Rayando the past
After almost a lifetime of living far away from the Southside, Boy came back to find his childhood sweetheart, Meche, and realized his dream of dancing all night with her.
He’d suggested a weekend trip to El Chuco to go to a Liddy Joe dance, and Meche had accepted.
Now they were finally dancing together, not saying much to each other but smiling uncontrollably and appreciating the moment.
Their dance moves were awkward at first, but they soon fell in sync with each other. Every step from that point on was a gesture, a feeling, a non-verbal communication of how the moment felt, what had been yearned for in the past, and what is desired in the future.
One song folded into the next, and Boy and Meche kept dancing. The 2-3 minute intervals between songs didn’t interfere with their movement. They glided through the tanda, their eyes closed and oblivious to everything around them.
To Boy, it felt like he’d finally stepped out of the world he’d been trying to escape when he moved back to the Southside. He’d come home still in time to reconnect with Meche and play out what for decades he regretted he never did.
To Meche, every step took her deeper and deeper into her childhood dreams, even some she’d forgotten.
“You dance very well,” Boy leaned back slightly and said to Meche.
“That’s what we’re doing? Dancing?” Meche said.
“Uh-hmm. Dancing back to when we were children,” Boy said.
“I’m back there now, too,” Meche whispered into Boy’s ear.
“And that world you were living in until now?” she added.
“With every step I take with you, I’m rayando that world so it leaves my mind and I forget I was ever there. Also so the space that came between us turns into nothing,” Boy said.
“Then let’s rayarle la madre and su santo so it comes to be that you never left and we were always together as we are now,” Meche said.
“In a few more steps, I’m going to get off the plane I boarded that fall and come back and find you and ask you to marry me,” Boy said.
“But we were never boyfriend and girlfriend. Your proposal might surprise me too much. I fear I won’t know what to say,” Meche said.
“Then we won’t go back that far— into high school. No further back than that summer after graduation. And we’ll elope,” Boy said.
“Until then, we’d been together since the first grade. I suppose that counts for something. Maybe it won’t be a full elopement,” Meche said.
“We’re almost there, Meche. Se la rayo,” Boy said.
“Rayasela,” Meche said.
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