The curious incident of the shoe in the street

Tag : Shoe Size
BILL BEAN
RECORD STAFF


I have been wondering what story this shoe could tell.
It's a white patent pump. For the right foot. Size 6. A relativelyinexpensive Charlotte Russe product, based on the price tag stillstuck to the sole.
My partner and I found it in Waterloo, amid the floodwaters of lastSaturday's early afternoon downpour. We thought that when the skiesopened, it would mean the end of the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival,and we had returned to our nice dry car to leave.
We drove through the tidal flow on William Street East and headedsouth on King Street, when we saw a white pump awash at theroadside.
We don't usually pick up shoes along the road, but this one seemedto be a special case, a gleaming white shoe trapped in a greytorrent of road runoff and shining like a beacon calling for help.
We swung around the block to pick it up, and as the skies hinted ofclearing, drove back to the jazz festival.
The age of this shoe is uncertain. The worst of the outer scuffmarks could have been received as it was sluiced along the pavementin the cataract. There is evidence of wear on the inside of theshoe. But then there is that relatively pristine price tag.Well-maintained, or just rarely used?
And we began to build stories about how this shoe got there.
It was dropped by someone carrying a wedding ensemble. Someone wasin a hurry, having just been tasked with delivering the weddingdress and shoes. They carefully wrapped the dress, but carelesslygrabbed the shoes. A moment of inattention, and a bride somewherelast Saturday hobbled down the aisle or ditched the other shoe tomeet her groom barefoot.
Perhaps it was a prop from a bridal shop, something that clientswear while getting the dress length exactly right. Not that thiswould explain how it wound up being sluiced along the curb.
Was someone supposed to drink champagne out of it, and thoughtbetter of the idea?
It is feasible that the shoe, as white and obvious as it was in thegrey water, had remained undiscovered somewhere farther up thestreet perhaps, since the night before. A car filled withlate-night partygoers might have squealed away from an intersectionand someone might have had her feet sticking out the passenger-sidewindow and, oops...
Or a car pulled over to let someone out, and in the hurried exit,some items fell out, including this shoe belonging to anotherpassenger (who was later rightly annoyed).
Maybe a couple had had a fight. He said something stupid, shecried, he tried to console her, she said he wasn't listening, shetook off a shoe and threw it at him and limped away.
Well, how did it get there? You might take off your shoes to gobarefoot, and forget where you had placed them, or even forget inthe inspiration of the moment that you had been wearing shoes atall. But shouldn't there be two shoes?
How does a person lose one shoe, except in fairy tales?
If that is the case, Prince Charming, I believe I have somethingthat belongs to a friend of yours. You might want to get it back toher.
Bill Bean, who has returned wayward dogs and lost bicycles, will bepleased to return this shoe to someone who can identify it. Knowthe price or what the lining looks like? Call 519-894-2250, ext.2618.