She then asked Ronnie if he’d go over and ask Vicki Flowers to dance with him. Vicki came from a different workshop and group home but Ronnie had seen her at a couple of events this past year, and she seemed nice even if she was a bit on the short and plump side.

Vicki had Down’s Syndrome and didn’t talk much, but she was always very sweet to people, and it made Ronnie feel good to see the way she smiled when he asked her to dance, like she’d been waiting all night for someone to invite her to come and join in on the fun. What made it even better was that, when he touched her, he saw her whole life as it had been, as it was, and as it would be…and it was great. Her parents (both in their early sixties, Vicki being a late-in-life baby) loved her more than anything and always hugged her and took her out to movies and for pizza and always made sure she had friends to play with and kept her clothes clean and made sure she had enough to eat, and it almost made Ronnie happy, seeing what a wonderful life Vicki had and was going to continue to have.

He was so relieved that, for the first time in years, he let his guard down and just decided to have a good time.

He also danced with Vicki for almost the rest of the night, ignoring the little snickers and whispers of “Vicki and Ronnie sittin’ in a tree…” because this was the best he’d felt in…well, ever.

So he danced with her, and didn’t care what the others thought.

With about forty-five minutes to go before the dance would be over, Ronnie knew (without her having to say so) that Vicki needed to go to bathroom, so he took her by the arm and walked her over to the doors and stood waiting while she went in. As he was standing there, another supervisor came over and asked him if he’d ask Arlene Sanders to dance—it seemed that almost nobody had asked her to dance all night, and she’d spent most of her money on a new dress.

Arlene worked in Cell #3 at Ronnie’s workshop, was kind of plain, and very, very shy—almost afraid of everyone. Ronnie was feeling pretty good at this point, so he walked over and offered his hand to Arlene (who was sitting in a folding chair along the wall, nobody sitting anywhere near her) and asked, “Would you dance with me?”

Arlene’s face didn’t exactly light up, but she looked happy enough. She didn’t take Ronnie’s hand right away, but rather stood up and followed him out onto the dance floor as the DJ began playing “Evergreen” for the third or fourth time that night (Ronnie had thought about maybe sneaking over there and breaking the damned record when the DJ was on a break, but then figured most of the girls here seemed to really like the song so that was probably a bad idea).