Lucky Two Shoes

Let's start the new year off on the right foot shall we......and she knew that from the moment she spotted those perfectly emerald green shoes in the department store window that her young life would never be the same again. You see, these were no ordinary shoes, they were lucky shoes, charmed shoes, if you will.

Yes, charmed shoes for sure. Whenever she wore them, which was almost every day, by the way, there was a spring in her step and a bounce in her walk and all things good were destined to happen.

And they did, let me just say! You see she spent so much time looking down at her beautiful new shoes, admiring their lovely emerald greenness, that she found every copper penny and silver nickel and shiny quarter and dime anyone had ever dropped!

Hers was a charmed life indeed, fashion and fortune at the tips of her toes! Don't you just know that the life lived in those two green shoes was wonderfully adventurous and as you can plainly see she wore them until they practically fell off her feet!

Heck, who wouldn't have, just look at them! And when that fateful day eventually arrived, when it was painfully evident that it was time to hang up her cherished emerald green shoes, she didn't say a word, just slowly slipped them off her feet,

dusted them with her mothers most expensive and best smelling powder and carefully, thoughtfully stuffed each one with crisp white tissue paper. Then she sat them high upon a shelf in her room, the shelf she could see directly from her bed.

She placed them right next to the jar filled to the brim with her "lucky two shoes" coins. Preserved, put to rest, and now only to be admired, never worn or played in again! How sad....sad for me, she thought.

And once in a while, when she was feeling particularly melancholy, she would take them down, put them on her hands and make believe they were out once again for a walk in the park on a warm sunny day! Oh what fun we did have, didn't we?!

Well, I guess those enchanted shoes weren't quite ready to retire just yet, no not just yet! Can you guess what those emerald green shoes did after dark, when everyone in the whole house was sleeping? Can you guess?! Why they got right up, not even

bothering to remove their noisy tissue stuffing and danced all through the night! Yes, until the wee hours of the morning, you know that magical time, between daylight and darkness when the moon bids the sun Adieu!

And time moved along, as time always does, she grew and passed from childhood into adulthood, she became a young lady, with young lady thoughts and young lady cares, all the while she consistently kept those emerald green shoes near by. Oh, she

had since had a few other pair of mighty fine shoes, she even had a glittering pair of ruby red slippers, yes some very fine ones indeed! But none could compare and as she traveled from place to place and year to year went by, those pretty little shoes went right along with her, funny, they even seemed to age themselves, showing fine little

wrinkles and shrinking ever so slightly. And as she grew old and her days grew darker and quieter and sleepier, she asked her favorite granddaughter, who was named after her and looked just like her when she was young, to please bring the shoes to her.

In doing as requested, she pushed a chair up to the shelf where they were kept and picked up the green shoes ever so gently with two fingers, noticing that they must not have been moved for ages, as there were two clear footprints standing alone in the dust where the shoes had been.

Please, sit them here beside me on the bed, she whispered, as she patted with her hand the spot she meant. A slow sweet smile gently curled up and spread across her face. Then she began to speak in a soft, strained voice and the very last words she spoke here upon this great earth were,

"Damn things, always gave me blisters!"

Final note: Hee, hee, forgive me, but I couldn't help myself!