Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Maggie – “Johnny moaned, resting his forehead on her shoulder. Her hands immediately shot up to smooth his hair.

“Maggie,” he tried again, sitting up. He slid his fingers between hers, bringing their joined hands to her lap. “You are walking around with your head in the clouds. People are starting to notice. Shad most of all. He’s heard people talk about you and laugh at you. It hurts him. It hurts me. It hurts me even worse to know I am the cause.”

Maggie rose from Johnny’s lap abruptly and took several steps from him, physically distancing herself from what he was saying. She could take the laughter; she could take the teasing and the ridicule, but she couldn’t take losing one more person that she loved. His words felt like good-bye, and she couldn’t take that most of all.

“I need to go.” Maggie retreated. She didn’t want to continue with this conversation, even if it meant cutting their time short.

“All right.” Johnny didn’t argue or beg her to stay, and that made her feel ten times worse. He walked up behind her and ran a hand down her smooth ponytail, wrapping it around his hand and using it to turn her around and pull her to him.

“Every moment with you has made the last fifty years worth it,” Johnny said with quiet intensity, and he lifted her chin and pressed his lips to hers, parting them softly. It was a kiss filled with both yearning and denial, a kiss that ended far too quickly.

“Goodnight, sweetheart.”

“Goodnight, Johnny,” Maggie whispered.

***

Maggie called for Johnny when she entered the school on Tuesday morning. The fact that she had to call at all was fair warning that he wouldn’t be joining her. He was usually there before she was completely through the door, as eager to greet her as she was to be greeted. She lifted her chin stubbornly. Fair enough. She had let her dancing slip since Johnny had begun to occupy her free time. She would shake some of the rust off this morning. Maggie danced relentlessly for an hour, pushing herself beyond fatigue and leaving the dance room exhausted but satiated and strangely content. Dancing had filled all her lonely, aching, spaces once more.

A few of the girls from the dance team were in the girls’ locker room when Maggie headed in to rinse off and get ready for school. She heard Dara Manning say something snide about her old shorts and ratty t-shirt, and Dara’s friends twittered and snickered in all the appropriate places. She ignored them wearily.

“Maggie?” Dara approached her and asked her if she had a spare tampon, all the while pretending she was crying.

One of Dara’s friends, right on cue, asked Dara if she was okay – Dara responded, still play-crying.

“It’s just so sad! Why aren’t there any happy endings? I really needed a tampon!”

Maggie walked away. She recognized her words from that embarrassing day in English class, and she really didn’t want to deal with Dara Manning’s crap; however, she realized suddenly that what Johnny had said was true. She had drawn the attention and ridicule of her classmates and her teammates. Had she been that unaware?

The next couple of days were carbon copies of Tuesday. Johnny was nowhere to be found. Maggie stopped calling to him, knowing that if he wanted to be with her, he would. It was all she could do not to throw a huge tantrum and demand he respond, but she was tougher than that, and she held on to her pride like a lifeline.

Just about the time everyone started to forget about her scandalous walk down Main Street, Shad’s mother got arrested for prostitution and drug possession. This wasn’t her first offense, and it looked like she was going to spend some time in jail. It happened late Tuesday night, and unfortunately, a member of the football team had heard the report called in over his dad’s police scanner. The whole school knew about the arrest by Wednesday afternoon, and since then, Shad had been the brunt of never ending jokes and had had to endure some pretty nasty innuendo. His spirits were as low as Maggie’s were.

It had gotten his mother out of the house, at least, and Shad and Gus came for dinner on Thursday night, which hadn’t happened for a while. Irene prepared all of Shad’s favorite dishes in an effort to cheer him up. He picked at his food and was only motivated to eat when Gus reminded him that he would never grow if he didn’t dig in. He laid into the food then, eating like he would never eat again.

Maggie asked Shad if he wanted to watch a movie or play a game after dinner. Aunt Irene didn’t have any game systems, so they were stuck with very old board games, which kind of stunk, but Shad gladly accepted, and he hung around for a while. They ended up out on the front porch swing, huddled in their winter coats, hands stuffed in their pockets and faces burrowed in their collars.

“If you could be a super hero, who would you be?” Shad mumbled from the folds of his jacket.