CABB's 2016 WFOL Micro-Fic Challenge
Dance With Me…
by Judith Nolan
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music...”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
The doors had been finally shut behind the last of the departing guests. The massive portals closed out the constant wind that moaned through the passageways beyond. Winterfest was once more at an end. It had been a night to remember.
Inside the Great Hall, all the candles had been snuffed out and the torches taken down and extinguished. The candelabras above the long central table now hung in darkness. Faint echoes of past events stalked the vaulted ceiling, rustling whispers in the shadows.
Vincent and Catherine stood alone in the center of the vast chamber. A single hurricane lantern on a nearby table shed a pool of fitful light. But it was enough to cast their elongated shadows onto the stone walls before them, seeming to make them dance with a life of their own.
Conscious of disrupting the dreamy silence Catherine asked softly, “Can you hear it, Vincent?”
Vincent frowned in puzzlement, unsure of what his love was asking. Hear what? “Only the quiet…and the wind outside, crying to get in.”
“Listen!” Catherine commanded excitedly. “You can hear it if you try…the music…”
The silence deepened and lengthened as Vincent attempted to understand what Catherine was saying. To hear what she was hearing. Even the ghostly whispers among the hollows and swales of the ceiling died away. Vincent looked down into her eyes, his own narrowing with sudden understanding.
He smiled. “Yes…I hear it.” He paused, watching her closely. “Catherine…that question you asked me earlier…”
Catherine smiled. “I remember.”
Their bond echoing with reassurance, Vincent took her arm, guiding her out into the middle of the room. Turning to each other, they began to move together, dancing with the music, a slow, seductive waltz to the sensations of the night, and each other.
The night belonged to them alone. It was theirs as long as they wished it to be so. The silence was alive with music only they can hear. Wrapped in each other’s arms, Catherine and Vincent moved in slow circles around the far end of the huge chamber.
Moving with them, painted by the flickering light of the lantern, their shadows danced across the wall. Tall, magical and infinitely graceful, the other couple danced with them in perfect unison. Both couples, real and reflection, went on waltzing together to the intensely private music only they could hear, and understand. The true music of the night...
THE END