​     So Axel made it a point to go to the dance. ​

​     And there she was. 

​     She stood alone. Her long, not-blonde-but-not-really-anything-else-either hair hung limp to her shoulders. She wore the same clothes she'd worn at school that day. No one at the dance gave her even so much as a second glance.

     Although Axel, himself, couldn't take his eyes off her. 

​     He waved. She smiled when she saw him and waved back. 

​     "Hey," Axel muttered.

     Anna replied, but Axel didn't catch a word she said. The music was too loud. Axel cupped his ear, like, I can't hear you. He said something, and then it was Anna's turn to put her hand over her ear. They both laughed. Axel crooked a finger, like, come here, follow me, and together they went into the foyer where they could talk. Once there,

     "You know, I, uh...,"  Axel found himself saying. "I'm not really much of a dancer."      Anna smiled shyly. "I don't know if I'm a good dancer or not, really. I've never really...I mean, I always assumed that I'd..."

​     "I'm sure you'd be fine. It's just a matter of...you know..." He shook his hips. In fact, he didn't know the first thing about dancing. He just wanted to keep talking to her. He liked her so much. He felt afraid that, if he let the conversation lapse, even for a moment, she might dissolve into a mist to drift away into the night or something. But what could he...What could they...

     But then he got a look at the walls of the foyer. They weren't smoothly painted. The surface looked like someone'd mixed a bunch of tiny little glittering pebbles in with the paint so that the result was rough to the touch. It reminded Axel of a landscape on a far distant planet. 

​     "Did you ever think of that?" he asked. "Did you ever think that this wall was the surface of a planet, and that, among the paint pebbles, people, like very small insect people, but smart people, smart like us, made their homes and foraged for food and lived their lives?"  

     Now, Anna could have responded to that in a variety of ways. She could have, for instance, reacted with a bored, oh-brother look, like, yeah, people smaller than insects, living on the side of a wall. Yeah, that's real possible. Instead, she looked relieved to have something to talk about. "You know, I never have, but, you know..."

     That's what they discussed for the next fifteen minutes. They talked about this world of micro-people who lived on the side of a wall. They talked about what kind of food they ate (Dust food). They talked about what they would talk about and what kind of god they would pray to. 

​     "I wouldn't mind living there," Anna said. "It sounds so simple. Everything's too real in the real world."

     "That's it. That's it exactly. That's what would be the coolest thing about it. No no, the coolest thing about it would be that we could visit it anytime we wanted to. If we wanted to, we could stand in front of this wall, hold hands, and then we'd be instantly transported to the world on the side of the wall."

​     Anna grabbed his hand. "Let's go," she said. "Let's go right now."

    "If only. There'd be no abuse in the Land Upside the Wall. There'd be no fear. Everyone would live happy and free and..."

     "And naked?" 

​     "What?"

​     "Isn't that what you were going to say next? Weren't those going to be the next words out of your mouth? You were about to say, 'Everyone would be happy and free...and naked.' You were about to say naked."

     "Uh, no, no I wasn't, but..." Axel chuckled. "You want everybody to be naked?"

​     "Well, I don't know, but...but what would they wear and why would they wear it? It's not like the temperature's ever going to change." 

​     "You could say that about everyone in this room right now."

​     "How small would their clothes have to be? Who would manufacture..."

     "Now you're getting into the weeds. In a way, it wouldn't be like living on the side of a wall. It'd be like going into a whole other dimension."

     "Then let's just forget about the wall."

     "I wasn't..." 

​     "I just like the simplicity of everyone being naked is all. You know, people staying innocent their entire lives, you know?"

     "Me too, only..." 

​     "Only what?"

​     "Only, you know...you know, there're all...they're naked."

     "So?"

     "Well it's...for us guys, it's...well, let's just say it's not as simple as that."

     Anna gave him a puzzled look, and then she did something that, for the two of them, changed the atmosphere in the room. She squeezed his hand, and it was like ball lightning ignited their high school dance. It was almost absurd, that squeeze got them so excited. They laughed. Then they blushed. Why? Because they fell truly in love at that moment. For one poignant heartbeat, they were totally on the same wavelength. Simpatico. They actually, both at eighteen, at the same moment, thought, I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with this person. That's how strong the attraction between them became quickly, so quickly, like a bolt out of the blue. 

​     And so they blushed.

CONTINUE