THE SHOES.

She hated the shoes – From the moment she saw them she knew that they would have to go.

Maureen couldn’t sleep. It was another muggy night in mid July. She was frightened of waking Alan. He’d been working hard lately and needed his rest. They were hoping to visit their only son in Canada in September of the following year and that cost money. At the moment they hadn’t got a bean. She was doing two jobs as it was and now, the way things were going, she would be too tired to properly cope with either of them.

It was the noise that had woken her as well as the heat. It was like someone banging about and was coming from the wardrobe. She knew if she told Alan about it he’d only say she was dreaming or imagining it so she kept quiet but the noise was definite enough. She’d only noticed it during the last couple of days and after she’d crept down to the kitchen and made tea, she sat trying to think exactly when it had started. Then she remembered. It started after Alan had brought home the shoes. They’d been given him by Brenda, his old friend’s widow. She said they were too good to give to the charity shop and as Alan was the same size asAndy he may as well have them.

“This is a lousy pub”, Andy commented to Alan when they had drunk their first pint. The seats were ripped, there was beer all over the floor and the staff were abrupt. “Yeah”, Alan agreed. “Let’s move on”. They were only a few yards down the street when Alan spotted two girls walking along. “They look nice”, he commented and made straight for the one with the long legs and nice tan. “Fancy jjoining me and my mate for a couple of drinks”? He asked hopefully. The girls looked wary. They weren’t used to being propositioned so forcefully and besides were on their way to see someone in hospital. “What’s your name anyway – Well I mean names really don’t I”? Maureen who was the less inhibited answered for both of them, telling them their names and shaking hands with the two men. Until then neither of the men had thought much about finding girls to go out with. They’d each been contented with heavy drinking sessions and going off on steam trains which was a passion they’d shared. Now though with these two suddenly appearing out of nowhere things looked as if they may be very different. Andy especially was very taken with the quieter girl who hardly said much and thought she may be nice just as a friend but didn’t want too much involvement all the same. Instead he thought of her as rather mysterious – A puzzle which he’d solve in his spare time which would be found only when he wasn’t off on steam railways with Alan. For Alan though he was truly smitten with the lovely Maureen and definitely wanted to get to know her better.


Maureen and Brenda had always been good friends. From infant school they were inseparable. Maureen was the more confident one in whose shadow Brenda walked. They were happy with that though and Brenda never felt herself to be domineered or kept down. Luckily their mothers got on really well too. Eventually as they grew they did everything together and to some extent even dressed alike though Brenda being much shorter looked a bit silly in some of the clothes Maureen war so looked for others which were a bit different but not too much so. They got jobs in the same places . Neither of them were particularly ambitious and didn’t like offices much. They were happier meeting the public and especially Maureen loved chatting to clients and smiling even at the most miserable ones which seemed to have the desired effect - To make them smile in return. Working had really brought Brenda out of her shell and her mother commented how much less shy she was now she had this job and had left school. Her mother felt rather sad then when she started to bring Andy home. He was quiet like she was and seemed to have eyes that looked right through you. His only interest seemed to be trains. He never talked about sport or politics, didn’t know much about what was going on in the world and had no hobbies but the steam trains. True he went for a drink with Alan but that was only at his suggestion and Brenda’s mother doubted he’d go anywhere by himself without Alan’s prompting. He worked at a shoe menders - His father’s in fact. She rather had the feeling he’d been forced into that and would rather have been doing something else – Probably on his beloved railway. Now Alan was a different kettle of fish. Cybil, Brenda’s mum, always hoped that her daughter would get involved with him. Now here was a man who would have been able to bring her out. He was lively and had plenty to say and was good looking – She thought rather like Clark Gable had been in his youth. He could wax lyrical on any subject and seemed to always have a funny joke to make everyone laugh if there was an awkward silence brewing in a conversation. He was interested in her funny hobbies too when they all visited her as a foursome. She loved the tarot cards and reading tea leaves not that there were many of those now since the advent of teabags.

Of course all four had a double wedding. It seemed that Brenda wanted to share her big day with Maureen who was equally anxious to do likewise. Maureen’s family were delighted to see that the girls were now settled. Her sister Anna was also married now and only Duncan was left without someone. He was Maureen’s older brother and was in and out of hospital a lot because of illness. In fact they were off to see him the night they first set eyes on the boys who really were the ones to set eyes on them. Cybil was very put out to find that Maureen was expecting and that her Brenda – Her only little girl wasn’t. As it turned out ?Andy was infertile – Another thing for which Cybil could dislike him. He was always very polite to her and very kind to Brenda. She even grew to love the railway almost as much as he did. She’d go on trips with him when Alan couldn’t because of commitments at home and again sometimes they’d all go as a foursome.

