Dead Man Dancing

by Marcia Talley

  ‘That reminds me.’ I opened my purse and pulled out a narrow box. ‘Now that you’re back in the parsonage, I think you’ll be needing this.’ I slid the box across the table.

  Eva tipped up the top and peeked in. ‘Pastor Barbie! I don’t believe it!’ Tenderly, she withdrew from the box a Barbie doll decked out in full priest regalia. It had been made as an ordination gift for Eva by her sister. I’d rescued Barbie from the trash can where a despondent Eva had tossed her when she left St Cat’s on sabbatical. For the past several months, Barbie’d slept on a bookshelf at my house.

  Tears trickled down Eva’s cheeks as she stroked the doll’s hair. ‘Poor Pastor Barbie, I treated you very shabbily.’ She smiled across the table. ‘Thanks, Hannah, for saving her for me.’

  Eva tucked Barbie back in her comfortable bed of bubble wrap. ‘It’s back to the office for you in the morning.’ And almost in the same breath, she said, ‘Want to stay for dinner?’

  ‘I can’t tonight, sorry. Ruth’s got her cast off, so Hutch has invited us to Dance Night at the Davidsonville Dance Club. Cast of thousands, but I haven’t been dancing since . . . well, since Jay was still alive. I find I’m looking forward to it.’

  Later that evening, seated in a family group at the end of a long table at the popular dance hall in Davidsonville, Hutch stood up, raised a glass of wine and shocked us all. ‘A toast! To my wife, Mrs Gaylord Hutchinson.’

  Hutch winked, and shot me a goofy grin. ‘I told you I was going to do something constructive with the time I set aside for Shall We Dance?’

  ‘What? When?’ Daddy sputtered.

  ‘Ruth and I were married this afternoon at the County Courthouse.’

  Ruth beamed at her new husband, and then turned the brights on us. ‘I said the hell with the flowers, the cake and the dress. Screw the hotel and the band! I have everything I need right here.’

  Remembering the Bridesmaid’s Dress from Hell that I was obliged to wear when Connie married Dennis, I couldn’t have been happier about the dress part, either.

  ‘And Maya Tulum was more than happy to move up our reservations, so in two days, we’re off to the Yucatan!’ Hutch added.

  Hutch took Ruth’s hand, raised her gently to her feet, and led her out on to the dance floor. I watched them waltz happily away.

  I listened to the music for a bar or two. ‘I don’t recognize that tune. Do you, Paul?’

  Paul slipped his arm around my shoulders. ‘It’s called ‘Lost in the Darkness’ from the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Come on.’

  He grabbed my hand, tucked it under his arm, and led me out to join the others on the floor. While we waltzed, Paul hummed and dum-de-dummed along with the music as if he were unsure of the words, but toward the end of the song, he began to sing softly in my ear, ‘I’ll never desert you, I promise you this, Til the day that I die.’

  I smiled up at him, and his lips found my mouth, and for one magic moment we danced completely alone.