The Ballerina's Puzzle

Chapter 10: A New Identity ...

Levi found himself inside a dumpster, which had been his refuge for so long that he had lost count of time.

There should have been the smell of rotten food and other debris assailing his nostrils. But this was no regular dumpster. This dumpster was deep and rancid with the smell of blood and rotten flesh. The sight of the lid far above his head.  He shuddered at the sight. A sudden fear gripped him.

Alarmed, he started gasping for air, struggling to escape the crush of these broken bodies that had him buried. He tried yelling for help, but his voice was choked and a bloodied rag gagged his mouth. Unable to do anything else, Levi reached his feet for the wall of the dumpster closest to him. Pounding his feet at the wall, the soft thud of his feet echoing around him, Levi inwardly whimpered. His body trembled from his surge of emotions.

Just when his feet slackened from pounding against the dumpster, a voice called his name softly. He first thought it was his imagination. But the sound came again and he expectantly raised his head, grunting in response. Then the lid opened and light streamed in from outside, dazzling his eyes.

Calling his name softly, standing over the surface was no other than Kenya. Her face bright, like an angel of light as she smiled down at him. She was dressed in her wedding garment, giving a tender look to him. He gazed at her, bewildered.

“Give me your hand, Levi.” She requested, cautiously, extending what he recognized as her wedding veil to him. Her eyes penetrated him. Tearing down walls that he had built around himself. Somehow he was a fifteen-year-old boy again. His hands so young as he instinctively extended them, grabbing the veil, which seemed to have grown remarkably in length and strength. Though he doubted the tensile strength of the veil, yet he found himself eagerly grasping the veil. Hoping that it pulled him out of this sunken abyss. Fresh waves of hope flooded him as he found himself pulled out into a radiant light. Kenya.

“Kenya.” Levi muttered, as his eyes abruptly opened, the evidence of dawn, streaming in.

His body quivered in the aftermath of the vision as he lay in bed, wrapped in sheets. Thank God it was a dream, he breathed as he sat up on the bed. The same dream he had had since he was an adolescent. The same scenario. Only this time, the face of his rescuer became distinct. Kenya, his wife.

 Sighing deeply, Levi swung his legs around the bed. His toes curling taut at the tension that gushed through him, as his feet touched the cold floor. He tried to rein in his emotions, but the fear that had always gripped him at the sight of the dream, didn’t give way just yet. Holding his head in his palms, Levi tried to do what his mum had always asked him to do, whenever the nightmares occurred.

“Think of beautiful things, my love,” she would say. Her voice echoed in his memory, like she was beside him. And he instinctively pushed the nightmare, fishing for something, anything.

Then like a gust of air to a dying fish, the scent of his wife’s perfume wafted across his nostrils. A certain peace suddenly inundating him. Realizing his surroundings, Levi looked to the bed to gaze at his wife. In his bid to escape the hellish dream, he hadn’t even recognized his surroundings. Seeing her space empty, he frowned. The only evidence of her presence earlier, a blood stained spot where she had slept.
Where was she? He thought. He rose to his feet and decided to go for a run, perhaps it would clear his mood.

Outside, dressed for a run on the sandy beach in nothing but a pair of navy blue nicker joggers, matching sneakers, a white sports vest and his shades, Levi broke into a run. He ran in the left direction of the house, covering a great distance, the sun warming his skin and making his body perspire. His breathing heavy.