The Dancers: An Artist Story

by M.L. Cameron

parents.”

  I rolled my eyes and took out my highlighter. “Okay, record all you want.” I leaned over and kissed him quick. I buckled my seatbelt and settled in for the long flight to London.

  We went to the hotel and up to our room. We both collapsed on the separate twin beds. “I’m so tired!” I said and shut my eyes. The sun was still shining outside the window… Jet lag. “We’ve spent three days searching for your parents and no one has ever heard of them. Can’t we give up and enjoy the country? Please?”

  “I need to find them.” He stood up and collapsed beside me again. I turned on my back and he settled on his elbow, propping his head up. “It’s not so bad.” I shut my eyes and he traced his thumb over my cheekbones and then kissed me. “Just tomorrow, after tomorrow we can go somewhere else and walk around there.” I sighed but nodded. He would be there for me if I ever needed it, I needed to be there for him.

  ♪♪♪

  Luke grinned and ordered me some coffee at the little independent café we had stopped at. I sat down at the front table and picked up the newspaper that had been left over. None of it was any good to me so I set it aside and Luke walked over with coffee and pastries in hand.

  He sat down and held out a blueberry muffin. “Come on, I know it’s your favorite breakfast and they didn’t have strawberries.” I took the muffin and broke off a small piece. It crumbled in my mouth and I sighed, it was so good.

  Someone walked by the café and then stopped. They turned around and looked at me for a second. The lady was tall… well taller than I was, and dressed like an officer worker. She had a grey pinstripe suit on and ordered herself a plain coffee. She took the cash from her pocket, not a purse or pocketbook or even a wallet.

  She walked by me again and I smiled a little. She stopped and took a deep breath. “Have you been around here before? I mean, you remind of someone I once knew, it would have been… oh gosh fourteen maybe fifteen years ago… I’m probably wrong…”

  “A lot of people say I look a lot like my mother…”

  “Was her name… Oh I sound crazy… Was her name Holiday? Holiday…”

  “Faith?” I asked and she nodded, smiling. “Yeah… She was my mother.”

  She grinned at me. “I met your mother a long time ago. She told me all about you, she loved you so much. And that means you must be Luke?” she asked, finally looking at him. “Oh wow…”

  “What?” I asked and she turned back to me and then to him.

  “He just… I live in an apartment with these other Dancers and you look just like him. Him and her, I mean, more him than her but both…” She laughed. “I’m probably crazy, people are always telling me that. Well, I just wanted to know if you were her daughter… It was nice to meet you, I have a studio to get to.”

  She started walking away and Luke let her get a block down the street before jumping up and running after her. I smiled and ate more of my muffin. It was probably twenty minutes before he came back. I was on my second cup of coffee and down to half a muffin.

  “I… They live three miles away… In a penthouse apartment. Their names are Charlie and Lucy Prelapsarian. They won’t be home for an hour or two but…”

  “Let’s go,” I said and took his hand, standing up.

  Luke

  What was I supposed to say to them? Was I supposed to hug them? Would they even want to talk to me? I paced in front of their door while Ana sat on the bench, beside their door. Their door… Did that make it my door too? I took a deep breath and heard the elevator ding. I froze. Ana stood up and took my hand.

  I saw them, she was laughing and he had his arm around her. I tried to take a step back but I couldn’t move. The man noticed me first and turned the woman to see me too. They both sort of stopped… He took a step forward and she stepped with him. “Are you Charlie and Lucy Prelapsarian?”

  The woman nodded and Ana nodded with her. “All right, Charlie, Lucy… About nineteen years ago you made an agreement about a baby boy. This is Luke Surmise and he is your son.”

  “My son?” Lucy whispered and Ana nodded.

  “Maybe you could all talk a little more inside…” she suggested and Lucy nodded, still watching me. Charlie unlocked the door and we all went inside, the whole front room was green and pink. The couches were pink and so was the carpet, the walls were green. I felt like we had just walked into a watermelon.

  I sat down in one of the pink chairs and my parents sat across from me. Ana sat next to me, her hand still in mine. None of us could seem to actually say something… “You do know he’s your son right?”

  “Of course. I mean, why wouldn’t he be?” Charlie asked and Ana nodded. “Of course he’s our son, he’s the right age and the right hair color and… I’m sorry, I know that he’s our son but she can’t really get over it… There have been a lot of eighteen year old boys coming around here lately, claiming to be our son. Everyone knows that we’ve been waiting for him to come home for about a year and a half now.”

  Ana squeezed my hand. “You’re Luke?” Lucy asked and I nodded. “You’re my son?” I nodded again.

  “Or at least I hope so… I’ve been searching for my parents for days now… Waiting for months...”

  “I… Could I just… There’s so much I want to ask.” She looked at Charlie and he smiled down at her. For a second it seemed like they were having some kind of a conversation all on their own… And they probably were too.

  Finally they turned back to us and Lucy smiled, tears in her eyes. “You can ask anything you want,” I said and she let out on short laugh.

  “I know… What’s your favorite color?” she asked and it was my turn to laugh.

