Dancing in the minefeild

Okay, this is my story. I’m gonna tell it exactly how it is, graphical details included. I guess I’d better start at the beginning. My name’s Christina Tenterfield, I am 19 years old. I have three other family members, Danny, who’s 22 and has a job in the army, Ian who’s 18 and is an ensign in the navy and Jackie who’s about 24 and is in the air force. My mother’s in her 30’s and my father’s in his 40’s. My family has a strong military background, as you can see from my eldest family members’ jobs. My dream is to become a professional dancer.
For me, life’s a series of doors, each leading into a room with more doors. You open the door in front and are faced with two. You then go through another and are faced with four and so on and so forth.
Anyway, back to the story. My passion is dancing. I love to dance. My mother thinks I’m a great dancer, but I don’t think that. I think that I’m just okay at dancing. I do tango at the local dance club. I’ve been doing it since I was five years old.
That’s what I was doing at that moment. I was practicing my tango moves with a boy from Canungra High, called Jake. I’d come to really trust him. He wasn’t a boyfriend, just a dance partner and a very trustworthy boy.
We then broke apart and he looked at me. “Can I try something new with you?” He asked.
I looked at him. That pleading look in his eyes was hard to say no to. “What do you have in mind?” I asked.
He sighed and looked at me nervously. “I was wondering if you knew how to swing dance?”
I shook my head. “Sorry Jake, I only tango.” I apologised sincerely.
He smiled. “No problem, you could always learn.” He then eyed me knowingly.
I looked back at him, perplexed. “How could I learn it Jake? There’s no one who teaches swing dancing in Canungra, is there?” I then looked back at him.
He laughed and pointed to himself. “What do I look like, a pickled ham sandwich Chrissie? I can teach you. I know how to swing dance, my father having taught me. What’d you say? Will you learn or what?”
I hesitated. “What’s the risk of me breaking my leg or neck?” I asked nervously.
He laughed loudly. “None more than when you’re doing the tango my girl.” He answered cheerfully.
I nodded. “Alright then, do your worst. I’m warning you though, if you break anything, I’ll personally beat you to death. Either that or I’ll get Danny to come home and stick a 5.45 mm in your head. Is that clear as mud Jake?”
He nodded, putting his hands in the air and taking a step back. “Okay, I won’t break anything Chrissie. Let the lessons begin.”
He then took a few steps forward and picked me up. I screamed. “Ah! What the hell are you doing Jake? This isn’t dancing! This is picking someone up and nearly dropping them on their head! Put me down before you do drop me!” I shrieked, kicking my legs around.
He dropped me on the ground, nearly landing me six feet under and looked at me. “Don’t you trust me?” He asked.
I didn’t say anything. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, I don’t know what you’re about to do.”
Jake sighed. “Let’s take this one step at a time. I want you to copy me.” He then broke into an unmistakable simple step dance.
He then stopped. I looked at him. “Alright, I can do that. That’s easy.” And I copied him without a flaw.
He raised his eyebrows at me. “Alright, remember that. We’ll be using that later. Now try and do this.”
He then flung himself in front of me and as I moved aside, he landed on the ground. He then got back up and scowled. “Stay. I’m gonna do a flip off your back.”
I nodded, crouching down so he could leap over me. He then hurtled towards me and did a flip off my back. He then crouched down and looked up at me. “Now you try.”
I nodded as I did a flawless flip off his back. I landed gracefully on my feet as he got up. “That was easy. What’s next?” I asked, looking at him.
He chuckled quietly to himself. “You’re good, have you ever considered a career in professional dancing?”
I nodded. “That’s my dream. I wanna be a professional dancer.” I answered.
He raised his eyebrows. “Alright, remember that move. We’ll use that later. Now see if you can do this. Stay there. I’m gonna flip you over my head and put you on your feet. You’re then gonna do the same thing to me. Ready?” He then looked at me, waiting for my answer.
I nodded my consent. “I’m ready. Go ahead. Don’t drop me. If you do, Danny will be putting a 5.45mm through your head.”
He chuckled as he lifted me over his head and flipped me back on my feet. I then did the same thing to him without a flaw. “That was exhilarating. Let’s do that again!” I exclaimed, breathless with excitement.
He laughed loudly. “It is kind of scary. Gets your adrenaline pumping, eh?” He then looked at me enthusiastically.
I chuckled lightly. “It’s an adrenaline rush alright.”
Jake laughed once more. “Alright, let’s get this party started. First we need some music. Let’s turn this Crapo Magical Mystical stuff off and let’s put on some real music.” He then went over to the record player and took the tango record off and placed a swing record on. He then placed the needle on the record and it started playing. He went back over to me. “Alright, just go with the music. Let it guide you. Place all of what we’ve done together and let yourself go.”
He then broke into the step dance that he taught me. I copied him. “This is fun.” I said as he leapt over me.
He nodded as he flung me over his back. “This is how my father danced at his year 12 formal.” He answered.
About an hour later, we were packing up. I’d left the dance hall and was changing into my evening dress. As I buttoned up my long purple dress, my thoughts strayed to Danny. He was my favourite brother. He understood me and knew what I wanted to do. My mother wanted me to become a nurse. She thought I was wasting my life away, performing and teaching others how to show off to a crowd of people. My father had tried to encourage me to do something more “worthwhile” with my talent. He often said that I had great talent and potential, but I wasted it all on dancing. Danny was the only one who saw me for what I really was and approved of it.
I returned to the present as I walked out of the dance club and into the street. Jake had caught up with me and was walking along the concrete footpath with me. He was a very good-looking boy of about 16 with blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a cleaver look about him and that was often shown in him too. He wore an outfit of denim jeans and boots complete with a button-up shirt. I think the outfit suited him well. It made him look older and more sophisticated.
We walked past a cork notice board just outside the local video. I stopped and took a look at it. My eyes found a poster that had been recently posted over the top of other lost and found notices:















