A Prelude To A Dance

by Kay Edwards

  Chapter Three

  Logan lay in his bed wide awake. It had been a week since Helen had jumped into the freezing water of the Susquehanna River. In that week, he had gotten to see the face of the Helen his mother talked so fondly of.

  Logan studied her when she was on the news doing interviews. He still looked up the rescue on the internet. Logan was still angry with her, but he did not understand why. His unjustified anger didn’t make sense, but it was there.

  Punching his pillow, he rolled over and tried to close his eyes, however, all he saw were the blue eyes of Helen. He allowed his mind to go to the interview he had seen the previous day. Helen just seemed so uncomfortable. Her pale face framed by long blond hair made her look more vulnerable than a hero.

  A part of him found satisfaction at her discomfort. He did not want to think about why that would be. He knew why he felt that way. His mom was right. There was just something so genuine about her that you could not help but like her. He knew what it was that made her sincere. It was Christ, and that made Logan mad. It was the same anger he got when his mom would say she was praying for him. If he had to be honest, he had more anger steered towards Helen. He had an intense anger he did not understand. With his mom, he got annoyed. Logan knew his mom loved him so he could never get truly angry. With Helen, it just got under his skin.

  He punched the pillow again and rolled over. It is not like Helen was different from the girls he had grown up with. It never bothered him seeing them. So, why did it bother him so much to see it in her?

  Looking at the clock, Logan decided to give up on trying to sleep. It was 5 am, and he needed to get up in another hour. There was no sense in trying to sleep when his mind wouldn’t shut off.

  Getting out of bed, he made his way to the bathroom. He turned on the shower and then turned to brush his teeth while the water warmed up.

  Lidia, the little girl, was going to be getting out of the hospital later that morning. Logan wondered if there was going to be some heartfelt reunion between her and Helen. Cussing under his breath for thinking about Helen again, he disrobed and jumped into the shower. Letting the water run over him, he hoped it would wipe away the anger he had.

  It had been a week since Helen jumped into the icy waters of the Susquehanna to save Lidia on that fateful February day.

  Helen took a deep breath and sighed. In that week, her life seemed to change forever. She and Lidia appeared to be known all over the country. The thing that was not comfortable for Helen was the fact that people recognized her every place she went even on campus. She did not like the attention especially from the young men on campus. She was asked out a couple of times but politely declined.

  Three news stations interviewed her. They asked her many times what it felt like to be a hero. Those interviews, thus far, had been done with only Helen since Lidia had still been hospitalized. However, that day it had changed. Helen and Lidia had done the first and second of seven interviews together earlier that morning.

  Helen prayed about accepting the first interview. Now it seemed she couldn’t get away from them. If she were honest, she prayed hoping that God would say it was ok not to do it. That was not the case.

  When asked how she was able to jump into the water and save Lidia, her answer was always the same. God had her in His hand the entire time, and it was through Him she was able to pull Lidia out of the water. She knew some people thought she was humble, but the truth was she did believe that only God helped her save that little girl.

  For those that knew her best, they knew that Helen was anything but comfortable in front of a camera. She hated crowds. Helen liked to stay on the outside of things. Helen avoided drawing attention to herself. It was just who she was. A doctor had diagnosed her with anxiety issues when she was still a kid. Her mother did not have any qualms telling people that when it became evident that Helen did not want to socialize.

  “Please let this go by fast.” Helen whispered a plea to God.

  “Did you say something?” her mother asked from across the room.

  “I was just talking to God,” Helen said softly.

  Helen’s mother came up behind her chair and put her arms around her shoulders. Bending over, she planted a kiss on the top of Helen’s head. “This too shall pass my dear.” She said with a smile.

  “I know,” Helen said. A tear slipped out and ran down her cheek.

  “It will be ok Helen. There is no reason to cry. I know you do not like to be noticed, but it is that quiet spirit of yours that makes people take notice of you.”

  Going around the chair, her mother grasped her chin. Gently tilting it up, her mother spoke again. “You did not always mind the attention. Try to think about the times when you were little and enjoyed being the joker and drama queen.”

  Helen closed her eyes and sighed again. “I will try.”

  Elaina Day sat watching the interviews she had recorded with Helen and Lidia. She could not help but smile as the interview started with little Lidia. The little girl looked adorable in the purple overalls her mom had put on her. She could not help but giggle a bit when she saw Helen sitting next to the girl.

  Poor Helen, everyone knew she was so out of place doing these interviews. It just hit Elaina a little different than it did Ester Helen’s mother. Elaina could see the humor and the sadness in it. Not in a cruel way, but in a way, that made her remember the conversation she had had with Helen about a year ago. She allowed herself to think back to that time.

  “Hi, Helen, how are you?” Elaina observed the twenty-year-old jump.

