Dancing Brings Freedom

DANCING BRINGS FREEDOM

How could silence seem so loud? the old man thought. No one dared to utter a sound. Yet he felt as if his ear drums would burst. The train car had been his home for three days. One old man in a carriage with a lot of total strangers. He was grateful they had come for him when he was gardening. His old coat kept him warm. The water bottle in his pocket kept him alive and his booted, rhythmic feet kept him occupied.

His body could not move but his trained feet could. He had danced everything he had ever been taught, only using his feet. Occupy the mind and the brain will occupy itself, he thought. He and his fellow passengers knew where they were all going.

They all cried, yet he smiled for the entire journey. He had been dancing for three days. In his house, his garden. The homes of his many children who were scattered all over the world. In the street and the ballroom where he and his beloved dance partner won their trophies. Dancing in between giving birth to their children. She had passed on five years ago and he danced at the funeral.

She had made him promise to dance there for her and he had kept his promise. The sound his tap shoes had made still echoed in his head as the train jerked to a sudden halt.

The sound of barking dogs bought him out of his dancing daze. His feet still moved in time to the beat of the cha cha cha, but his mind was now in this nightmarish place. He peered through a hole in the carriage front. The sign was clear for all to see, it read: ARBEIT MACHT FREI. He knew what it meant, WORK BRINGS FREEDOM. The word above it was one he would not look at. His educated mind would not entertain such a word as this. It meant death, but dancers never die. His stomach knotted as a shiver ran up his spine. An un noticed tear rolled down his face as he uttered a silent prayer.

The doors swung open and the sight of heartless, soulless men in grey uniforms with guns and whips seemed to freeze the blood in his old veins.

He carefully climbing down and followed the thin man in the stripy pyjamas. He took a deep breath, regained his composure and began to move in time to the rhythm. His heart seemed to beat in time to the music of the fox trot that played in his head.

Dancing in the shadow of a Nazi flag, he spat into the dust. Cursing the vile regime that thought it could conquer the world.
Glancing down he saw his feet were still moving in time to the beat.
When my time comes I shall dance my way into Heaven while you and your filthy Reich burn in Hell. The passion of his anger moved his feet even quicker.
Time for a new dance. Looking down he could see his old boots tap dance on Hitler’s face.
Eyes were drilling into his back, which caused him to stop dancing. A girl was standing next to him, clutching a doll. His youngest grandchild was older than this little angel. Tears poured down her innocent face and his heart began to bleed. Reaching out he clutched her hand and smiled at her.
“Would you like to dance, my child?”
She smiled, but the tears still flowed. He took her hand and began to lead. The other prisoners stepped back to allow them room as they danced The Waltz. The white haired old man and the golden haired angel, clutching a ragged doll.

Even the vile soldiers stared in amazement as their eyes tried to take it in.
Dogs stopped barking, men and women ceased to shout and cry as the silent music carried the two dancers round and round.

Even the guards in the towers stared in wonder. They did not see the soldiers creeping through the trees. Aiming guns at their Nazi enemies.
The guards in the towers were the first to fall. But still the old man led his new partner, as the bullets whizzed past him as both soldiers and prisoners fell to the ground. The old man smiled down, seeing his partner was no longer crying.

They were still dancing when all the Nazis lay dead. The old man did not stop until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Gulping, he turned to find himself starring at a Russian General.
“You and your daughter have been liberated, my old friend. Do you give lessons?”
The old man nodded and took the lead once more, as a sea of smiling faces looked on.