Freedom Dance

By Ellen Pearson

          “Two, three, four.  Two, three, four.”  The words echo in my head.

          “Step, slide, reach.  Step, slide, reach.”  My rough, cotton clothes rub against my bare legs.

          “Two, three-”  The whispers stop.

          “What are you doing?” our master shouts.  “Get back to work.”  Most of us flinch.

          Not Devon.  He stands up tall and looks Master Lucas in the eye.  “We won’t” he says as if Master Lucas was just a pig hogging the land.  Which he was.

          “I don’t think you heard me,” Master Lucas shouted.  His face turned red.  Then purple.  “Get back to work.”

          “I don’t think you heard us,” Devon said cooly.  “We aren’t working for you anymore.  Isn’t that right?” he asked.

          Half of us nodded our heads.  Half of us ducked.

          Master Lucas brought out his whip.  Cool and sharp.  Glinting wickedly in the shocking bright sun.

          That was when we all cowered.  We all did.  Except Devon.

          Behind us, the sea crashed menacingly against the sandy beach.  As if to prove our point.  Master Lucas cracked his whip jut to prove to us that he really meant what he was threatening.

          Then he looked at the sea.  And he stopped.

          I hoped he had stopped.  But of course, he hadn’t.  He only cracked his whip to make it clear he was the boss.

          But he wasn’t.  Devon was.

          Suddenly, out of his belt, Devon produced a whip.

          It looked like Master Lucas’s, but it was missing something.

          I felt no chills when I looked at it.  The wickedness that gleamed like poison on Master Lucas’s whip was evaporated on Devon’s.

          The two glared at each other for one minute.  Two minutes.  Three.

          Devon suddenly sprang like a wild cat at Master Lucas.  Master Lucas lashed out with his whip, but Devon grabbed hold and yanked the whip out of Master Lucas’s sweaty hands.

          They stared at each other again.  For four minutes wwe all waited.

          Lucas then turned, and raced blindly up the ridge to his white pillared mansion.

          We stepped out onto the white sand and started to dance.

          “Two, three, four.  Step, slide, reach.  Two, three, four.  Step, slide, reach.  Two, three…”

          The music and steps blurred together until we had a joyful dance, beach dance, freedom dance.