Weird Dancing Girl

2

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The boy
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If you would ask Tanay about his day, normally he would say, “It was fine,” with a smile painted on his face. He did that frequently to avoid more questions and judgements. They just made it worse for him.

But today? His frustration knew no bound. He was like that all the way back from the bowling alleys. His younger brother, Juno, hesitated to say anything at all. When they reached their society, Juno ran to play as it was almost evening. Tanay usually warned him to play with caution and come up on time. But he was too dazed in lose to care.
Tanay lived on the third floor, the topmost floor of any building in Shankar Society. The climb felt existentially draining today. When he reached his home, he tossed his bag, his whole body covered in sweat.

His parents were having a petty argument again. “What should I cook Dev?”

“I don’t know whatever you like Mamta. Ask of the kids.”

“Okay-,”

“How about palak paneer?”

“You just said make whatever you want."

His father huffed out an irritated breathe, “Fine.”

This ticked his mother, “If you wanted Palak-“

“I said fine.”

Then his mom aggressively started cutting Palak, and murmured things under her breathe. They sat on the kitchen table, whilst Tanay was lying exactly below the fan in the hall. When the two were silent, he knew he had a minute before his dad marched back to the hall, to get away from his mom.

So he quickly got up, opened his long window, and stepped in. He closed the curtains and the glass window panes so he would hear or see nothing of the inside. Instead, there was only the sound of birds, a few cars speeding and honking in the distance, and a glacial wind.

He even felt warmth on his ears, if that even made sense? Heat having sound. His basic understanding of Physics would topple if this trail of thoughts went on. So he looked out instead, and his eyes fell straight to the window right before him. Those windows that were rarely open. He was sure even today, they were open by some mystical mistake.

Mistake because the woman that lived there was awfully strict. Understandable to Tanay, as she was a single mother. He knew that as there was a girl that lived there too. But unlike all kids, she never played down. She did get down but always due to some work.
But today, the girl was dancing right before his eyes.

It was not like a graceful swan. Or a rhythmic athlete. It was the weirdest moves he had ever seen, even in comparison to his little brother Juno. She twirled and made such strange faces that his mouth fell, staring at her. Only at her. The fight happening behind him, audibly got louder as it would, he’d known. But this. Her. He felt his breathe fleeting as he dared to keep watching.

She was the only thing all his senses focused on.