Mr. Lei’s Wicked Incredible Mystery Dance
by Matthew Acheson

There are some

that say I am old, but to them I merely say, “I have seen much.”

I have laughed with the sun kissed hyenas of the desert kingdoms, and made riddles with the Sacred Baboon of Zub il-Zahar. I have spun gypsy magic along the reaches of the Danube, and done cartwheels across the Carpathians with Vlad Dracul. I have walked loved ones to the Gates of Niflheim, and caressed the swollen bellies of the Templar fleets in my dreams.

I have climbed the great tree Yggdrasil, and lived to kiss Helen of Troy on her soft, pale neck.  Nothing compares to the magic of Mr Lei and his Wicked Incredible Mystery Dance.

When the world was young, he danced alone, and of his song the ancients have left us much.  Some say it was wicked, some it was mean, and others rejoiced when he passed by for the earth was licked clean.

He danced on the mountains, he shimmied with leaves, he mamboed with Athena, he polkaed with Eve.

But always inside, Mr Lei felt lonesome and empty.

Then one day, he danced his way across the Sahara, whilst dust storms kicked up in his wake.  There in a canyon wall, he spied a tiny door. It was the Portal of Y’abam Shikkar, the bridge between worlds.

The door was cast open, and out of it she swirled, the length of her twisted, her flames were all curls.

Her name was Shandian, and her beauty was great. That very moment they joined hands and have never since let go, and so they keep dancing, the sky cast aglow.

Something inside Mr Lei changed forever, and his song with it.

On evenings both cold and dark in the steppes, the king of the nomad people plucks his harp and sings, “I swear to the gods I have never seen such an embrace!”

For she is Lightning, and he her Thunder, that Mr Lei, who forever dances his Wicked Incredible Mystery Dance.

       }
~~~~~ <~
       }