  “Mrs. Day, you about gave me heart failure! I did not even hear you come up behind me.” Helen exclaimed softly.

  “My son says the same thing. I am light on my feet. It may be that he gets his dance ability from me.” The older woman smiled as she did a dance step.

  Helen laughed. “I hope he does not make it a habit of sneaking up on people too.”

  Elaina cocked her head to the side. She observed the young woman in front of her. She was always drawn to Helen. However, there was always something that made her think the young lady did not care to be around a lot of people. She did not go out with the other kids when she was a teen. She did not seem inclined to make friends now to go out and have fun. Helen looked like it almost hurt to talk now.

  Helen knew she was being observed. She could not help it, but she started to fidget under Mrs. Day’s scrutiny.

  Elaina cleared her throat and ventured “You do not enjoy a great amount of contact with people. Do you Helen? Now before you answer, I am not trying to make it seem wrong. I just want you to know I understand.”

  Helen looked down. She always hated it when her mom would make the same observation. Helen cleared her throat. She was going to answer, but the words just seemed to stick.

  “It is ok Helen. I just want to say one thing to you. I just feel like God is telling me I need to say this to you. Sometimes, He calls us out of our comfort zones. If He does this to you, please be obedient. He loves you, and He will protect you at that time.” Elaina said to the younger woman.

  Elaina remembered the tears in the young lady’s eyes. She did not mention anything. She just nodded and smiled before she walked to her calling mother.

  Hearing Helen’s voice on the TV brought her back to the present. She started to make her supper as the interview was coming to an end. She was just getting ready to put the chicken in the oven when Lidia’s mom started saying that they did not have good insurance. The bill for the hospital was over $200,000 and their insurance only covered three quarters of it. Lidia’s mom vowed to pay every penny back. She was just so grateful to the doctors and hospital staff for saving her daughter’s life that the idea of not paying the hospital the money seemed wrong.

  Elaina’s mind began to form a plan. She was not sure if it would work but was willing to give it a shot. She put the
chicken in the oven and called Logan.

  “You want me to what!” Logan tried not to yell, but he just could not help it. His mother was out of her mind.

  “Now hear me out, Son.” Elaina tried to calm him. “This little girl did not have a good healthcare plan. Her parents can’t afford to pay this bill, and person like you doing a benefit would be an excellent way to raise money.”

  “I understand the benefit part Mom. I do not understand the part in which you want me to teach Helen to dance.” he hissed through clenched teeth.

  “It would be a great way to draw attention to the benefit. The news can do updates on how it is going with the lessons. We can sell tickets to a dinner that ends with a ballroom dance featuring you and Helen. You have to admit it would draw a crowd. We may be able to pay off the entire bill for Lidia’s family. If there is any money left, we can even set up a fund at the hospital to be used for those that can’t pay their bills.”

  Logan ran his fingers through his hair. He knew he had no reason to say no. Logan had nothing on his schedule for the next two months. He remembered the phone conversation a week ago about this time and the question he asked himself when he hung up.

  Logan knew he could do this. He had the time to do this. Logan did want to help this child’s family, but he just did not want to be that close to Helen.

  Logan had a choice to make. Taking a deep breath, he decided to make the right choice “I’ll do it if she will.” Closing his eyes, he resigned himself to dealing with the anger and helping Lidia’s family pay the hospital bill.

  What a day it had been. Helen sat at her computer desk and tried to do her homework. All she could think about was what her mother had asked her to do earlier that evening. Her mom wanted her to learn to dance. Helen was not just being asked to learn to dance. She was being asked to do it in front of cameras. She just could not imagine what Mrs. Day was thinking bringing this up to her mom.

  When asked to do it, Helen went to her number one answer. “Let me pray about it.”

  Helen sniffled letting a tear run down her cheek. She watched it drip onto her desktop.

  She had prayed about it and knew what God wanted her to do. She just had such a hard time imagining that God was going to ask her to do this. He knew her so well and was aware that she had come to the point of depending on His arms, only, for strength and comfort. He knew this was going to be so uncomfortable for her. Why was He asking this of her now? Helen just didn’t understand.

  Helen knew she would not be able to sleep until she told her mother the answer. Who was she kidding? She was not even sure that would help her sleep.

  Going to her bed, Helen propped pillows in a circle. As she had done many times in the past, she snuggled into those pillows and pretended they were the physical arms of God. Helen laid there and cried for a few minutes. She laid there in hopes God would change His answer.

  After some time had passed and with a weary spirit, Helen went to her mother’s room and told her she would do the benefit.

  Helen returned to her room and went back to her pillows and talked to Jesus. She told Him how scared she was of this. Helen asked Him to forgive her for her lack of faith. She laid it all in her Savior’s hands, and then, she slept.