Drums beat heavily against the rhythm of her heart. Somewhere in the distance, guitar strings strummed and echoed, their vibrations filling the dark and empty room. Katey tried to steady her breaths, but the drums began to beat louder and faster, losing time with her heart that was now racing to catch up to their strikes…. bang, bang, bang…. Her heart felt as though it would rip from her chest…. Bang, bang, bang, bang….the guitar strummed again, louder, clearer, the sound reverberating all around her. Still the drums crashed, faster and faster, and her heart contorted, unable to keep up. Suddenly a tambourine crashed, again and again, so loud that it pierced her ears. Bang, bang, bang, bang, crash, crash, crash, crash. It was all so loud. And the room she stood in was so small and so dark, she couldn't see who was playing the music… but still it played, louder and louder. She covered her ears with her hands, and closed her eyes tight, silently willing it to stop… she tried to open her mouth and scream for silence, but she couldn't hear herself amidst the earsplitting music. Louder and louder, it crashed and played. Never seeming to stop. So loud now she thought her ears would bleed.
Stop, stop, stop. She screamed it in her head. STOP! But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make the sound come out of her mouth. STOP!
Suddenly… silence. Calm. A gentle hush. The sudden and abrupt quiet was louder than the music had ever been.
Slowly, Katey opened her eyes and lowered her hands. She was still breathing so heavy; her heart was still racing when… he emerged from the dark, a single spotlight pinned on him, the only light in the darkened room.
She opened her mouth, wanting to speak his name. But just as before, no sound came out.
Javier. It was really him, standing right before her.
She tried to calm her breaths, but her chest was heaving even more now as she drank in the sight of him. It was intoxicating, and it left her breathless.
They stood like that for what felt like forever, until finally, Javier took a few more steps closer to her, so close she could feel his sweet breath on her face.
"I didn't want to waste the music" was all he whispered.
Katey opened her mouth, when suddenly the drums and tambourine and guitar all played together again, all at once, and louder than before. Bang, bang, crash, crash, BANG! CRASH!
1965
Katey sat bolt upright. She gasped for breath and quickly ran her shaking hands through her damp hair. She was in a cold sweat, and her whole body quivered as she tossed the covers off herself and exposed her skin to the cold of her room. She sat on the edge of her bed, holding her head in her hands, "it's ok, it was just a dream" she whispered to herself with a definite tremble in her voice.
"Just a dream" she said again, as she slowly stood.
She walked into her kitchen, leaving the light off, and stood by the sink, reaching up into a cupboard for a glass and filling it with water from the tap, she leaned against the sink as she slowly drank, feeling herself eventually calm.
She hadn't dreamt so vividly in a long time. She especially hadn't had that dream in a long time. Not since she left Cuba and Javier behind. Every night for the first few months back in America, she'd had that dream, or some similar.
Sometimes she'd be standing in the ocean during a dark storm, with the clouds swirling, about to burst with rain when suddenly she'd hear a guitar string. The music would be horribly loud and torturous, and just as she closed her eyes she'd feel someone standing close behind her, and turn around to see Javier.
Sometimes she'd be in a more familiar setting, like La Rosa Negra, or The Palace, with the lights dimmed.
But, always the same, the music would start, and play until it got so loud and so unbearable that she'd have to cover her ears. And then he would appear. Always, he'd say the same thing. I didn't want to waste the music. And then, before she could ask what he meant, she'd wake up.
Always the same.
She took the last gulp from the glass and set it on the table. Katey took a deep breath and ran her hands again through her tousled hair, and thought of Javier. She tried to create a clear picture of his face in her head, she closed her eyes and, leaning against the sink, trying to remember his chocolate eyes, his delicious mouth, his raven dark hair…. She opened her eyes again. No use. Javier was never as clear in her mind as he was in her dreams. When she tried to stop and think about him for a moment, tried to remember him, too many other things would swirl in her mind and she could never quite draw a perfect picture of him…. She'd remember how she had cried herself to sleep all those nights upon her return to America, she'd start to think of what Javier was doing now…. How much he may have changed. And all these other thoughts that she couldn't seem to block out, would ruin her concentration.
She shook the thoughts from her head, glancing over to the clock on the wall, she sighed when she realized it was three o'clock in the morning. She wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now. She sighed again. The dream hadn't lasted long enough. She wanted to see Javier, breathe him in, for just a minute or two longer.
