The Forbidden Waltz

In 3 Movements

The Forbidden Waltz

MOVEMENT ONE:

I took a deep breath. I sat, motionless, in the darkest corner. I saw the world move before me �" the assassin with the handsome face. But I didn’t belong. So, I sat there; neglected. A damaged vessel on the shelf of the used-to-be’s.

I was just a heartbeat. Beating to the rhythm of life. Beating to the ticking of time. Beating. Without a purpose. I sat, hallow and rejected. All light had reverted its glorious attention elsewhere. I was left to scrape my last breaths from the slithering cold that crawled around me.

Rusty floors. Layers of paint that never fully peeled. Coldness. Static voices from far away. All these were my careful companions. My mind went numb. I wanted to scream but even sound had abandoned me. I wanted to run but my legs betrayed me to fatigue. I was inert. Hopeless. A remnant of destruction.

So I sat there in my filth and anger. Resentment and void as the hunters of my sanity, poisoned my soul. I sat in a pool of toxicity that bred my own lies and tossed them right back at me. In the dark corner, on the sidelines of the world, I stayed. I sat stubborn and abjected as I waited for the world to glance my way. I sat there until time broke me. Withered. I wallowed in my self-inflicted pain. “No more self-inflicted wounds!” The sign read. Me, ever knowing that I allowed the darkness to creep in and take me. I sat… until the beat was dead. Flat lined.

MOVEMENT TWO:

Then, out of the shadows she came. My head hung low in feckless subjugation. She stretched out a pale white hand to me and smiled. I looked up. My heart skipped a beat. Her eyes, filled with vigor, melted my frozen heart. I took a in a deep breath.

She reached in for my hand. In my languid state, I torpidly raised my hand to hers. Her simple touch electrified me with an intrepidness that suffocated all listless lassitude. She radiated passion for something lost. Something perpetual. A grand zeal for an immortal flux of notes. The waltz that would become mine. From her to me.

She wrapped her fingers around my hand. Her smile sunk into my depths. It felt like low strings vibrating inside of me. Was my heart on the verge of a kick start? I could hear the beats counting off in my head… faint’ 1. 2.. 3…

She lifted me up and I stood. That’s when she pulled me close and wrapped her arms around my neck. Her skin glowed against the darkness. Her beauty rout the ugliness that conquered.

I placed my arms around her and she whispered into my ear, “Come.” Her eyes searched mine. So I looked away. How could I taint her with my secrets, my blackened soul? She, so perfect, her eyes a fusion of explosions. Like the beginning of an elegant supernova. They, captured my breath and my thoughts.

Then I couldn’t move. I became paralyzed to her charisma. She held me closer. Her hands dandled my hair. I breathed her in. She smelled like all kinds of goodness. Safe. She smelled like a late night car ride with the windows rolled down. She smelled like an angel that lost its way to heaven, She smelled like home.

“Come.” She whispered once more into my ear as she cradled my hands. I nodded.

“I will go with you.” I released myself to her. Her smile widened. I could’ve looked at her until the grand finale of eternity’s overture. The beauty my beats, where before they faded with the frequency of rests between notes, marched on genially now. They stirred altitudes of celerity with in me.

She released me and gracefully ran her fingers down my arms. Her eyes never averted me. I was hers. I remembered how to walk, how to be. I no longer just existed.

She led me down the rusty metallic hall. The fetid gloom clawed at my feet. The disease bantered me through my guilt. But she held me with tenacity. She, so unbelonging in this vile place, so unalloyed, stood out. She so foreign and bright. She so luscious against the darkness that tried to swallow her, was painfully noticeable. And she so remarkably conspicuous, led me to a dim light. The moon.

MOVEMENT THREE:

There, at the end of the hall was another world under the moonlight. I stopped. I couldn’t go on. I was mesmerized. The sky spread majestically above me. The sky with all its brilliance shone like a glittery blanket around me. I couldn’t breath.

Still she held my hand. Could she have come from such celestial beauty? Born of the angels? She, a gentle trill in splendor above the notes? Then a faint 1, 2...3 anchored me to the reality before me. Where was that coming from?

