The Choice

throw him against the wall today!” she said. “I pinned him. I picked
him up. I threw him against the wall!” Her cheeks were Ęushed. Her
eyes glistened with pride.
Once she had the conĕdence that she could protect herself, she
began taking other risks—adult ballet classes, belly dancing. Her body
began to change. It was no longer a container for her fear. It was an
instrument of joy. Beatrice became a writer, a ballet teacher, a yoga
instructor. She decided to choreograph a dance based on a Brothers
Grimm tale she remembered reading as a child, “e Girl Without
Hands.” In the story, a girl’s parents are tricked into giving their
daughter to the devil. Because she is innocent and pure, the devil can’t
possess her, but in revenge and frustration, he cuts off her hands. e
girl wanders the world, with stumps where her hands used to be. One
day she walks into a king’s garden, and when he sees her standing
among the Ęowers, he falls in love with her. ey get married and he
makes her a pair of silver hands. ey have a son. One day she saves
their young son from drowning. Her silver hands disappear and are
replaced with real hands.
Beatrice held out her hands as she told me about this story from
her childhood. “My hands are real again,” she said. “It wasn’t someone
else I saved. It was me.”