I just looked at the poster, awestruck. That was revolting! Was the government really in that much of a need for soldiers that they had to bribe us into enlisting? What kind of sick government would think about that?
I looked back at Jake who had his eyes fixed on the poster. I then noticed that he had tears in his eyes. “What’s wrong Jake?” I asked.
He shook his head and walked to the nearest park bench and sighed. I followed him. I sat down next to him and put my arm over his shoulder. “What’s wrong Jake?” I asked.
He sighed as he looked up at me. “Would you believe me if I said the game of life is hard to play?” He asked.
I nodded. “Sure, I totally agree with you. Life is a hard game. Not very many win, but those who do end up wounded. Why’d you ask Jake?”
He just shrugged. “I was thinking about my brother who’s over in Germany fighting the Nazis. He wrote to me last week. Most of his stuff is blanked out by the censor though. Here, I’ll show you a letter.” He then handed me a messily scrawled letter. I took it and read it:

 
I looked at the letter and handed it back to Jake. “Why’d they black out most of what he said?” I asked.
I saw Jake shrug out of the corner of my eye. “I asked my father the same thing and he said that it was for security reasons so, yeah, I really don’t know. You should ask your mother or father. They might know.”
I nodded. “He seems to be going well.” I commented.
Jake frowned at me, obviously puzzled by what I’d just said. “Who seems to be well?”
I sighed. “Your brother Jake.” I said exasperated with his lack of attention he seemed to be paying to me.
He raised his eyebrows at me. I could tell that he didn’t think that at all. “Do you think so?”
I shrugged. “He seems to be alright in the letter. You know, you can tell a lot by a person’s writing. It’s kind of like a story. Writing shows someone’s personality and their wellbeing as well.” I answered simply.
Jake frowned. I could tell he was thinking hard about what next to say. After a few minutes, he looked back at me sadly. “Look Chrissie, I don’t really know how you’d take this because of your brothers and sister being in the army, but don’t you ever worry about them? Do you ever wonder if they’re doing the right thing, if you’ll really benefit from what they’re doing for us?”
I shrugged. “This is a war Jake. We can’t question what’s right or wrong. We just have to do what we’re told.” I answered.
He stood up and drew himself up to his full height. It was scary to see him like that, really, it was. “That’s gonna change.” He said defiantly