I saw her standing. Smiling. I remembered! I lifted the corners of my lips and smiled back. I remembered how to smile. The gentle trill that she was permeated within me. Warmth spread like a sunrise into my veins. A crescendo of fluttering notes fell into my stomach. I grew into a state of nervous confusion. What? But she just smiled.

“Come.” She laughed. Ah! That moment, like a succession of notes, entered my heart and its melodic embrace set it ablaze. Then my heart melted. I was hers. I turned to her and nodded. “ I will go with you.” I said. And she took me.

We came to a path marked by rose bushes on either side. A sweet fragrance illuminated the clouds of darkness hidden in the deep corners of my spirit. The path was an intricate arrangement of white baked bricks. A net of interlaced tiny lights sang brightly from atop the rose bushes. ‘Welcome’, their song seemed to say.

We reached a dance floor. Beyond it lied a garden. White wooden posts were staked in the ground at the corners of the dance floor. Strings of light hung and wrapped around these wooden posts. To say it was beautiful would be an understatement. It was beyond any beauty I had ever encountered. Was this her world? Spoken into existence with a mere idea in mind? Was it spoken just for me? Was she carved and molded just so she could hold my hand beside me? To be only mine? Because my heart amalgamated with hers. Only to coalesce in immorality, she and I.

All speech seemed to have fleeted from my tongue. Awestruck. Then I heard it. Faintly, in the background. A feeble beat throbbing delicately behind all this grandeur. I raised my eyes to her. She had left me standing at the entrance where the path meets the dance floor.

She stood there, smiling. “The music is calling to you. Don’t you hear it? Will you answer my call?” She tilted her head to the side. I looked around. “Come.” she said in my head. She waited for me. Because she already knew that I was hers from the beginning.

I smiled and she reached for me. When our fingers touched, a wind entered my soul. I took a deep breath. Her beauty and safety wrapped themselves around me. I looked up at her in alarm. Because now I heard the beats with impetuous temerity. I heard the waltz marking my every step. 1, 2, 3. 2, 2, 3. 3, 2, 3… yes.

She pulled me to her and giggled. “Don’t be afraid.” She graciously smiled. “I will take care of you.” She wrapped my arms around her then placed her arms around my neck once again. I moved to the string of rhythm coming from the sky. This belonged solely to us. She lead me. I looked into her eyes, because my secrets will become hers. But I couldn’t bare to part with them. Not then. Yet she seemed so safe. An epitome of perfection. Like she already knew.

We glided across the dance floor. Her body against my own. She belonged there. That space was reserved for her to fill it. We fell into the maddening grasp of the music. Lost in a moment that gained all perpetuity. We floated with grace. I smiled. She smiled. We spoke with our hearts, out the opened windows of our souls. She knew my pain. But when she touched me, I felt alive. I felt free. I felt like I belonged.

“And it’s silent now...” She whispered. “As we’re dancing.” Yes, dancing. “In this room.” Keep whispering, Love of mine. We danced. We floated. We united. This was the simplicity of a gentle breath. A waltz- gliding along. Smoothly, across the dance floor.

One, two, three.

Two, two, three.

Three, two, three.

Breath. I held her. Soft and natural.

That’s how it felt to be with her. Then she sang to me. A song I had long forgotten. A song whose heartbeat I had written. A song from long ago. “And it goes na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na. The shared beats between us, to remind us of the music in our hearts. And it goes...” One-two-three. Two-two-three. Three-two-three. Four. And it went One… 2, 3. Two… 2, 3. Three… 2, 3,. Four. We glided.

The moon shone proudly. Proudly to have brought us together. I was no longer a beat but the entire rhythm, she was the melody. I established the time. But she filled my heart with lightness and song. She moved through the notes, fluting them with caress and harmony. She filled the empty spaces of the rests in my foundation.

I was not a measure of unwritten rests any longer. I was hers. I was alive. I became. I was.

One-two-three.

Two-two-three.

Three-two-three.

Four.

These shared beats between us, remind us of the music in our hears. But it’s silent now… As we dance.

Reviews

[MoriartyMesa]

Have you considered making this into something more theatrical. Work like this would transcribe well on stage.

[Selena Jade]

Nice!!! I loved this piece!!

[Max Hernz]

Thank You!