The locked boots

Author – Zhang Ronghui

   I am in my last year of university and lately I have spent a lot of time at the library. I see people coming and going, and only a few faces result familiar, mostly of people that come regularly like myself and have a favourite spot to sit.
   I started noticing a guy that came to sit a couple tables away from where I usually sit. He had a good-looking mass of unruly brown hair and wore everyday a black backpack, a t-shirt, jeans, and always the same pair of old, heavy hiking boots.
   One day it was already late at night and he must have been cramming for an exam because he was scrambling anxiously through notes and textbooks. At some point, eyes still on the page, he undid the laces of his boots and I saw the heels of his white socks occasionally peeking through the back edge of his boots. The next time I looked in his direction, one foot had come off the boot, jiggling nervously on the floor. Eventually the other boot came off too, both socked feet bouncing together in the same nervous manner by either side of the discarded pair of boots.
   I didn’t see the boot guy for many days—I assume he must have taken a deserved break after the mad rush for the previous test—but the day he came back, after putting the backpack to the side of the table, he immediately proceeded to undo the laces of his boots, take them off, and put them neatly next to his backpack. Maybe he had suddenly understood how unpractical and uncomfortable it is to wear such massive boots while sitting studying for hours. Or who knows. Headphones on his ears and coffee cup at hand, he sat there for a couple of hours in his socked feet: he was now wearing heavy gray socks.
   I was myself away from the library for a couple of days after that—a casual gig at a music event—but the day I came back, I found him by the library lockers. He had evidently just rented one and he took out from his backpack notes and books, phone and headphones, his coffee cup, and then put them in a neat pile on the floor; after that he put his backpack in the locker and took his boots off, leaving them in the lower compartment. In contrast to the dull-coloured socks of previous times, he was wearing that day bright patterned socks, with something smart or ironic on them, Japanese cartoons or something of the sort. He wiggled his toes and then walked in his socks to the second-floor reading room where we usually sat.
   In the following days he kept his sock game up, wearing now every day a different pair of colourful patterned socks. He didn’t seem nervous then, but  enviably relaxed as he studied listening to music and sipping coffee.
   One day I saw him leave only to come back a few minutes later to inspect the floor, as if looking for a small lost object. Then he left again. From my table, and through the vast open interior spaces of the library I could see him going down the stairs and stopping at the general service counter of the first floor, presumably explaining that he had lost the key to his locker and asking if there was a spare key he could use. There must have been some paperwork to fill out because I saw him there, standing by the counter in his bright socks, writing on a piece of paper.
   Immediately afterwards, I saw his locker keys. They were lying between the leg of a table and the wall, in a tricky spot that was almost only visible from my viewpoint. I took them and rushed downstairs to the counter. I stood next to him, noticing for the first time that he was, against my previous impression, only slightly taller than me. He didn’t pay attention to me, concentrated as he was on his form and probably assuming that I must have been there to ask for something at the counter and not to talk to him.
   I tapped him lightly on the arm and said:
   “Hey, excuse me. Are these your locker keys?”
   He looked at me first disoriented, then with gratitude. Then he said:
   “Wow, thanks. My only pair of shoes is locked in there and I have to rush to class now.”

