Learning to Dance

Especially in an outfit like this. The archaic-style mass had
been bad enough, sitting up at the altar on display for
everyone to see – but now she had to go out and face them,
talk to people, smile... and dance.
“I don’t know, mama,” Taz said. “I don’t want to dance
with any of them.” Her chambelanes, or escorts, were a
motley collection of awkward youths, pimply and barely
moustached, and most of them her cousins.
Her mama tutted and opened her mouth, but just then
there was a wicked crashing sound, far away but close
enough to shake the windows of their tiny house. Her mama
looked up worriedly. “I didn’t think it was meant to rain
today.”
One of Taz’s older cousins poked her head in the door.
“It’s time, Tazia! Everyone is waiting for you!”
Taz froze and cast a glance back at the safety of her
bedroom, but her mama took her by the arms and marched
her forward, but gently. “I’m proud of you, hijita mia.”
There was applause as she exited the house, and Taz
wanted nothing more than to die, or maybe have the earth
just open up and swallow her. Perhaps a hoard of ravaging
robots could conveniently stage an attack on their village
right at that very moment -
A second crash, closer, caused a falter in the applause,
and Taz saw her mama look up at the unclouded, starry sky
with worry. A third, and then a brilliant flash, and Taz was
no longer on her feet but soaring through the air. For a
second she felt nothing but exhilaration. Fear overcame her
just before she hit the ground.
Unable to breathe, unable to move, Taz tried to open her
eyes and found them burning from the smoke filling the air
around her. Shutting them quickly, she listened instead.
Screams, and more explosions. A dreadful ripping of
something that wasn’t cloth, and then the sound that struck