The Red Shoes (a short story)

The Red Shoes

by Sheri Grutz

Stella and her father lived in a thriving city with markets 5 blocks long, and houses being built by the dozen, her own was a cobble stone that was built for dwarfs, so her father had to duck down under doorways, and squeeze into furniture. He was a medicine man, and rumored to have some kind of ailment himself, and the two of them made very little money, except when anxious mothers would stop by, somewhat supplying them with firewood.

“Father, something has got a hold of me,”

“What is it, Stella?”

“Something powerful, causing me to jerk. What should I take?”

“I'll get you some sage.”

He mixed up a small drink for his daughter, and told her to rest for the night. Sure enough, Stella had regained composure, and went to school happy as a lark.

Stella loved school, and excelled in mathematics, so naturally her inclination went to science, as she had seen her father, a virtual chemist himself, help others and herself in a world where so many needed relief.

“Students, next Monday afternoon, we are having a visit from Maxwell in Space. He will be presenting many exhibits on the planets, and our future. It may run later than the bell. Let your parents know.”

“Will it be about Martians?” Stella asked her.

“This won't be cartoons, Stella. It is a real learning experience.”

“That sounds good, Ms. Crumb.”

The next Monday, the kids were eating their lunch outside under trees, while Maxwell set up his booth inside. They chatted amongst themselves about his horn rimmed glasses, and long hair, watching him bring in many various items into their school room. They rushed back inside.

“Students, wait patiently. You will all get your turn.”

“Hello, Students. I'm Maxwell in Space. Let's explore! All things in space are in orbit, look at these planets here, round and rotating. When you look up at the moon at night, did you know that one day, we may visit the moon! And not only that, there is something coming along called a satellite. It will be the future. See this bright red light orbiting around earth, that right there is a satellite. I've been to where they are making it, dreaming of it, getting ready for it. It will be an eye in the sky.”

“More like a drunk eye,” Tommy replied.

“Does it shoot lasers?” Carleen asked.

“It might one day. It's all forms of communication, delivered instantly around the world.”

Stella held off until the display was done, and all the other kids had gone home, and she walked up to Maxwell.

“I've always wanted to be in space...I've always wanted to fly.”

“Let me show you something I've got in this box.” He pulled out a black box as dark as night with a big round hole where the moon would be. Then he opened it, and there were bright red sparkling shoes in it. He took them out. “Let me tell you the story of these shoes. Awhile ago, there was psychic woman who studied time, and time travel. She had lost her father at a young age, and wanted to revisit him. She could see into the future, the future of satellites, and she knew what they looked like, and created these shoes to be able to fly through the years going backward and forward, capturing it all. The trick with these shoes is, all she had to do was put them on, then click her heels, and she'd be transported anywhere.”

“I want to have shoes like that. Magic shoes.”

“I'll tell ya what, these shoes just might fit you, and I only obtained them from my wife. You see, she was the psychic.”

“Ohhh.”

“I would like to visit her again, but these are woman's shoes, and won't much good to me. Here, you can have them.”

“Really?! Oh my goodness. My father will be thrilled.”

“And you, I imagine.”

“And me, yes! Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Stella took the shoes, and nearly ran all the way home. He was wrong though, they didn't quite fit yet, and Stella kept them under her bed at her father's urging, thinking she was growing up much too fast.

When Stella was 18 years old, her father had grown even more sick, and she was the one driving in the business by watching the young kids of their townsfolk. He said to her one day, “Stella, I have made something here that I do believe will let you live a long, long life. I want you to drink it all done in one swoop.”

“Father, I want you to drink it down.”

“No. I do believe all my destiny has been completed. Please child, drink this down.”

Stella stared at the vile of bubbling liquid, and then looked at him, and then it, and then drank it as he had wished. She heaved over, went into convulsions, eyes rolled back, it was so powerful. Then it subsided. 10 minutes later, Stella went to wash her face in cold water, and the most shocking thing was there. Her skin had turned green. Her father passed it off, and tried not to make a big deal out of it, but wondered, who will marry my daughter now?

Stella grew used to her condition, and then one day, just on a whim, she removed the red shoes from under her bed. She put them on. He did not say she needed to say anything, so she remained silent, then clicked her heels. She was instant transported to a huge kingdom. Very slowly, she walked up to the door of the castle and knocked 3 times. An older man in a cape and pointed hat answered the door.

“I know who you are. You passed through my radar. You are Stella, and I know of your father too. He and I go way back, and he cheated me in a game of cards. As we speak, his life is coming to an end.”

“No! Who are you, where am I?”

“I am the wizard. And this is Oz. There's no going back now. You've time travelled here.”

“I don't want to be here.”

“You'll see, you've got the magic slippers now, and just by going once, now you can fly all over the land. I'll give you a small house on the outskirts of town, but you must promise to predict my fortune when I need you, and that of newcomers.”

“I want to go back.”

“You can't go back, you're here now.”

Stella settled up with the wizard on her lodging and estate, and worried the worse for her father. She grew bitter. Angry. Mean. She scathed through fields of flowers, killing anything in sight. She spent days trying to work up a bad prediction for the wizard that would leave him guilt ridden. But one thing that did happen is, she taught a broom to fly. She was able to race around the kingdom, searching for anything she could give a bad fortune to. Time went on. She grew older.

She grew to not believe the wizard anymore, a mere mortal, no one who had time travelled, but dropped here like a meteor. One day, she put the red shoes on again, thinking, maybe if I just try a little harder I can get back to my former life. She knew her father would be dead, but she could take over the business. She was walking around her small house, ready to click her heels, when all of sudden the largest crashing boom came down on her, squashing her like a bug. That was the end of Stella.

The shoes, that did time transporting, instantly transported onto the feet on a young girl named Dorothy. Then another woman flying on a broom showed up.

“What have you done? You've dropped a house on my sister.”

“Your sister?”

“Well, she's not my real sister, but we are living parallel lives. We mirror each other.”

“Oh, I didn't know.”

“She's dead, you've killed her.”

“I didn't mean to kill her. There was this huge twister.”

“Never mind, give me those slippers.” She went to try to remove them from Dorothy's feet, but was electro shocked from doing so.

“Ahh, I should have known. You are time transporting too.”

“Be gone Della. The slippers are where they'll stay,” said a magical image of woman named Glenda.

“I'll be back. I'm not through with you.”

Dorothy would discover all there was to know about Oz, and she never took the red shoes off. When she was ready to go back, she did, by clicking her heels.