Happy ending

Author – Andrzej

This happened a year ago, at the end of June, the day the school year ended. All students came to school weraing their dress clothes. We, the boys, wore white shirts, black pants, mostly black socks and black shoes. Certificates and awards were given to the best students and we were free.
Me and two colleagues, Marek and Robert, decided to go to the river. Robert suggested that we should take a shortcut to the crossroads. And so we did. We crossed a narrow channel by a bridge made of steel bars. We could continue along the path or cross the crossroads through a vast area overgrown with grass and other meadow plants. I wanted to go along the path, but Marek and Robert preferred to go cross-country. Marek called us to race, who would be the first to reach the river. So we started running. I stayed a bit behind at the start. And it was a bit difficult to run in half boots. The grass reached to the ankles and sometimes to the knees. And I also felt that my right shoe got a little loose – the shoelace had to come loose or even untied during the walk. I tried to catch up with my friends, but suddenly I stumbled over something hidden in the grass. I took a few more steps, trying to protect myself from the fall down, but finally I landed on the ground. Nothing happened to me, so I stood up and called my friends to wait for me, but Robrt shouted that the race was a race. I started running again, but immediately realized that something was wrong: I didn’t have one shoe, the right one. I lost it when I fell over. I started to get lost, but here the grass and weed were high up to my knees and somehow I could not see my shoe in it. I finally gave up. Marek and Robert had long since disappeared from my eyes. I went towards the riverbank, in one shoe. I reached the road and walked on. What is worse, two women and two small children were walking from the river. I wore black socks and only one, but also a black shoe, so I was hoping that they would not notice anything.And indeed, the women talked and did not pay attention to me, especially as I walked on the toes of my right foot, trying to hide the lack of the shoe. But when I passed this group, one of the girls pointed at me and called out “Look, Mom! This boy does not have one shoe! He lost a shoe somewhere, Mom.”
Then both women looked at me too. I thought I would burn with shame.And indeed, the women talked and did not pay attention to me, especially as I walked on the toes of my right foot, trying to hide the lack of the shoe. But when I passed this group, one of the girls pointed at me and called out “Look, Mom! This boy does not have one shoe! He lost a shoe somewhere, Mom.”
Then both women looked at me too. I thought I would burn myself out of shame when one of them asked why I was walking in one shoe. I replied that I had lost the other one and could not find it. I started running again until I reached the river. MArek and Robert were waiting for me. When they saw me, without one shoe, they started laughing. “Andrew, where is your shoe?” So I told them what had happened. Marek said that it probably only happened to me so many times. We spent some time by the river, although the fact that I lost my shoe spoiled my mood a little. Finally Robert said that it was time to go and help Cinderella lad to find his lost shoe.
This time there was no one on the road, but it took over an hour to find my shoe, because I did not remember where exactly I lost it.

Stuck in the woods

Author – Andrew86

This afternoon a friend of mine phoned me and proposed to go with him for a walk in a wood not far from home. His idea was to look for some mushrooms since that yesterday it rained a lot and therefore there were ideal conditions for mushrooms. I therefore accepted his proposal and went to his house to go together in the woods.
Generally when I go to the forest I wear shoes suitable for walking, however I forgot them in the car and when I arrived to my friend’s home I was wearing black vans sneakers, not exactly ideal but still fine. When we arrived in the woods, we realized that unfortunately many trees fell during the night due to the strong wind. Consequently, walking was more difficult, with several fallen trees that had to be climbed over to continue the path.

At a certain point I was trying to climb over a fallen tree, but I got stuck for. With one leg I had already passed the fallen branches, but the other leg got stuck on a higher branch. My friend, behind me, approached maybe to help me. But instead he grabbed the ankle of my stuck leg and took advantage of it to pull my shoe off stuck foot.

He then walked away leaving me there, with only one shoe and a gray sock. By the time I managed to get past the fallen tree, my friend was already far away, and I could not run after him as there were more fallen branches and other obstacles on the ground. Also, the ground was still wet from the rain, so running could be dangerous. A few minutes later my friend stopped and waited for me, so I finally reached him. Laughing, he handed me back my shoe. By now my sock was no longer clean and in order not to dirty the shoe I had to take my sock off.
I told my friend to be careful because sooner or later I will have an opportunity to take revenge.

Flip flops at the waterfall

Authror – Sandal Fan

(This is partially based on a true story, at least the part where my cheap flip flops break on a trail by a waterfall due to mud.)

I had just moved to a new town, and had heard a lot about a local waterfall that made for a great attraction in town. I lived just down the road from the trail it was on, and decided to go and see it for myself. It was still a mile long hike, so I decided to set a Saturday aside to explore the trail.

I decided to go wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and a cheap pair of flip flops. I had been told that you would find the falls relatively early on during a hike down the trail, so I thought that the dollar store quality sandals would suffice. I was very wrong.

It had rained the past few days, but was not supposed to today, although I still was weary about any muddier parts along the side of the road. Even so, I trekked onward in the flip flops, eventually coming to the dirt path to the waterfall.

