The End of Nothing

Chapter 7

Arriving at her mom's room, Margie found her mom, Mrs. Wu, and Minnie all decked out in similar outfits. Looking at them, neon colors and spandex was all Margie could see.

"Ready to get this party started Margie?" The smile on her mom's face as she asked this was enough to bring one to Margie's, despite her hesitance for what was to come.

"You bet Mom, this is going to be an unforgettable experience, that's for sure," a slight grimace rose onto Margie's face, hoping that Mrs. Wu didn't take offense to her statement, because she really didn't want to be itching-powdered. Luckily, Mrs. Wu and Minnie seemed to be in a deep conversation, ignoring Margie and Helen, and instead stuffing their faces with all the chicken nuggets they'd forced her to buy.

After wolfing down a pack of 20 nuggets at an alarming speed, Minnie clapped her hands signaling for everyone's attention.

"Okay ladies, let's get down to the South lawn for Mrs. Wu's annual 80's themed dance class party!" Minnie threw her arm around Mrs. Wu's shoulders, both of them beaming.

"Let's do it! Minnie, conga us out of this joint." Margie was shocked at the exclamation made by her mother, but was even more jostled by Minnie grabbing her shoulders as she made her the lead of the make-shift conga line, Mrs. Wu and Helen falling in line behind her. 80's dance party was chanted by the ladies as they kicked out their legs in time to their beat all the way down the retirement home hallways. After a few minutes, Margie joined in, after looking behind her and seeing that her mother was happily chanting and dancing with an excited Mrs. Wu.

The conga line seemed to be a normal thing for these ladies, Margie realized as they made their way down the hallway. Upon hearing the 80's dance party chant, residents came out of their rooms dressed in their own dance gear and joined the conga line with practiced familiarity. By the time the conga line spilled out the doors to the South lawn, led by a laughing Margie, it consisted of at least 30 elderly residents, all perfectly timed in their leg kicks.

Set up outside was a low black stage, big enough for 15 people to stand on, with two lawn chairs to the left of it, a large expanse of green grass in front of the stage the area designed to act as the dance studio. Reaching the stage the conga line disbanded and Minnie and Helen went right over to the chairs and plopped down, pulling out blankets from under the chairs and getting comfortable.

"What are you guys doing? I thought we were all dancing?" Margie glanced around and saw that the majority of the conga line was in front of the stage stretching and Mrs. Wu was on the small stage with what appeared to be two backup dancers practicing some of her moves and checking her microphone.

"Oh no, I'm sorry honey, but I'm still not authorized by my doctor to exert myself that much. I mean, conga line, sure, but Mrs. Wu's dance class, that's a whole different ball game." Helen wiped fake sweat off her forehead and fell back in her chair, feigning exhaustion.

"Yeah, that, and we just both ate 20 chicken nuggets each. Need to have time for my stomach to settle." Minnie patted her stomach happily, satisfied with her excuse.

It all made sense to Margie now, Minnie eating chicken nuggets like a crazy person earlier, her and Margie's Mom had both planned to not dance, leaving Margie under Mrs. Wu's jurisdiction, alone.

"We're just here to look pretty and bring together the aesthetic Mrs. Wu wanted." Minnie flashed Margie another one of her Colgate smiles, snapping her neon pink headband for emphasis.

"But look who is here to dance, Marg," her Mom exclaimed excitedly pointing over her shoulder. Margie had a bad feeling about this. Glancing over her shoulder, she realized her instincts were right as she saw Silas approaching them, a smile adorning his face, aimed at Helen and Minnie. He wore a pair of grey basketball shorts and a plain black t-shirt, far more normal than Margie's outfit she realized glancing down.