A Brief Story

Anna opened her eyes. The sound of a soft piano tune and a sweet soprano voice echoed in her ears. Her sunshades tinted the blue sky a subdued orangey yellow. She gazed through the the tree branches and watched as a feather floated past. She followed the feather with her eyes until it lighted upon her wrist. 1:00pm. Her watch informed her that she had blissfully slept away an hour that otherwise would have been spent deriving functions in a musty calculus room.

She sat up and leaned her back against the tree under which she had slept so calmly. All the worries that had engulfed her this morning had vanished like the remnants of a dream upon awaking. A small rumble occurred in the distance. She looked westward to discover a train was making its way down the track. The low, steady growl of the locomotive was a pleasant addition to the robins and ducks chattering loquaciously nearby. As the train neared, Anna felt a sudden urge to hop on, as the hobos in some of her favorite stories did. Anna longed for adventure and wanted to be whisked away. The closest she ever got to a thrilling adventure was ditching class for a few hours once every two weeks. Even then, she only made it as far as the park down the street.

Anna spent hours in the park that day, simply walking about and observing nature at work. The ducks swam lazily around the creek, the elderly couples walked slowly hand-in-hand around the walking path, the water quietly burbled over rocks. The park was beautiful. Anna was in awe of the grace of it all. None of the birds, bugs, or trees were worried about anything. They simply were. The wind blew, and the treetops moved gently, but they remained just as rooted in place as before.

Anna pondered the trees and wished to be like them. How could she me unmoved by the breezes that faced her daily? How could she know if what she was doing was what she was meant to do? How could she eliminate worry? Could she just live and be alive?

Anna's pensive ambling brought her to a grassy area surrounded by a grove of trees. She felt something that she couldn't quite describe. She began to draw circles in the grass with her feet. Slowly, those motions became a sort of dance. The song in her ears switched from a gloomy Imogen Heap tune to a Lady Gaga dance tune. She began to move faster, spinning round and round. She leaped into the air. She ran. She jumped. She tried to cartwheel. She failed. As she lay on the ground, panting and smiling a smirk that would make a Cheshire Cat jealous, she realized the answers to her questions. She needed to make a choice.

It was Anna's decision. So, she chose to be happy. She leaped to her feet, kicked off her shoes, and resumed her wild, spastic dance moves.

She returned to school for the last two periods of the day, smiling and humming a familiar tune.

Just dance. Gonna be okay.

Duh-duh-duh-duh

Dance. Dance. Dance.

Just dance.