“Welcome to this week’s dance class, everyone. For those first-timers, I’m Michael, your instructor. Let’s begin with introductions from the first-timers.”
They moved around the circle, nervous laughter flitting between strangers. more so when Tom, dressed in a top hat and tails, introduced himself. When they finished, Michael counted again.
Eleven. An odd number.
“Well,” he smiled, clapping once, “who’d like to partner with me? Maggie?”
“I’m with Emily, my wife,” announced Maggie.
“Tom?” Michael gestured. “You don’t mind dancing with another man, do you? After all, you’re dressed for the part.”
Tom looked horrified. “Why would I dance with a man? I’m here with my wife.”
There was a polite pause while everyone waited for Tom’s wife to reveal herself. A few people looked towards all the empty space around Tom.
“Of course,” Michael said casually as he broke the silence. “Right, take your positions, everyone. I’ve some hits of the eighties to dance to later, but first we’re going to do an old-fashioned waltz.”
Tom frowned before music filled the room, and shoes softly whispered over polished wood. Partners turned, stepped, and breathed together.
Tom moved carefully, one hand curved around an invisible waist, the other clasping fingers no one else could see. Every now and then, Michael and the other dancers watched Tom smile as he spoke to himself.
“Tom,” Michael said gently, as he approached the edge of the mirror. “Are you sure you’re all right? You’re dancing alone.”
“But she’s right here with me. We’ve been coming here for years,” he said as he faced Michael and the large, mirrored wall. “Tell him, Darling.”
In the room, the figure of a much younger woman in a ball gown appeared in Tom’s arms.
Maggie gasped. Emily staggered backwards while Michael felt the air leave his lungs.
The woman kissed Tom on the cheek, leaving lipstick on his face, and then lifted a hand and pressed it flat against the mirror.
Inside the mirror, Michael and the other dancers started to scream. Tom watched as their reflections shattered into tiny pieces along with the mirror before he and his wife left the room.
Outside the old music hall, where many from the past once danced, the ghostly figures of a man in a top hat and tails and a woman in a ball gown departed the hall once more. Tom hadn’t liked the glimpse of the future he had seen in the mirror.
Written in response to Esther Chilton’s Writing Prompt: Theme: Dance.
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