Dancing in the Darkness
-Celesta SunStar
 


They had discovered each other at the funeral. Now instead of attending the graveyard part of the already two hour long service, JD and Josiah were following Vin and Ezra out of town and into the mountains. Then they were walking to a bonfire-lit pavilion. There were already various people there, but aside from the crackling of the fire and the breathtaking sunset it was a quiet and dark gathering.

About fifteen minutes later it seemed that everybody who was coming had arrived, and still the silence stayed, warm and waiting and sad.

“Adam was a good kid,” spoke an iron-haired, bewhiskered man in a grief-roughened voice. “I would be having a really bad day, and within a few minutes he’d have me laughing.” He smiled sadly, “He had a weird sense of humor.” JD recognized Mr. Gilmer, Adam’s photography teacher.

He had met Adam Bragg through Mr. Gilmer, since Mr. Gilmer would often do some freelance photographic forensics for the ATF. Adam had been the one who taught JD the fine details of photographic manipulation since, he laughingly told JD, such manipulations were what he was planning to study in college.

“Adam was a friend and neighbor for six years.” Josiah recognized the girl who spoke after the minutes of silence as Cathy, who had helped with the Meals-On-Wheels and the Caritas programs, where he had met Adam. “I wrote this.

“I sit alone in a room. Curled up with my knees under my chin. Crystalline tears trickle like raindrops down my cheeks. The air was dark and filled with defeat, yet smelled of fresh evergreens early in the morning. There was nothing but gray shadows surrounding me, all that I knew was lost in the charred smoke of love. Yes, the power of love had ripped the soul from me...
“A tear, a whimper, and a soft plea of hope. Is there not a friend that can rescue me from this damned entrapment?
“The wind sifts through the strands of my hair and holds time still for an instant. I am surrounded by memories of an enchanted love. Burning and holding the rejections deep, I will stay here but never heal.
“Darkness overtakes me and surrounds me in its warmth. It picks me up and carries me away. The room slowly fades away into oblivion. There is nothing more for me to do there... I must move on. The darkness will heal me.
“In the pitch black I dance slowly. Though it is not a normal dance, this dance is slow and a melody floats and lingers but never captivates the mind. It brings peace to me and the demons that plague in my head. I smile as the darkness surrounds me once more and I dance with it.
“No one hold my hands, no one touches me. It’s just me and the infinite darkness dancing. All alone, yet not alone at all.
“The room that held me has been broken down. The darkness brings me peace and contentment. It will always be the place of peace for me. I will return to it whenever I feel sadness. Because, it is home for me.
“Slowly dancing, I feel the radiating light. I pull from my dance in the darkness to look upon the beam of light that seems to rip through my stronghold. A single tear lines my cheek. It is time to leave. A smile breaks that tear as it crosses across my moist, pearl pink lips. The embodiment of the light takes my hand. It grasps the tips of my silken fingers and lifts me up. A figure appears in the light in which I have walked into. I cannot see his face, but I know it’s there. I sense a smile linger on his heavenly lips and I know whom he is when the light brightens up the tendrils of light colored locks that adorn his head. He is my angel. Together, the darkness took my pain and rescued me, while the light took me away, and into the wings of love. Forever in peace... our figures slowly fade away. The darkness stays behind and waits for another time for me to dance with it when I’m down. But, today I finally found the light.
“Today I will smile and let the negative of a rainy day pass me by, and let the positive of the smell of wet evergreens enlighten me. Always loving the light I have found, I will remember dancing in the darkness.
“Always let the sadness die and look on with light in your eyes. You never know what is to come in the future. Open yourself up to possibilities.
“Because... that is what Adam would have wanted you to do.”

She stood for a moment, the light of the fire sparking in her red hair and illuminating sad and peaceful green eyes. She let the paper fall from her hand and the fire caught it, tossing it up in the air to burn like a star.

There came other fond remembrances that night, including the time he played Oscar the Grouch in the trashcan, and the water-balloon fight he managed to involve his grandmother and his math teacher in.

As the bonfire burned low and hot, Ezra and Vin stepped into the light. Vin was carrying a beautiful guitar.

“As many of you know, Adam was one of the finest scouts Vin and I have had the pleasure of working with as scoutmasters.” Ezra told the group at large. “It was he that discovered our shared love of music. Quite a feat, considering that neither of us knew we shared it. Now we wish to share with you some of his favorite songs.”

JD only remembered bits and pieces from most of the songs they sang that night.

“...Rescue me, he said rescue me,
On this mountain’s the only place
I can see clearly
Rescue me, he said rescue me,
On this mountain’s the only place
I can see clearly
He said rescue me...”

“...There’s a well upon a hill from our ancient past
Where an age is standing still holding strong and fast
And there’s those that try to tame it and to carve it into stone
Ah but words cannot extinguish it however hard they’re thrown
In darkness we do what we can
In daylight we’re oblivion
Our hearts so raw and clear
Are turning away, turning away from here...”

“...And the shy ones bleed while the sure ones fail
On the trail of the survivor
And the trade winds blow through a burning sail
On the trail of the survivor...”

“...It’s been stolen from me
Taken never to return
Rendered blind I cannot see
Back along the shining way we’ve come...”

“...Sometimes we search too deep
That’s when the darkness feeds our fear
We turn away from one another
Just in case we get too near
Me I stand this mountain top
I shout so she can hear ...and
I know that she will find me
I know that she will find me
Even if I vanish without a trace
O and though I’m running blindly
I know that she will find me
Hiding with the shadows that I chase...”

But there was one that stayed with him, because everyone else had joined in, dancing in the darkness...

“We are united now within these ancient wheels
We are united in the spirit of the music at our heels
On reflection we rebuild and we restore
We are as Mother Nature’s children as we dance around the floor
All together
All as one
All together
Relentlessly we’re dancing on
All together
All as one
All together
Relentlessly we’re dancing on
We are invisible upon these dancing feet
We’re shape and shadowless revolving to the one eternal beat
With hearts connected we turn the other round
We are as Mother Nature’s children as we dance upon the ground
All together
All as one
All together
Relentlessly we’re dancing on
All together
All as one
All together
Relentlessly we’re dancing on
We’ll stay forever here within these timeless walls
We’ll stay forever here no matter how the turning silver falls
Accelerated we have seen this place before
We are as Mother Nature’s children as we dance around the floor
All together
All as one
All together
Relentlessly we’re dancing on
All together
All as one
All together
Relentlessly we’re dancing on”





*-*-*-*-*-*-*
This story is dedicated to eighteen year-old Adam Bragg, who died in a fatal car accident with his friend Phillip Higgins on March 4.

I never had a chance to know you Adam, and that hits me harder because I would've liked you. You were a neighbor to my best friend since fifth grade; you were a friend to my younger sister; and you were a fellow favorite student of one of my favorite teachers. Nearly four years ago to within two weeks was the death of one of the seniors in my Drama class when I was at Freeman.

I never had a chance to know you Adam, but you touched the lives of those I love...

You will not be forgotten.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I do not own the Seven, but I wish I did.

The passage spoken by Cathy was written by my best friend and soul twin, Cassie, (Cathy to her parents.) She heard the crash that night. And, yes, it is supposed to be written like that.

Mr. Gilmer is the photography teacher at Freeman, but doesn't, to my knowledge, freelance photographic forensics for the ATF or any other agency. Adam was a favorite student for four years.

All songs and excerpts are written by my favorite musical artist Dougie MacLean. In the order the songs are written above, they are:
Rescue Me,
Turning Away,
Trail of the Survivor,
Stolen,
She Will Find Me,
and All Together