Three weeks ago, I wouldn’t have said yes.
Her eyes were like two glimmering pools of emotions in this dark night. She turned around and sighed. Dropping the fake smile, she trudged her way back to the chairs to give her feet some rest. It was an unsaid rule of the society that when a man asks a woman to dance with him, and only a man can ask to, the woman has to say yes. Some married women with possessive husbands politely decline the offers and understandably so. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t her beauty attracting all the young bachelors who kept asking her for dances throughout the ball, but who she is. She is the future queen. She gets to decide the king. So during every ball, princes and soldiers and young men try to get her attention. She would forget all of them once the dance was over. She looked down, trying to hide away into the corner, but my eyes always found her. She was sitting there by the huge potted plant, stuffing her mouth with the little chocolates she stole from the food table. She sighed again, this time with pleasure. I stood opposite to her, alone. My father brought me here to look for a possible partner who’d want to spend their life with the obstinate creature that I am. But every time I looked around, my eyes would go back to her. She looked exhausted. Of pretending, maybe. I can’t say for sure but her sparkling eyes were losing their intensity. Her soul looked tired. Suddenly she looked right at me. My eyes widened in surprise and I took an involuntary step back. She looked surprised too. Her eyes travelled down my body and when she realised what she was doing, she immediately looked back down. I wish I could tell her she didn’t need to be ashamed. I didn’t see her for a while when I got called by my father who introduced me to his colleagues and their children. My eyes would keep looking around, trying to find the only place they found peace. I walked to the washroom to get some personal space and there she was. Again, right in front of me. Her eyes screamed her confusion and doubts. I did a small curtsy and acknowledged her, ‘Your highness.’
She nodded back and quickly ran out, probably trying to run far away from the mixture of emotions she was clearly feeling then. I didn’t see her for the next two balls. Then at the yearly ball for her birthday, she came down the stairs looking as gorgeous as the first day I had seen her. Her eyes were downcast the whole night. As usual, the first young man went up to her and asked her for a dance. She looked right into his eyes and said, ‘No.’
Everybody was shocked. This could only mean that she was engaged to somebody else. Still, men kept trying to ask her for a dance. Now they were hoping that they’d be the one she says yes to and that would mean that she had chosen them to be her king. But she refused every single time. The king and the queen tried to talk to her but she was adamant. She did not dance with a single man throughout the night.
At the last dance, she started roaming throughout the hall as if searching for something or someone. She saw me standing towards the back, alone as always, with no man interested in the old soldier’s ugly and poor daughter. She walked towards me and smiled when she reached. She did a curtsy and then loud enough for the entire hall to hear she said, ‘Would you like to share this last dance with me?’
Three weeks ago, I wouldn’t have said yes.
Not before I had seen how the timid princess that ran from herself now looked like a true queen in front of me, a queen who had taken control of her own life and wouldn’t take no for an answer, a queen who wasn’t afraid of the world and what consequences her actions will cause.
‘Do you wish to say no? You are allowed to do as you please, mademoiselle.’ Her loud words caused gasps to escape the throats of all the quiet women who spoke in hushed whispers and did as they were told to.
I raised my hand and put it into her outstretched one. ‘I would love to.’ I felt a huge weight fall off my shoulders when she led me to the centre of the hall and placed one hand on my shoulder, while the other rested on my waist. I did the same. There was no music. Everyone could only stand and stare.
She waited for a moment but when the song didn’t start, she started guiding me how to dance and sway slowly to the left and right. It was my first dance so my steps were a little clumsy but her precision taught me well. Her eyes never left mine as she started asking me questions about my life.
Everyone else disappeared as we smiled and talked, and danced to our own laughter as the music. And nobody tried to question the changes made tonight by the queen that chose her queen.
– Vageesha Mishra