Frayed Ribbon and Bare Feet

Her feet were bare. Which was a problem of course because they didn't let people with bare feet into the church. Especially not grubby little children with dirt on their faces and tears in their dresses. Even if they were wearing hats.

She watched from across the road as the last few stragglers entered the imposing building. None of them stopped to look at the bedraggled girl standing just a few metres away, wrapped in a thin shawl. They were late to mass.

She waited. Feeling around the paving stones with her toes and humming a little song that she might've invented herself or might have heard somewhere she wasn't supposed to be.

Eventually they came flooding out. Dozens of people the little girl didn't care about and who didn't care about her. Then she saw who she was looking for. Another girl, this one in a puff-sleeved dress and a hat decorated with silk flowers. On her feet were a pair of dark boots, polished til they shined. She stopped when she saw the child of the other side of the road. She hesitated and looked around; nobody seemed to pay attention to what she was doing either, except the other girl.

The girl with the boots crossed the road quickly. The girl with bare feet smiled when she approached. This was the person she'd come to see.

'You look nice,' said the girl with the boots, admiring her friend's hat.

'They still wouldn't let me in,' said the girl with bare feet and held one foot up, wiggling her toes to demonstrate the problem.

The girl with the boots nodded sagely, wise for her nine years.

'I'd give you my own if I could but Mama would go raving when she found out.'

'I wouldn't mind seeing that,' said the girl with bare feet, smiling devilishly.

The girl with the boots giggled then covered her mouth with one hand and looked around wide-eyed as though she expected to be reprimanded. 'You mustn't say such things,' she whispered, still smiling.

The girl with the boots glanced back over to the people outside the church. Her face fell. 'I should go; they'll notice I came over here if I'm not careful.'

The girl with bare feet understood. The two of them exchanged a quick embrace before the girl with the boots hurried back across the cobbles to where her family were stood. No one paid any attention to her as she returned except the girl across the road who watched her every movement while she traced a paving stone with her toes. In that moment she wished for nothing more than a pair of shoes so she could go inside the church and spend a little longer in her friend's presence.

Nobody noticed her leave.

It was her thirteenth birthday. Quite the occasion her father said. Her mother had bought her a new doll. It was a grand thing in a beautiful blue dress, covered in ruffles and lace that resembled the girl's own best dresses. It could stand on its own and had real human hair the girl's mother had pronounced proudly when she presented her daughter with the toy.

She tried not to think about whose hair it was.

'Real hair isn't cheap,' her mother had said. The girl was sure she was right. She loved her own long hair and couldn't imagine selling it for anything.

She cared little for birthdays she thought as she looked down into the dolls lifeless eyes. But today was a Sunday and therefore a good day after all.

The girl dressed in her best puff-sleeved dress and placed her favourite hat - decorated with silk flowers - atop her head then finally, once her mother had found the shawl she wanted, they left for mass.

There was nobody standing across the road. The girl with the boots stopped when she didn't see her. Her parents didn't notice, they were already ahead of her. She hurried in after them.

Inside they took their seats. The girl with the boots thought about the girl with bare feet as the priest delivered his sermon.

At the end of mass the girl with the boots saw her. Amongst the crowd who stood at the back of the church, wearing a dress with torn sleeves and a straw hat decorated with a frayed ribbon was the girl with bare feet.

Except she didn't have bare feet anymore. For the first time since the girl with the boots had met her she was wearing a pair of shiny brown boots.

The girl who used to be the girl with bare feet hurried across the road the moment she got outside. She wondered if mass was always like that. If so she wondered why the girl with silk flowers on her hat went there every week. The girl with frayed ribbon on her hat knew why she went.

It only took a few moments before the girl with silk flowers on her hat noticed her and followed after her. The two girls embraced.

'You went to mass,' the girl with silk flowers on her hat exclaimed.

The girl with frayed ribbon on her hat smiled and held up one foot to show off her new boots.

Both girls laughed happily. The new boots were almost as nice as the ones belonging to the girl with silk flowers on her hat; they couldn't have been cheap.

'It's my birthday today you know,' said the girl with silk flowers on her hat, 'I'm thirteen years old today.'

'I'm already thirteen years old,' said the girl with frayed ribbon on her hat, smiling up at her friend and showing her crooked yellow teeth.

The girl with silk flowers on her hat smiled back at her, a pale pink blush colouring her cheeks.

She finally noticed that the other girl's hair did not fall across her shoulders like it usually did and it did not appear to be tucked into her hat either.

She looked down at the girl with frayed ribbon on her hat's new boots. "Real hair isn't cheap,"

her mother had said. She tried not to think about it.

Her hair had grown back. It was all the way down her back now. Long enough to sell again. She had grown out of her boots long ago but she didn't want to buy new ones; she stopped going to mass years ago.

She sold her hair anyway. She needed something else now.

The girl who sold her hair sat in an empty field just outside of town. The long grass tickled her bare feet. She touched a hand to her pocket every now and then, checking that her most prized possession was still there.

As the sun began to set another figure joined her in the field.

The girl with silk flowers on her hat walked across the field and embraced the girl with bare feet. She sat beside her and took off her hat. A ribbon was tied in a bow around her short hair. She took that off too and tied it around the hair of the other girl.

'I hope they paid you well for it,' said the girl with bare feet, 'It seems to me you hadn't cut it as long as I've known you.'

The girl with the boots smiled warmly. 'They gave me enough.' She gestured to the bag she carried with her. 'We have everything we need now.'

The girl with bare feet shook her head. 'I have something for you first.'

She looked up at the girl with the boots and reached into her pocket.

'A ring would be more traditional,' she said, 'But I don't think it's us.' She handed her the silver necklace she had bought with the money from selling her hair.

The girl with the boots leaned over and kissed the girl with bare feet.

It had been four years since they had run away together. Her hair had grown back and now fell past her shoulders when she let it loose. Her wife had decided to keep her own hair short. She said she liked it better that way, just as she preferred to wear a suit and tie to the puff-sleeved dresses the woman with the long hair liked to wear - she still wore her necklace though.

The woman in the puff-sleeved dress thought her wife's mother would go raving if she found out how she liked to dress now.