The Dancers: An Artist Story

by M.L. Cameron

like that much of a spoiled brat. “Luke, talk her out of this,” my father said and I just looked at him.

  “You think I can talk her out of this? You think that I can just say, ‘be quiet?’ I think she has every right to request another doctor. You’ve said it yourself that you don’t approve of her. She wants to see again, and dance without hesitation. With you doing it she’ll be nervous the whole time. She’s not just some once was, screw up, ballerina like you are always saying.”

  He gaped at the both of us. “Which will it be Dr. Surmise?”

  “I don’t think you’re the right girl for my son… And I’m sorry, but that won’t change, at least not any time soon.”

  “Fine. Luke could you call my dad?” she handed me her phone and I dialed quickly. I handed it back. “Daddy? No… It went fine. Did you know Luke’s dad was supposed to be doing my operation?” She paused. “No. I don’t want him to do it. Please daddy? He doesn’t like me…. I know he’s a doctor but I don’t want to be afraid…” She smiled a little. “Thank you, so much daddy. I love you too. Yeah, I’ll come home tonight… You want Luke to come too? Okay… Bye.”

  She closed her phone and slid it into her pocket. “Thank you Dr. Surmise you should be receiving a call from your boss within twenty-four hours informing you that you will no longer be performing my operation.”

  I stood up when she did. I had to admire her courage, standing up to my father like that. He respected people who stood their ground and I could tell as we walked out that he was beginning to respect her. We walked out of the office and she held her head high until we got into the car. “I feel horrible.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t like being a spoiled rich girl. But if he was going to do the operation I would have been so scared the whole time.”

  I put my arm around her shoulders. “It’s going to be just fine. He’ll get over it. You have every right to request someone else.”

  She shrugged. “I want to see again.”

  Then I didn’t say anything. Somewhere in the back of my mind I didn’t want her to see again. Then she would go back to school, start dancing again… And through all that she might forget about me. I took a deep breath and pulled her closer. Her arms wrapped around my waist and she pressed her face into my chest.

  I didn’t want her to forget me. I didn’t want her to just turn around and forget about everything we had shared…

  Ana

  We sat around the table and I slid my fork across my plate. My father probably thought I was searching for food. Luke nudged my ankle under the table, urging me to eat something. “So, Luke, where are you planning on going to college?”

  “I want to go to MIT,” he said and my eyes widened. “Or maybe Virginia Tech. And if either of those don’t work out then Yale or Harvard. Ivy league is sort of my ultimate goal.”

  “What do you want to go to MIT for?”

  “My teachers tell me game designing is in my future but I would rather do architecture work. Landscape and exterior home designing. It’s going to be hard but I know that I can do it if I try.”

  He was amazing. And he was completely winning over my father. “Do you play any sports?”

  “Hockey. I was never one for football or basketball.”

  “I never played hockey. My mother was always so worried I would get hurt.” And that’s why she won’t talk to me, I added mentally. My grandmother told my father that dancing was dangerous and when he enrolled me full time she stopped talking to us.

  I took a deep breath and set my fork down. “I’m full,” I murmured and I could feel Luke looking at me. I didn’t want to eat whatever was in front of me and he would be mad because of it. I didn’t really care. “I’m going to go change into my pajamas.”

  I stood up and left the room, I knew the house well enough now to walk around without needing any sort of guidance. I could probably maneuver Luke’s house the same way, but with all the stairs I was never completely sure.

  My room was warm and welcoming. I heard my kitten make a little noise. “Hello,” I murmured and sat on my bed, after making sure she wasn’t lying there. I waited for her to bump against my hand. When she did I ran my fingers through her soft fur.

  ♪♪♪

  I must have fallen asleep on my bed because I woke up with someone sitting beside me on the bed. I could hear the pages of a book turning. “Good morning,” Luke said and I heard the book get set aside. He took my hand and I sat up. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m all right. It’s morning already? I don’t remember falling asleep…”

  “I don’t know, I came in to check on you and you were asleep. I slept in one of the guest rooms and your father told me to look after you when I woke up. He said that he’s going to the hospital for a couple of hours before he goes for the surgery this afternoon.” Luke always gave me a rundown of everything. I liked it, I never had to ask for him to tell me anything. “And that I was supposed to pick him up from the hospital tomorrow morning and drop you off so he could try and get back to work. Then the doctor called and told me to drive him straight home, no work. And that you would be in surgery almost all of tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, your dad said something about money talking and then he went to bed.”

  “Luke?” I whispered.

  “What?”

  “Will you be there when I wake up?”

  I knew he was smiling when he tucked a strand of lose hair behind my ear. “Of course. I’ll be there before you go in and after you come out. You know you won’t be able to see right away…”

  “I know. It could be two to four weeks before they know if it worked. I still want you to be there.” I wanted to see Luke. I had vague dreams about him sometimes, where he would say something and I could start to see him but I would always lose it. I hated that.

  “Then I’ll be there. You know Scarlett wants you to see one of her performances.”

