Driving along
a busy road, I saw a shoe in the middle of the road. Just one shoe, there by itself, no sign of
its mate. I’ve seen single shoes in the
road from time to time. And, like times
before, I wondered how it got there, that one shoe…
Was it lost
by someone crossing the road, fallen off a fleet-running foot? If so, why didn’t they retrieve it? I know I certainly wouldn’t have left my it
behind, walking off wearing just one shoe.
Perhaps they
couldn’t retrieve it? Maybe they’d been
struck by an on-coming vehicle. Maybe
retrieving that one shoe suddenly became the last thing on their mind. But wouldn’t there have been skid marks, or
blood? Couldn’t the paramedics on the
scene have grabbed the shoe in the course of things? Why just leave it there?
Maybe someone
had kidnapped the person, in some daring ransom scheme, and the one shoe fell
off during the abduction, the last reminder that the person had been there; a clue. But that doesn’t sound likely, given that the
shoe is in such a busy road, right by a popular shopping mall, but who knows
what happens in the darkest hours of night?
Perhaps it
was something less nefarious, like the person had been a passenger riding in a
car driving along the road, and they’d been dangling their foot out the open
window to catch the breeze. Maybe the
one shoe slipped off and was left behind, despite their protests. But that doesn’t make much sense, given the
cold weather and improbability of anyone riding around with their window down. A few months from now that would be much more
feasible.
Maybe some
bully stole the person’s shoe and threw it in the road, leaving the person
standing there wearing just one shoe. But
that still sounds like a situation where the person would have tried to
retrieve their shoe. Unless the bully
left them far behind and discarded the shoe ine the road later. But that sounds rather an elaborate plan for
the theft of just one shoe.
Maybe it’s
just an old shoe and the person went to the mall to buy a new pair, then
discarded the shoes in some flagrant fashion.
But that seems a rather strange disposal method for old shoes, even on a
whim.
I kept on
driving down the road, thinking about the possibilities. I know, as usual, I’ll never really have an
answer. But that’s what I think about
whenever I see one shoe in the road.
I always wonder about those solo shoes. I ran across a tree once on the way to Chico. It was full of shoes. Maybe it's the Match.com of footwear :) Either way, it's fun to imagine.
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