The Hyatt Tea Dance - 100-Word Micro

THE HYATT TEA DANCE

The tea dance is in full swing and the Atrium floor a blur of moving colour. A thousand people, a thousand balloons, sway with the music. Perched on the skywalk above, spectators succumb quickly to the melody: tapping their feet and soaking up the joyous atmosphere. Soon, they will go down in history.

Tap! Tap! Pop! Clang! The skywalk shudders to the awful rhythm of moaning metal. The band plays on, but the dancers stop, faces full of worry. No time to run!

Crash! Smash! The spectators descend onto the dancefloor. Dust, rubble, and screams fill the hotel.

Tradition becomes tragedy.

THE END

Footnote

I wrote this Micro for a Globe Soup Competition in Jan 2025. Inspired by the horrific events that transpired at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kansas City in 1981. One-hundred and fourteen people lost their lives when both sky bridges collapsed—falling onto people attending an afternoon tea dance. It was later found that the construction company had cut corners in planning the skywalk's support system. 

Image rights reserved to: https://piochronicles.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-collapse-caught-in-memory.html