Golden Slippers And Powdered Wings..by Michael

A Story by Michael Reisman

The kitchen radio would play and five year old Samantha would dance around the floor. Her little feet and hands were so synchronized to the music that me and the wife felt there was a special talent ready to be nurtured. We enrolled her in a dance class when she reached nine years old and the instructor told us she moved about like a mature sixteen year old. Modern dance mixed with ballet had her perform some years later at a high school talent contest. First prize and a scholarship to an elite college followed. My seventeen year old girl stunned audiences as the local news and a few talent scouts were most interested in putting her name up in lights. At eighteen she signed a contract with our consent with a well known promoter which would soon launch my Samantha into stardom. The golden slippers that she wore at nine years old were saved by me and the wife where it all began. They sit on her window sill in a room where she grew up and danced. Samantha made her first major public debut in the Metropolitan Theater Of Performing Arts in New York City. Colored lights flashed and blinked above the stage as a thirty piece orchestra played beneath her dancing feet. For thirty minutes she whirled and tip toed around the stage with the grace of a swan that filled her soul. A single violin held a long note as she bowed and crossed her feet with hands in the air. The stage went dark as flash bulbs erupted and a crowd stood on their feet with a thunderous round of applause. At twenty five years old a movie was about to made of the young dancer's rise to fame. She was to portray herself and star in this new film. A brain tumor took my Samantha away before her twenty fifth birthday. Thousands gathered at what was supposed to be a private funeral. She was loved in life and mourned in death by many. I slept in my daughters room often and starred at the golden slippers on the now open window sill. It was in the spring when a butterfly landed on her shoes. It danced around from one to the other and moved about waving its legs as it flapped its powdered wings. She landed on my hand and with its two small antennas touched my face, then flew away. Samantha was happy and at peace as she let me know that she still dances with golden slippers and powdered wings....