Magic Shoe

Do you have a favorite shirt? Maybe a pair of pants, or a baseball cap. Maybe some funny socks, or a dress that makes you feel good. Everyone has little quirks like this. A favorite something. Like Brianna.

Brianna was a young fourteen year old girl, just started in a new school-in the middle of the school year, of course. You see, Brianna was a very unlucky girl. Things just seemed to happen to her and her family, though mostly her. Such as her mother getting a new job in a new state. Great for her mom, who loved the job, and great for her dad, who loved the money. Not great for Brianna.

A new job meant a new school, and as I said before, it was the middle of the school year. Brianna couldn’t care less about how great the job is since it was a good twenty miles from her house and her mother forbade her from stepping foot anywhere near the ‘dangerous’ parts. The money would go to ‘college funds’ and ‘extracurricular activities’ instead of anything Brianna really wanted.

Brianna was a very open girl. Her long black hair was always tied up to expose her pale face, and her clothes were usually comfortable and simple. But she did have one secret, one that would simply kill her if it got out. She had a special shoe.

You heard me. Not shoes, as in the pair, but shoe, as in the one. She only wore it on special occasions, like funerals or parties. It was an old, battered tennis shoe, faded with age. If you minutely examined it, you’d find the faint color pink and some purple. The shoelaces had broken apart a number of times. The heel had worn down to nothing and it smelled of gym. But it was Brianna’s favorite.

You know why? Brianna was wearing that shoe when she won the talent contest at her old school. 20 dollar gift card to Walmart was the grand prize, though she wasn’t wearing it when she went shopping and her mom made her buy school supplies. Brianna was wearing that shoe when her favorite singer on American Idol won. Brianna was wearing that shoe when she got an A on a test she didn’t study for. She was wearing that shoe when her cousin Michael said his first word to her, “Bree-YANNA!”

She was wearing that shoe when she managed to jump across a river without getting wet. She was wearing that shoe when she got a computer for Christmas, when she started posting stories online and got good reviews. She was wearing that shoe when her sister Jessica was born. She was wearing that shoe when she got a new kitty, and she was wearing it on her first day of school.

She wouldn’t normally wear it to school because she lost its mate and she was frightened people would stare, but also because she didn’t want to wear out the magic. People did stare. They stared and they smiled and they followed her around. She was getting so flustered she answered ‘pi’ to a social studies question.

“Brianna, Right?”

That got so annoying, hearing person after person say that. She kept saying ‘yes’ and then they would break into twenty questions, each relatively the same. Only one girl avoided her. She was wearing black everything, with heavy black makeup on and her hair died a deep black with purple highlights. It even looked like she was wearing black contacts. Brianna’s mom would have a cow if she did any of that.

The bell rang and Brianna waited outside for her dad to pick her up. She noticed Black Girl standing all alone as the bus drove off. She walked over because, despite the exhaustion of the prattle of these freaks, she wanted to know everybody. So she said, “I’m Brianna.”

“I heard,” the girl answered without looking at her. Brianna waited, but she didn’t elaborate.

“What’s your name?”

“How about you tell me why you’re here, hmm?” The girl turned and glared at Brianna. “Aren’t you one of them? The normal ones?”

“What?”

“You people don’t hang out with my kind. We’re the shadow people, the people in the dark that wait and sneak.”

“Goths?”

“That’s one word for it. Most of us prefer Children of the Night, or even Satan’s Bane. Shows that you are one of them, so leave me alone,” the girl snapped, turning away again.

“I’m not!” Brianna protested. “I don’t like them. I just didn’t know that. I know you have your own clubs and you like dark humor!”

“Everyone knows that,” she argued.

“Well, I’m not really either. I’m kinda a loner. People don’t usually do that.”

“You’re telling the truth…”

“Of course!”

“Vanessa,” she said, smiling.

“What?”

“My name is Vanessa. We’re going shopping this weekend. You need a new wardrobe if you wanna be my friend,” Vanessa smiled.

So there it is. Now you know why that shoe is so important. She was wearing that shoe when she met the friend of her life. She and Vanessa never separated. When her parents moved again, Brianna lived with Vanessa. Vanessa was a once in a lifetime kind of deal. If Brianna hadn’t been wearing that shoe, she’d never have had the courage to go up to Vanessa. She’d have become a cliché ‘normal’ girl and lived her life without real adventure, real love.

She got married and met up with her sister in her thirties, and Vanessa married and they lived on the same street. They were always together.

And Brianna never figured out that the shoe wasn’t magic.