Wings Read Free

the moon rippled on the surface. Shivering in the crisp night air of autumn, she stood at the edge of the lake with the cold water lapping at her bare toes. The music was soft and sweet with a hypnotic quality that made her take one tentative step, then another. Before she knew it she was dancing, her feet keeping time to themelody, her arms swaying, reaching to the perfect circle of the moon overhead. She twirled, so light on her feet that she felt as if she were floating, the music carrying her in ever more intricate steps.
    And then they came, a few at first, bright sparks that darted around her in an imitation of her dance. Anyone else might have thought they were fireflies, but she saw their tiny faces, dresses the colors of flowers, wings so bright that they hurt her eyes, and arms that gestured just as hers were doing.
    The music grew louder, carrying Tamisin with it, filling her ears and her mind and leaving no room for questions. She danced with the moonlight shining on her face as the little creatures gathered around her, dancing as she danced, moving as she moved. Some broke away long enough to brush her cheeks with their feather-light wings and touch her nightgown as if she, and not they, were something special and worthy of awe. Entranced, Tamisin would have danced all night if a beam of light hadn’t swept across the campground to center on her. As the light touched her face, the music faded and the sparks of light fled into the night, leaving Tamisin alone and shivering.
    “There she is,” announced her big brother, Kyle. “Dad, Tam is being weird.”
    “That’s enough of that, Kyle,” said her father, who had come looking for Tamisin. “Sweetie, what are you doing?”
    “I was dancing with the fairies, Daddy,” Tamisin replied.
    “Girls!” said Kyle as he turned and headed back to the tent.
    A month later, Tamisin was home in bed when the same feeling came over her again; once again she was unable to resist. Slipping out from under her covers, she padded barefoot out of her room and down the carpeted stairs. A turn of the dead bolt and the back door was open. The moonlight touched her face and the feeling became so powerful that her body swayed as if in a strong wind. Raising her arms over her head, Tamisin danced just as she had the last time there had been a full moon. She knew the twinkling lights were coming even before they appeared.
    It happened again the next full moon and the one after that. It wasn’t until two months later that Tamisin’s parents learned that she was dancing in the moonlight in their very own backyard. They agreed that she must be sleep walking and put her back to bed. When they talked to her about it the next day, they seemed more concerned about the swarm of twinkling lights they’d found surrounding her than they were about her actual dancing. Within a week they had had a security alarm installed so they’d know if she opened the door after dark. Now they knew when she went outside, but that didn’t stop her from going. When she continued to dance every month on the full moon, they installed new locks that she couldn’t open. She danced inside that first night, twirling in the kitchen and through the living room, bumping into a coffee table, knocking over a floor lamp, and acquiring a set of bruises. Her parents finished offthe room in the basement, creating a safe place for her to dance. They still didn’t understand why she had to dance when she did, but they seemed pleased that at least the strange lights could no longer reach her.
    Tamisin soon began to dance whenever she could—after school, on weekends, and at night. She danced because she was able to lose herself in the music, almost as if she were entering another world. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine herself there, but she didn’t dare close her eyes for the audition.
    Trying out for the school dance group was the first time she’d ever danced in front of someone who wasn’t a friend or