The Music Box and the Theater
( A Short Story )
( A Short Story )
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Angelica. Angelica loved to dance. She always dreamed of dancing on a big stage, dressed in sparkly costumes. After seeing this passion for music and dance, Angelicas father bought her a music box. The music box was creamy white with a gold trim. On the lid of the music box was a pair of hand painted pair of ballet slippers. Angelica loved that music box with all of her heart. But most of all, Angelica loved the song that the music box played when she opened it. Hours upon hours, day after day, Angelica would put on her favorite dress, turn the little key on the back, and then dance to “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”.
When her mother saw her love of dance, she enrolled Angelica in ballet lessons. With the exception of the blind, everyone could see that Angelica was a natural. So, at the age of only five, she was cast a role in the Company’s biggest production of the year: “The Nutcracker”. The night of her first performance was a magical ordeal. Everywhere she went, there were beautiful dancers in costumes and make-up, hurrying to rehearse one last time. The smell of perfume and perspiration mixed with the scents of make-up and hairspray lingered in the air. Angelica was hooked. She knew instantly that this was where she belonged.
While waiting for the second act to begin, she was in a dressing room full of bright lights, dancers, and costumes. Now you must understand that this particular theater was very old, so it wasn’t unusual to find a loose floor board or wall panels that could be pried off with ease. Since it was already past her bedtime, Angelica was growing tired. With her music box and a blanket in tow, she began searching for a quiet place to nap. Behind a row of costumes seemed to be an ideal spot. While laying out her blanket, she discovered that one of the floor boards were loose. After prying it up, Angelica realized that it would be the perfect hiding place to keep her most prized possession; the music box. So, in it went. Suddenly she heard “Curtain call for Act II dancers!” Angelica ran to line up, with plans to retrieve her beloved music box later. But she never could. The next years production of “The Nutcracker” was a lot like the first. Magical, beautiful, but one thing was different. The antique wooden floors of the dressing room had been covered with ugly grey linoleum. The floor board that covered her precious music box was lost. Angelica cried and cried, willing her music box back to her. But it was gone, and she had to accept it.
After eight years of dance, Angelica had grown in to a beautiful young lady.
At the age of eleven, she received her first pair of point shoes. They looked exactly like the hand painted pair on her music box from so long ago. At that years performance of “The Nutcracker”, Angelica had her first solo. “Practice, practice, practice! I will NOT have sloppy ballerinas!” Her Russian teachers words rang in her ears. So practice she did. Squeezing in one last run-through before curtain call, she fell from her last pirouette turn and, as she fell, she heard a loud crack. Then the sharp pain started. Her ankle was broken. And along with her ankle, her dreams broke as well.
Sitting in the same dressing room she had sat in before her very first performance at the age of five, Angelica was alone. She could hear the bustling of people in the ballroom below. Her ankle throbbed. Over her soft sobbing, she began to hear music. It was the same song that her treasured music box played, but it was coming from… the floor? Angelica dragged herself over to the spot where she had found the loose floorboards. She heard it even more clearly now. It was her music box.
After finding out that she could never dance again, Angelica was heartbroken. She vowed that she would never love anyone nor anything more than ballet. But at the age of eighteen, she fell in love with her soul mate. Tristan was perfect for her. At the end of their senior year, he asked her to prom. She of course said yes. After she bought her dress and he bought the tickets, they found out where the dance was going to take place. In the ballroom of her beloved theater. Angelica was nearly brought to tears. She knew that this could be the last time she would ever see her theater.
When the big night came, she was very nervous. But the moment she stepped from the car to the sidewalk in front of the theater, all her fears left her. After hours of dancing, she realized the time. 11:53p.m. 7 minutes until her senior prom was over. Until her senior year was over. Angelica had to go now. So she slipped away from Tristan, ran up the stairs and under the red rope that separated her from her missions target. Briskly walking to the end of the hallway, she found the door she was looking for. The dressing room. Opening the door slowly, she peers in. Empty. Just like the night her career ended and her dreams died. Walking to the middle of the room, she spins around and sits on the floor with her dress encircling her. She listens. There it is. Her music box is playing her farewell encore. Swaying gently to the music, she hears footsteps behind her. The music slowly fades as Tristan asks, “Hey, ready to go?”
She looks around one last time as he helps her to her feet. “Yeah,” she says. “I’m ready.”
So as she leaves her past behind, she knows that her future holds even more promise than she could have ever imagined.
The End
