Interpretive Dance
It’s a regular night at my Dad’s house. We probly made pizza for dinner from scratch for Fun Pizza Friday. I’m definitely upset because I’m not out with my friends and Derek is definitely completely content and happy—as usual. Erica is at college. Shadow is not at college, because he is a dog, but also because he is under the joint custody agreement too and he goes with us wherever we go—unless we go to college.
I go to the front closet and pull out somebody’s zip-up hoodie and put it on, zipping all the way to the top and tieing the strings of the hood tightly around my face so you can only see my eyes and nose and mouth. Derek runs to get a hoodie from somewhere—anywhere—and Shadow starts to lose his mind. We no longer look like we live here and love him and he doesn’t know how to handle it or what to do because he hasn’t ever gone to college.
Dad sees the hoodie tied tightly around my head and watches me tiptiptiptoe into the kitchen and raise my arms in the air above my head, he turns music on and runs to get his hoodie but is annoyed because I’m probably wearing the only hoodie that he has. He makes it back with a hoodie on somehow(?) and starts to flutter his hands like a butterfly. Derek spins on his tiptoes and runs across the room with a little sprightly step, and I spread my arms wide and spin dramatically down to the ground. Shadow jumps on top of me in an effort to save his family from these horrible dancing strangers who are trying to ruin his life.
With a little leap Dad brings Shadow to the basement so he can forget what is currently happening and we can keep hopping and leaping and spinning and tiptiptiptoeing until everyone is too tired from the exercise or the laughing or both. There is always the same Pink Floyd song involved, but the real musical cue is George Michael’s cover of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face—which we never hear unless everyone is about to drop their attitudes and interpretive dance.
I’m not sure I ever remember hearing that song before those nights, or since.
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