One dance, one life

"She's so strong. I've never seen someone's body work so hard before. I have complete faith in her." I could see him talking to my dad through the glass window that I used as my escape to the real world since I was confined to this tiny room. However, I tried to pretend they weren't there and instead focus on the hat I was trying to knit.

"How are you feeling today?" He asked as he walked into the room.

"Tired." I replied, still looking down, not wanting him to see my face.

"Makes sense. Your body has been working so hard. You may not know it, but you've got some pretty amazing things going on inside of you." He said as he changed my IV bag for the second time that afternoon.

"Did you really mean what you said? Out there to my dad just then."

He took my arm and wrapped the blood pressure cuff around it. "Of course I did, I do. Everybody does."

"Am I going to die?" A single tear dripped down and swelled at the tip of my nose until it became a silent steady stream that turned the purple yarn in my hand black.

"What? No, of course not. What makes you think you're going to die?" He sat down in front of me and took my chin in his hand, making me look at him.

"Because I have cancer, and I don't feel strong. I don't feel brave. All I feel is tired."

I turned away and faced the window, but the blinds were closed and I returned back to my now black yarn. I could feel the bed move as he sighed heavily.

"Listen. I try to be as truthfully honest as I can be but still be optimistic. You, you give me hope. You are one of the reasons why I enjoy coming to work everyday", he held my hands,"If everyone was more like you I'd probably come more often. But no, you are not going to die. Even if you were I'd tell you, and I'd make sure you felt alive everyday until the end."

We sat there for a moment in silence until I became faintly aware of a soft song playing from somewhere, most likely the receptionist desk which was directly in front of my room.

"Hey, do you want to dance? I just really love this song, and you can't let a good song go to waste, can you." He got up and began checking my monitors again.

"Dancing? I don't know, I've never been light on my feet." I smiled.

"Nonsense, I got you."

"I don't know."

Before I could protest any further he was already assisting me with my blankets. Even though I see them everyday, I was embarrassed by my frail thin pastey white legs, but David didn't seem to notice, not even when he had to lift me out of the bed and onto my feet.

"You okay?" He asked half jokingly, and also because it was his job. I nodded and attempted a step on my wobbely legs.

"It's been a while since I've done this whole 'walking' thing."

"Take as much time as you need, I'm not going anywhere."

By the time we were finally assituated the song was already over, but he didnt seem to care.

He wrapped my arms around his neck, and placed his hands on my sides. There we swayed from side to side as if we were two palm trees swaying in the light breeze that blew before and after a storm, sadly I couldn't tell which part of the storm I was enduring.

"Why Miss Alice, you look quite lovely in that hospital gown if I do say so myself."

"You don't look half bad yourself, those scrubs really make your eyes pop." I laughed.

"Do you want to know something. Believe it or not, I use to be a dancer when I was younger."

"What? Dancer? I can't picture you as a dancer." I laughed at the idea.

"Yes dancer. Don't make fun of me."

"I'm not I promise." I said trying to hide a smile. "So what happened to make you stop?"

"I wanted to help people, and now I do. Simple as that."

"Do you miss it?"

"Ocassionaly. But if you look closely you might just catch me dancing down the halls one of these day." I laughed at the thought, and rested my head on his shoulder as we continued to sway.

"Thank you for beliving in me."

"Thank you for dancing with me."