They Saw the Bow, Not the Pain in Her Feet
Brian Armer
The applause was still coming through the curtain when Mara sat down. A minute earlier, she had bowed with the company, one hand joined to the dancer beside her. Now she bent over her ankle, trying to loosen a ribbon that seemed to have tightened with every landing.
Leah came around the curtain carrying two bouquets. “Apparently these are both yours.” She laid them on the chair beside Mara, then watched her work at the knot. “Want a hand?”
“I want whoever tied this fired.”
“You tied it.”
“Then I stand by my decision.”
Leah crouched beside the chair and eased the knot loose. Mara slipped off the shoe and drew a slow breath. Her heel had rubbed raw, the skin broken where the shoe had caught it. She had felt it during the performance, but between the music, the spacing, and the dancers moving around her, there had been no room to think about what came afterward. Now she needed wound care, and she still had another shoe to take off.
Someone called from the hallway that everyone was gathering for photographs. Mara reached for the edge of her chair. “Give us a minute,” Leah called back.
“They’re waiting.”
“They can wait.”
Mara settled back. Leah placed the shoes together beneath the chair, their ribbons trailing across the floor. Around them, dancers were pulling on sweatshirts, looking for missing earrings, and calling out plans for food. Mara had been looking forward to all of it. She glanced down at her feet, then away.
Leah pulled up the other chair. “We can still get dinner.”
“I might be very slow.”
“I’ve seen you choose from a menu. I was prepared.”
Mara laughed. Leah moved the bouquets onto her own lap, leaving room for Mara to reach her bag without getting up. For a while they sat there, talking about the turn that had nearly gone wrong and the moment they had caught each other’s eye and known it hadn’t.
When the photographer appeared at the doorway, Mara started apologizing for holding everyone up. “Don’t move,” he said, lifting his camera. “You two look happy.”
Leah still had both bouquets. Mara still had one ribbon looped around her ankle. Neither of them thought to straighten anything before he took the picture.
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