Charlie was a happy kid but his shoes were sad. The shoes weren’t wrong to feel so you know, because they were badly torn. White was their initial colour but now they looked dull brown and dirty green. Charlie loved the shoes; he loved everything, especially food. Most of the time, i.e. 93% to be precise, he had food thoughts like about a cupcake or a milkshake, a chocolate or a marmalade, or a lime pie perhaps. The other 7% he gave to the rest of the world that talked to him. Hence, Charlie lived in his tasty world and enjoyed it immensely.
That day while he was going to the school it started to rain. Charlie didn’t miss a single puddle on the way, making his trousers and shoes wet. The trousers were fine but the shoes weren’t. The water entered the shoes and soaked both Charlie’s socks and his feet. The shoes thought them to be a failure; after all they couldn’t protect the feet from getting wet. But Charlie didn’t know about remorse, rather he was relishing the sound that was coming from the wet shoes – ‘Puchuk Puchuk’.
Charlie had brought bread and jam that day for the lunch break and his mind was stuck with the wonderful image of the bread and jam (complementing each other so well). He had no intention to attend any class before the lunch break. Luckily his wish was almost granted. First of all he was punished in the assembly for wearing dirty shoes, which meant at least a ten minute late entry in the class. This was huge for Charlie. Nothing much happened in the first four periods that allowed Charlie to be out of the class, except twice for the toilet break. But his wet shoes took all his concentration from whatever the teachers were teaching and he never realised how the time passed.
Sometimes he was busy in making sounds ‘Puchuk Puchuk’ and make his bench mate laugh along or else he got himself involved in opening the shoes and removing the socks, then laughing at his pink wrinkled feet; then again wasting time in wearing them back. Oh! Time rushed quickly for Charlie, this is not a tough task for Time. It rushes…as if it’ll miss a train.
Back to Charlie, who is now eating his lunch. His eyes close every time he takes a bite. A delightful moment for Charlie, a fulfilment, a never forgetting instant. And the shoes are also not sad anymore. They are dried up and ready for a walk or even a run.
Charlie you radiate happiness. And I love you.
