Another Person’s Shoes

            Andy opened his eyes.  It was still dark outside, and a glance at his clock confirmed that it was not yet a reasonable getting-up time, especially for spring break.  He had never been a morning person, and often was late for or missed his first period of the today.  This morning was no exception.  Who doesn’t like road trips? he thought.  Oh yeah, me. 

            His parents had planned a road trip for the family, quite possibly the last thing he wanted to take part in.  With his brother in Europe for the next three weeks, Andy knew that he would have to rely on Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to keep him company on the trek from Oakland to Colorado.

            Andy was not in a good mood, and hadn’t been for a while.  His once flourishing social life had recently taken a dive.  He couldn’t remember the last time he had been outside of his room on a Friday night, and had resorted to watching movies until he passed out, then waking up at 4 am to find the TV on and one remote in each hand.  He had convinced himself, and those who would listen, that it was his friends’ fault they didn’t hang out with him anymore.

            “They all changed and moved on, and now they’re all assholes.  Most of them wont even return my calls,” he would say to anyone that would listen.  “Whatever though, I’m over it.”

            There was a knock on the door.  “Andy?” said his mom, “Are you awake?”

            “Yeah, I’ll be up in a sec,” he replied.

            “Ok.  I was thinking you could take a quick shower, and then we can go.  That sound good?”

            “Yea.”  He slowly tried to get out of bed, or at least sit up so he could see what was going on.

            “And I’ll make you some toast if you want, so you can eat in the car.  Your dad is kind of in a hurry, you know him when he gets excited…” she trailed off and pointed over her shoulder.

            “C’mon, Andrew!  Early bird gets the worm!” his dad yelled from the hall.  Andy did know him when he got excited; it usually involved him using some corny cliché when it was both perfectly applicable and frightfully annoying.

            “That’s alright, I’m not hungry.”

            “Alright.  Well, come on, let’s get up,” his mom said. 

Andy rolled out of bed, and got ready to go.  He hadn’t packed much entertainment for the car ride, just his iPod and headphones.  He made his way outside and closed the front door.  He stood on the front porch, and looked at this parents:  his mom was smiling at him, in a big straw hat, button-up short sleeved shirt, shorts, and her classic ‘mom walking shoes’.  His dad stood next to her, his bald head reflecting the sun that was slowly beginning to rise in the distance.  He had on a jacket and jeans, and had a fanny pack to boot. 

            “Ready to go?  You excited?  Yeah? This is going to be SO much fun!” he exclaimed.  Andy wouldn’t have been surprised if his dad had all of a sudden started dancing a little Irish jig.

            “Yeah, let’s go.”  They all climbed in the car, and as soon as Andy put in his headphones and rested his head against the back of his seat, he fell asleep.

* * *

            “Cecelia,” her boss began, “it has come to my attention that you have not been working your hardest.  Also, this is the fourth time this month that you’ve come into work late, and seemingly hung-over.”  She glanced at her watch and noticed that it in fact was over an hour past when she was supposed to have come in.  She thought back to the night before, which had started with her getting all dressed up with her friends, had moved to them drinking and bar-hopping, and had ended with a few too many fuzzy memories.  She looked up, but said nothing.

            “As you know, we have very high expectations of our employees, and, frankly, you have not been meeting them.  I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re going to have to let you go,” he said.  He got up and opened the door.  Cecelia felt as though she was surrounded in fog as she got up and walked outside.  The next thing she knew, she was sitting in her car, crying her eyes out into a box of her belongings.  She had never had a full time job until now, and she had just blown it.  I need to talk to someone, she thought.  She pulled out her cell phone, and dialed.

            “Hello?” said Sarena, her roommate.

            “Hi,” she managed to say through a few sniffles.

            “Oh no, what’s wrong?” Sarena replied.

            “They just, uh… They just fired me from my job.  I have no job now.  What the fuck am I going to do?” Cecelia asked.

            “Cece, calm down.  It’s just a job, not the end of the world.  Did they say what for?”

            “Cuz I came into work hung-over and late today.  And twice last week.  And once before that…” she said.  She looked down to the floor of the passenger side where her bright red stiletto party shoes were lying in the same place as they were that morning, after she had kicked them off to put on her day shoes.

            “Oh… That’s no good.  But come on, it’s no big deal, you can get another one.” Sarena said.

