The Girl of Light

Alia and her ballroom team from the Sunshine Dance Company were getting ready to board the space aircraft that was to take them to the moon. They were to be taken to Shanilina Alcatraz, a prison for the worst of criminals, to dance for the inmates who were being kept there. When Alia was a little girl she often dreamed of dancing on the moon, but never thought it would actually become possible. But now there she was, boarding the spaceship that was to take her to dance on the moon that she looked at every night out her window.

It was a one-day trip. They were to arrive one hour before they were supposed to perform. Alia tightly hugged Daquian. They had been married for just a year now. Although he danced with the same company, the team was being split. One sent to the moon and the other Venus. The Venus dancers were to leave a few hours after the moon dancers. They said their last goodbyes and Alia silently got on the metal craft.

As they were flying past stars, earth now looked smaller than it felt standing on it. Alia turned on the “invisible screen” to rid herself of the boredom. The screen buzzed through. She screamed. The other dancers ran into the room to see what was wrong. Alia was pale and staring with terrified eyes at the invisible screen. As their eyes turned to see, they faded just as white as the moon. The news channel was on and the reporter was reporting that an asteroid as big as Saturn had hit the Venus space shuttle. The force had blown up the shuttle and there were no survivors. The rest of the team was on that shuttle. Daquian was on that shuttle. The team looked back at Alia, expecting her to cry, to yell, to do something to get her shock and grief out. But she just sat there. Calmly. The light and color of her face had come back and her eyes weren’t quite so terrified looking. Not like a girl who just lost her husband would look like. The captain could be heard over the intercom as he said they would be landing in half an hour. The team told Alia that she could just stay on the ship and go home. She didn’t have to dance. But she insisted on dancing at Shanilina Alcatraz. She walked out of the lounge room and into the bedrooms where she got ready to land on that big floating rock they called moon.

The captain could be heard again as he said ten minutes, five minutes, landing. They came to a rest gracefully and they put on the shiny silver suits to protect them as they walked from the shuttle to the prison doors. Alia looked up at the building as she walked and the words “Shanilina Alcatraz” shone brightly in white, but did not take away from the beauty of the moon. She looked around her. The craters didn’t look like craters. Instead they looked like giant mouths mourning for the death of Daquian, wailing silently in the space sky.

Alia was the first one in the building followed by her close friends she called a team. The head guard met them right as they got inside.  As he led them to the dance hall he told them the history of the prison. It was built 14 years ago by the U.S. Science Institute as a scientific lunar research lab. But then the scientists found water on Venus and moved the now called Venus Research Program there. The U.S. Government decided to turn the abandoned lab into a prison for the worst of criminals, where there was no escape. They named it “Shanilina Alcatraz” meaning “Moonlight Big Rock”. They figured how to put gravity in the building but it was slightly lighter than earth. Hence you would have a slightly lighter step. They also had water, air and electricity being pumped and recycled constantly, to keep the earthlings alive.

They soon came to the dance hall. There were numerous chairs facing the dance floor, where the inmates would sit and watch the company dance. The team had an hour to practice before they performed, so they did. Except Alia. She watched out a window at earth. It seemed so full of life and light. James was her decided partner for the performance as well as her beloved brother. He silently came over and watched the world they cared so much for with her. Not a word they spoke. They just gazed. Deep in thought and emotion. James looked over at her face. It still had light like it always did. Except her eyes were far away. She still hadn’t cried yet. She was lost in the grief of her soul and heart. They were pulled out of their escape from grief and back to the dance room when a guard came and told them to get ready. The inmates would be in and seated soon.

As they walked in through the doors the inmates were loud, but not rowdy like you would expect the world’s worst criminals to be. You could hear the excitement in their noisy conversations. They have seen many performances such as plays, ballets and music concerts, but never ballroom dancing. This was something different. Something new.

When they were all seated, a great hush came upon them and for a moment they didn’t seem mean or cruel. They seemed gentle and quiet. As their eyes intently waited for the yellow curtain to rise, the sound of sweet music started and it was no longer a curtain. It was a veil covering the beauty and form of dancers who would sail across the floor. The routines were perfect. The mood of the moon seemed to make them fly instead of step and spin. The prisoners enjoyed it very much. They clapped and cheered and it seemed like there was a new light shining in their eyes, but it was probably glare off the stage lights.

