DANCING SHOES

Dancing Shoes

though the distances divide us

there's a paradise inside us we can't lose

and I pray you'll never shed your 

dancing shoes....

She had loved him so…

It wasn’t the first time she’d fallen in love. But she wished it would be the last. He’d taken her deep inside the most beautiful profound love she could ever imagine.

And left her there. Alone.

Not because he didn’t love her but because he just couldn’t be in this world with her any longer. After the tears were done, she knew she would keep her promise to him... 

“Never stop the dance," he had said near the end, "never shed your dancing shoes, promise me…"

And so she carried the pink satin shoes in her hands and sat down on the floor in front of the large mirror to don them. These were the ones he’d given her. 

Pushing her toes inside, they fit her feet snugly, perfectly. She tied the matching ribbons around her ankles and stood up stretching on pointe to her toes.  She watched her reflection in the studio mirror as she worked her feet and body into the positions of a dancer.

This was a special day. The day she would create the Dance just for him. She began to move and glide across the wooden floor, dipping downward and up again, turning on her toes and reaching skyward…

There was no music, no accompaniment, just her shoes and her body moving through space, reaching past time. Spinning faster and faster around the floor.

 Suddenly she stopped in mid-flight and gasped.

 For an instant, she saw him standing before her reaching out to touch her, feel her. But his image faded as quickly as it had appeared.

She felt the emptiness of being alone surrounding her. He wasn’t there. It was just her imagination, her longing, her own feelings playing tricks on her.

She stood still and squeezed her eyes closed breathing in deep.

 “I love you so much,” she said aloud.

It wasn’t as if she saw him again. But in that moment, she felt his presence, knew he was near. And then she heard clearer than truth itself,

“I love you too, and I always will. Never forget.”

It was awhile before she opened her eyes again and smiled. But now she knew. Knew beyond doubt that he would always be close to her, never far away at all.

Her body soared as she began to dance and move and twirl and spin.

Always she would dance for him…

Always.

Story by 
Kaye Manro

(opening lyrics by Dan Fogelberg)

© copyright Kaye Manro 2017