’re first time dancing.” She proceeded to laugh at my comment and my lovely demonstration of dance in the hall.

“Oh, pipe down. You knew it was gonna be rough for me, so cut me some slack,” I chuckled.

“Alright. Fine,” she replied finally calming herself. “I’m glad you at least tried, though. The fox trot isn’t an easy dance to try for the first time.”

“Now you tell me. Thanks for the late information.”

“Well, I’m sorry about that. Honestly,” she said smiling. Then she took a deep breath with her head up towards the night sky with stars shining down above us. “I did have fun, though. I just wish we could’ve danced longer.” Her comment sparked a small idea in my mind. I may not have ever really danced before, but that didn’t mean I didn’t just experience dancing today.

“We still can,” I told her. She looked to me with a look of her question donning her face.

“What do you mean? I mean there’s no music, and you’re a terrible dancer,” she said chuckling. I walked toward her with a small smile on my face and grabbed her arm gently. I placed her arm around my back and held her other hand out in a waltz position.