With the constant rain up until today, the path was a bit muddy. It was hardly noticeable at first, just a slight indentation being left after every step that could hardly be seen. This slowly got worse, my pace being slowed to account for the suction between my flip flops and the muck.

I eventually saw that a tree had fallen over in the middle of the path. Not wanting to just turn around without seeing the falls, I went over to a part of it with fewer branches sticking out. I climbed atop of it, the suction between the cheap sandals and the mire almost leading to me being left barefoot, but I just managed to keep them on. Once getting up there was out of the way, I rolled up my jeans in case the mud splattered. That was not what I should have been worried about.

After psyching myself up for a few seconds, I leapt into the mud on the other side of the tree, my ankles immediately disappearing from view. Out of panic, I began pulling at my feet, only to hear some snapping before coming loose. I looked down, and saw that while I had freed the straps from the mud, the foam soles of my sandals were still buried. I sighed, knowing that they were a lost cause, using my feet to pull them out of the muck before kicking the remnants of my shoes to the side, abandoning them.

I was not going to turn around at this point. I had just sacrificed my shoes on the way to this waterfall, and was not going to waste the opportunity. I trekked forth in the mud, feeling it ooze between my toes with each step.

I eventually made it to the waterfall. It actually was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was a decent sized one, where there was a barrier to keep any thrill seekers out. I stared at its majesty for a while before eventually deciding not only to head back, but to at least wear some shoes that would not break next time.

I then began to make my way back to my place. The feeling of the mud squelching under my soles was kind of nice actually. Once I made it back, I rinsed off my feet and made my way inside, knowing that I would need to get one or more pairs of sandals after losing my flip flops.

My Step Brother

Author – Ryder

Not really a story, more kinda trying to learning about my brother. My mom remarried  I gained one sister and one brother. It’s been a learning process in so many ways. I now have one younger sister and one older brother. I’m the middle child, which has its own challenge plus not my brother’s fav person for some reason. It was a typical family for the first year, it’s still an ordinary family, but as time went by, my shoes would disappear. Like not where I took them off, I would have to look for them never hard to find once, one was under the sofa, the other in the cushions on the couch, but I thought I took them off in my room. We would be trying to go somewhere, and I couldn’t find them and got the lecture to keep up with your stuff, or if you put your things up, you would know where they are. It had become almost routine. This went on forever. I really started thinking I keep forgetting where I took my shoes off. Being the middle child, you have enough problems without losing your mind.
Over time, my shoes would become harder to find more than once I had to go in just socks when my family went to the store because I couldn’t find any of my shoes. My parents said to find them are do without. Like a week later, my Nikes just disappeared. I finally found one in the hall closet. Another time, I got home from the park. I had mud on my Adidas, so I took them off on the front porch later went out to clean them, and one was gone. I looked everywhere decided a dog took it. About a month went by, still seemed like I couldn’t keep up with my shoes. Then one night, I was in the den watching YouTube, and guess my brother didn’t know I was there. I saw him walking in the front door as he did, it looked like he was kicking something down the hall as he walked but wasn’t sure he was talking to my dad, who was in the kitchen. He walked by his room then walked normal to the kitchen to speak with dad. He never saw me. The next morning  I had to go with my brother to his game, just him and me. That was the first time we had been anywhere, just us. He just got his licenses. Everyone else had gone to my sister’s game. He told me to get ready. I went to put my shoes on and only had one DC. I walked into my brother’s room and ask him if he had seen my shoe.
He said, why would I know where you keep your shoes. I was sure I noticed him kicking something down the hall last night. He told me to hurry up are we would be late, and he would have to run laps. I keep looking. He finally walked in the den and handed me my shoe that was by the front door and an extra sock and said, wear this  I said no, he said we have to go. I will call mom. It’s not my fault you can’t keep up with your stuff. Mom got on the phone and said, find your shoe are just sit in the truck. This is getting old. You lost three pairs of shoes.
I got so mad put my shoe on, and hopped to the truck my brother got in. We went to his game when we got there. I said I’m not getting out. He had brought the extra sock and tossed it to me, said just wear the extra sock and come on. I finally gave in. I went to the bleachers and sat down before anybody could see me. Before the game started, my brother said, come sit on the bench. I said no, he picked me up and carried me to the bench after the game. He took me with him to hang out with his friends. He was actually nice. When we got home after a while, I decided to look for my shoe and found it under a chair. I swear, I look there twice.
My brother was back to being a jerk, big brother. Then, a couple of days later, I was getting ready for school and no shoe again. I know I took them off in my room. I started looking everywhere, running around the house with just my left shoe on. I went back to my closet to look again then decided I would just wear mismatched shoes but both my  Nike and Adidas where for the left foot. It was the right ones that disappeared. That was weird. My brother walked by my room and yelled, if you get it in gear, I will give you a ride to school. He never does that. I said, just go, I can’t find my shoe. He walked in and helped me look for it. He finally said, just get an extra sock and come on. I said, no, I’m not going with one shoe. He said you don’t have a choice. You don’t have any right shoes anymore. I sit down on my bed,He tossed me another sock. Finally, I put the extra sock on, and just look at my foot, missing a shoe, and my brother said, just come on, you have two socks on. You don’t need a shoe. On the way to school, I keep thinking about how does this happens and why my brother is nice when it happens.
I got home started looking on the net, typing in shoe stolen, why people steal shoes, lost shoes, and so on and found this site. And read some stories then decided to look in my brother’s room for my missing shoes. No luck. My brother got home after we ate dinner. My brother came into my room and said, get your shoe on, not shoes shoe. He never asks if I found my other shoe. Plus, he never asks me to hang out with him and his friends. I’m beginning to think he took them. Not sure why he would

