Dance of a Lifetime

Sand and dust shifted beneath my feet, hot from the sun that glared high in the sky, it's burning rays catching on the curves and waves of the orange scarf that I waved above my head, a ribbon of fire. I twisted, bending low and spun upwards, the black coils of my hair gleaming onyx, the beads braided throughout it gleaming like gold as I spun and spun, dancing to the music in my soul, taking me higher and higher. I raised my arms to the sky, catching the sun in my scarf, a glowing orb trapped between my outstretched arms.

I flicked the scarf out, tracing the liquid fire with my eyes, bright with the song that flowed throughout my body, catching my soul on fire and propelling my feet to move faster and faster. I dragged the scarf across my mid-drift, bare but for a gold chain wrapped around my navel, connected to the necklace wrapped around my throat. Bright as a candle I spun, the strands of gold in my bandeau flickering, pulling the eyes to it, hungry eyes that watched as it shifted with the flow of my body. I closed my eyes, blocking out those hungry eyes. Those angry eyes.

I flicked my fingers to the beat of the music, causing the scarf to fly and turn in the air, a living melody, that flowed and moved around my body in perfect harmony to the sway and twitch of my hips. The music within pulled at me, tugged on my vocal cords and pressed upon my lungs so that a melody pure and sweet flowed from my full lips. My voice carried far and wide, traveling on the swirling wind, drowning out the sound of baying animals and taunting cries.

Dust flew up around me as I spun, my scarf and skirt a tunnel of fire, my hair a fan of the blackest night around my head. As I danced, the curves of sun goldened legs appeared and disappeared through the shifting slits of my skirt, shining with sweat and the gold infused oil rough hands had rubbed onto my body.

The sand and dust and rocks beneath my feet, shifted and crunched, a spontaneous percussion to the jingle of the bells that adorned my swaying hips and slim ankles and trembling hands. I spun faster and the jingle of bells became a cacophony of cries and I felt sweat drip down my back as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky, oblivious to scorching of my skin, to the heat of the crowd that grew as it climbed higher and higher. As they pressed in closer and closer, heavy with the heat of their anger.

Sweat dripped down my back the closer they got, their faces, masks of anger, indignation, disgust pushing at me, and my music guttered and I stumbled, tripping over the sheer skirt. A voice boomed and the mob halted, angry screams pushing at me. So I sang louder, the sweet melody increasing in tempo as my words became a staccato, no longer a continuous flow of sound but rather a musical rendition of an infant breathless cry.

I sang louder, my voice quaking and shaking as I danced faster and faster, my limbs trembling, transforming the grace that I prided myself in into broken glass and bloodied feet. I was no longer dancing to the melody of my song but the beat of racing heart, the cowardly organ desperate to run away even if that meant beating out of my chest. Sweat poured down my back, my face, my breasts, my arms and legs, washing the gold-infused oil as dust filled my mouth and covered my clothes, dimming my fire. But I sang louder and louder, allowing the song in my soul to take me higher and higher as a command was bellowed and the first stone flew.

I closed my eyes as it flew across the sky, blocking out the sun and landed in a cloud of dust next to my blood crusted feet.

I closed my eyes as they rained down, blackening the sky and plunging the world into darkness.

I sang louder, even as it became strangled by the fear that reached up from my racing heart to clamped over my vocal cords. No longer a sweet melody, the song turned as my voice dropped and wavered, rattling a death song.

I waved my scarf above my head, a gutted fire, torn and dirty to capture not a sun but a volley of stones. I spun, and twirled, bending and swaying, no longer dancing to live but dancing away from death that came crashing from the heavens.

I danced and stumbled as the stones hit, scraping against my skin, turning my skin from burnt gold into a rusted bronze amour. The stones fell, striking my face and head, turning my world in a hazy horror of flashes of dark faces with slashes of gaping red, grey fits that flew through the air to land in the sand, dust, my bones. A thin, wavering melody wove itself through the anger and screams, through the wet thuds and heavy crunches as I danced on crooked legs and bleeding feet.

The song wobbled, a scratchy, wet sound as blood filled my lungs and dripped from my mouth. I stumbled over the rocks that continued to fall, a death trap under my feet. I panted, stumbling, my shirt torn and hanging off my shoulder, my skirt a bloodied ripped mess, my bells scattered around me like bloodied stars.

My legs buckled under me and I came crashing down into bruised knees, my body screaming out in pain as I cried to the heavens that no longer watched. My song a mournful cry as the stones came down from the sky and crashed into my skull.

I slumped over, eyes flickering, hand outstretched. I looked past the blood, past the mob that lunges for my broken body, to the small cart full of five children. I watched as the wheels kicked up dust, I watched as all five children raised one hand to their mouth and extended it to me.

A small smile tugged at my lips and my eyes fell shut as the first hands reached out.