            “Ahh what’s the use though?  I’ll probably just get fired from that one,” Cecelia said dejectedly.

            “You can’t look at it like that.  That’s not going to help anything.  Look, I think this would be perfect time to take that road trip I was talking about.  What do you say?  Head out of Phoenix tomorrow morning, and just see where the wind takes us.  I think it’d be good for you.  Sound good?” Sarena said.

            “Yeah, it really does.”

* * *

            “Andy, hun?  Do you need to use the restroom?” Andy’s mom asked.

            “Yeah, I do,” he responded.  Despite the rural area they were in, they had just passed a ‘Gas Next Exit’ sign for the fourth time in the last hour, which meant it was fourth time his mom asked if anyone needed to go to the bathroom.  He didn’t have to go, but rather than shake his head and put his headphones back in, he said yes.  He needed to get out of the car.

            As they pulled into the gas station, Andy suddenly realized they were on another planet.  Every car in sight was a pick-up, and not a single one was less than ten years old, and the brand new mini-van they were driving stood out.  Andy was excited to finally be getting out of the car, and as soon as his soles hit the worn down pavement, he headed straight for the door of the small food mart.  He went inside and grabbed an ice-cold Pepsi from the back of the store, and went up to pay for it.

            “That’ll be one-fifty,” said the attendant.  Andy looked up to a strange sight.  Behind the counter stood a chubby man, his white hair poking out from his wrinkled, oil-stained trucker hat.  He was wearing a button-up blue shirt that was open at the top, where the man’s matted chest hair was struggling to break free.  His shirt barely managed to cover up his bulging stomach, which must have taken him years of beer drinking and football games to build up.  While still looking him up and down, taking in every piece of his image, Andy handed him two dollar-bills.

            “Aright, aaand fifty cents is yer change.  Have a good day,” the man said.

            “Yeah, you too,” Andy replied, half sarcastically.  He walked out the door, and made his way through the thick Nevada air back to the van, where his mom was waiting. 

            “Did you go to the restroom?  You got something to drink, I see.  Are you having fun yet?” she said smiling, as he slowly got back into the van.

            “Yeah, sure am mom,” he replied.  They were already in the third day of their trip, and it was turning out to be even less enjoyable then he had first thought.  “Fun” isn’t quite how I would describe this he thought to himself.  If only Mike wasn’t such an asshole… Mike and a bunch of people Andy used to hang out with were all down in Cabo San Lucas for the week, doing god-knows-what, and probably getting into all sorts of trouble.  Soon after Andy had found out that all his friends were going, Mike had called and invited, but Andy turned him down, claiming that the invitation was only out of sympathy.  He then proceeded to shut himself in his room for a few days.  His parents had made him come on the trip to get him out of his room, but Andy was eager to get this whole thing over with, so he could get back into his bed.

            “Where’s dad?  Can we get outta here?” Andy asked.

            “You bet, I think he’s just now coming out of the restroom.  C’mon, honey!  Let’s go!” she yelled through the window.

            “Yeehaw, let’s go!  Let’s hit the road running.  What do you say, Andy?  Wanna drive for a bit?” his dad said

            “Nah, I’m gunna sleep some more.  Wake me up if something interesting happens,”  Andy replied.  As they hit the highway, he looked out the window to see an expanse of golden-brown fields stretching all they way to the horizon, with barely anything in any direction.  Andy laid down on the back seat, and as he drifted off, thought I am a long way from home.

* * *

            Cecelia lowered the roof of Sarena’s convertible as she sped down the highway.  She looked over at the passenger seat, where Sarena was getting some well-deserved sleep.  They had been trying to get out of the state, to outrun an incoming storm that weathermen across the country were calling “the worst storm in years.”  Sarena had taken the first driving shift, staying up through the night and into the morning, stopping only for a cup of coffee and a pastry.  Now Cecelia was driving, seemingly alone.  She replayed what had happened at the office in her head over and over, wondering how she didn’t see it coming.  I can’t believe they fired me.  All I ever did was work hard, and this how they thank me she thought angrily.  If only I hadn’t went out the night before, none of this would be happening.  None of it.  She looked over at Sarena, who had been the one who had convinced her to go out drinking with them.  I can’t help but blame you, Sarena.  You gotta stop making me go out.

