Chapter Text
On April the 1st, 2019, the Earth was destroyed in a cataclysmic event. Billions of people were wiped out in a matter of minutes. Ironically, the seven survivors of the apocalypse were the very siblings that brought it on—narrowly escaping death by traveling back to their childhood to help their sister.
Or, at least, that was the intention.
Dallas, Texas
November 15, 1963
My eyes moved slowly over the scene in front of me, carefully analyzing each minor step, slide, and flick of the hands. The carefully selected line of performers before me stopped and started with razor-like precision, their carefully executed falls to the floor barely audible. To the best of my ability, I fought down the urge to take a place in front of the rest of the dancers and start doing the moves with them. At this point, if they didn’t know it, it was unlikely they’d be able to get it down. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be much of an issue here, but I managed to catch a few wandering eyes as certain dancers’ momentum died out slightly. Still, they managed to get through without a glaring incident, and even remained in their ending poses until I made my way over to the record player and carefully moved the needle away from the vinyl, allowing for my voice to be heard clearly.
“All right.” I turned to face the group of adults with an enthusiastic smile. “You guys are doing great. Whether you realize it or not, you know this choreography. That means, don’t go looking to your neighbor or the person in front of you for help.” A few of the dancers chuckled or looked down to their feet, embarrassed. “Besides, if the person you’re looking at messes up, then you’ll mess up, and the next thing you know, we’ve got chaos. Don’t be the cause of the ripple effect, okay?” Nods and confident exclamations of agreement put my mind enough at ease. “Good. Now, it’s getting late, it’s a Friday, and I don’t know about you all, but I’m ready to start my weekend. I’ll see you all Monday.”
I made sure to pack up slowly so I could be the last one out, just to make sure no one tried to linger after hours. Once everyone had filed out the front doors, I offered our receptionist, Jill, a wave, then headed to my car and threw my bag in the back. I had a little while before I had to reach my next destination, which definitely was for the better. The sweater I’d thrown on over my leotard was dotted with dark stains of sweat, and I smelled like I’d been working in a barn for 24 hours straight. Somehow, it wasn’t much different from being on the other side of the choreography.
It still felt sort of foreign to me, being the one to give the orders rather than take them. In 2019, I’d never been given the chance to show what I’d learned over the years, but here, they hired me as a teacher and choreographer almost immediately. It’s probably because of that experience that I tried not to make myself the only voice in my classes. If another dancer had an idea they stood by firmly, I took it under consideration. Quite a few of them definitely had potential, and I hoped they’d maybe chase after it one day.
The sun was beginning to paint the sky with soft pinks and royal purples as I pulled into my driveway and made my way into my house. The few lamps I kept on when I left burned on strong, and the answering machine wasn’t blinking, meaning that was one less thing I had to worry about. Eagerly, I bounded up the stairs, opting to take a quick shower before trying to throw together something to wear.
As I started to throw on my new set of clothes, I caught myself staring intensely at my proportions, grimacing and picking at what had grown recently. But, just as quickly as it came on, I shooed the thoughts away, reminding myself this was better for me; I was healthy, and ultimately, that mattered a hell of a lot more to me than fitting something that wasn’t even relevant for the time and position I was in. Though the thoughts and criticisms had been burned into my brain for so many years, it got easier to throw them out every day.
My eyes flickered to the clock mounted on my wall, and upon spotting the time, I whipped around quickly and started to dig through for a pair of shoes. Various flats, boots, and heels went flying carelessly, until I spotted a shimmer of scratched, worn-out red buried among the blacks and browns. I had to lean in a little further, but I managed to grab onto and pull out the pair of bowling shoes I couldn’t bear to get rid of. God knows how many pairs of feet wore these things before I accidentally stole them, and they smelled like death decided to have trash for dinner, but I never even thought twice about keeping them.
Unconsciously, I felt my hand drift up to the small, silver pendant resting against my sternum, tracing the pattern as though it would somehow cause at least one of them to appear in the doorway.
For a while, when I first arrived in Dallas, I tried my best to track down any of my brothers or sisters, hoping that I could at least get some sort of lead, but all the roads just dropped off cliffs at a certain point. There was no guarantee we’d even landed in the same centuries, but I kept hoping. They had to be out there somewhere.
Right now, I didn’t have time to mope and wallow about it. I had a friend waiting for me, and if I dallied for another minute, I’d be late and she’d tease me about it, so I set the bowling shoes back in their place and slipped on a pair of flats as I hopped closer to the staircase, and once both shoes were on, I made my way back out to my car and headed out toward the address.
It wasn’t until I’d parked and stood in front of the door to the establishment that my stomach started to twist and turn. The fact I even had to consider going here dangerous was completely ridiculous, but this was a different time from what I’d gotten used to. I’d heard the stories about other bars in towns being infiltrated, and people were arrested in droves. Worse, their names would be printed in the paper after they were jailed, shaming them just because of who they loved.
However, it was a little late to turn back at this point. I’d already promised to meet someone here, and the majority of me was excited to try something new. Besides, I didn’t have to meet someone if I didn’t want to. It would just be nice to be surrounded by other women who understood what it was like to be oppressed just because of their sexuality.
With a final deep breath, I pushed open the door.