It was a very cold and bleak evening on the 13th of December at 6:00pm. The wind was blowing harshly and it was an unusually bad weather.

Today was my first time performing in a play. I was in grade two and I had been given the lead role in our play. The play was called “Beauty and the Beast” I was Beauty or as they called me in the play, “Belle.”

Of course I had practiced my part several times and knew all my lines perfectly, but there were still butterflies in my stomach at the thought of going on stage and performing in front of such a large audience. I was very sacred about forgetting my lines or making a wrong movement during a dance. It never occurred to me that something else might go wrong.

I stepped into the wings after taking a deep breath and was walking onto the stage with an excited smile when I tripped. My leg hurt badly and blood gushed out from it, but I knew that I still had to go out there.

I took a few slow and painful steps and finally reached the stage after what seemed like hours, but in truth must have been only a few minutes. I said my lines, trying hard to ignore the constant pain in my leg, but it was very hard. However, what I had to do next was a lot harder and it seemed quite impossible — I had to do a dance! How could I? My leg was bleeding badly, I couldn’t possibly dance on it.

My best friend whose name was Anna, was my backup but I couldn’t call her now. She was all the way inside the auditorium, waiting for her part to come and I was in the middle of the stage and everyone was looking at me with interest and excitement, waiting for me to do my dance.

I couldn’t let my friends, teachers and family down. They had all believed in me and trusted me to do this, I couldn’t ruin the play for them. It didn’t matter how much my leg hurt; I still had to do it and I did. I danced.

I danced without thinking. I danced and danced and danced and I expected to feel an unbearable pain my leg but, to my enormous surprise, I didn’t. I stopped feeling any sensation of pain at all. I couldn’t feel even a slight pain. In fact, I stopped feeling my body to the point where I was floating. It was almost as if my body didn’t exist at all.

What happened that day baffled my mind.

After the show, I was hugged by so many people that I felt that I was being crushed. The crowds threw roses after roses at me. Then, a crowd surrounded me and started talking at the same time.

“How did you dance like that? It was amazing,” my best friend Anna exclaimed in surprise. She was impressed and as she was so hard to impress, I must have done well.

Then when my parents came to collect me, I rushed away from the big crowd and into their open arms. I went home tired but happy and the moment I reached home, I just flipped into my bed and fell fast asleep, dreaming sweet dreams.

To this day, I wonder how dancing healed my leg? I wonder if I will ever know the answer to my question. What to you think happened?

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 16th, 2020