Even though her memory couldn't always paint an exact picture of him, she knew another way to remember Javier, that didn't involve her dreaming.
Katey walked to the other side of her quaint apartment, to the living room, where a large projector-screen was set up against the far wall with a camera standing in front of it.
She opened a wooden cabinet and pulled out a reel of film simply entitled "Cuba- 1958".
She slotted the reel into the camera, and sat down on her small couch, bringing her knees up to her chin, and wrapping her arms around them, she watched the film count back and then start to play the familiar scene.
Katey, her mother, and Susie in the backseat of the taxi. A scowl was set on Katey's face, and she couldn't help but smile now; how she hadn't wanted to be up-rooted.
She couldn't be more thankful to her parents now for dragging her to Cuba.
Katey sat patiently, watching the images of the Cuban streets, the Palace, Susie sun-baking, her mother and father waving to the camera. And finally, she and Javier, entering the dance floor. She quickly caught her breath as she watched the scene. The finals of the Latin Ballroom dance contest at the Palace. His hands roaming her body before the music started. She felt a shiver down her spine as she watched her younger self and Javier begin the first steps of their routine.
Katey smiled. They were good. Really good.
The film only played for a minute or two, before a black screen cut in. Katey sighed as she remembered that night. It was both the happiest and saddest of her life.
The chaos that followed that gun shot… and then the uproar of joy as the news of the revolution broke. There was dancing in the streets, fireworks were going off, the Cuban flag hung from every window and every balcony… it was a celebration that had never before been seen in Cuba. And Javier wanted to celebrate with her.
Katey smiled and hugged herself tighter as the film-reel counted back again, and her mind drifted….
That night, the night of the revolution, when Bastista had fled the country… it was the moment Javier and all of Cuba had been waiting for… and that night, Katey and Javier were one. She gave herself to him, completely.
The blank screen spewed with more images. Images of a crowded La Rosa Negra.
Amidst a group of on-lookers, Javier and Katey danced. His hands on her hips as she swayed with the music, his lips pressing against hers, and then his guiding hands, spinning her round and round. Katey smiled as she watched the scene. The whole time, she stared into Javier's eyes as his hands lead her around the dance floor. She and Javier were the King and Queen of La Rosa Negra. The dance floor was theirs.
Katey remembered that night. She remembered thinking how that wouldn't be her and Javier's last dance. It just couldn't. She hadn't known then, when she and Javier would meet again. She hadn't known then, and she still didn't know now.
Katey watched the projected image again, watched as she and Javier finished their dance, and turned to the camera, their smiling faces as they waved…. And then, a blank screen.
Katey smiled, but couldn't stop a few tears from falling.
It had been 7 years since she'd left Cuba. Since she left Javier.
Settling back into her old life in St. Louis, Missouri had been difficult to say the least. When she should have been thinking about University and the years to come, the years that would determine the rest of her life… all Katey could think about was Javier. Her heart had still been in Cuba. Just as Javier said, he had kept her with him, and she found it almost impossible to think of anything other than how much she wanted to be with Javier again.
Katey and Javier had been so certain that they would see each other again. One day. Their final kiss goodbye hadn't felt so final, it had been more of a promise…. A promise to one day rekindle what they had.
But now, seven years later, Katey couldn't believe how impossible that promise now seemed.
Cuba had become a dangerous place. At least, that was what the American Government seemed to think.
Cuba, under Fidel Castro's dictatorship, had become a communist country- in close ties with the Soviet Union, and therefore, an enemy of America.
The worst had yet to come in October 1962, when the Soviet Union was in the process of placing deadly nuclear weapons in Cuba.
Katey had listened to the radio and read the newspapers, as talks of America invading Cuba arose. Nuclear war seemed inevitable at that time, and all Katey could think about was Javier's safety.
But she had no way of contacting him. They hadn't spoken to one another in 6 years. The first year of their separation they had written to one another as often as possible. Long, beautiful letters in which they both wrote about one day meeting again. Either in Cuba or America.
And then… communication became difficult. It became harder and harder to receive and send letters to Cuba. Communists were an enemy to America. And being labeled one could be a person's ultimate downfall.
But Katey was more than reluctant to break off all ties with Javier. If she couldn't be with him in Cuba, she needed some other way of being connected to him.
