The street was almost empty, and house by house the Christmas lights were being turned off. The screens had been taken down, and the speakers had been returned to Isaac’s driveway. At the far end of the street, the last of the police cars drove off. The chalk squares on the street were still there, of course, but there was really not much else left to prove anything had happened. There wasn’t even garbage to clean up, since people had taken theirs with them when they left.
I sat down at the edge of my driveway. It was the first time I’d sat down all evening. I closed my eyes and could see the dance playing out in front of me. It made me smile.
“Mind if I join you?”
I looked up. It was my father.
“Of course.”
He put his chair down six feet away from me.
“You must be happy,” he said.
“Yes. I think it went pretty good.”
“Pretty good? It was amazing, Quinn. Your mother and I are so proud of you. You did something very important here tonight.”
“It was just a dance,” I said. “It’s not important like what you do.”
“Don’t underestimate what you did. It was much more than a dance. I don’t know how you pulled it off, but for a few hours, during these very strange times, you gave a bunch of people some happiness. You gave them joy. You helped them to forget for a little while. And not just your classmates, but all the people on our street. You gave them hope. You gave me hope. Thank you for that. I love you, Q-Cat.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
“And I’m assuming you both must really love me,” Isaac called out from his driveway.
I hadn’t heard him coming.
“That goes without saying,” my father said. “You did an amazing job tonight too, buddy.”
“Who would have thought that causing trouble in school would be the perfect training for being a DJ? Although I wasn’t able to get Quinn dancing very much.”
“I was too busy.”
“Are you busy now?” Isaac asked.
“Not really.”
“Then you should walk out to the square directly in front of my house.”
My father got up from his chair. “I’m going to see how your mom is doing.”
“Well?” Isaac asked.
I walked over to the square as Isaac returned to the sound system.
“And our last, last song of the night is dedicated to the person responsible for this whole evening,” he said. His voice was quieter but coming through the two speakers that were still hooked up. “For Quinny…the best person I know.”
I felt myself blushing.
The music started—“Love at the End of the World.”
“I love this song!”
“I know,” he said. “That’s why I saved it for you.”
Isaac walked to the end of the driveway. “Can I have this dance?”
I looked around. “There’s nobody else left.”
“I know. I didn’t want an audience because I’m not much of a dancer,” he said.
“I know that too,” I said.
He laughed. “You really do keep me honest, Quinny.” Isaac started dancing.
He really was bad. And that’s what made it so wonderful.
I started dancing too. Somehow I knew it wasn’t the end of the world. It was just the start of this dance. It was going to be all right.