Red Running Shoes

It's almost the end of the school year.  My inside shoes for school have been in and out of my gym bag every  school day, and although they are still wonderfully clean, my big toes are starting to poke out.   The rubber on the bottom of my shoes have worn smooth; they leave no footprint when I walk.  The laces have each broken a few times, and are much shorter now than when I first got them.  I like my runners though, and hate that I have to grow so much and burst right through them.  They are a nice blue colour, with white bottoms.  Where the holes are, little white threads are poking out from the canvas, just like petals opening on a flower; blue on the outside and white on the inside.

I bring them home from school finally, to show Mom.  She has been upset that my socks are starting to appear in the laundry with holes at the toe; I blame it on my shoes.  My feet seem to be outgrowing my body, and I'm feeling very self-conscious about it.  My Mom tells me this means that one day I will be tall, but I don't care about that.  My brother Pat teases me and calls my feet "snowshoes".  I laugh with him but wonder, what good are snowshoes in the summer?

Mom and Dad finally decide that I need a new pair, so on Saturday I get to go into town with them to shop for some new shoes.  My younger brothers will stay home with the older kids this time, because its too hard to have all of us in the shoe store at once.  They are too small to leave by themselves in the Children's section at the town Library, which we do on times that me or someone else can stay with them.

The Eatons' store doesn't have much of a kids shoe selection this time, so we head across the street to Robinsons' store.  I like the man that works there - I call him "Mr. Robinsons" but really his name is Mr. Boatman.  It's hard for me to remember his real name though, and he doesn't mind that I call him Mr. Robinsons.  On times when we are in his store for something and I have to go to the bathroom, he lets us use the one in the store basement.  I think it's the neatest bathroom in town - you have to go down into the dark basement, between all the boxes piled way up high, and then you go back up some steps into a bathroom!  It's a small room with a little light; it feels almost like it's up in a tree fort!  Mom says I know where to find every bathroom in town.  I probably can, and this one is my favourite.

Mr. Robinsons helps my Mom and me as we look at the shoes on the wall.  I see what I want almost right away - a beautiful pair of red canvas runners, just like my old ones!  I keep my fingers crossed that they will be okay - my Mom picks those from the wall to try first.  Mr. Robinsons gets me to stand up on the ruler to see how much my feet have grown.

"My goodness, little Lady!  You will sure keep me in business if you keep growing like that!" he says with a laugh.

He brings the box over for me to try on the red running shoes.  I kick off my holey blue shoes, and suddenly I'm somehow embarrassed about my socks, even though my mom made sure I put on clean ones, with no holes in them.  I hold my breath as Mr. Robinsons puts the laces on the shoes to get them ready.   He uses the shoehorn to put my feet into the new shoes, and then he ties them up for me.  It seems so strange to have an adult helping me out like that, since I already know how to tie my shoes, but he is so nice about it. All the while he is doing this for me, my Dad and Mr. Robinsons are having a conversation about something to do with the School Board.  My Mom is watching me, and my big feet.  I'm not sure if she will think these shoes are okay or not, so I don't want to get too excited about them.

I stand up to try them out, and they are the most beautiful shoes I have ever seen.  I walk towards the little shoe mirror they keep on the floor, and somehow, magically, my feet don't seem to be as big as they were in the blue shoes.  I wonder how I could have loved the blue ones so much, these red ones are so wonderful!

I look over at my mom, questioning her with my eyes.

"Go on, walk around the store a little," she encourages me.  I half walk, half skip around the store.  They are perfect.  I can already feel that these shoes have a nice skip in them, and they also feel very fast.

"What do you think?" she asks.

"They are good," I say, still holding my breath, not sure if that's right.

"Okay, then," she says, turning to Mr. Robinsons, "It looks like we've found a pair, we'll take them."

Still chatting, Dad and Mr. Robinsons head over to the desk to finish buying the shoes.  Mom tells me that I might as well keep them on and wear them home, since the other ones are obviously way too small.  I have gone up 2 sizes, she tells me with a slight shake of her head.

I stare at my new, red running shoes on my feet the whole way back in the car.  I can't wait to get home to really try them out!

As the car pulls in to the driveway, I can see that Paul and Philip are heading down Tetroe Road, probably going to check out a new fort or a trail.  As soon as the car comes to a stop in the yard I am out the door, running to catch up with Philip and Paul.  It's perfect, they can't even hear me coming.  As I run past them, I turn my head and say, "Race ya!"

Automatically, my older brothers burst into a run.  By this time I am already a few steps ahead, and I savour the moment when we are all running, all three of us, and I am ahead.  I can see my shadow jumping ahead of me on the gravel road and theirs catching up, I can hear our feet on the gravel, and I can feel the warm wind in my hair as we race together down the road.  This moment is magic, it is perfection.  All thanks to my new, red running shoes.

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Dedicated to all those who run, and to those who lost their lives at the Boston Marathon on April 15th, 2013.