The dance is located in the large chamber where we met the Dork-Doran. It has been transformed. It reminds me of the time I accidentally entered a gas being.
Chloe crouches to adjust a strap on our shoe. “A gas being, Welks?” She doesn’t have to worry about other humans overhearing her. The sound in the room is thunderous.
“Yes,” I tell her. “I was studying chemistry, and the teacher wanted us to experience an explosion. The gas being was in a star going nova. It was barely sentient, yet it was capable of perceiving light. It allowed me to glimpse flashing bursts much like these here, which—”
“Okay, okay. I get it. For a minute I thought you meant someone like Josh. You can tell me the rest later. I want to dance now.” Chloe stands and steps close to Madison. She must yell to ask, “Have you seen Noah?”
“Not yet,” Madison yells back.
For a fraction of a moment, the noise ceases. It starts again, and Chloe yells, “Oh, I love this song. Let’s go!”
We had been standing on the fringe of the writhing crowd, but now we plunge right in. I’m rather frightened. The juveniles appear to have lost control of their limbs. Also, having viewed the cavorting humans on TV, I fear dancing will hurt our body. Those humans moved in extraordinary ways.
I hear Chloe laugh, and I realize it’s a beautiful sound. Then all at once we are jiggling about. Our feet shift back and forth and up and down, and our arms flail the air. Our torso and our gluteus maximus bob from side to side, and our head hair swishes wildly. Chloe does nothing to contain it. This makes me fear she’s gone insane.
But then I notice there’s a relationship between our movements and the sound. I pay close attention, and sure enough, our motions follow the music. We are harmonizing with it. Amazing!
We dance through several more songs. The more we do it, the more I like it. The music surrounds us and goes through us too. I can actually feel some of the low-range thumps reverberating in our stomach. It’s like running in that I feel myself becoming one with the body. Thoughts pale when the body is in action.
But we’re not entirely unaware. No. We notice at once when Noah dances into view. Our body notices too. It suffers that strange electrical current, and Chloe has our face smiling so widely that our cheeks feel strained.
“Hey,” she yells.
“Hey,” Noah yells back.
We continue dancing. Only now we watch Noah and smile while he does the same. This goes on for a while, all of us bobbing with the music. Multicolored lights flash over us, pulsing in time with the stomach-felt beat. I note that sometimes Noah appears to be green, sometimes orange or blue. Occasionally, he’s stricken with an intense clear beam that washes all the color away. That has the effect of making his head look like a skull. I wonder if the lights have the same effect on our appearance.
“Gah.” Chloe chokes.
“What?” Noah yells.
“Nothing,” Chloe yells back.
The tempo of the music changes. It slows, and our movement slows with it. We glance about and see some of the juveniles departing. Others begin forming linked pairs. For a fraction of a moment, our body tenses as if we’re preparing to flee. Then Noah looms close and places his hands on the midsection of our torso.
We experience another jolt of electricity. Then we take a quick breath and place our hands on his shoulders. And, just as when we touched the kitten, our hands sense his life energy. We smile. He smiles. We shuffle our feet from side to side in such a way that we go nowhere.
“How’s it goin’?” Noah asks.
Chloe giggles. I fail to see why. “Good,” she replies. “How’s it goin’ with you?”
“Good,” he says.
We all smile some more.
“Still talking to yourself?” Noah asks.
Ever so slightly, our muscles stiffen. “Um,” Chloe says, “actually, I don’t really—” She stops. Interesting. I wonder if she was about to tell him about me. I wonder if she’ll ever tell anyone about me.
Then all at once Noah staggers. If it weren’t for our grabbing hold of his arm, I think he may have fallen. He steadies himself and says, “Hello, Welkin.”
We gasp.
“Please, act naturally,” Noah says. “Carry on dancing.”
But we don’t carry on dancing. We come to a full stop. Our mouth gapes open, and we stare at him. “What the…” Chloe begins.
“Professor Float,” I say. I’d recognize that flat tone anywhere. “You’re here. Or rather, you’re there. In Noah’s body.”
“Indeed,” Float says. “It’s most convenient.”
This can only mean one thing. For Chloe’s sake, I can’t bring myself to say it aloud. But she manages to squeak, “Are you here for Welkin?”
“Of course,” Float replies. “Time’s up. Welkin must return to our dimension and provide his report.”