The last routine of the night was a solo. James and Alia. She had a beautiful dress the color of yellow on her graceful body. She thought of herself as the sun. The source of light not only for earth but for the moon as well. She thought back to when she was a little girl. Telling her mother how one say she would dance on the moon. So there she was, about to fulfill her dream. If only her mother was here to see her. If only Daquian was here to see her.

The curtains rose for one last time. There was a magical stillness that came over the whole room. The guards could hear one man whisper to the next how lit up she seemed. It was true. There was no stage light bright enough to make her glow like that. It was as if her soul was shining on the outside. Or perhaps, she was letting everyone see past her dress, past her makeup, past her fake eyelashes, past her bright far away eyes into her soul. It seemed to be shouting out. So many emotions were trapped inside. It was their turn to scream.

The music started and so did the dance. But it was no dance. It was the way water falls. It was the way babies sleep. It was the way fairytales end. It was the way love never fails. It was the way death cries. It was the way Alia didn’t cry. The way she screamed. She danced with such emotion. Such pain. Such grief. Such light. Such grace. She was telling the story of her and Daquian through her feet and body. But it wasn’t Alia who was dancing.

It was her heart.

That’s where the light in her face went when she screamed at the invisible screen. It went straight to her gentle heart. But it did not return to her face. It stayed in her heart and flowed through her veins. It touched every part of her body. Made her glow like the inmate had whispered.

While she danced her heart out, or rather, her heart danced her out, the light in her seemed to travel throughout the whole room, and touch every soul, good or bad. The lights in the inmates’ eyes were real this time. It wasn’t stage light. It was the light of a girl. A grieving girl. A graceful girl. A once happy girl.

As the music started to fade, she fainted. Her graceful and strong body went limp and collapsed almost in sync with the music. James caught her right before she hit the ground. Two men in the front row got up to help James carry the girl who changed the whole mood of the moon. They as well as the other inmates understood her story. Surprisingly the guards didn’t budge to stop the prisoners. They just let them help James and the poor girl.

The carried her to the Luna Garden. They had found that plant life could exist on the moon if cared for in just the right way. They also found different species of flowers that could only live on the moon. A few of the prisoners who gardened there made her a bed out of inithias. The name meant “the dancing flower”. Even though there was no wind on the moon, the inithia would move as if it were dancing in a breeze. The now frail body was laid on the inithias.

Every dancer, prisoner, guard and person in that building came and encircled Alia. They all watched her breathe slowly. She was still full of the light just as she was when dancing. Everyone could feel the sadness. It was as if her body was giving off the smell of crying, although she hadn’t yet. Even the flowers in her bed and all around her seemed to bend towards her and mourn with her. The inithias that hadn’t been put in her bed were dancing just like she was earlier that charming night.

Soon it was time to leave. The dance company would not depart from the moon without her and the inmates would not let them take her until she awoke. So the dancers stayed. The prisoners of Shanilina Alcatraz decided one of them should keep watch over Alia until she woke up. The guards again did not protest against this. It was as if the light had made every criminal and cruel heart sweet and loving once again. The first man on watch was Big Will. The strongest man on the moon.

He pulled the garden bench by her bed and sat there watching the yellow dressed maiden carefully. Her brown hair gently resting around her beautiful head. Big Will only closed his eyes to blink. And while he was so closely yet carefully watching her, a drop of tiny light came out of her. He watched the small light with big eyes, wondering what it was. And as it was floating from her, it went to him, and into his muscly body. He seemed to be changing. Not on the outside but the in. He seemed to be changing from his gruff and rough “king of the prison cells” man into a calm and gentle giant.

In the morning Big Will said nothing of the tiny light that seeped into him. During the day the dancers of the Sunshine Dance Company unhesitatingly decided to dance and would not stop till their beloved Alia woke up from her deep sleep. It was their way of mourning for their precious girl. While the dancers danced, the gardeners made a special garden dedicated to Alia called the Ciana Garden, which is said to mean “The Light Garden”. They planted hundreds of inithias, sun lilies, ayla blossoms, daffodils and other moon plants that reminded them of light and Alia.

