Monday was the first day of school in Hillmomba. I overheard two parents and their kids talking about it on the sidewalk in front of 10Box as I was writing on the back of my scratchers I'd just gotten from the machine.
I knew there was school, because on my way to town, I had to navigate a gravel road hog to get onto the county blacktop road. And on the county blacktop road, I had to squeeze past the bus on its way to drop off the gravel road hog's kid.
On the last turn before getting to the county lettered highway, I saw something weird on the pavement. Huh. What WAS that? It kind of looked like a small owl that had been hit by a car. Or maybe a large woodpecker. It was just lying there. Mostly black, with some red, that didn't appear to be blood, just like colored feathers. I didn't get a good look, because I came upon it quickly after rounding the curve.
Coming home, approaching it from the other direction, I could tell that the object was not a bird at all. It was a sneaker! A black Nike sneaker, with a red sole or red trim. ONE SHOE. How does that happen?
Then my mind started puttering around on the rest of my two-mile drive to the Mansion. It was the first day of school. WHAT IF a bully on the bus had thrown out a kid's shoe? How traumatic would that be? For a kid to get home with only one shoe. From a pair of shoes bought for the new school year. Probably getting criticized by the parent, for being careless and losing a shoe, or for allowing it to be taken. Or maybe given sympathy, with an angry mom calling the school to complain.
Sometimes my mind works overtime. This scenario made me really sad. So I'm hoping that shoe just got bounced out of the back of a truck or one of those side-by-side off-road vehicles that people drive to town.
2 comments:
It does seem odd to see only one shoe and I hope it wasn't a bully on the bus type of thing, I also hope the kid doesn't get in too much trouble with his parents, and maybe they will drive that way to retrieve it.
River,
That shoe was there on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But it was GONE on Friday! I'm hoping someone did indeed come to get it! The shoe was at the very edge of the pavement, so not getting run over. The other days were enough that if an animal was going to carry it off, it would have been gone before Friday.
The shoe was about the size an 11-13 year old kid might wear. I'm hoping maybe it was somebody who lived farther down the bus route, who doesn't usually drive out this way, so didn't see it. Then maybe the kid confessed, and they went looking to where it got tossed, and found it. The weather has been clear, no rain. I have high hopes for that shoe recovery!
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