The Tale of Two Pair of Shoes

There are many events coming up for Halloween in this town which sets it watch to such things. The Save Dade ball is on Saturday and The Palace's special day will be Sunday; Carlos is holding an "ER" T-party and everyone is scrambling for nurses uniforms, scrubs, and emergency vehicle workers' jumpsuits.

I really, really wanted to go as Clara Barton, not a long way off from my suffragette outfit a few years back at Twist's turnabout party. But, Leopoldo today found a pair of size 14, never-worn white spikes for ten dollars at a local charity thrift store. When he went to the counter, a very distraught customer asked, "What size are those?" "Fourteen", L replied. "Do you really want them; I need them for my nurse costume." Sorry Charlie...but, now I have to be a nurse.

At the end of the first week of going out together, Leopoldo admitted that he only had one uncontrollable vice: shopping. Given the times and town I live in, that was almost a blessing, not a curse. So, when we went shopping for fabric downtown yesterday, I wasn't surprised how quickly L found all the cloth needed for my outfit in the first store; you couldn't find a more educated consumer. Then, he asked, "Can we go look at shoes?" Within minutes he had sniffed out a pair of silver spikes (the outfit demands silver spikes and clutch to match). They were fierce, although I refused to try them on. He did, however, and they were a little roomy, which sold me on them; when we went to the counter to pay, the clerk said, "We do get shoes this size, but they don't last for long." L looked at me and we both uttered, "O000".

Unfortunately, when we got home the toe of the shoes were too narrow for me to fit into; they are being taken to be stretched, though, because Mr. Astor says I'm going to get into those shoes if it kills me. I would feel embarrassed by this if Mrs. Stuyvesant-Fish hadn't shown me the six-inch, white T-straps she donned in a similar festive mood. (At least I am not going to ride a pick-up truck around town on a bale of straw in my shoes.) I may, however, end up in a real "ER" after two nights in these killers.