Nina entered the place full
of lights and colours. The blinding lights were an obstacle to see
the dancers’ faces. The music was very loud, but this wasn’t a
problem to her. The colours danced in front of her eyes like
coloured flying birds. She didn’t know any of the people who were
surrounding her, but everybody was smiling at her and staring at her
from top to toe.
Penetrating glimpses,
enquiring looks, hide-and-seek games…it wasn’t Halloween any longer,
it was a celebration where you can be someone different, but just
for one night: the following morning you would be back to reality.
The lights changed, the new
flash-lights made everything seem slowing down and about to stop.
Nina looked round: the place vas very big, there was a DJ on his
stage, the upper floor where those who wanted to show off were
dancing, the hall which past the cloakroom continued into a narrow
corridor with a door on the right leading to the ground floor, and
two other corridors surrounding the place and leading one to the bar
and the other to a room where anybody could be the DJ, the captain
of this crazy, deceiving Halloween night.
The dance floor was very
big; the stairs led to the armchairs where you could have a rest
after an unbridled dance; the stairs led to the bar, in which there
were two big windows with barriers so that the people could be seen,
boys and girls who were breaking out.
The music changed and became
louder and louder.
A mirror ball came down from
the ceiling and lighted everything up. Everybody was shouting and
dancing.
Nina looked at her watch: it
was midnight and Halloween had just started.
She went downstairs, she
went to the main dance floor and started to move at the rhythm of
music.
She shook her hips, clapped
her hands and touched her hair like only she could do.
She had spent hours to get
ready and now she was really wonderful in her skirt and her new top.
And that silver hair-band made her feel like a star.
Lights and colours started
to pass before her, as well as sounds of melodies, sighs and cries.
It was a false world because
everyone had got a mask on their faces.
“Tonight I can be who I want
to be” said Nina to herself “it doesn’t matter who and it doesn’t
matter what people think about me.”
But in that movement of
light, colours and sounds the people weren’t looking at her, they
were only concerned about themselves, about what they looked like,
wonderful, fascinating or nonchalant.
For Nina, though, it didn’t
matter what people thought about her, only what he thought
about her.
And while she was dancing
and thinking of him intensely, he appeared like in a
dream.
He was dancing frenetically,
as if it was his only reason to live. Nina’s heart lighted up when
their eyes met for a moment. It was just one second, just the time
for a smile, then both turned their head. But he had looked at her,
even if for just one second and she had felt so happy! Her eyes had
found him but he had disappeared in that mixture of colours which
flashed here and there, lighting up different faces with rather
unconventional expressions, even though nobody could really care
about.
She tried to find him again
but he wasn’t there anymore. So she climbed up the stairs quickly
and anxiously went to the bar, but he wasn’t there, like he wasn’t
in the DJ’s room, he wasn’t in the corridor, he wasn’t in the
sitting room and he wasn’t in the corridor, either.
Tired and breathless Nina
came back to the dance floor and tried to remember how his voice was
sweet and his smile reassuring.
She danced and danced until
she got exhausted, loosing all her strength in the dance, she was
dancing now in order to forget…or maybe in order to believe in
something…she wanted to celebrate that strange Halloween where
anything could happen.
The first notes of her
favourite song in the air made her gorgeous and happy, as if her
feet didn’t touch the floor while she was dancing.
Suddenly two gentle hands
surrounded her hips and she could feel a light breath behind her
shoulders.
She didn’t turn round
immediately, she wanted to dream a little bit again, she wanted to
believe he was the person who was surrounding her hips, he
was sweetly whispering in her ear: “Everything is possible tonight,
Nina”, and not an unknown guy. She didn’t even ask herself why that
mysterious boy was so sweet to her or why he knew her name. She just
wanted to dream about her perfect night.
But all of a sudden again
she opened her eyes and everything seemed to stop. He was there, in
front of her, with a tuft of hair falling over his eyes and with an
embracing smile: Everything was standing still around and then there
were only the two of them in the middle of the dance floor, under
the mirror ball and they were exchanging glances. Nothing else could
matter.
Unimportant were the three
thousand people who were dancing, standing and sweating together on
the dance floor, unimportant were the hundred people who were
queuing up at the bar for something which could make them feel
stronger, unimportant was the DJ and so were all the guys who were
dancing to show off and to draw everybody’s attention.
He was getting nearer…
She could see those sincere
eyes under his dark hair.
He was getting nearer and
nearer…
She could see some sweat
drops on his broad forehead .
Nearer…
She could feel his breath on
her neck.
Nearer and nearer…
Now she could feel the taste
of a magic kiss.
She sank into that kiss as
if it was the last of that night and the first of her new life.
It was a kiss given in the
middle of a dancing club but all the same it was a cut off place,
where anyone could be anybody else, in that strange Halloween night
where everything could happen.
BENEDETTA CINI, class 2 D,
Liceo Scientifico “C. Livi”, Prato
noni_peers