1- First Cry

Sinking deeply into her thoughts, she answered quietly and indifferently: "I don't know. I am not sure." He looked at her with a long, penetrating look, as though he would pierce her through with it. "Can you give me a straight answer for once?" She stayed silent with a look that made it clear that she had no desire to continue the conversation. A cold shiver ran down her spine. She left the room that smell of medicine and disease had replaced the aroma of spring and life.
As feeling of desertion filled her with a sorrow of stony years, she stepped out to the yard, where the pearl like sprouts of trees shone in the mild sun rays. Breathing that fresh air, she cried and tears rushed down her face. She stood vacant and hesitant, while even intense thinking could not help her with an answer. As her mind went blank and no logic passed through it, she heard the squeaky door bell tolled. It was him, not a guest or welcoming news.
*
On that Saturday afternoon, she changed her mind. As courage and timid fought inside of her mind and soul, Anna wished she was invisible so she could do things that she had never done, go places that she had never been, and forget the pain that she had suffered long. Gaining that new experience needed a bravery that she did not have; yet the loneliness of so many years had brought her nothing but bitterness, an absolute bitterness that she did not know how it had started and when it would end. Nevertheless, as she looked in the mirror to her changing face and body, she reminded herself that time was passing. And as time moved forward, her skin was withering, her eyes were losing their glow, and the firmness of her body was becoming loose and flabby. Feeling that she could no longer resist the harsh rumbling of her heart, she stepped into shower, thinking that she would go, she would stand in a corner and perceive, and she would feel the situation and the place before mixing with others or returning home.
Melisa, her therapist's assignment for her this week was to socialize. In fact she wanted Anna to mix with people the entire year that Anna was her patient. "This is what is wrong with you. Get rid of all these past things, so you won't be robbed from your future." Melisa had said that to her many times. "I want you to go to this church Saturday. Their single group have a dinner and dance." Melisa, being single herself, was going. She loved to dance. Anna loved dancing as well; but she had never gone out. Anytime a disco music was played on radio, Anna, all alone, would dance to the music until she would be all sweaty and hot. However, Anna did not want to go alone. She wanted to go with Melisa. When she offered that they should go together, Melisa gave her a professional look which always was cold. "No, you need to learn going places by yourself. You're forty two years old and don't need a chaperon. I see you there."
How could Anna know that going to that dinner and dance would change her life? Things sometimes happen in a mysterious and unexpected way. In that big room, where in one side a long table filled with food was set, on the opposite side a band played different style of music from country western to disco and rock, and at the end of the room across from entrance there were tables and chairs for people who wanted to sit, and in the middle of the room many people were dancing; Anna stood by the entrance. With a searching glance she looked for Melisa but she was not there. As she hesitantly lingered from one foot to another, and thought how could Melisa do this to her; she decided to leave. But before doing that, she took another glance into the crowd just in case she had missed seeing Melisa. As her eyes were revolved, they got fixed on a man who was walking towards her. She was not sure where that man was going; however she secretly hoped he was coming to her.