            She thought about the shoes.  She looked in the rearview mirror, where she could just barely see their shiny red buckles, sitting in the very middle of the back seat.  The shoes which she brought everywhere and wore every time she went out with friends.  Those goddamn shoes.

            As she looked back from the mirror, out the windshield, she saw something that she did not at all expect in this sea of nothingness.

            “Sarena.  Hey, Sarena,” she said while shaking her shoulder lightly.  “You gotta check this out.”

            Sarena slowly pushed herself up into a better posture.  “Hmm?  What?  What’re you talking about?”

            “Look, ahead of us,” Cecelia said.

            “Cece, it’s a tree,” Sarena said disappointingly

            “Well, yeah, I know it’s a tree, but it’s a special tree.  I’ve actually heard about this tree.  I’m gunna pull over,” Cecelia said.

            “Alright,” Sarena said, “well, I’m going back to sleep.”

* * *

            Andy wanted to stretch his legs out, but didn’t feel like getting out of the car.  He unbuckled his seatbelt, and stretched out across the back seat, his head against the window.  His parents had decided to pull over when they saw the huge tree looming into view, but it wasn’t until the two of the of them had gotten out of the car that they realized what was hanging in the tree.

            Shoes.  A whole sea of shoes.  Every kind of shoe that Andy could ever imagine was here in this tree.  From the backseat alone, Andy could see a pair of work boots that looked they had seen a hundred years, a pair of running shoes that looked like they had never been worn, and a pair of ballet slippers.  There was a pair of cleats, a pair of sandals, a pair of slippers that had holes worn through them, and had been tied together with an old piece of rope, even an old pair of alligator skin dress shoes, all hanging from the the biggest, deadest, scraggliest tree that Andy had ever seen.

            Andy couldn’t understand why anyone would want to throw shoes in a tree.  It’s so pointless, such a waste.  As he looked down from the tree, he saw his parents talking to some woman who was just standing there, holding a pair of red heels in her hand.  She had buckled them together, and was clearly intending to throw them into the tree.

            Andy’s parents finished talking to her, waved, and started the long walk around the enormous tree.  By that time, the woman with the shoes was getting ready to throw them into the tree.  She wound up, spinning the shoes vertically over and over again, and with one final spin, she let go, and the shoes shot into the air.  They shot up with a perfect arch, but didn’t go high enough to make it onto one of the branches.  They hit the ground a ways away with a loud thud, audible even in the closed car.  Andy chuckled a little out loud.  This is gunna be good.  I doubt she’ll ever get them up there.  Her shoulders slumped slightly, and she walked over to her now dusty shoes.  She picked them up, dusted them off, and tried again.  This time, they went high enough, but right between two branches without hitting a thing, and fell to the ground once more, landing only a few feet from the car.  She walked back again, and picked them up.

            Andy decided he needed to get out of the car to see this next one, so he sat up, opened the door, and climbed out.  The woman didn’t seem to notice that he was there as she leaned down and picked up her shoes for the last time.  She got them nice and clean once again, and stared at them angrily.

            “I’m never fucking drinking again,” she said out loud, not knowing anyone was around her.  And with that, she swung the around one more time, and let go.  Andy followed them upwards as they turned over a few times in the air, and landed perfectly on one of the middle branches, joining the hundreds of shoes already trapped.

            Andy looked back down at the woman as she dusted off her hands, gave one last long look at her swinging shoes, and headed back to her car.  Without a delay, she turned the car on, pulled back onto the road, and was gone.

            With out thinking, Andy began to pull of his own shoes.  He tied the laces together, and with one huge swing, he flung them up into the high tree, where they landed just a few feet away from the woman’s shoes.

            “Andy?  Did you just throw your own shoes into the tree?”  his mom said, as she walked over to him.

            “Well mom,” he chuckled, “I sure did.  I didn’t really like those shoes, anyway.”

            “Oh, shush.  You loved those shoes.  But that’s ok, we’ll go shopping when we get home, get you some new ones,” she said.

            “Actually, a while ago, Mike was telling me about this shoe store that I really wanna check out, maybe I’ll call him and see if he’s down to go there,” Andy replied.

            “Well that sounds nice!  I hope you two work stuff out,” she said.

            “HEY!” Andy’s dad shouted, “Let’s goooooo guys, we gotta get the ball rolling if we’re gunna find a hotel by night.  You wanna drive, Andrew?”

            “Yeah alright, dad, lets get this ball rolling.”