Left. | Teen Ink

Left.

January 15, 2014
By KaytaRoseT BRONZE, Olympia, Washington
KaytaRoseT BRONZE, Olympia, Washington
2 articles 3 photos 4 comments

She tip-Toed through the ashes, and tHen leaped, hair and dress flowing gracefully. Like water shE thought, like water. She swayed and stepped from side to side, eYes closed. “One step to the left, one step to the right.” The music wAs crisp and cleaR, it consumed her. All shE could feel, All she could taste, hear, and see was the music, and her body moving Like water. She feLt shivers down her spine as the music ran its fingers through her hair. “One step to the left, one step to the right.” Her hands rose in the air and fell back to her siDes.
The breEze picked up and she leAped again feeling like she was flying for a brief seconD. Her feet hit the ground hard, pain shot through her body and she felt alive. Her bones, she could feel her bones. She closed her eyes again and pictured each bone in her mind. Starting from her fingertips she worked her way through. She felt each one moving back and forth, side to side. “One step to the left, one step to the right” she thought. “One step to the left, one step to the right. One step to the left, one step to the right.”
The music rose and fell with the breeze. She danced on. Each leap, each twirl, became more and more painful. She felt her bones begin to crumble. She could not stop. She leaped again and again. She moved “one step to the left, one step to the right. One step to the left, one step to the right. One step to the left, one step to the right.”
Two soldiers saw the little girl in the singed white dress. They witnessed her leaps and twirls. “Where is the music?” One soldier asked. “Who knows” said the other. They fell silent and looked on as the girl continued to sway right through the rubble of her home, right past the bodies of her father, her mother, her two little brothers. “One step to the left, one step to the right.” Said one of the soldiers.


The author's comments:
This is a story about the dancing little girl in "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'brien. The capitAls.

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