Country Robbery pt1

Author – Bootsman

Today I was working with my boss repairing fencing out in the countryside. It was a warm summers day but heavy rain was forecast later. Jeff, my 36 year old boss, 6ft with athletic build was wearing brand new tan coloured, size 11, Timberland work boots,
‘Nice boots’,  I said, telling him he should of bought black as they’ll look trashed in a week. He looked at my size 10 black Caterpillar boots.
‘I’m not working you hard enough. Your own boots still look new” he said jokingly.
An old Ford transit van came up the narrow dirt track. The driver asked about a farm, I said it’s not around here and they’d have to drive another mile to turn their van around unless they want to reverse it three miles back to the road. As they drove off I told Jeff they where probably poachers or thieves as the passenger was looking at our tools and our pick up truck. Half an hour later the passenger walked back down the track.
‘Our van is stuck, could you pull us out of a ditch’, he asked. Jeff told me to stay with all the tools as he and the guy got in the pick up and drove off. Ten minutes later both vehicles came down the track, the passenger was driving Jeff’s pick up.
‘Where’s my boss?’, I asked.
‘He decided to walk back, very slowly’ said the van driver laughing as he held up Jeff’s Timberland boots.
I squared up to the younger guy, he was about my age and size. The other grabbed a rifle from his van and told me to stop. I thought about running but they where wearing trainers and had a gun, they would soon catch me or shoot me trying to escape in my work boots.
They took my phone and wallet and demanded I put all our expensive tools in the pick up. When I had finished the younger guy looked at my feet.
‘Think we’ll have them boots too’ he said. I told him to fuck off.
The older guy, thirty something, smiled as he held some heavy duty cable ties he had found in our truck, threatening to tie me up if I don’t comply. I sat down and leaned my back against a fence post that I’d planted earlier and took off my boots. The young guy seemed excited to watch me in my socked feet as I threw my boots at him.
‘That wasn’t very nice’, he said telling me to stay on the floor. I demanded a bottle of water if they where leaving me stranded without shoes. He fetched a bottle and the cable ties as the older one held the rifle. Frightened I told them not to tie me up as I wouldn’t be able to drink the water. He smiled as he told me to wrap my legs around the fence post I’d been leaning on. He grabbed my socked feet and pulled them away from me and used a cable tie to strap my ankles together. He pretended to tickle my foot, I pulled my feet away but the post stopped them, he was pleased with his handy work knowing I wasn’t going anywhere soon.
I watched him throw my boots in the back of the pick up. The older guy drove off in our truck as the other followed in their van leaving me attached to the post and shoeless. At least my hands where free to drink water.
I tried to stand up but my ankles where bound solid and my socked feet gave no grip to the dirt below. I even tried lifting my feet up to get them over the post but it was too tall.
I hoped Jeff was OK and comes to my rescue.
To be continued.

