The Lonely Shoe

The beginning

Aaron loved his blue shoes so much. More than anything else he owned. Even more than his action-figure that could talk, and move on its own. He got the shoes when he was 7 years old  by his grandma. 

He always tried to sleep with the shoes on in bed, but his mother would say that they were too dirty and therefore not allowed in the bed.

Aaron disagreed. He took good care of the shoes and they were not dirty. They were worthy of being on the bed, as his teddy bears. So sometimes, when his mother did not see it, he would sneak in the shoe to his bed. Those nights he had the best dreams. He would be flying or finding treasures and win the Olympics. 

Before going to school, Aaron would dust off or wash the shoes, so they looked their best. And in school, he would walk with confidence and do small dances so people would notice the shoes. All the popular kids had already noticed him and talked to him. Every time they asked about where his confidence came from he would point at his shoes. "All my confidence and style comes from the shoes". Some of his classmates even started to call him "blue shoes". He was very proud of that. 

The only times someone could make his remove his shoes where at PE. The PE teacher always forced Aaron to change shoes, saying "it will ruin them if you also run in them in PE". So Aaron always took off his shoes and put them in a shoebox that was lined, and carefully put them in his locker, so they could not be ruined. 

One day though, when Aaron was 9 years old, a jealous kid at school took his shoes while Aaron was at PE.  And when Aaron saw his empty shoebox in his locker that day, his mind went blank and he stopped moving. 

At first, he said nothing. Just stood there and stared at the empty box for many minutes. Then he started screaming. 

Louder and louder. 

Friends came, teachers came, even his parents got called to the school, but he did not stop. He even started to get violent and hit the people around him. 

When the jealous shoe thief saw how Aaron reacted to his shoes being missing and that he even had gotten violent, he got too scared and returned the shoes to the shoebox in Aaron's locker while teachers and parents were calming Aaron down. The shoe thief then went to a teacher and said that he saw someone had come back with the shoes. 

After that incident, Aaron did not even change shoes for PE and he slept with the shoes on in bed for two weeks, dispirit his mom's protests. 

This went on for years. Even when Aaron grew out of the shoes, he was wearing them. His big toe on the right foot was always cold because it was sticking out of the shoe. 

But then one day, when Aaron had become a teenager, he was out shopping with his mom. They were shopping for clothes for Aaron's mom and while looking around Aaron went by the shoe section in the store. 

And there he saw it. Some new beautiful green coloured shoes. All clean and with no holes or toes popping out. A poster above the new green shoes shown a smiling boy around Aaron's age with the shoes on. 

Aaron looks then down and sees his own shoes. Worn-out old falling part, full of holes and toes-sticking-out shoes. Aaron stood there for almost an hour starring back and forth at the new green shoes, the poster, and then his old blue shoes. His mom even left him starring there, because she could not move him away. 

When she came back later after finishing her clothes shopping, Aaron turns to his mom with a serious look, "Mom. Can I have those shoes?"

Aaron's mom only looked shocked for a moment and then she happily jumped up and grabbed the shoes and Aaron, scared he would change his mind. It was painful for Aaron to get his old shoes off and the new one on. The old shoes had made some wounds on his feet over the years. But the second he took his first step in the new shoes he had forgotten all about his old favourite shoes, and a tear of relief rolled down his cheek. His mom paid for the new shoes and took the old shoes away. Hiding them behind her back while she smiled at the happy Aaron that could not stop dancing. When passing a trashcan Aaron's mom quickly threw the old shoes away and walked off. From the trashcan, the shoes were collected and delivered to a garbage truck, which threw them in a pile of trash in a yard.