The Dance

The sterile, cold white walls glared at Julie angrily as she stared out of one of the barred windows. She wasn’t looking at anything specific, just staring. Staring and waiting. The dark circles under her eyes showed weeks maybe even months of insomnia. Everyone around Julie were but servants to her. She knew this. She knew she had her nurse care for her as she had always done since she came to this place. When her mother and father would come to visit, the nurse always had the same news. “She is the same as when she arrived here. I am sorry.”

Three years ago Julie was on the way to her schools homecoming game. Being only a sophomore, she had her older brother, Ty, drive her to the game. Ty was the quarterback for the home team, the Verona High Vikings. Tonight they would be playing against decade’s long rival, the Merchant High Lancers. Their star quarterback was by the name of Mark O’Shea. The adolescent rivalry between the schools consisted of common teenage pranks of toilet papering the rival school, stealing mascots, and egging the house of some of the guys on the team. All done in tradition of the upcoming game, authorities turned a blind eye to the mischief.
The night was finally here. Julie sat in the middle of the crowd with her family, ready to cheer on her dear brother Ty. Game music sounded and the home team, the Vikings, were welcomed with screaming cheers. They were favored to win by a landslide. School funds went mostly to the football team at their school. Verona High had always received ample amounts of parent donations. It was the cream of the crop in high schools for the area. Surrounding schools, such as Merchant High got what they could in support and made up the rest with the raw talents they had on their football team.
A wave of “boos!” washed through the crowd as the Lancers came out on to the field. Yelling and hissing, some of the Verona students who had “pre-gamed” threw their half empty red cups out on to the field only to be escorted out by school security. Verona let it be known that they despised Merchant High School. Even Julie’s parents were participating in the pissing match the crowd was so relentless at. Julie could have cared less about the testosterone filled war her school had with the other. She always found it immature and messy. She just sat there anxiously waiting for the game to be finished so she could then go to her first homecoming dance. It was rare for a sophomore to be invited by a senior but that was what happened when David Paris asked Julie last week. Julie gladly accepted even though deep down inside, she just wanted to go to the dance and didn’t care with whom she went with. Her dress had been bought; shoes had been special ordered so they would match the dress perfectly. The dance committee chose a Mardi Gras theme this year so everyone had elaborate, festive masks to wear to make the evening stand out even more.
It was towards the end of the fourth quarter. Verona had just scored again, putting them in the lead 21-10. The Merchants had the ball but when quarterback, Mark O’Shea went to pass he was bombarded by three of Verona’s biggest men and sacked before the ball left his hands. It was like the entire crowd could hear the snap of his knee as he went down on top of it. Then there was silence. O’Shea rolled around in agonizing pain. The doctors rushed out with a stretcher. This was that last game Mark O’Shea ever played again. They did everything they could for the knee but it was to remain weak and too unpredictable to ever play football again.
The game was at the two minute warning when the Lancers called on their second string quarterback. Only a junior, Roan Monroe had natural, raw talent for the sport. He had been waiting through the whole season to possibly play in one game. Not that he wished ill will on Mark, but he could feel the excitement building up knowing that his time had come.
Julie sat in her seat and observed the chaos that happened with the injury. She thought she would completely crawl out of her skin if she had to wait much longer for the dance. She was getting ready to leave early, before the game ended, when Roan came out on the field. It was as if all the air had been taken away. Julie could not move, only stare. She could not hear the screaming and cheering voices that surrounded her. All she could do was stand there and stare at a boy not much older than her make his first attempt at bringing his team to a victory. The attempt failed and Verona won the game 21-17. The crowd ran down the bleachers and into the field to participate in the celebration. Still not moving from the spot Julie stood at, she was jerked back to reality by her parents pulling her down to the benches to congratulate her brother for winning the game. As she walked toward the field, her eyes remained on Roan. He was sitting on the opposing bench, helmet in hand, his head down. The rest of the team had already left the field, kicking and snorting about their defeat.
Julie quickly gave her brother, Ty, a hug and then turned to look at the boy that stopped her heart for that brief moment. But the bench was empty except for a helmet that sat there alone, left behind by the defeated Merchant High Lancers.
Julie jerked awake, covered in a cold sweat. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest. She tried to sit up but the restraints around her wrists and ankles kept her down. She yelled out in panic. Where was she? She had to get to the dance! She had to change into her dress with the special shoes designed to match! No! She had to find Roan. The only boy ever to make time stand still. Blinding lights flipped on suddenly and two large men dressed in white came in with the same nurse that was speaking to Julie’s parents earlier. In her hand was a large needle. Julie knew what that was. It was the needle to make her forget. Forget that she fell in love. Forget that there was football and dances and pretty dresses with matching shoes. Forget the lonely helmet sitting on the empty bench. No! Not this time! “I will remember!” Julie yelled. “I will remember!”
Then there was darkness.
As the days went by, and Julie became more lucid, her parents came to see her. Julie was sitting her regular chair, staring out of the same window. The nurse thought it would be best for Julie’s parents to tell Julie again what had happened. To tell her that there was a football game and there was a dance but on the way to the dance there was an accident. Two cars collided. The one car carried Julie, her brother, Ty and their two dates to the dance. Julie was the only one that survived. The other car was a group of boys from the neighboring school, out for a joy ride and to possibly swing by their rival schools dance to cause a little trouble. They too died. The car was driven by a promising young athlete named Roan Monroe. It was then Julie decided that a piece of her would die as well. She never spoke or moved after that day. The doctors called it Schizophrenic Shakespearean Psychosis. A condition where the sufferer breaks from their tragic reality to live in the world of “what could have been”, “what should have been.”
Before Julie slipped back into that world she turned to her mother and smiled and asked if it was okay for her to get ready for the dance now.