Hitch Hiking

Author – Pete and Jim

We were hitch hiking back home after a short camping holiday as the weather had closed in and rather than rain it was snowing heavily, we were on the last stretch now only 10 miles away from our town. Lots of cars had passed us but no one seemed to want to stop. About lunchtime a pretty beat up estate car stopped which had 3 guys inside, the driver got out asked us where we were going, we told him and he said he was going through our town, he told us to throw our big padded coats, backpacks and boots in the back as there wasn’t much room in his car, the driver got back in leaving the passenger side door open for us to get in, as we shut the back tailgate he drove off at high speed causing the door to slam shut leaving us stranded, we only had on our shirts jeans and socks and it was snowing. We took stock and there was not much to say, our phones and wallets were in our coats and we could not walk 6 miles home like this, as we walked we left footprints behind us in the snow. A van stopped after a few minutes and the he could not believe we were walking about like that in this weather, we explained what had happened. H turned the heater up to try and thaw us out as much as he could. There were a few bends on this downhill road into town and as we rounded a sharp bend we saw the green estate car that had first given us a lift off the road into a ditch. We pulled up to check things out and see if everyone was OK. The tree guys that were in the car were nowhere to be seem so the next thing we did was to check the back of the car, our coats backpacks and boots were in there and untouched, our phones and wallets were intact. We quickly took them out and threw them into the van along with a pair of size 9 AirMaxs that were on the back seat. We set off again in a much happier frame of mind, we took our wet socks off and put our boots back on at last feeling warm and dry. About 10 minutes later who should we see walking down the road, thumbs out, the tree guys who drove off with our gear, we enjoyed rolling down the widow telling them to enjoy the walk, one of the lads was in black socked feet so we knew who the AirMaxs were. The guy driving the van wanted us to stop and mug them but we did not want to sink to their level, we at least were in the warm and dry.

Office Training

Author – Irsocks

I was called in to do some data entry work for this small company. Since I would only be there for the day, they only gave me a table at the corner end of a hallway. As people walked by some would bump into the table. Once the flow of people slowed down, I got a little too comfortable and stretched out. I let my shoe slip part way off my foot. To my surprise several people rounded the corner. I tried moving my foot and shoe out of the way, but only succeeded in moving my foot. My shoe stayed in the way and was kicked away. The people did not bother to notice that they were kicking my shoe down the hallway out of my reach and sight. I was left with one loafer and one red and blue sock with white polka dots.
I looked down the hallway for my shoe, but it had vanished. I was too embarrassed to walk around in my sock foot looking for my shoe. I got called into the manager’s office. I got a lot of stares and giggles walking to his office. He looked down at my sock foot as I entered his office. He giggled as well. He gave me some more paperwork. As I turned around to leave, he said, “Hold on, everyone usually wears two shoes in this office.” He handed me my shoe as he said, “I believe this belongs to you, and you might want to get more office training.”
I thought I had learned my lesson. Just a few hours later I placed my feet up on the table to avoid what happened last time. This time I payed more attention to the hallway traffic. The manager walked around the corner surprising me. I quickly moved my feet from off the table. In the process the heal of my shoe got caught and my foot slipped right out of my shoe. The timing was perfect. As my shoe fell the manager scooped it up and kept walking to his office. I was too surprised to say anything. Once again I was in one loafer and one sock. I could not believe it.
This time the manager did not call me into his office to give me my loafer. I waited and waited. I wanted to go and get my loafer, but I was too embarrassed. I had to get my loafer before I left. I was not going to get the stares and laughs again. I waited until all of the people were gone and walked to the manager’s office. He had left already. I found my paycheck on his desk with a note that read, ‘I see you did not take advantage of that office training.’ I searched his office for my loafer but had no luck. I guess my loss was his gain.