He’d bought the shoes just before Christmas. He’d liked them. During that winter what with the heavy rain, he had noticed that the soles and the uppers were separating a bit and thought how sad it was that nothing is made as well as it used to be. Probably enough glue hadn’t been used on them during their manufacture. Whatever the reason, he’d pop them into the shop tomorrow and get them mended. In a quiet moment he’d have time to see to them he was sure. Cybil was there again when he got home. He showed them off proudly to her, telling her what a fine bargain they were especially for someone who could repair the slight damage that there was to the soles. She sniffed and looked down her nose as usual and when he was in the bath he heard Brenda and her rowing over him again. He’d always known that she didn’t like him. However, he had long ceased to worry about it. As long as Brenda cared that was all that mattered and she did care. He was still friends with Alan and doted on Maureen’s baby whom he saw as a little niece really since he and Alan were almost like brothers they’d been friends for so long.

Brenda slammed out of the house, taking their dog for a walk. She always did this when annoyed with her mother. All was now quiet in the house as Cybil held each shoe in her hands. She seemed to be talking to them when Andy came down from the bathroom. She hastily dropped them when she heard the door opening, telling him she had indeed thought them nice. All she wanted now was to get an object of Maureen’s and her plan would be complete.

The next morning Brenda woke shivering with cold and coughing. Obviously she was in for a dose of something nasty. Dutifully Andy rose early in order to take the dog walking before he went to work. He could take him into the shop with him and knew his mother would have him. She lived in the flat above. He may as well wear the shoes while walking the dog and then take them into work on his feet instead of carrying them in a bag. He had a spare pair at his mother’s anyway. It was while crossing the fields with the dog that he first noticed it. The shoes seemed to be propelling him along – Sometimes against his will. Like someone with Parkinson’s disease he couldn’t always stop when he wanted to. He was fine when he took them off but he didn’t like to do that here because of the dew and wet leaves. They were now approaching the road. He called to Sam, the soppy old Labrador which trotted along chewing up a stick he’d found and put him on his lead. When he reached the road the lights were red. He tried to stop but the shoes wouldn’t let him. They kept on moving, moving out between the moving buses, moving out between the lorries and cars, darting in and out between the motor cycles until finally a bus knocked him down. He died later that day but amazingly, the shoes and the dog were intact.

It was Brenda who first heard the noise when she had them in her own wardrobe. They seemed restless as though they wanted to find someone. She hated to see them there and wondered why she had not had them buried with Andy. Then she thought that maybe they’d be “quieter” with Alan, his only friend. She gave them to Alan who brought them home but said nothing about the noises they made or the feeling that they were looking at her when she took out the laces and looked into the eyelets through which they were threaded. From the moment Maureen had them in her own wardrobe she hated them and knew she would have to get rid of them. Somehow she knew they would kill Alan if she didn’t. She formulated her plan while drinking her tea and waiting for the alarm to wake him. When she was alone and he was at work, she’d take them – Take them and dump them beside the tree in the middle of Parmaston Grove. She was sure that this would be the best thing to do. It was far enough away from their own home so that they’d not be traced. If anyone asked her why she was doing it she could say that she was grief stricken at the loss of her friend and was a little unbalanced. They’d be safe there. No way could she or would she give them to anyone else. These shoes were evil.

When Alan had gone to work she phoned in sick. Her old ladies at the sheltered housing complex where she worked as a home help would understand and that nice Head of the school where she also worked would sympathise too. She never took any time off she was so conscientious. Quietly she looked out of the car window to make sure nobody was looking. Then she saw that one man on a bicycle was coming past. She waited for him to go and then gently placed the shoes by the tree. As she was getting into her car she saw to her horror that the shoes were running after her. She only just managed to scramble into the car in time to drive away with the shoes in hot pursuit.

Just as Cybil was coming out of the local post office she saw them too. They’d just crossed the main road where a group of startled pedestrians and motorists were staring open mouthed at the sight of a pair of lone shoes running side by side along the road as if they were being chased by the devil himself. Suddenly and without warning Cybil fell to the floor with shock. Then the shoes came for her and began to batter her about the head and body. As if they contained the weight of a man, and crushed her ribs as they danced upon her and leapt on her chest. They broke her legs as they did their frenzied dance like the mad things they had become. Eventually the laces flicked out of their eyelets and wrapped themselves round her throat like coiling snakes. They squeezed and squeezed until all her life had ebbed away. I should know. I was the reporter on the story for the BBC news. As I picked them up once they had stopped their deadly dance I saw a face – A man’s face with a hammer in his hand cobbling the soles and the uppers back together.

(The end).