As Josephine stood inside her walker, the beat of the music took her away in her mind.

While she stood against the wall, she imagined herself on the dance floor, dancing as if she could move her body in different direction with the ease of a butterfly. Her challenged body might not move as she would like, but in her mind, she saw herself dancing as if she were trained by the best.

All at once, in her mind, the dance floor opened up and welcomed Josephine. Josephine Walker started to move her away; it had never moved her before. She felt like she was in a mason jar, like a butterfly dancing around. The legs of Josephine’s walker started to take hold of the rhythm of music all at once; her six legs, which had never moved like they were, followed the rhythm of the beats.

Once Josephine let her feet get moving, her lymph torso and her stiff hips also started to sway to the rhythm. Josephine wasn’t sure what was happening; she had never felt this way; she didn’t drink or eat anything; she just stood against the wall. As she was dancing, the rhythm just flowed right into her as if she was dancing and moving like this her entire life.

While the rhythm was moving Josephine into the middle of the dance floor, people were crowding around her, watching her move in amazement. The song playing was the 1980 song Upside Down by Diana Ross. She kept questioning how she was doing this, but at the same time, it felt so freeing to her.

After a few minutes, when the song ended, her walker and her body returned to normal with the cerebral palsy body. Josephine stood looking at the crowd, cheering her on and then laughing at her. It felt like that butterfly was smothered to death from being trapped in the mason jar. Josephine mustered all the courage she could to leave the dance floor and the school gymnasium.

Josephine took to the coat closet. As she was in the closet, she noticed she wasn’t the only one among the coats. In the other corner was Nick. Josephine looked at Nick, questionable to say what are you doing here.

Nick was one of the most admired boys in her class, and here he was, sitting among the coasts. When Nick’s eyes met Josephine’s, as if to say, don’t tell anyone I’m in here. When she went to get closer to Nick, he took off. Josephine knew she couldn’t catch up to him, so she just stayed there until she didn’t hear anyone in the hallway.

When Josephine heard no noise in the hallway, she left the closet and walked fast to the bathroom. She wanted to wash her face and wait for her ride home. When she was in the bathroom, a group of popular girls was touching up their makeup, and in the corner, there was Eden.

Eden wore dark clothes, gated earrings, and a fork bracelet. She was wearing a long chain from her jeans pocket, sitting on the windowsill smoking.

Josephine was standing at the sink when she saw Eden Hazard of smoke coming out from behind her. Josephine had seen her in English class, as Eden had only been there since the beginning of the school year. Josephine hadn’t heard anything about her other than she lived on the outskirts of town and was from Seattle, Washington.

As Eden approached Josephine, Josephine wondered why Eden would want to talk to her. Eden said, “Hey, your writing is cool, “ as they were both in English together. Josephine must have forgotten this for a few seconds because she was thinking about not getting beat up by this girl.

Eden shouted and said are you hearing me, or are you deaf. Josephine spoke up. Just because I use a walker doesn’t mean I’m deaf. Being a little shy, Josephine wanted to tell Eden that she needed to check herself before she ran over with Ms. Pinkie, but she just said hi shyly. Eden said I saw you dancing. What kind of freak dance was that? Josephine shrugged and said I’m not sure. Well, it looked like you were high Eden said, I was not high Josephine yelled. Josephine turned around and left.

To be continued………..