I’m doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month. My Primary goal is to write at least three times a week, my Secondary goal is to write 20,000 words during this month. If I hit my target I will stretch it by 5000 words each time I hit it. Lets do this!
Prompt; Dance.
Word count;835
Little feet pattered across the wooden floor. There was no grace. Only haste as he wobbly three-year-old directed his momentum towards the prone figure of his mother’s new girlfriend.
A walking cane lay at her side as she dozed in a patch of sun streaming in through the open porch door, blissfully unaware of the child shaped torpedo locked on to her. Gleeful giggles preceded the stumble that launched him onto her stomach.
The resulting squawk from the squishy new adult in his life alarmed him. As he shuffled to sit up in a hurry, a reassuring hand reached out and ruffled his curly hair.
“What are you doing little one?” her voice was heavy from sleep and a little wheezy due to the nature of her explosive awakening. Her eyes were kind and warm, even if the rest of her face was sharp and weatherworn.
“Dancing…” his voice was small, there was fear in his big blue eyes as the woman quirked and eyebrow at him. He braced himself for the punishment he was used to receiving from his mother’s previous partners.
“But there’s no music!” noticing the change in the small child’s body language, her voice became soft and reassuring so as not to unsettle the little boy any further. Sniffling and whipping his nose with the back of his sleeve, the toddler looked at her like she was some kind of Alien.
“Yes there is!” his voice was edging back into the normal toddler range, the height of indignation and scorn.
“Where?”
“In my head. So it doesn’t wake Ally up….” Suddenly he looked very guilty.
“But I am awake little one…” the mischief in her voice emboldened the boy.
“Only because the rug tripped me!”
“It’s okay.” She reassured, sensing him pulling away from her and shutting himself off once again. “What does your music sound like?”
“Like this~!” the toddler began to hum and skip around the room and occasionally he would stumble or catch his foot on the corner of the rug at the center of the room. His tune was light and free, albeit a little bit off key.
By the time he had run out of notes, Ally had pulled herself up from sleeping position to sitting. From sitting position, she pulled herself up to be awkwardly leaning on her cane as the explosive bundle of life before her was joined by the fluffiest of cats. The rug was suddenly on the balcony and the shrieks of laughter the child and adult produced delighted the neighbours. Compared to the constant shouting and screaming from a year and a half ago, it was music to their ears.
The cat continued to tear up the room before shooting off out into the garden to harass the local bird life and potentially steal a free meal from the dog down the street. Hobbling around the room, Ally picked up the couch cushions and repositioned the rug with the help of the toddler. By now the boy was grinning from ear to ear. He had relaxed, any trace of anxiety had been eliminated by the sudden arrival and departure of their household pet.
“Can I dance with you?” Ally asked, tapping her cane on the floor with a gentle rhythm.
The boy beamed at her, a gap toothed grin that melted her heart. The toddler then took her free hand and pulled her into the center of the room and they tottered around the room together, her cane clicking on the floor mingling with their giggles and out of tune humming.
The sound of a camera shutter some time later alerted the pair of them to the fact that they were no longer alone. The boy’s mother leaned against the lounge room door, a smartphone in hand, documenting the moment. What looked like the start of happy tears were building and she pursed her lips in a tentative smile.
“I’m sorry, I took my eyes off him for a bit when I was hanging out the washing and he wandered off…” like her son, she had big blue eyes, curly close cropped hair and a soft way of speaking – almost as if she was afraid of being hit. “I know you need your sleep lately…”
“Don’t worry about it. I should probably get up and do something with my day anyway.” Ally gave the woman the warmest smile and begun to hobble over towards the door-frame, the toddler in tow. Ally and the boy looked at each other and simultaneously reached out to capture his mother’s hands and pull her on to the dance floor. Ally’s cane lay discarded as they hobbled and wobbled around the room. Pressing a soft kiss to the other woman’s cheek, Ally whispered reassurances to her overly cautious girlfriend. The woman slowly relaxed and let her son and lover sweep her up in an uncoordinated waltz.
There was no grace, only haste as the three of them danced and giggled, happiness and warmth lighting up the home.