  “It was purple, for a long time. And then it became gold about a year and a half ago and now it’s blue.” She glanced at Ana and her smile got wider, she knew why blue was my favorite color… Charlie took her hand and the questions went on… for hours and hours.

  What foods do you like? Do you play any sports? What’s your favorite kind of music? Do you have a favorite movie? Do you have pictures from when you were a baby? How did you grow up? What do your parents do? Did you have a happy childhood? Do you want kids? What college are you going to? Do you already know about Dancers? Have you found your Passion?

  The last one got a laugh from Charlie. “What?” Lucy asked and he just shook his head, smiling.

  “She really is oblivious,” he claimed and she pouted. “Love, can’t you tell? Look at them.”

  Lucy looked at Ana and then glanced at me. “You’re the little boy Holiday would tell us about…” she whispered. “She would come at least once a year to visit with us. She had a daughter a year or so after our parents told us you were stillborn. We should have known but by the time we found the agreement it was too late… Anyway… She would come and show us pictures and tell us stories.

  “We knew that our little boy, wherever he was would be doing something like what she was doing. Walking, saying his first words, playing ball. And one year she came and told us about how strange it was to see her daughter growing up next to her Passion. She never said anything else about him but that was sort of it… and the year she promised to bring pictures she never came back. We never expected…”

  It was silent for a few seconds. “Luke?” I looked at Lucy. “Do you think you could ever see us as your parents? Like me as your mother and Charlie as your father?”

  I was quick to answer with, “Maybe one day. My parents… Or I guess the people who raised me, they don’t really act like my parents. They have three children of their own and I’ve never really fit in. I think that I want someone I can really call my mom or my dad.”

  Ana

  I stood in the studio and stared at my reflection. Exactly one year. I looked at my watch and took a deep breath. It had been exactly one year since James had dropped me in the lift. How much had changed in that small amount of time? Everything. Almost everything had happened… I found my grandparents, learned about an entirely different breed of people,
found my one true love, was almost killed, gained my sight back, found my boyfriend’s parents, got into Julliard, built a portfolio in a matter of days and survived.

  Shutting my eyes, I turned in a slow circle. How odd it had been to be blind. I bit my lip and remembered the day I had met Luke… I didn’t really remember our childhood together, but there were pictures and video’s to prove that it had happened. I loved him, so much. I hated that he was giving MIT up to go to school with me. I hated that he didn’t move in with his parents because my dad wouldn’t let me live in London. I hated so many things… But none of that mattered because I loved him.

  I walked to the lights and turned them off. And then I went to sit in the corner of the studio. I hugged my knees and cried… I wasn’t sure why I was crying. I just was. The entire room was dark, until my door opened. “Oh God,” I said and wiped at my cheeks. “You weren’t supposed to be picking me up until six thirty.” I huffed a small laugh, trying to keep him from asking questions. “And I don’t want to talk about it…” I added softly.

  “All right.” He shut the door behind him and then sat down beside me, leaning against the wall next to me. He took my hand and our fingers twisted together. “Then we won’t talk about it,” he whispered and I rested my head on his shoulder. “I love you.”

  “I love you more than strawberries,” I said and he smiled.

  “Hmm, I love you more than hockey.”

  “And I love you more than Fish.”

  “I love you more than the stars in the sky.”

  “I love you more than…”

  We went on for what felt like hours. We sat together in the dark room, part of the time was in complete silence and the other part of the time we just talked. He really was the love of my life and at that moment, everything seemed to just click. It must have been getting late because I was starting to get tired, I was falling asleep on Luke’s shoulder and he said he’d be right back.

  He left me alone and I took a deep breath. I loved him so much, maybe too much. But it wasn’t odd to any of our families. When Luke came back he had a pile of pillows and blankets in his arms. I smiled and he set them on the floor. He tossed me a pillow and I set the pillow on the floor behind me. He handed me a stack of clothes, pajama bottoms and a t-shirt.

  I walked to the opposite side of the studio and turned to face the wall. I could hear Luke spreading out the blankets, probably making more noise than he needed to so that I would know he wasn’t watching me. I took my tank top off and then pulled the t-shirt over my head. When I looked down I noticed that it was his t-shirt, long enough to reach my thighs. He probably didn’t do it intentionally, he probably just grabbed a shirt from my drawer.

  So instead of pulling on the pajama pants I just stepped out of my shorts and went back to the blankets, leaving the pile of clothes in the corner. Luke settled with his hands under his head. And then I laid down next to him, pulling the blanket over my shoulder. He smiled and rested one of his arms around my shoulders, twisting a lock of my hair between his fingers.

  I turned on my side and the shirt rode up, my bare thigh bumping against the bottom of his boxer shorts, skin touched skin and neither of us moved. He let out a small breath and kissed my hair. I looked up and he kissed the tip of my nose, finally kissing me on the lips. I sighed and then kissed him back.

  “Ana,” he murmured but kissed me again. I loved that he called me Ana instead of Anastasia. Anastasia was a little long and everyone said it. I got tired of it sometimes. I really loved it because it was what Luke called me. I felt him pour everything into the kiss, love, hope, courage, belief… Everything. And I tried to give him everything back. Suddenly he pulled back and I shut my eyes. “We have to