Walk A Mile With My Shoe

July 31, 2011 at 8:25 am · Filed under Crazy stuff, Mostly true, Stories, Weird stuff ·Tagged author, Charles L. Mashburn, crossing the line, funny, humor, kid pulling a shoe, maybe someone should call the authorities, story, walk a mile with my shoe, Weird stuff, when does weird cross the line, writer

 

 Remember the kid I saw pulling his shoe down the sidewalk? If you don’t, you need to read my post When Does Weird Cross the Line? before you read any more of this one. I ran into the kid again this morning, and things got interesting—as in… we’ve crossed the line.

The two other occasions I saw the young man—he appears to be ten or eleven years old—he was walking down the sidewalk, coming toward me. Both times, he had a shoe—an old black lace-up loafer—tied to a rope, and he was dragging the shoe behind him. The first time, I jokingly asked if he was walking his shoe—he said, yes—and the second time we didn’t speak.

This morning, he walked up beside me, startling me.

I didn’t recognize him until I heard an odd thumping noise, and looked back to see the scuffed loafer bouncing along behind him. I stopped in my tracks, but he kept walking

“Hey!” I said, hurrying to catch him. He stopped, but the shoe went bouncing past him, doing a back flip when it reached the end of the rope. It lay there, on the sidewalk, somehow appearing quite pitiful.

“That’s a pretty good trick!” I said, nodding at the shoe. “How do you do it?”

He shrugged small shoulders and grinned shyly.

I pressed him for an answer. “Is it a magic trick?”

He looked around, apparently to see if anyone was watching, then held his hand close to his chest and pointed toward the sky. I looked up then looked back at him. His eyes were wide, and he was looking so intently at me. The shoe slid slowly over to hide behind him. It suddenly dawned on me what he’d meant when he pointed toward the sky.

“God?” I said. He smiled, and I suddenly felt as if I were being hugged and could feel it in every fiber of my physical being. I knew it was love embracing me—God’s love—and it was  literally beyond description.

I whispered, “Why?”

The boy began to shimmer and fade, but his voice was still clearly audible. “He wants to know if you’ll walk a mile with my shoe,” he said.

Then he was gone, but the shoe was still there. As I stared at it, it suddenly flipped in the air then began to flop crazily down the sidewalk. I chased after it, and when I stepped on the rope, it leapt high into the air and landed on its side.

I had no idea what to do, but the boy’s words kept replaying in my mind. “He wants to know if you’ll walk a mile with my shoe.”

I looked to the heavens and asked in a quiet voice, “Is this some kind of test?”

I heard the young boy laugh then say, “Yep.”

I picked up the shoe and hurried home.

——————

Read part three —> Bring it, Scuff Boy! 

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