Dance. Fall down. Dance again.

by Jess Robertson
(Washington)

Cynthia Rodrigez liked to dance. It was her passion and her joy. She would twirl around the breakfast table and waltz on her way to school. The pink shoes that Cynthia wore were always in motion.

Sadly, it was also this love of dancing that led to a time when Cynthia wasn't able to dance at all...

One night, Cynthia was swing dancing with her friends, Tommy, Roger, and Kelly. As Tommy spun Cynthia away from him, the poor girl accidentally ran straight into a hard brick wall!

Pain erupted in Cynthia's foot as she fell to the ground. "Oh no!" she cried.

Tommy ran over at the cry and immediately called Cynthia's mom to whisk her away to the doctor.

As they were waiting for the doctor to put a cast on Cynthia's foot, Mrs. Rodrigez asked her daughter, "Just what were you doing that hurt your foot so badly?"

"Dancing..." was Cynthia's meek reply.

"Oh honey," Mrs. Rodrigez started, "I'm so sorry. You do realize that after this it will be some time before you can dance again, right?"

It was all Cynthia could do to answer, "I know," before bursting into tears.

For Cynthia, the worst part of having a hurt foot was hearing the music that seemed to boom all day from every corner of the town. Stores played soothing melodies of violins soaring above the busy streets. Street musicians banged out a swinging beat. And Cynthia was unable to tap her pretty pink shoes to any of it.

Perhaps even more terrible than that was the fact that there was a dance coming up that the entire town attended. Cynthia was certain that she would be the only one not dancing at this event.

As the dance approached, Cynthia watched in misery as men built a stage for the band to play on and women put up balloons and bright, decorative lights. Oh how she wished that she could be among them, but with her hurt foot, Cynthia was now dreading the dance that she had previously looked forward to.

On the night of the dance, Cynthia didn't even want to leave her house. It was Mrs. Rodrigez who laid out a blue dress with ruffles (Cynthia's favorite, as it was perfect for twirling) and dragged her to the dance saying, "Come on, Sweetheart! You adore dances. You may not be able to dance, but even with a hurt foot you can still enjoy yourself."

Although it was true that Cynthia did adore dances, being forced to watch the smiles of people up on their feet jumping around happily was too much. Cynthia was stuck on a chair, just longing to be in the middle of the throng.

As if in answers to her sadness and longing, Kelly, Tommy, and Roger--Cynthia's friends--walked up to her and Tommy called out cheerfully, "Come dance with us Cynthia!"

These words baffled her. "But you know I can't," Cynthia told them. "My foot--"

"It's okay," Kelly smiled, "Trust us."

And with that, Tommy and Roger helped Cynthia to her feet and picked her up. As the music rang out through the hall, the boys twirled her around to the beat as Kelly clapped her hands.

Finally, all of the energy that was waiting in Cynthia to be expressed in a dance was finally able to come out. It was true, even with a hurt foot, she was still able to enjoy herself, for there was always a way around any unfortunate obstacle in life.