Starchild

She used to dance around with eyes closed, but the music had stopped and her eyes had to face the room that became her world. Silence reigned intact. To look around seemed pointless to her after seeing the colorless walls, bare. Her feet to the ground, sleeping with chains. Humpbacked with her head nailed to her arms, folded up in the corner where the last song had left her. Her mind was nowhere near the room lost in melancholy to past melodies, and down laid the sun countless times without seeing her move. Sorrow was as much hers as the world’s for her missing grace.

Her hair one day touched the floor, calling attention. The silence was broken as the chains rustled, following the hands to her hair. In the room was a mirror she had not noticed. She stood up, and started across the room. Her legs felt heavy and her vacillating steps almost made her stumble, but she slowly made it to the other side pulling the chains. She stood there staring into her reflection and memories came in gentle waves, making the room fade out of her mind. She now recalled her dancing, which now eclipsed the missing melodies and her eyes locked with the mirror’s, bringing it to life. Her beauty blessed the glass’ world and through an opening in the walls, sunlight bounced off of it and into a pair of scissors sitting on a wooden stool. They shimmered, golden, at arm’s reach. Hesitation came with the sound of her chains, but the mirror whispered lost memories that she now could not ignore. She grabbed the pair of scissors and went chop-chop. When she was done, she stared again, and felt free. Her chains were on the floor, with her old hair.

Placing the scissors back in the stool, she saw her skin shine with the light. Colored hues bounced off into the room, filling it with moving images of all colors. She turned her hand around, playing with the light that shone through it until a beam revealed a rainbow colored curtain behind her. The room became friendlier to her, after realizing that she can paint the walls with colors. The walls seemed to dance a gentle dance now with her game of light. She smiled and could not help to feel her body call her to join the walls. Music began to tickle her insides, so she closed her eyes and allowed it to take her. Her fears had vanished, and her body commanded silence over her thoughts. She was now a child that lived to dance.

This dance was different from any other dance she had ever danced. She found peace with this and felt a breeze with air of salt. She felt the sand in her feet and the singing of seagulls that closed in on her, happy to see her come to life. She resisted the urge to open her eyes to the room, because she had found paradise with her eyes closed. The feeling grew with the strength of the winds and the sounds and the smells. Her translucent eyelids grew brighter, and her eyes finally gave up. The room was no longer a room but a scene in her dream. Dark curtains surrendered to the winds and were revealing the ocean, the gulls, and the sand.

She ran out, and crossing the room’s threshold her body was filled with light, and felt weightless. She kicked the sand, liberated. Looked up to the skies and took herself there, dancing.

(A story of the search for self, and finding love again)