Your One & Only(16)
As the girls fanned out and the Meis separated from the larger group, the sisters’ colors mingled and they began the dance that preceded the Pairing. The Commons was silent except for the shuffling sound of the girls’ feet and the hum of insects in the trees.
The Altheas’ dancing was practiced and steady. Althea held the eyes of her sisters and the encircled boys while she concentrated, silently counting steps, remembering when to turn, when to spin, when to sweep her foot in a slow kick, trying to time it just right with her sisters. The evening glowed with candlelight, and Althea could hear the ripples of Blue River through the trees.
The wooden bowl in the center of the dance overflowed with silken ribbons. The Meis plucked ribbons from the bowl and handed them to the girl whose color had been chosen, determining the order of the Pairing and which sisters got first pick.
Althea continued the dance while girls were handed their ribbons. The first girls picked didn’t take the Carsons, since by now everyone knew the politics of the Altheas’ choice. Then Althea-313’s ribbon was drawn, and she danced gracefully over to Carson-319 and took his hand. She wrapped her yellow ribbon around his wrist and through his fingers until she came to the end, where it dangled from his thumb. He smiled when she took his hand and led him to a spot outside the circle, which was dwindling now, as were the ribbons in the bowl. And it was done. The Altheas had chosen the Carsons.
Althea watched each sister as, one by one, her yellow ribbon was selected and she walked away with a Carson. All the Ingas sat outside the circle with the Viktors, the Nylas chose the Hassans, while the Kates were with the Samuels.
A hand touched Althea’s in the midst of the dance. It was a Mei presenting Althea with her ribbon. The girl looped the satin over Althea’s wrist, and she felt the silky slip of it tickle her skin.
The older Altheas all nodded their approval. The oldest Altheas, the Gen-230s, tapped their feet while watching the dance. Their faces were barely wrinkled. Any one of them could have been mistaken for an Althea thirty years younger, even though in three years their generation would have their Yielding Ceremony and they’d be gone forever. In eighty years, Althea and her sisters would be like them, finishing their lives and guiding the next generations. It seemed impossibly far away to Althea, and she couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Though she already knew when looking into the face of the ninety-seven-year-old Altheas, quietly watching the ceremony, exactly what she herself would look like when she was old. During the Pairing, she could look around the Commons and see the rows of Althea generations, see her own face age decade by decade. But that didn’t make it any more real. What was it like for the older generations, to see their own faces and bodies, forever young, dancing before them?
Beginning the next phase of the dance, Althea slowly unwound the ribbon from her wrist. The Mei walked away from her, back to the bowl to pull another ribbon. All her sisters sat with a Carson under the kapok tree. Still dancing in the silence, Althea turned to the last Carson. It was Carson-312. He stood with two Hassans to his left, though a Nyla was already dancing toward one of them.
Althea approached Carson-312. She could see the beginnings of a good-natured smile on his face, expectant and pleasant. She could tell he understood what the Altheas were doing, and he appreciated the gesture. They were willing to let bygones be bygones, and why shouldn’t they be? After all, overlooking the Carsons at Pairing had all been a misunderstanding. There had been some ugliness recently, but that was the human’s fault, not Carson’s. Previous Althea generations had never had a problem with Carsons. Why should hers be any different?
While she danced, Althea’s eyes wandered to the scar that puckered Carson-312’s left eyebrow. It didn’t hurt his features, really. The Carsons had fine, straight noses, and their hair curled nicely around their ears. Carson-312’s expression remained unchanged, still mild and friendly, but Althea felt a sudden, sweeping vertigo. She faltered in the steps of her dance as his smile distorted into a cold, menacing smirk. She knew it was all in her mind, but what she saw in that very moment was one young boy standing over another, flicking pebbles.
Mere steps away from Carson-312, Althea spun right, swaying to regain her balance at the abrupt shift. With barely enough thought to make a decision, she stopped and her feet flattened to the ground in front of Hassan-318. When she took his hand, voices murmured around her, and panic rushed through her chest. She refused to look around, however, especially at Carson-312, and instead she held Hassan-318’s eyes as she wrapped her ribbon around his hand and through his fingers until the end dangled from his thumb.
That evening, Althea couldn’t concentrate. The newly formed pairs had all dispersed to the rows of glowing tents erected on the outskirts of town. The Meis had chosen an elaborate décor of gold-fringed rugs, piles of pillows embroidered with roses, jasmine-scented candles in glass cups, and brilliant flowers in orange and red. The walls of the tents were crimson trimmed in gold, and fashioned with a netted skylight, letting cool air flow into the small space. Despite all the distractions and amusements that were supposed to accompany a Pairing night, Althea felt sick. She’d ruined the Pairing, taking a Hassan from the Nylas, and leaving a Carson to Pair with someone other than an Althea. The sisters and brothers wouldn’t share the same experience of the Pairing now, and it would cause all kinds of disruptions. The older Altheas would be upset, and the Carsons would be angry. Althea and her sisters would have to come up with some new way to make it up to them.