Nina and the spider

Author – JohnB

So for several years now I’ve tried to take off people’s shoes in different ways when I meet them. I try to find clever ways to get them to take off their shoes. Some are much harder than others. Usually girls are harder to get to take their shoes off than guys.

But here’s one story of a girl I met in high-school named Nina. True story btw! 🙂

I met Nina at the school bus stop. We took the same bus to school and home everyday. She was a new girl, one year older than me. I was a junior and she was a senior in high-school. Everyday day I tried to sit next to her or close to her to see what shoes she had on. Some days she’d wear flats, other days, converse and sometimes black ankle boots. Those were my favorite days lol. Whenever I sat next to her I made casual conversation with her. I’d compliment her outfit and ask her how her days was. Sometimes I’d walk her home as well. One day while we were talking, I found out she had a terrible fear of spiders… this gave me a great idea. I waited until she wore my favorite black boots again to make my move. I was gonna get her to take off her boots that day! So after about a week she wore the boots again and I walked her home. We were about to cross the street and go in different direction as we approached her house so I knew I had to act fast. I, in my most convincingly scared voice, yelled, “SPIDER!!” and pointed at her right black boot. She jumped up in terror and screamed. She frantically looked around her foot and asked where it was. I pretended to look around her foot for the spider, I looked up with a face of concern to her and said, “I think it went inside your boot…”. I could tell her heart sank. She was scared to death of spiders but she definitely didn’t want to take her boot off. She asked me, “Really?”. With an utter face if dismay. I offered to get it out and she agreed. I sat her on the grass and I began to pull off her boot. I was feeling pretty proud of myself at this moment lol. She couldn’t even bring herself to look as I pulled off her boot to “look” for the spider. She had grey ankle socks with white polka dots. I said, “cute socks” and she rolled her eyes. I patted her foot down, as if carefully not trying to miss anything. After about 15 seconds of me feeling her foot, without looking she asked, “did you find it?”. I said I hadn’t found it, but I should check her other boot just in case. She sheepishly, but without hesitation offered up her other foot. I quickly pulled off this boot and examined her boot and foot as well. I brought both her feet together and did one final exam. I grabbed both her shoes and smacked them on the ground to make sure there wasn’t anything inside of them. After I was satisfied, I said, “I think you should be fine now, it must’ve crawled out when I pulled off your shoe.” Visibly shaken she got up and thanked me. I could tell she was a little embarrassed about being in her socks, but I handed her boots and she reluctantly accepted them. She grabbed them, and instead of putting them back on, she walked the rest if the way home in her gray socks while keeping her arm outstretched to maintain a safe distance from her boots. I still tease her once in a while about it lol.

Losing a shoe before a job interview

Author – JohnB

I finally got a job interview for a teacher’s aide that I’d be waiting for months. I had to take a preliminary exam to be considered. So I get to the exam place with like 2 minutes to spare, but you need to show your ID to be able to take the test and of course I left it in my car. So I had to run out, go to the parking garage, run 3 floors up and 3 floors down to get my wallet because they don’t allow late entries take the test. So the parking garage had 4 levels, I parked my car on the 3rd level. When I ran up, I ran one too many levels and ended up on the 4th level and I couldn’t find my car . So I figured out it was the wrong level after like 30 seconds of running around. I ran back down to the 3rd floor and found my car. So you know those type of stairs that are like hollow after every step? It’s not a full step so you can see the ground underneath? Well it was those type of stairs. So when I started running back down, the back of my Nike got caught on the step and my foot slipped out of my shoe and my shoe fell off and fell through the crack and fell down all the way to the first floor. So I ran the rest of the way down in one shoe and one sock. I didn’t have time to get it back. I ran into the testing room with no time to spare. I get there, panting and sweating with my grey socks with tiny little gameboys on them. I had one shoe on and one sock on. Everything in this quiet room turned and looked right at my sock. I saw some people snickering. I sat in my seat and took my test, it took me about half an hour. I ran back to the stairwell once I finished and my shoe was still at the bottom! Embarrassing but pretty thrilling day lol.