Middle of The Night

By Evya Jadhav

Once upon a time , there was a girl named Claire who had the dream to become a dancer and she had the talent to do so, but as she was poor she couldn’t afford to apply for a dancing academy. Claire usually liked to roam near the Daphne river banks . One fine night as she was not able to fall asleep she decided to go near the river banks and take a walk while looking at the nature around it. When she got there, she saw an ethereal being dancing elegantly and gracefully which made her feel like she was looking at a beautiful swan glide in the shallow waters of a river .

Claire could not believe her eyes. It turned out that the ethereal being was her role model titled as the ‘ BLACK SWAN ’, the deceased Ezra Rowans dancing peacefully on the shallow waters . She then as quiet as a mouse , approached the land near the shallow waters, and then sat down watching the dance mesmerized. After some time , Ezra feeling someone staring through his soul noticed the figure sitting there watching enchanted while he was dancing. He recognized her as the girl he once saw dancing near the river bank but the main question was how could she see him ? As he was a ghost no one but the birds and animals were able to see him so , how was this girl able to see him or was he being paranoid ? While being in thought he suddenly stopped dancing and with that it broke Claire out of her captivated state and frightened she ran away only to come back the next day and everyday after that.

After 2 to 3 days she finally confronted Ezra and they started to talk , which slowly led to them becoming friends. Slowly but surely she gained the courage to finally ask Ezra to take her as an apprentice and become her mentor . He refused at first saying that how can he teach as he is a ghost and that he is a tough mentor. After seeing her stubbornness and her will to learn, Ezra finally gave up on his pride and accepted her as his mentee.

True to his word , Ezra was really a tough mentor. He trained Claire ruthlessly to the point where she passed out due to sheer exhaustion and wanted to give up but he motivated her to not quit by taunting her. Surprisingly it worked and the taunting only led to burn an unstoppable fire in her. She then started dancing without any break to the point of passing out due to sheer exhaustion.

Claire then applied for a scholarship , which she got and then she applied for a dance academy through the scholarship and no surprise to us , she got in.

In the academy she made many friends and became the teacher’s favourite while behaving like a backbencher with her friends. She still trained under Ezra while training under the teachers .

While making a lot of friends she also had a rival and many who were jealous of her. Her rival’s name was Gloria who was a living example of nepotism. She was very jealous of Claire as Claire got in by scholarship and an instance where a student gets in the academy by scholarship happens once in a blue moon and Gloria got in by her mother’s contacts. Gloria was also a great dancer.

Soon, it was going to be the academy’s annual function and everyone was preparing for that. Lucky for both of them the two rivals were given different stages to perform on.

Due to some technical difficulties , the gathering was postponed till twilight. So there were final rehearsals during noon, in the rehearsals Gloria tried to injure Claire by putting marbles on the practice stage which resulted to Claire not noticing them which led to her slipping and getting herself a swollen ankle.

So , as she had gotten the swollen ankle she wasn’t able to perform in the annual gathering. So , Ezra came up with a plan which was to let him possess Claire , as with possession came miraculous healing abilities. Claire immediately agreed but she said that Ezra should possess her body during the performance as she wanted him to experience how it feels back on stage , performing in front of a lot of people . Ezra enthusiastically agreed excited at the aspect of going on stage and performing on it even though it was through possession .

Finally it was time for the performance which started at the time range of between twilight and the night. Before the programs started Ezra possessed Claire’s body. The academy was big which meant that there were a lot of performances . All of the performances excluding Claire’s lasted till midnight . It was finally Claire’s ( Ezra’s ) turn.

Claire ( Ezra) performed on the song ‘ MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT’ by Elley Duhe. Claire (Ezra) started the dance with a rising bow and then started gliding effortlessly across the stage elegantly. She suddenly feels that she has drank 10 cups of coffee in one sitting ,she starts to dance with more power just as she gets the adrenaline rush . She in her own mind did not notice the audience looking at her in awe and enchantment .

The atmosphere was very calm and serene , with everyone focused only on Claire’s (Ezra’s) dance and with the song being able to calm down even the wildest of storms felt bewitching to listen . Her body was gliding like a swan in shallow waters waiting for someone to watch it dance . The beats gave energy to her body along with the feeling of the bass thumping through her body & herself getting lost in her own world . Feeling liberated she swayed to song without any care.

All night long till morning comes

I’m getting what is mine , you gon’ get yours , oh no ooh

In the middle of the night , in the middle of the night , oh wow.

With the music ending she feels herself snap out of her trance. Only then noticing the crowd looking at her and staring at her soul , then the crowd was giving her a standing ovation with that she felt shy at all the praise she was getting and then gave a quick bow and left as red a tomato.

The next day , she saw herself on the news quickly becoming famous and a sensation in the dancing world . She got a trophy and a lot of appreciation . Slowly Gloria’s little stunt came to light due to her own slip up, which resulted to her getting suspended .

Privately Claire thanked Ezra profusely which resulted to Ezra thanking Claire for letting him dance on stage one last time and with that he dispersed into small fragments and went on his journey to heaven.

Claire felt sad that her friend wasn’t around to support her anymore but she was happy that he got liberated. So to honor him and his memory she went on to become a professional dancer and gain the title of the ‘BLACK SWAN’ of her generation. Even though she became famous, she never forgot Ezra and any of his teachings. She just hoped that Ezra was proud of her and that he was looking after her from heaven

By Evya Jadhav