Followers

April 2, 2013

One Shoe


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.

1 comment:

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete

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