Dancing With a Goddess

 

            I have been to many dances in my short life.  I’ve even had the good fortune and the pleasure of DJing at some, and the misfortune of DJing at others.  Every dance has something I remember about it, some quality that gives it a life that separates it from its brothers and sisters.  I will share with you the account of one particular dance as I saw it happen.

            This dance was no different than any other.  There were some guys, who felt incongruous at dances, sulking against one wall mumbling, “why the hell am I here,” under their breath.  Across the room from them were the girls who didn’t dance much, but sat and talked with their friends.  The dance floor was characteristically empty during the fast songs, except for the few people who didn't stop dancing from the time the night began to the time it ended.  There were a few tenacious people trying to play pool in the dark near the room’s entrance, despite the fact that the pool lamps had been unplugged so they wouldn’t.

            The room itself wasn’t made for dances.  The “DJ’s booth” was at the end of the room opposite the entrance, and was hardly big enough for two people.  The dance floor had a pillar in the middle of it, limiting the dancer’s mobility.  On one side of the room there were televisions and video game systems, on the opposite side there were arcade cabinets.  There was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the center of the dance floor shining silvery dots of light down on the dancers, and some colored lights above the DJ’s booth flashing rhythmic patterns, but nothing too spectacular.

            I was DJing that night, along with a friend of mine (who did little but get in the way.)  We had just finished the grade school dance, which had lasted about two hours, and we were more than ready for a change of pace from their, as per request, boy bands and girl groups to the (slightly) better requests of the high school dancers.  The dance was going well enough; no different from any other I had DJed at.  The same people danced, the same guys stood against the wall, the same girls sat, and I played the same requests.

            After little more than an hour had gone by someone else walked through the glass double-doors, the only person I picked out of the crowd.  When she walked in I saw a golden aura emanate from her that made the entire room brighter and more beautiful.  What I witnessed enter the room was a beauty that made Aphrodite in all her splendor pale in comparison.  I saw a goddess.

            The goddess’s golden hair fell just past her perfectly tanned shoulders.  She was wearing blue jeans, a red T-shirt, and a denim jacket, all of which looked perfect on her.  I found her beautiful blue eyes from my booth across the room and melted.  I would like to say that she was more beautiful that night than any other night, but to me she is no less beautiful in any one moment than in any other.  She smiled and waved at me, and I smiled and waved back.

            My hands continued their work, never letting the music stop, but my eyes never left her as she made her way through the crowd.  She was stopped innumerable times, increasing my tension and worry about what I would stutter when she finally reached my small corner.  By the time she made it to me I had completely forgotten about my work, there was only one thing on my mind, but I still went about things as usual.

            “Hi,” she greeted me.  Her voice sounded like all the harps in heaven, soothing the angels in their eternal paradise.

            “Hey,” I returned, completely casual, though I felt like two opposing armies of butterflies were waging war in my stomach.

            “How’s it goin’?”

            “It’s goin’, I guess.  I’m a bit aggravated though.  I think I could hold these people at gun point and they wouldn’t dance.”  I had started yelling to be heard over the music.  Much to my surprise and delight, she chuckled at my little joke, and I smiled.

            “You’re probably right, but that’s how it is at every dance, isn’t it?”

            “Yeah, pretty much.  I don’t know why someone would go to a dance and not dance,” I shrugged, “oh well.  Anyway, dance later?”  That was the easy question, I already knew the answer.

            “Of course,” she replied.

            “Cool,” I said as I let one song flow into another.

“I’m gonna go talk to some friends,” she said.

            “K, see ya,” I replied as she turned and left.

As the song neared it’s end I nodded to a group of my buddies, who then moved in on the dance floor.  When the song ended I flicked on the microphone.

“Since the dance floor is remaining pretty much empty, I’ve got only one thing to say…” I put my hand on the keyboard, ready to start the next song, as I eyed the room.  Then I yelled, “MOOOSH!” as I set the music blaring.

