“The Little Girl and The Red Shoes” (as told to me by my mother).

      [07/15/2011]

     Some time ago, the beautiful soul of a little girl was born into a loving family of modest means. She played well with others at home and in school. She achieved excellent grades, and made her parents proud every where they went together, until one day it was decided that this little girl was in need of some new shoes for school.

            When they arrived at the shoe store, the family looked at many shoes. They came across a shiny new pair of red patent leather shoes with a gold buckle, but the price was well out of reach for what they could afford. The Cobbler showed them several other pairs in their price range, all the while the little girl was drawn back to the new red pair with the gold buckle while trying on the others. When it was decided that a less expensive pair was what she was getting, the little girl threw such a tantrum that finally her parents conceded. The Cobbler warned her that the shoes were now cursed and she may wish to reconsider, but the little girl flatly refused. Late that night when her parents were in bed asleep, the little girl pulled out the new red shoes, and overwhelmed with a sense of eagerness, she slipped them on.

            Immediately the shoes took to life. Tapping at first, they sprang the little girl into a dance. At first she was thrilled and having the time of her life dancing around her room, but then the window blew open and out she went. The little girl was scared and mortified at the fact she no longer had control of the shoes, or could even take them off. She leaped, danced and pirouetted across the country side in tears of hysteria, until she stopped in front of the store window in which she first saw the shoes. With her precious little feet- now blistered and bleeding, the little girl was finally able to peel them off, leave them at the door of the shoe store, and hobble home.

            The next morning she woke up to the sound of her parents making breakfast, and calling out to her- “Cassy, come on. It’s shoe shopping day for school”. The little girl threw back her bed sheets and saw that her feet weren’t bleeding or blistered at all . . . they were just fine. Cassy leaped out of bed, got dressed and went to the shoe store with her parents. When they arrived, the first thing she saw was the shiny new red shoes in her dream. Her mother saw how she seemed to be taken with them, and asked the store keeper; “How much?” But the little girl interrupted and told her parents that she would much rather have a less expensive pair of penny loafers and, happy as a lark, that is what she got.

The Moral of this story is; Always be grateful for what you have, because things could be worse. The reason I was told this story, is because I had my eye on a pair of White patent leather “Nancy Sinatra” Go- Go boots and my mom, being a bakery book keeper, really couldn’t afford them.