First to Dance (9 page)

The place was very awkward an
d strange but had a sort of charm to it that she couldn’t explain.  She liked how the table-top trees shaded everything, and that she could stand outside in the fresh air all day without being overheated by the sun’s rays.  It was a tad humid out, and warm, but standing under the translucent covering she was protected from sunburn, and there was always a pleasant breeze blowing, which offset the humidity.

Finally, Ayita saw
Panya and walked up to her.

“There you are!
” Panya said. She smiled and put a hand on her hip. “I was looking for you. People were talking about yesterday, so I thought you must be awake. I’d like to show you around, if that’s okay.” 

Panya
showed Ayita their entire housing area and then led her toward the garden. On their way, they bumped into Panya’s older brother, Ziyad. He was taller, with slightly browner hair—Panya’s was more of a golden color—but they had the same blue eyes.

“
Ziyad!  I want you to meet my new friend, Ayita.”

Ziyad
looked her over for a moment.  “Oh!” he said. “You’re the girl Dakarai pulled from the lake.”

“
Dakarai…” she said to herself, thinking about the name and connecting it to that wispy-haired young man whose face disappeared from sight as quickly as it had shown.

“Well, I’m sure you’ve had plenty of questions to answer today, so I’ll just ask them all later.”  He
winked and flashed a handsome smile. Then he took off in another direction.

Event
ually they came to the large grove of trees that Ayita saw the day before. “These are our gardens,” Panya said. “You may come here any time and eat what you wish. I take it you’re here to stay, so later I will show you how to dry the food, and you can help store rations for the winter.” 

Here to stay
, Ayita thought.
I suppose I am.
She looked back at the trees they used for homes. There had to be a space center here somewhere, but where? She had a whole planet to search, and no hint of where to start.

As t
hey walked together through the garden, Panya showed her all the different foods that grew there. Ayita picked one that looked like a striped green ball and started to eat it. It was very sweet and delicious. Several small streams flowed through the garden, keeping it well watered, and Panya explained that as long as everyone who came to eat took a moment also to tend the garden, no one went hungry.

Ayita
listened, but she was distracted. She was looking for Dakarai, but she didn’t see him anywhere, so she asked Panya where he disappeared to after he rescued her. “I’d like to speak to him, to thank him,” she said.

Panya
looked toward the lake and sighed.

7

Beyond the lake there was a vast forest of trees
, and through the forest was a small path. “Follow the path,” Panya said.  “It will take you to the center of the forest where there is a clearing and a smaller lake.”  There she was to find a lone table-top tree upon a hill, and that was where Dakarai lived in the summer.

Ayita studied the lake as she walked along its border.  It was a lot smaller than it seemed when she was drowning in it. 
It was still large, though, and frightening.  Ayita easily found the path and followed it into the woods.  The stream beside it was clear and shallow, and Ayita stopped for a moment to listen to the steady flow of water.  It was a soothing sound.  She hesitated before baring her feet and stepping in.  The water was cool and crisp, stinging her feet but not as much as it had when she was submerged in the lake.  Her heart raced, but she closed her eyes and allowed herself to feel safe in this shallow water before stepping out of the stream to continue her walk beside it.

The forest was silent save for the sound of
the trickling water and her footsteps on the path. For the first time ever, Ayita found this kind of silence to be strange.  At home the silence would have felt normal in these surroundings, but on this planet the silence was out of place.  It seemed there should be something else making noise in that forest.  And then, almost as soon as she had this thought, there came a sound from the direction in which she was walking: a high pitched sound that she would have described as being melodic had she ever before heard a melody.  The sound continued, smoothly wavering between high and low pitches, and it instilled in her a need to move her body more elegantly, a need to sway and a desire to leap and twirl as though she just discovered her own life.  At that moment, Ayita realized what she was missing every time she tried to dance alone in her bedroom.  She was missing
this
.  Dance didn’t work alone; it needed a melody.  It needed this sound to move to.  It couldn’t move to silence.  Were the melody even in her head that would be enough, but before now there had always been the same silence in her head as was in everyone’s at home.  Before long, Ayita found herself humming to the tune and even adding her own song beside it.

The melody itself was a sad one, and she moved accordingly,
slowly dancing to the song as she walked and embracing this feeling of freedom that she knew she’d never felt before.  She feared if she lost it now she might never feel it again.  The sound slowed even more and held there onto one final note as Ayita’s careful pirouette came to its finish, and she looked ahead.

There before her was a clearing beyond the trees that spread out to a wide open area
.  Upon a hill to the left of the clearing was a lone table-top tree with a wooden chest beneath it, just like the others.  Ayita walked slowly toward the tree, and as she got closer, the sound of rushing water grew louder until it sounded like thunder. Soon she understood why, when she was able to see past the hill to where the stream was flowing from.  At the bottom of the hill was another lake, smaller than the first, and plummeting into that was a tall and roaring waterfall.

