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t was a hot humid August night as she
stepped out of her car and headed towards the hotel's main entrance. As she
walked the short distance, she could feel trickles of sweat snaking down her
back. Her long sleeved dark blue suit felt more like a sauna outfit, making her
sweat profusely. She had wanted to wear one
of her light silk dresses, but had thought otherwise. This was her first time to attend a Henna
Night. Her travels and busy academic career had left her little time for
socializing or attending weddings or what not. But the youngest daughter of her
beloved Aunt was finally getting married and she promised to be there, even on
her Henna Night, a fun and joyous all female event prior to the wedding
itself. She knew that the family of her young cousin's groom was deeply
religious, most of its women wearing full-face veils. She didn't want to cause her aunt or her
young cousin any undue embarrassment. So it had to be the formal long sleeved
blue suit.
She thanked God for her decision as
she entered the small ballroom. Her eyes were met by a sea of black on the
groom's family side, with most of the women not only wearing full-face veils,
but also donning the ultra-conservative black colours. She went to sit on her
family's relatively more colourful side, although the majority wore the veil
and dressed conservatively. She could not help feeling somewhat uncomfortable
with her conspicuous curly long hair, like a bushy palm tree in the midst of a black
desert. She could almost swear that she sensed the piercing eyes of those who
stared at her with disapproval from behind their black veils. Maybe she should have brought a scarf along
she thought to herself. However, she brushed her worries aside. She was intent
on enjoying the night regardless of anything. And indeed, a sense of warmth
filled the ballroom as quiet conversations picked up and the smell of delicious
food enticed appetites as the waiters brought in plates of food and pastries
into the buffet.
Not long after she arrived however, she
noted how the ballroom doors had been closed shut and all the male waiters had
gone leaving only female waiters. Many of the guests had disappeared, while a
female DJ appeared on the scene. Feeling a bit curious, she asked a relative
where everybody had gone. "Well…to
change of course" came the matter-of-fact answer. Just as she was going to ask a perplexed
"Why?" she realized what was happening. Young women and girls began to reappear, starkly transformed. They were wearing silk, satin and chiffon dresses, some short and strapless with embroidered
bodices, others in sexy one shoulder long ones, and still others in tight black
lace dresses. The ballroom suddenly blossomed into a sea of colours, with a bewildering variety of hairstyles, heavy makeup
and a strong scent of perfume.
She sat at her table, open mouthed
and aghast at this sudden metamorphosis. Music blared loudly as the female DJ
went into action. Bodies, who just a while ago had sat discreetly at their
tables, now swayed seductively to its deafening beat. Beautiful girls moved from one table to another
some in low cut dresses revealing their cleavages. Bare ivory-white shoulders,
necks, and arms, untanned or unblemished by the sun, dotted the ballroom like a
string of pearls that had broken loose from the confines of their necklace and
rolled out onto the ball room floor.
The veils of older women seated at
the tables had all disappeared and instead were rows of mostly bare pale shoulders
and dyed blond hair of all styles and lengths, like a field of golden mushrooms
that had suddenly sprouted up from the ground.
Loud voices and pitched laughter filled
the air as inhibitions were shed away and bodies liberated. She could sense the
excitement, the wild merriment that swept throughout the ballroom and reverberated
in its walls. Young and older women
began to assemble on the dance floor, the bride in their middle, singing,
shaking and dancing along with the DJ's music.
She sat there for a moment
contemplating the scene, her overly academic and scientific mind observing,
registering and analyzing. But before she could arrive at any profound
observations or grand theories, a young cousin grabbed her by the arm and pulled her
into the dance floor. "Come on…join the fun!” she screamed at her.
And so there she was, feeling somewhat awkward
in her long sleeved formal suit among the lightly clad writhing bodies,
standing out like a stiff blue mast in a wild sea of pink, olive and white flesh.
She joined in the clapping, keeping rhythm with the beat of the music. However,
it wasn't long before she too began moving her body, getting caught up in the
fervor and ecstasy of the crowd, shedding any sign of her usually reserved
demeanor. Hands swayed in the air, hips moved up and down, and legs stomped to
the music. It was intoxicating, exhilarating, liberating. For some reason,
fleeting images of ancient women's rituals and fertility dances that she had
often researched and studied crossed her mind.
However, she began feeling somewhat
dizzy and unfocused. Her heavy blue suit was suffocating her, trapping her,
heating up her body. Sweat trickled down
her forehead into her eyes, clouding her vision, while her head throbbed with
the pounding of the music, feeling like a pressure cooker waiting to burst. She
thought for a moment of taking off her jacket but she had nothing underneath
but her bras…what a scandal that would be …or would it?
Screaming laughter pierced her ears
as she felt herself pressed against bodies moving and turning in ecstatic
motion. She tried to stumble her way back to her table, but her limp body could
hardly move through the crowds as she bumped into voluptuous breasts and bobbing
buttocks. She began panicking, gasping for breath and feeling her legs giving
way underneath her. She tried to call out, but could hardly hear her own voice.
Suddenly the music seemed to fade
away, the laughter and voices drowning out, the strong lights and writhing
bodies disappearing, giving way to a calm and silent darkness as she slowly
slipped, stumbled and fell to the ground…all in the heat of the Henna Night.