Immediately my buddies’ bodies started slamming into each other, and soon the moshers began increasing in number.  The bodies kept slamming into each other like cars in a demolition derby and, to my surprise, the number still increased.  I stood at my station, watching over the moshers, waiting for someone to get hurt.  The makeshift mosh-pit didn’t hold my attention for long, and my eyes started wandering.  I saw that all but a few audacious girls had declined my invitation to mosh, and the male vultures were circling around them, looking for easy prey.  It was amusing to see so many of the vultures get shot down.  My eyes continued to wander until they found the goddess talking, not to my surprise, to this guy.

Everybody knows this guy, or one like him.  He’s a good-looking guy, or so I was told, and he is friends with every girl I know.  He was co-captain of the basketball team, a star football player, and he got straight A’s to top things off.  He’s the kind of guy that, no matter how much you want to loathe him, you find it hard to do, and find yourself stuck with constant ambivalence towards him.

They had been a couple before, and could have been that night for all I know.  Trying to keep up just confused me, so I didn’t try.  I turned my head.  I couldn’t stand watching them, he disgusted me so.  Just like every guy like him, he had done something I couldn’t, or at least wouldn’t, forgive.

I stayed on task for the rest of the night, not scanning the crowd for the goddess or setting up a mock mosh, just playing a mix of fast and slow songs and taking requests.  By the time the dance was half over the room was nearly unbearable with body-heat, but I seemed to be doing my job well as I was the only one who really noticed.  I had lost track of time, but I knew the dance had been going quite a while, so I decided it was my turn to dance.

I started another song, looked at my friend, and said, “Okay, you can take over for a bit.”  I pointed at a song on the computer monitor; “play this song when this one’s done.”

“Sure thing, lover-boy.”

“You assume too much, smartass.”

I descended the steps of the booth onto the floor.  I began to search through what seemingly endless masses of humanity searching for the goddess, and finally found her as the song neared its end.  I caught that guy out of the corner of my eye, not right by her but not too far away.  I hadn’t expected any different.  She wasn’t looking in my direction, so she didn’t notice me until I took hold of her hand.

As the next song started playing I said, “Ready?”  She nodded and handed her cup to the friend she was talking to, then we walked together to the dance floor.  We found a small area with enough room for us and we faced each other.  She put her arms around me, and I felt her soft, perfect, skin against the back of my neck.  I put my arms around her waist, gently pressing against the small of her back.  From that point on there was no one else in the room.  The music became distant and there was only her and me.

Dancing with her was nothing new.  We had danced at every dance we had both been at, but every time we did I was overwhelmed.  Every other time I had frozen, a staid look had remained on my face, never showing any emotion, and I answered all of her questions in broken, stuttery fragments.  I was determined not to let that happen again.

As we danced, slowly and smoothly, I kept her as close as I thought she would allow.  She didn’t resist.  It would have taken a prodigious effort to tear the smile from my face; I was never so happy as when her arms were around me and mine around her.  For the time I forgot that she was a heavenly goddess and I was a pathetic mortal.

We were close enough that we didn’t have to strain to hear each other over the music.  I said, “I like nothing better than being this close to you.”

She looked up at me and smiled.  All she said was, “you’re sweet.”  I didn’t know what exactly she had meant.  I couldn’t read her eyes or her face; all I could see was her smiling at me.  It was a smile that made me feel better than I could ever hope to be, like we could be that close forever.  But the song ended, we were no longer that close, and she thanked me for the dance.  Before I let go of her hand I thought of something that spontaneity would let me go through with.  Half bowing, half bringing her hand to me, I kissed it.  I looked up at her and, still smiling, said, “thank you for the dance.”

I went back to my booth feeling shaky and weak, and she disappeared back into the crowd.  The dance went on as it had before, and I went on as I had before.  I didn’t see her leave that night, nor did I see that guy leave, although I’m sure he wasn’t far behind her.  Midnight had struck, my job was done, and the dance was over.