Dodo Eggs

If you haven’t read The Last Dance – Step One, you need to.  Scroll down.

“Matt, would you like to dance?”

Now that Leah had been taken by another partner there was no reason not to accept Holly’s offer.  I nodded and a bright grin dominated her expression.  She had broken through the possible rejection.  Each class thereafter, while I was working up the nerve to approach Leah, Holly would come for me like a heat seeking missile.  (A little Titly, I mean Teply, and she couldn’t help herself.) 

By the time the last class of the six weeks arrived, I had danced with Leah approximately ZERO times!  I was distraught!  I couldn’t reject Holly but I sure as heck didn’t want to dance with her anymore!  But the last class was going to be different…

“Alright!  Let’s have our lines again!”  The PE teacher called everyone his or her places. 

By now, everyone lined up basically the same way.  That meant me looking directly into Holly’s bright, gleaming smile.  Wow, was she happy.  If only Leah understood the kind of happiness that I was capable of inducing!

“This time we are doing something called a broom dance!  We’ve got a girl absent today so this works out perfectly.  The extra guy will dance with the broom for a minute or two, when he gets tired of holding it he’ll drop it.  When I hear the smack the music will stop and you’ll have fifteen seconds to find a new partner!  The odd guy out has to pick up the broom.  Any questions?  (Someone raises their hand)  I’m just doing that to be polite now grab a partner!”

The music began in earnest and POW there was Holly directly in front of me.  She smiled and I bowed my head in resignation.  I had the chance to dance with a few of the other non-descript girls…which was fun…I guess.  But the clock was my enemy and it was winning.  Once that bell rang and dismissed the final class, I’d have to wait until senior prom before gathering enough gumption to approach Leah.

The broom landed again and I turned away from (who else) Holly and there Leah stood!  She had broken away from her partner at the exact same time and place as I did!  She was looking at me and my eyes connected with hers!  I couldn’t stop thinking with exclamation marks!!!!!  

“Would you like to dance?”

“Does a monkey scratch its butt?”  (Just kidding.  I wish I’d said that.  In reality, I just nodded.)

The music started up.

Leah asked.  “Ok, what dance do you want to do?”

“I don’t care what do you want to do?”

Our conversation went on like this for almost thirty seconds before we stepped toward each other.  (What dance was it?  Who cares!  I was about to touch Leah Shoemaker!)  Then the spaz who had the broom dropped it prematurely and the music quit again. 

Leah and I looked at each other for another precious moment before she turned away and left my life forever.

Addendum:  Here’s how Leah and I’s story really ends…   After high school, I returned to Dickinson, North Dakota for my first year of college.  On my very first day, I “waltzed” into Freshman Composition and sitting in the very back of the room was none other than Leah Shoemaker!  That is not made up!  She was sitting there with the same girl she hung out with during our grade school years. 

You might think that we could pick up our fledgling romance right there…that the stars had dictated the collision of our constellations…and you’d be wrong.  She looked as soft as a new pillow, wore more make-up than a rodeo clown, and the hair that I loved so much as a youngster had become the same hairstyle both of my grandmothers wear so well. 

I took my seat near the front and never looked back…figuratively and literally.

COME BACK FRIDAY FOR COMMENTARY ON SOME “GODLY QUESTIONS.”

• The Last Dance – Step One
• Life’s Road Kill
• Earning an F
• A Thin Shell and Four Wheels
• Handful of Nails