Member-only story
Sheer Will Power
Fiction
At the Royal Opera House, London, the ballerino and ballerina were rehearsing for Romeo and Juliet on a spring day. The duo pauses while the stage director talks to Alice — the lighting technician.
“Alice, can you please focus the lights exactly on the couple and soften the lighting some more.” instructs the Stage Director.
“Certainly!” replies the enthusiastic Alice.
A head-on collision with a truck destroyed Alice’s dreams of becoming a ballerina when one of her legs was amputated. To make ends meet, she landed up being the Lighting Technician at the Royal Opera House to be in touch with ballet.
Before the accident, she was to dance in Juliet’s shoes with Romeo. It was fate and not of anyone’s choosing that Alice was a lonely shipwreck on the stormy seas. She had to deal with life’s blows and resist the storm's mercy pulling her in every direction. There was little she could control except her own emotions.
Any Romeo would not want to dance with a one-legged Juliet who would lose balance. The audience would not want to witness a crimson Juliet in embarrassment. Romeo and Juliet, the colors of the characters, and the theme reserved for Bard’s story and not a new tale.
Alice is grateful to be alive and goes around on crutches each day. She walks to the…
