The Christmas Boots

 

The lone boot lay abandoned in the median of the busy intersection. Few people spared it a glance as they hurried about their day; the holiday was approaching. Homelessness was rampant in the city. No doubt it was just the cast off of one of the many vagrants who occupied that slender piece of concrete hour after hour, day after day.

One man cursed under his breath as he cut the turn too close and the boot caught under his tire, dragging along for a moment before breaking free and bouncing into the center lane. The next car swerved around it and then traffic resumed it's steady pace as cars sped over it.

It was so covered in dirt and filth it was impossible to tell what color it might have formerly been. Even before being run over, it was almost unwearable. The uppers were clearly pulling away from the sole in many places, the laces were completely gone and it was essentially held together with strips of dirty duct tape.

All the Little Things

It was quiet. Too quiet. I’d become accustomed to the patter of little feet following behind me, of constantly looking around my own feet to make sure I wasn’t about to step on her, to seeing her curled up in one of her many beds, to her snores and squeaky yawns, to impatient yaps when I didn’t let her back inside fast enough, to her theatrical spins and running about harum scarum as I prepared her food. It was too quiet. But she was everywhere I looked. From the beds still scattered about, the blankets she loved to burrow into, the few toys that she never played with on the ground, the gate across the hall to keep her from wandering, the stairs she needed to get on the bed. She was everywhere and nowhere. The hole she left behind was cavernous. And now here I sit, alone, wishing with all my heart that dogs’ lives weren’t so short and what I would have given to have more time.

The Last Goodbye

Hot tears rolled down her face as the credits began to roll.  That was it, it was over.  After thirteen years, the journey had come to an end at last, ending right where it had begun so many years before.  She watched as the names and pictures of the actors and characters she had so come to love flashed across the screen.  She'd known her heart would get broken, had tried to prepare herself, but there was no preparing for what had come.  She'd loved every second of it, but also dreaded it, because each second, each minute that passed by brought it closer to the end.  As she listened to the beautiful song playing, reminding her of this last goodbye, she felt her sorrow deepen and she wondered at the people around her, laughing and joking, ready to head back into the world and continue on with their lives.  She had the feeling that for most of those people, it was nothing more than a movie, nothing special.  But to her, it was so much more.

A Penny for Grandpa

She looked up at the threatening skies as she exited the building.  It had rained earlier and though it had stopped for now, the skies were still a forbidding shade of dark gray.  She pulled her keys out of her pocket as she walked back to her car, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that there was no ticket or boot on it.  She'd parked in an area that was technically just for a specific shopping area but since she was running late and she was going right across the street and wasn't expecting to be there for very long, she'd taken the risk.  She fumbled with her keys, trying to find the right one.  Excitement and anticipation made her clumsy as her mind ran over the details of the audition, if you could even call it that.  She'd been the last person to arrive, showing up just a few minutes before 3.  The bonus of being the last person was that she'd been able to talk to several of the people who were helping with the casting as well as the woman who had taken her pictures.  With any luck she'd start getting calls for extra work in movies, tv shows, and commercials.  At least she hoped she would, as long as her weight didn't put them off like it always seemed to.  She slid into her car as she remonstrated herself; it was better to look at the positive side of things rather than the negative.