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The DanceAn old man, all knees and baggy pants, shuffles around the dance floor laying sawdust. Little girls in chiffon pastels and white jiffies bolt the length of the floor and slide through the sawdust. The music starts in metronome time and a sing-song voice calls for gentlemen to choose their ladies for a quickstep. The children scamper off the dance floor. The biggest girl leads the others to seats and with their bums in the air, they search underneath them for empty drink bottles. Cassie used to do this when she was younger, exchanging the bottles for a refund to spend on a Golden Rough or a Mint Pattie. A circle of grownups dance the quickstep through the disturbed sawdust, their feet not quite in time with the music.
Cassie squashes herself into the corner and crosses her
