Ryan lay on the operating table, partially sedated and dazed from rushing across
town in an ambulance. His problem was heart failure brought on by a congenital heart defect. The surgeon touched him gently on the arm and said, deep compassion in her voice, “I never operate on anyone I don’t know. My name is Mary. Pleased to meet you.”
Ryan looked in her warm, caring eyes and said, “We’ve already met. I’ve held you in my arms.”
The expression on her face shifted, the compassion replaced with distaste.
He added, “We’ve danced together. At the
Arthur Murray studio. My best dance is the mambo.”
She checked his medical chart, reassembled her features into a smile and said, “Of
course. Ryan. Well, we’re going to have you back on that dance floor in record time.”
His last comment before drifting off into the twilight world of anesthesia was,
“You better, ‘cause I’m in a dance competition in two months.” (Remember meeting Ryan in Solace for a Grieving Heart #2?)
Mary visited him every day of the next two weeks he was in the hospital. During that time he learned she, like him, was new to town. Like him, she’d moved for a great job.
He took up dance for the exercise, social contact and a focus to help him heal
from a divorce. She joined because as a single woman in a big city, her first four years had been nothing but sleep and work. Now, a year into her life as a dancer she had friends and a social life.
Ryan didn’t expect that a benefit of learning to dance would be an accelerated
healing process, but that’s what it did for him. Between Mary’s focus on his recovery, and his dance instructor’s insistence that he prepare for the regional contest, Ryan
was on that dance floor two months after surgery.
He walked off it with first place in mambo in his class. Exercise truly provides solace to a grieving heart.
Ryan isn’t part of the contest in this video, but give him a year or two….. Think I should check out my nearest dance studio?
Georgia, while I get your point – “exercise truly provides solace to a grieving heart”, this story leaves me wondering whether any of your stories have anything to do with each other and/or why you mention details in previous stories (like Gérard in your last posting) if there is no follow-up. Are any of the postings ‘to be continued’? Am I missing something here?
Ah Boy Toy, I agree. Within these tales we are embraced by mystery. Will Ryan and the Vixen find their own dance? Will Gérard win the Paris marathon or find himself on the road most taken and become an overweight divorced man? What new experiences will the Vixen share and where will they lead? Mystery, sweet mystery, I await your next taunt!
Hi Boy Toy: A big difference between real life and fiction is that fiction is neater, with central characters and events that build sequentially to an end. Real life, on the other hand is messy. People drift in and out of our lives, sometimes never to be heard from again. An adventure one day may have little to do with what happened the day before or what will happen the day after. My Diary is based on real life, so it will continue to be a bit unruly.
Thanks for all your comments. If you were here in my world, you’d see the smile on my face each time I read one. Keep them coming.
In fact, that applies to everyone who has commented.
Georgia…love the way you weave the story. Succinct is the word I am looking for. And you always leaving me waiting expectantly for the next chapter. But you also leave me feeling like there are many things I can do besides helplessly sitting on the couch waiting for your next post. Way to go lady.
Hi Currious: That is the point, isn’t it, that there is so much waiting out there to discover. I look forward to having you share some of your discoveries with us.