First to Dance Read Online Free PDF Page A

softened, and she didn’t know what to say.
    Ayita’s parents returned to the table and sat down.  “Your father is going to paint over what you did, and we don’t want to hear about any of this again, okay?”  Her father nodded as her mother finished speaking.  There was a moment of silence, before she asked, “Were there any other books?”
    “Of course not!” This time a tear came to her eyes. I just lied to my parents. Are the books really more important to me than they are?
    “Where did you find it?”
    Ayita sat, thinking, thinking.  She didn’t have an answer to give them.  She couldn’t tell them the truth or they’d destroy the rest of her secret library.  Her mother asked, again, “Where did you get the book, Ayita?”  Ayita panicked, jumped up from her chair, and ran out the front door, away from her house.  Her father stood but didn’t follow her. As she ran, her mother asked Aira if she knew anything else.  Ayita continued running until she could turn around and her house wouldn’t be there.  It was dark out, and cold.  Ayita sat down in the grass and looked up at the stars.  Earth was out there, somewhere, and it was amazing.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    3
     
     
    Maybe they were right , she thought. Maybe the books were bad. Ayita had lied three times now since finding them. She never lied before that. Maybe all these stories about Earth were nothing more than the written fantasies of a crazy person.
    But if that were the case, where did the photographs come from? They were too real, too full of life to have been mere drawings.
    Ayita was torn. She wanted to believe in Earth. She wanted to believe in new ideas and positive changes, but it seemed these books were only changing her for the worse.  She had to make things right.
    When she got home, her mother was in bed and Aira had left. Her father was sitting in the living room by the fireplace.
    “Ayita, come sit with me.”
    She had tears in her eyes. “Daddy,” she said.
    That was the first time she'd called him daddy in over ten years. His heart softened as he watched this tender-hearted daughter of his come to sit beside him. Before tonight she always seemed more innocent and naive than she really was. She wasn’t a child anymore, and sometimes he still needed to remind himself of that.
    “I lied,” she told him.
    He stopped breathing for a moment. “No,” he said.
    She started to apologize, but he interrupted her.
    “Not another word. I don't want to hear it.” His expression was as stiff as a stone, but his voice was shaking.  “Whatever you are about to tell me: don't.” No amount of self-control could hide the pain on his face.
    Ayita was both relieved and heartbroken. The books were her secret to keep, but at the price of her father's respect.
    “I'm glad you're home safe,” he told her. Then he got off the couch and went upstairs to bed. Ayita put out the fire for him and continued on to her room. She studied her painting, knowing it wouldn’t be there much longer.  There was so much potential, there. If only they would be open-minded, the entire town could have beautiful artwork to ponder as they ambled through life.   
    Ayita sighed. “They'll never catch me dancing,” she whispered, and she turned off the light.
     
    Ayita felt restless and uneasy at class the next day. It was difficult to digest this material with so many questions on her heart. She turned to the first page in the book. “Silence is the key to learning,” it said. She stared at that sentence for a long time. Was she sitting here memorizing lies all day? Or were the lies hidden in the secret room in her basement? Worse yet, perhaps the lies were in her heart.
    Whose authority was it to decide what was truth?
    Ayita looked around the room. Her peers were all different from each other. They wore their hair differently, held their