Dancing Boy

Once upon a time there was a young boy. He was strange, and therefore not particularly popular. Aside from being quiet he had a habit of dancing a lot at odd times. It was a very queer dance, hard to describe: His arms moved like waves, his body twisted, turned and swayed. The dancing had started when he was very young, to the amusement of older relatives and friends, and he never seemed to grow out of it. When asked why he did it, he returned the question, ‘Why don’t you?’

When the boy started to dance in class, the other students laughed so much the teacher had to exclude him. He was teased in PE, bullied on the way to and from school, and jeered in the shops. However, he couldn’t stop dancing any more than he could stop breathing. When he danced he felt… whole. Words and feelings translated seamlessly into movement. At disco nights he was transported by the music to another place, an almost religious experience on the dancefloor.

His dancing was a mixture of joy and sorrow, embracing the wonders of everyday life whilst also weeping at the tragedies and suffering that seemed so transparently obvious to him but invisible to many others.

One fateful day, the aliens came. They descended in impervious spheres of energy, weird undulating forms scarcely visible, and set about enslaving humankind. Desperate attempts to communicate with the aliens were in vain. Our planes were shot down, our radio transmissions jammed and our frantic banner bearers turned to ash. The pleas of our governments were ignored just as impassively as the wailings from the prison camps. To the amazement of the bedraggled survivors, the boy stepped forward and started to dance.

As he twisted and moved, the aliens emerged from their shells and as one they all danced together wordlessly, a visual tapestry of light and shadow. The remnants of mankind gazed in wonder and begged the boy, ‘Please, if they listen to you, do something!’

The boy turned to them and smiled faintly. ‘You hurt me badly, but only in ignorance.  I am sorry for your loss.’

Puzzled by his response they continued, ‘Won’t you help us?’

The boy smiled softly. ‘No. All your treatment of me has confirmed what l always suspected: l have little in common with you. I have more kinship with these aliens. You have enough trouble living with yourselves.’

The boy waved goodbye to humanity and danced onto the alien mothership, and into the stars. Mankind brought great joy to the universe in the form of Xargl-penk’s Famous Xeno Snaxx.