Alexander was the next to watch Alia. And a bit of her light went into him, too. As well as Caesar, Andreas, Pillbug Joe, and every single prisoner and guard being kept at Shanilina Alcatraz. Alia had been asleep for a month now and you could see her light getting dimmer every night that passed. The light from her was going into the souls who were so tenderly protecting and watching over her.

A week later, Alia still getting dimmer, the criminals heard the intercom declare another space shuttle was landing. Confused faces went around the room. They weren’t expecting anybody. They waited about twenty minutes and in through the garden doors came the other half of the dance company, with Daquian in the back. The confused faces were now surprised like when your mother tells you that you’re getting two birthday presents instead of one. Such a phenomenal thing but still believable somehow.

No words were spoken. The dance team and Daquian just stared at Alia for what seemed the lifetime of the earth. Finally an inmate named Georgey asked a dancer how they were still alive after their ship had been destroyed. They explained that Daquian got this feeling that they shouldn’t dance on Venus. So they stayed on earth and danced there instead. When the rest of the dance company hadn’t returned for some time they got worried. Daquian decided to come out to the moon and see what was wrong. The dancers said Daquian could feel Alia dying.

When Daquian saw his dear wife lying on the bed of dancing flowers, it was his turn to lose all the color in his face. She was very dim. And pale. But breathing. Slowly. The dancers and new friends around him parted as he slowly and graciously walked toward his dancing princess. He kneeled down by her and held her hand. It was barely warm. Daquian didn’t cry. As he hung his head, the entire moon and people on it witnessed the last droplet of light seeping out of Alia and into him. She was dark now. And would be sleeping forever.

The dancers whom were dancing stopped and drifted into the garden without a sound and mourned with the rest of the moon. They each picked an inithia and with their silver suits on, went out into the dark outside and let the flowers dance through the stars. The each returned to their rooms and silently sobbed. Daquian returned to his wife, laid by her and cried.

The sound of silent tragic tears sweetly falling down and soundlessly hitting the soft moon ground was the sweetest, worst sound in the universe. It was such a piercing noiseless sound that it traveled to earth and into the clouds, where the earth mourned with the moon by raining on every fragment of life . Even the sun seemed to flicker, as if it sniffed for Alia.

Alia had given her light to everyone on the moon. Now they were all sorrowfully sobbing because the cherished girl was now gone. The light she shared with them went into their tears and fell into the moon sand ground. The moon drank the light tears up like a bittersweet medicine. Then the inithias that made the dancing princess’s bed drew the light tears up with their roots and the light blossomed with the dancing flowers and seeped back into Alia.

Alia opened her eyes. Knowing immediately what had happened while she was sleeping. She was no longer grieving or sad. She was happy and joyful knowing her friends and her treasured husband were alive. It was daytime on earth now and the sun was shining. She felt warm hands on hers. She looked over at her precious Daquian who had fell asleep crying. His face still wet with light tears. She leaned over and kissed his forehead. He awoke and seeing his maiden with light in her again made his heart dance inside. The embraced each other with such love the whole moon could feel it. Including the sleeping dancers, prisoners and guards.

Everyone awoke and gathered to the gardens when they felt the mood of the moon transform from grief to joy. When they saw Alia alive and awake once again they all rejoiced and hugged one another and were merry. Then the dancers, along with Alia and Daquian, preformed some dances and had a great feast with the prison keepers and those being kept. And although the light had returned to Alia, it had touched everyone’s heart and had stayed touched. They were all happy again. All good inside. There was not one criminal in the building any longer.

Alas, it was time for the Sunshine Dance Company to go back to earth. Back home. They boarded a spaceship for the last time in their lives and everyone from the moon waved as they lifted off.

A few years later Alia and Daquian had a baby girl. She was a beautiful and loving like her mother and as courageous and strong like her father. They named her Inithia. After the dancing moon flower. And because the light in Alia had touched the hearts of all the prisoners at Shanilina Alcatraz, they were all well behaved, polite and good. They had transformed themselves and were let home early. Shanilina Alcatraz was shut down and never used again. But it is rumored that the Luna and Ciana Gardens were still alive and the whole building is overrun with inithias. And sometimes you can hear the music to Alia’s dance. Every inmate, guard and dancer who was part of this story has never forgotten Alia. The girl of light.