Teaching Me to Dance
"Time is like a wheel…"
"As Tuck told Winnie Foster the summer she turned 15, 'Do not fear death, only the un-lived life'" (Tuck Everlasting)
Winnie left her desk and went to the window. She'd woken up early with something on the edge of her mind, but for the last hour it had refused to come back to her, as if it knew that allowing itself to be put on paper would mean losing its power. A blue jay was crying outside, and Winnie held her breath a moment as the tugging at her memory resumed, willing it to move forward, afraid of frightening it back to its hiding place. It had whispered to her in her sleep. Anyone else might have let the voice go, but Winnie Foster had learned better.
She leaned her arms on the railing and stared at open grass and a few trees under a white-gold sunrise. To her left she heard leaves rustle; no doubt where the blue jay was hiding. So much of the land had been cleared since her father died. The woods were still there-just a little receded. Perhaps she would have the gardeners re-plant some new trees this spring, up closer to the house. She was not sure why, but watching the woods roll away made her sad.
You own these woods? The thought came out of nowhere, making her start a little. It may as well have been a voice next to her ear, for all the control she'd had over it. Suddenly, something in her wanted to hear that voice again. She felt herself blush as she muttered angrily at the trees,
"Hear what voice? Ridiculous-you can't reproduce a trick of the mind." A few minutes later, Winnie shifted and tried to watch the reel inside her head as the illusive memory came slowly back. She stood as still as possible, waiting to see if she could regain what had been teasing her for hours.
In the back of her memory, she heard the music: the simple beating of a stick against a rock and the movement of human feet. She raced back to the desk as it filled her senses, the real world forgotten for something much more substantial.