Limited Romantic Possibilities

THE PROMPT

Write a poem or short story, using Romance as one of your

genres. Start and end the story or poem with this sentence,

bolded for judging convenience:

"Can I have this last dance?"

Limited Romantic Possibilities

     "Can I have this last dance?" Kavion, thirteen, stood in front of six females seated in attached folded down metal chairs. The two in the center talking to each other were humans too. And the only four were Aliens. They too talked with their neighbors.

     Catonna, eleven, stood up. “I would love to dance with you.”

     Kavion smiled and took her furry hand. They walked into a crowd of about a hundred other couples dancing.

     Catonna’s tail clung to her blue and green dress. Her tail pointed at the end by a triangle shaped rock that wiggled slightly below the dress’s length about half up her upper part of her legs. Using her other hand, Catonna pulled her tail off her dress so it could wiggle free too.

     Just as Kavion and Catonna got to the other dancers, the music stop. So, did the dancers. A few seconds later the music started up again. Kavion and Catonna had gone toward the center of the dance floor before they started their dancing.

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     The door slid open as Percia entered Kavion’s sleeping chambers. Kavion had just finished putting on his left shoe. Then he got up and looked at himself in a floating full-length Image Reflector. It adjusted to his height and whichever angle he was looking at as he checked himself out in it.

     “You’re not done yet. The End of Childhood celebration starts in a couple of hours.”

     “Relax, Percia. I’m ready. You act like this is your celebration that I’m going to.”

     “It is in a way. You are my only child. And tomorrow you are going to start your training for whatever future you are going to have for the rest of your life.”

     Kavion stopped and adjusted his shirt at the waist. Then he started looking at himself again. “I guess I look okay for a celebration that I don’t really want to go to.”

     “Is that what you are wearing? Does that mean you have decided to become a Pilot?”

     “No, maybe, I don’t know. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with the rest of life. I only tried this on to see how it looked since it’s the first training that I’m going to be doing. Since I couldn’t decide what to wear for this celebration, I decided just to wear this.”

     Percia suddenly jerked her head at him. “You don’t want to go to this celebration. Why don’t you want to go to it? This celebration is for you.”

     Kavion stopped checking himself out again and looked at Percia. “No, it’s not. If it was, everyone on board wouldn’t be allowed to go to it. Only kids my age would be going. But that’s the problem.”

     After a few seconds, Kavion continued. “With over five thousand individuals on this spaceship, you would think there were more kids my age. But there aren’t. There are just me, and nine females. And only three of them are my age. The other six are a year or two younger.”

     “Speaking of females, have you decided who you are going to be with for the rest of your life? You haven’t, have you?”

     “No, I haven’t. I don’t know who I’m going to romance yet. That’s the only reason why I am going to this celebration. I’m going to get to know all of them tonight. And then I will decide who my future love will be.”

     Percia sighed. “You’ve always been shy around females. You should have decided who you were going to Become One with several months ago, if not years. Most males your age started a couple of years ago.”

     “It’s not my fault there aren’t Childhood Learning Centers on this spaceship. Every child gets their learning from the adults in their lives.”

     Kavion sounded a little upset. After he had calmed down for about a minute, he continued. “I’m not shy. If there were Childhood Learning Centers, I would have gotten to know the females about my age. And I would have decided which one by now.”

     “The only chance I get to mingle with them is at celebrations like this one. And most of them are for adults only. True, there will be a few other kids there that are a little older than us. But it’s just the ten of us about my age.”

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     A couple of hours later Kavion walked into a large room with about two hundred or so individuals there. The only chairs there lined three of the four walls. And most of them weren’t being used. Against the fourth wall stood a raised level. On that level, a four individual group with musical instruments played the music Kavion heard playing.

     Most of the individuals there were in the large opened area dancing with each other. Kavion slowly starting scanning around that room. It only took him a minute, if that, to spot the nine females about his age. He mumbled their names as he spotted each one of them.

     Over the next five hours, Kavion danced, and talked, to all nine of the females there several times. He had just finished dancing with one Alien, also thirteen, and escorted her back to a human and another Alien.

     Her bluish green skin looked more like a dress than skin. Especially the overhanging part that covered her personal area. The top of her head was bald. But greenish blue braids fell loosely down the sides and back of her head. Other than that, she looked human.

     Kavion then walked over and pushed a button on the wall, and a chair popped out of it for him to sit on. After a few minutes, he got up and looked at both groups of females. Just then the music stopped. And an announcement came out about the last dance coming up in a few minutes. Kavion walked up to the six females as the music began again. "Can I have this last dance?"

Word Count = 994