That was when she saw him, standing at the top of the fall and looking down.  There was no mistaking that face
, even from this distance.  Ayita smiled and walked closer, about to call his name so he would see her, but he closed his eyes and dove.  He disappeared under the water and Ayita became filled with fear. She ran to the edge of the lake, looking intently for any sign of him, but there was none.  She leaned forward and shouted his name.  “Dakarai!”  Her eyes darted back and forth, but the water was dark and she couldn’t see anything.  Suddenly, two arms shot up from the water, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her down with them.  Ayita’s body flipped forward as she entered the lake headfirst.  The two hands let go of her shoulders and she couldn’t tell where they had gone.  When she hit the water, it immediately rushed into her mouth and nose.  She started to cough, which made everything worse, and the freezing cold stabbed at her as if she’d fallen on knives.  She searched with her arms for something she could grasp to pull herself up. When at last she felt a hard bumpy surface with sharp edges, she used all her strength to pull on it until her body moved upward, and at last her head was above the surface.  The sharp edges dug into her hands, breaking the skin and causing her to bleed, but she barely noticed the pain amid the panic.

Ayita knelt on the ground and coughed until she could breathe again. Then she
rolled onto her back and took slow deep breaths with her eyes closed.  When she opened them, two eyes were staring back.

“What are you doing here?”  He was sitting next to her and leaning toward her face.  His clothes were dripping wet just as hers.

Ayita sat up and stared at him, realizing now that his pulling her into the water was deliberate.  “I came to thank you, but I can see now that perhaps you don’t deserve it.”

“Thank me for what?” 
Dakarai stood up and started to wring his shirt dry.

Ayita also stood
and took two steps away from him.  “For pulling me out of the water,” she said.

“But I pulled you
in
the water.”  He smiled when he said this.

“No, I meant yesterday.”  Ayita stared at him
, hoping to see some sincerity or regret, but she did not see it.

Finally,
he stared back at her and looked deep into her eyes. His gaze was captivating. He was silent while he thought.  “Who are you?” he said.  “I don’t think I’ve seen you before. Do I know you?”

“
We’ve never met formally, but yesterday, at the other lake….”

This seemed to trigger something, for his eyes widened and he smiled.  “
Oh! Did you
see
the crash?  Something came from the sky and went into the lake. I think I was there.”

Ayita frowned. 
He is mocking me!
  “Look, if you think this is funny, then I’ll just go.”  She turned and started walking toward the path.

Dakarai
paused a while and watched her leave. He had a look of confusion upon his face.  Finally he ran to catch up to her and stood in her way.  “Think
what
is funny?”

“This…joke
of yours!  Acting as if you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

He frowned,
then held her shoulders so she couldn’t leave. He stared long into her face.  “I
have
seen you before.”

At this, she began to realize that perhaps
he wasn’t joking.  There was sincerity in his eyes. It was something trustworthy, unlike anything she’d ever seen in a person.  “You aren’t kidding, are you?  You really don’t remember?”

Dakarai
shook his head.

“Yesterday, the crash.
  That was me.”

“You?”

“Yes.  You came in the water and saved me.  Do you remember that?”

H
e let go of her shoulders and his arms dropped down to his sides.  “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s fuzzy, like a dream.”

Ayita frowned, noticing
something very sad about his eyes that she’d neglected to see before.  She held out her hand to shake.  “My name is Ayita,” she said.  “It is nice to meet you, Dakarai.  And thank you, for yesterday.”  He took her hand and smiled.

“I’ll try to remember,” he said.  When he let go
of her hand they both noticed the scrapes and cuts from her gripping the sharp rocks to climb out of the lake.  “You’re hurt.”

“So I am.”  Ayita knelt down by the stream and gently washed off her hands.
The cuts were not deep and she knew they would heal soon.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Why did you do it?”  She looked up and into his eyes, but Dakarai said nothing. She looked down at her hands in the water, and when she looked up again, Dakarai was gone.

Ayita’s clothes clung to her skin as she walked back through the forest along the path and around the lake.  The sun was still out but not as warming as it was earlier, and the light breeze against her skin created an instant and lasting chill.  She came to the gathered cluster of table-top trees, wondering whether she could rightly call it a town, and set out to find Panya.  She wanted to inquire about Dakarai and his memory loss.  It seemed so strange to her, but Ayita was sure that Panya could explain it.

Everybody seemed just as busy as before but now with a less serious look over their faces.  She expected more people would be running up to her with questions
, but all she got were a few odd looks.  She couldn’t find Panya, so she decided to ask if anyone knew where she was.  She approached a girl who she’d met and seen with Panya earlier that day.

“
Kesi!” she called

The girl turned and looked at Ayita, then walked closer with squinted eyes.  She blinked and stopped squinting, but still staring, and had her head to one side.

“No, I’m Kesi.”

“Yes, I know. I was calling you, to get your attention.”

“Who are you?”

“
Kesi, it’s me.” 

“No, I’m
Kesi.”

Ayita frowned when
Kesi’s blank stare continued.  “It’s me.  Ayita.”

“Ay…
ita?”

She nodded.
“I came here in a spaceship yesterday and crashed into the lake, remember?”

“Oh.”  Kesi, noticing Ayita’s still damp clothes, looked over Ayita’s shoulder, to the lake.  “Are you sure it wasn’t today?”

Ayita rolled her eyes, annoyed. 
“Yes, I‘m sure.  It was yesterday.”