Maytime Dance
(Câu chuyện kể về trải nghiệm khôn lớn và những trải nghiệm mới mẻ, mà có thể được những người trong cuộc cho là "Yêu thương chín chắn" dưới ngòi viết diễn tả ở góc nhìn của chỉ nhân vật chính, và nhân vật chính là một người ... quá.. lắm... là "bình thường"! Không có nội tâm sâu sắc, cũng không có đối thoại rườm rà hay lí luận quá sắc sảo, ... do nội tâm của nhân vật chính ranh giới rõ ràng!)
I married the one I loved since high school and each year in May, we celebrate our first sight at each other.
I met him during high school, when I just turned 17. At that time, I had a load of eight subjects in school per day. All of my day and night were devoted into lessons and courseworks. As I working hard, my eyes started having panda circles. I loved wearing panda circles on my face.
Life once suddenly was no longer still at my end. I started suffering depression and all out of nowhere, I kept hearing noise. My jazz dance class wouldn’t help me; my piano class wouldn’t help me; my school time wouldn’t help me! But those panda circles helped. When I looked at me in the mirror, they made me realizing how hard I worked and how much precious a break was in my life right then.
When I decided to take a break, I slept on for the whole weekend. Those noise, afterwards, had gone for good. At that moment, I knew I had treated me right with none other devices: no doctor’s note or psychiatrist’s treatment.
But then, the next morning, hell settled its regime in my life when my teachers demanded my courseworks over the weekend. In my life, it was the first time that I submit nothing at all. My grades were deducted to the lower rank and my teachers all complained to my parents. To them, I am the pride of the cohort. And that truth was then on the brink of brokenness.
My birthday came during that low-energy-due-to-recharging-self week of mine. And I saw him the first time with the highness radiance then. It was a Wednesday afternoon when breaktime started.
He was walking ahead of me. In all of a sudden, I felt a vibrating energy running towards me. And he is the brightest comet in the whole universe for my eyes to be attracted. I was amazed at my presence and his. Each part and skin of him united my soul into a wholeness and left me with everything about him for me to remember: built-up, clothes, walking speed! At the end of the day, I went home with everything to miss and nothing else to recall. So I rushed straight onto my bed and opened a new entry for that day in my diary:
“Dear Breathless (I don’t know your name so this should be you),
Your body is a miss now on. Your face unknown. And your presence, which gave me a breathless moment, is the reason I come alive! If there is a chance to encounter us, I would die for it!”
Time went by so fast. April had come and all went passing around the yearbook of the schoolyear. I was also in the groove. However, I soon realized that Breathless went missing in my yearbook. So I tried looking in the whole school to find him. My friends, who had seen me running on and on with my yearbook in hands, smiled at me with scheming faces. When I was looking around, I took into selection his built-up from behind and his walking speed. In despite of my hardworking effort, he seemed to be a thin air particle. He was nowhere to be found. Maybe, I did encountered him, but by his frontside.
Finally another month, the time was then May. The whole school was preparing for Year End Dance. Voting for characters in the Dance was happening in school. In the year, we had the Easter Dance, the Clownies and the Royalty. The rules had Easter people as a group, Clownies as individuals and the Royalty people as pairs. When the results were out, I were surprised that I could be a chick for Easter group. Then, each of the amateur actors like me was invited individually for costume measurements for the Dance. Mine was a jumpsuit with a full-covered hat. We were additionally told to spot us and our friends onto camera blocks so we could take photo together. Besides, each theme group were taking to acting and dancing classes to practice our signature moves.
On the date 28th of May, the school was closed in the morning and in the afternoon. By the evening, the halls had been fully furnished and decorated. It was at 6 pm that all of us the actors came to the main hall. We divided the participants into groups and fetched them onto classrooms.
All of us, including our friends, went so-so crazy at the party. We had photos in which we kissed each other lightly on the tips of our lips. We had photos of the chickies and guests lying on the floor. We had posing photos of the rabbits and the clowns. We had real couples coming at couples of the Royalty. It was so romantic and fuzzy that I couldn’t keep up with the sessions in time and instead, somehow looked away for Breathless. But the luckiest thing is that I was not set in any photo while my eyes rolling.
The stars came late that dancing night. I felt like time had been elastified. But any party had its off-choir. We started inviting our guests out of the house and followed each other to the changing rooms to change clothes. When we also left the house, I was stunned by the built-up figure walking afront. He was Breathless, for sure! I was happy afterwards and in no time, reaching for him. I pat his shoulder and said “Hi!”
He gave me a moment with his look and said hello to me. He was a real nice guy just like that! Even though what he said next was “I have to go!”, his reaction still is priceless. Even though he was walking quite faster than others, I was still imagining his heart beating quite steadily! Even though he came and hugged a girlfriend in school, I still believed he is the cutest for me in the world. But just as little information about Breathless as back in those days, I had not known his name. There was a spoiler about us stating that we never meet again during our times back in Sophomore High.
“Dear Breathless again,
You and I had not spent a summer together, neither had us enjoying the same snowflake onto our palms. All about you and I is that geeky hello! I saw you hug a girl, but it didn’t mean anything until I have a clue about your relationship status. I’ll keep on loving you: calling you Breathless in my diary and looking for you sometimes.
Goodnight Breathless!”
And that was the last entry about Breathless and me. Until years later, in one cold Maytime night, when I was chatting around with my colleagues in a restaurant, it happens for me to see Breathless once again.
That night, I saw a man walking into the restaurant from the main door. He stopped at an empty table and turned and smiled at me. And he looked familiar. I knew there would be something in his walks. But he and I did not encounter verbally right away, either it be by our conversations or in my memory. He was alone all along while I was surrounded by friends.
When my friends started packing up, I told them that I had a guy over the tables looking at me. He was still sitting there so I guessed I could come over and spell a ‘hello’. They shouted at me and packed my things up and delivered me to his table right away!
My friends starred me to his attention. They left soon afterwards and whispered at me to have them waiting outside the place. They said we should go home early and that him and I would have little time left to go over our hello.
-Hello, I hope to know you! - I said.
-I also wished I would know you! - He replied.
-You look familiar but I don’t know where to! - I reckoned.
-I’m the guy whom you reached and patted at my shoulder! It was four years ago, when we both acted for the Maytime Dance in school. - He recalled at me.
-You know me!!! - I happily returned at him. It was a surprised for me to meet Breathless once again and to know that he remembers what I did all along.
-Yea. You were so popular! Everyone who looked at the Honor List always would know you! - He returned.
-Hi, I’m Elisa Grace. I love to have greeted you! May I ask for your name? - I asked.
-Hello! My name is Logan Grande. Nice to meet you again, Elisa! - He replied.
-I may have to leave now so if you could share a number or a contact address? - I asked.
He pulled off a piece of paper and wrote his handphone number onto it.
-This is my handphone number. You may call at any time after 7pm. - He expressed.
After that, we said goodbye. I went home and glued that piece of paper into my diary. In my phone, I typed off the number and texted him a friendly note everyday. Additionally, we greeted each other sometimes in the weekend. Later, there were days we hanged in the sunshine. Our relationship and my diary kept growing until one day, Logan laid back and said: “I think we have given enough time and love for each other to each getting to know the other. I also think our love is a fairytale-coming-true. So in case you don’t mind, I wonder if we could get married?” And that was how I ended up with him.