It was Javier who had insisted she think of her own safety. In his last letter to her, he spoke about the two of them meeting one another soon, when their countries troubles were put aside. But until then, he wrote, for her safety and his, he would no longer send or receive any letters from her.
Just know that I will always love you. Until we meet again, I am yours- Javier.
That last line broke her heart. But she obeyed his wishes. And the two had not spoken in six years, not even to tell him the secret she knew he deserved to know. Six long years.
Katey buried her regret and sorrow in her work. She had been studying History and English Literature at Radcliffe, and for four years, her work was her life's passion.
After University she went home for a year, and even considered returning to Cuba. But her parents talked her out of it, highlighting the dangers.
After that year home, she set about looking for work…. In New York City, where she now lived.
She had been working at the New York Times for 3 years now. Starting from the bottom, and still slowly working her way to the top (she hoped).
Katey sighed and lay down on the couch, closing her eyes for a moment; she tried to quell the racing thoughts that were swimming in her mind.
She knew why she had dreamt of Javier tonight. She knew it was because she had kept a secret from him, and now was the time to tell him… especially since….
Katey opened her eyes again, and stoop up from the couch. Quietly, she tip-toed back into her bedroom, walked to her dresser, opened one of the drawers and pulled out a white envelope. She sat on the edge of her bed, and clicked on her night lamp, and then gently opened the envelope, removing the letter from inside.
She took a deep breath, just as she had done yesterday morning when she checked for mail and found that very envelope, with the recognizable hand-writing. Javier's hand-writing.
She slowly unfolded the letter and started reading;
Dear Katey,
I hope you are well. I cannot even begin to imagine how much you have changed in all our years apart.
I have wanted to write to you every-day since our last letter, but we both know that was impossible. But I write to you now, and I hope you get this letter…it has taken me too long, and I am so sorry for that. Maybe soon, I can explain to you everything that has happened.
I have thought about you every day since you left and I have prayed that you are happy and safe.
I love you. And one day very soon, I hope that my Queen will return.
Yours forever,
Javier.
Katey felt her eyes well with tears. She had read the letter so many times since yesterday that she had memorized it. Each time she read it, Javier's message was clear- it was time for them to meet again. After seven years apart, it was time. I hope that my Queen will return.
The letter had been sent to Katey's childhood home in St. Louis, but her parent's had forwarded it to her here in New York.
She read it over one more time, and gave a gentle nod. Yes, it was time. It was time that she and Javier reunited, and that she tell him her burning secret that she had kept from him for seven long years.
"Mama?"
Katey jumped a little from fright. She hurriedly tucked the letter back in the envelope and shoved it under her pillow. Quickly wiping the tears from her eyes, she turned around- Standing in the door way was a little girl, only seven years old, with olive skin, light grey eyes and raven dark hair.
"Bebé, qué usted está haciendo para arriba tan tarde?" Katey asked in a confident Spanish tongue.
"I saw the light" the little girl said sleepily, raising a hand to her eye and wearily rubbing away sleep.
"Estoy apesadumbrado, Rosa" Katey gave a wear smile; "do you want to sleep in here tonight?" she asked, throwing back the blanket on her bed.
Rosa nodded wearily, and clambered into Katey's bed, snuggling down under the blankets as Katey tucked her in "Sueños dulces" Katey whispered, kissing Rosa's forehead "Sweet dreams".
Katey flicked the light off, but did not sleep. All she could think about was Cuba…returning to Cuba…to Javier. All she could think about was how he would take the news….how was Katey going to tell him that he had been a father for the past seven years?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHORS NOTE:
Ok, So I watched Dirty Dancing 2 Havana nights a few days ago and already I am totally obsessed! Not only with the movie (which was really, really great!) but with Diego Luna (drool!). My God, that boy can move!
So I decided to write a fanfic about my new obsession.
The Spanish I used in this chapter was not my own genius, I don't speak a word of Spanish (only German and a little Italian) I actually went a translation website i found at Google. The translation may be totally off, so I do apologize if that is the case. But don't worry too much, I don't intend to incorporate a lot of Spanish into this story.
Oh, also, about this story… please review. I would be very grateful for any and all comments about my little story. I don't know at this stage how long the story will be, or even if I will continue. It all depends.
I hope you liked it. And…yeah…just, pretty please review!!
Thanks!