Dance Away

(David)

It’s early summer 1979. One o’clock of a weekday morning, with work tomorrow, but we don’t care. We’re down in the Harbour Lights, and the nightclub’s bar shutters have just rattled closed while the DJ chooses his record for the last slow dance.

It’s been quite a year. Life has changed almost out of recognition, and one result of all the changes is that you’ve become one of the carefree cool crowd. Temporarily, because everyone’s lifestyle is mobile and that’s a significant part of what makes this bunch so electric and exciting.

The first measured notes sound, instantly recognisable, Dance Away, which is your favourite current song. You lived your tumultuous teenage years to Roxy Music, and now in your early twenties when life has blossomed into something very different it feels kind of fitting that this might be the group’s swan song, because they too look like they’re moving on. That isn’t important though. What’s important is you and she catching each other’s eye across the dance floor and smiling as you meet to dance in each other’s arms.

She’s cooler than you are. Others might not know it, but you do. You’ve been together for a few months now and have shared secrets about your childhood traumas. Those secrets, you think, are what generates a reserve in her that is part of the coolness others can see. A bigger part than superficial things like her resemblance to Debbie Harry, as lovely as that is. The private sharing of those secrets is the most intimate thing you’ve ever experienced.

Will you stay together? You hope so. Dearly. She hopes so too, but who knows what life will bring?

Will you marry, two years from now? Will you have children? Will you survive storms that arrive out of nowhere and batter you almost numb, but every time one of you is struggling the other will be there to haul you in to safety? Forty-five years from now, will you still be together with grandchildren adding to the love that fills your family home?

Yes, you will. You can’t know it while you’re enjoying this late-night slow dance together in early summer 1979, but yes you will. Life will be good. Even the difficult bits will turn out good in the end, looked at in a certain way. Peace and love and trustworthy strong companionship will be yours, together.

Dance away, kid.