Tap Tap Slide Tap

     There are two main characters. The first is a twelve-year-old girl who has Leukemia. Her name is Hannah.  Her passion is dance. She is at the end of her treatment and not getting better. She is about to start a new protocol and medication that is a research drug. She will be one of the first to try this experimental drug.  

   The next main character is a middle-aged gay black male named Max. He is suffering from advanced aids and lymphatic cancer. Before he became sick, he was a ballet dancer. Then a dancer on broadway in popular shows.  

  The two met as they had the same infusion time for chemotherapy at the same location.  Max goes from anger to rage and back. He has dismissed his friends in this angry state. He is raging against everyone. Because the chairs are uncomfortable on the adult side of the center, he goes across the hall and sits in the softer chairs of the children's patients. The staff is redirecting him to go back to the adult side. He argues and rages every time. 

  Hannah and her mother notice Max. Hannah also sees that sometimes Max is with friends who all look like dancers because of their practice clothes. Hannah's passion is to dance. Her mother knows this. She gets an idea to approach Max to teach her daughter dance, and he can sit with them as a friend of Hannah's family. 

   He does not want to teach a girl anything, but he wants to sit in the soft chairs. Reluctantly he does. Hannah is in a wheelchair and cannot stand. Max then creates something for her. He teaches her the feeling of dance, not technique. He taps with his fingers on her palm.  One time he stops and does this, Tap Tap Slide Tap. He tells her it means something. Next, he tells her it is the language of dance. Tap Tap Slide Tap means I Love You.  

  Thus begins a journey of two people who would not normally mix. With her mother by her side, the two learn to live as they suffer. One lives and dies in their journey of healing not only one of their bodies but also their soul.  They learn a new language, the language of the heart.