  I flinched. Dancing was still sort of a sore subject with me. I could help Scarlett practice but that was all technical. I hadn’t danced in over a month, since I had shown her and Luke what a difference that half step made. I took a deep breath and settled my nerves. My head rested on Luke’s shoulder and his arm was wrapped protectively around me.

  We spent another day together. Like we did almost every single other day. I wasn’t allowed to eat anything so he couldn’t tell me to eat something, like he usually did. The next day I woke up to Luke gently shaking me. He stroked the pad of his thumb over my cheek. “It’s time to go.”

  As we walked to the car I got more and more nervous. In the hospital I had to focus on my breathing or I was going to pass out. I heard my father ranting to someone about how he was well enough to go to work. “I’m sorry Mr. Faith but you will be put under observation if you do not promise to go home and rest,” a nurse was saying, not just any nurse, Luke’s mother.

  “Fine,” he mumbled. “Not like I can see with these paper things over my eyes anyways… Where’s Luke? He’s supposed to be driving me home.”

  “What?” I shrieked and grasped at Luke’s arm. “No, you promised…”

  “Anastasia?” Dad asked and I started hyperventilating.

  “Deep breaths Ana, okay? I’m not going anywhere.” He squeezed my hand. “Scarlett is coming to drive you, she should be here in a second.”

  I tried to breathe, tried to take deep breaths. When had I become so dependent on other people? When had I become so dependent on Luke? I heard someone come into the room. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I’m late. I wasn’t supposed to be late. But there was almost no where to park.”

  Then came my sigh of relief, I was going to be okay. Luke would be there…

  … “Please count backwards from twenty.” …

  Luke

  Do you know how long it could take?” I asked my dad at dinner a week after Ana went through her sight repairing surgery. “For her to see again?”

  He shrugged. It was just us and instead
of silence like we usually had it was fairly comfortable. He was a little upset that he was kicked off the surgical procedure, but it didn’t go on his permanent record so he wasn’t mad. “It could be a few days, and it could be a few weeks. She’ll be very sensitive to lights being on for the first month or two. It’ll get easier as time goes on. It may take time for her to properly distinguish colors. Since her father was her donor she could become color blind. She’ll be allowed to take the bandages off in a week, after everything has healed up.”

  “So… How long is it before you know it won’t work?”

  “After two weeks. If she still can’t see anything we’ll know that it didn’t work.”

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Luke, how do you feel about this girl?”

  Instead of answering I shrugged. “I don’t know… I have no idea… I don’t want to say that I love her. Because I don’t know if I do. I’m only seventeen.”

  “Do you know how old your mother and I were when we met?” I shook my head. “We were in the seventh grade. We lived in Kansas…” He kept talking, falling back in time. “We went to a catholic school, uniforms were required and everyone was ‘related.’ She was top of the class and I always fell just a little bit behind. We didn’t talk to each other until the end of eighth grade. We talked all summer, and spent most of our time together. When school started the next fall I knew that I loved her.

  “Throughout high school we had our share of ups and downs. We went from spending every day together to seeing each other for thirty seconds at a time. Our junior year I proposed. Her parents disagreed, my parents loved the idea. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t fall in love.”

  Again, I shrugged. “Maybe… I don’t think she’ll want to hang out with me after she gets her life back. She’ll have her friends again. Her dance. She won’t need me anymore…” I stared at my plate and took a deep breath. Thinking about Ana leaving me was hard but I knew I needed to think about it. I didn’t want to let her go. It was nice to feel wanted.

  “I think you two will be able to work it out and that everything is going to be okay.” At that, I stared. My dad never thought anything in my life would work out. “Scarlett has recitals in two weeks, the hockey conditioning starts soon, doesn’t it?”

  “It started today,” I mumbled, not wanting to completely ruin the moment. He was attempting to talk, so I would try too. “That’s why Ana’s not here today.”

  “Oh… Well you need to put the game days on the calendar.”

  “I will.”

  ♪♪♪

  I took my phone from my pocket and took a deep breath. I was supposed to be going to school for two hours then picking up Ana to bring her to the doctor. “Hello?” I asked, turning into the school parking lot.

  “Luke, I’m going to bring Anastasia to the eye doctor. Turned out I don’t have to work the double shift. She wants you to stop by after school though.”

  “All right. Is she okay?” She made me promise I would go to every doctor appointment with her.

  “She’s just fine.”

  “Okay, I’ll call when I get out of last period.”

  I sat in my car for a few seconds and then went into school. Everyone walked around the halls, a few of the guys from the hockey team started walking beside me. “Leaving to hang out with your fake girlfriend later?” Mark asked and punched me in the shoulder.

  “You’re so funny,” I said and continued walking. “And no, her dad decided to take her to the doctor.”

  He started laughing. None of them believed that I was tutoring Ana. I ran a hand through my dark colored hair and then realized that I needed a hair-cut. “I’ll see you guys later,” I said as the group started to break up. Mark and I had first period together.

  “So, what do you even do? I mean, she’s like blind isn’t she?” I nodded and walked into my first class.