A Slipper Named Ruby

The day began like any other and while it arrived in a hurry… it was uneventful like that of a tired scarecrow. A scattering of sound billowed throughout the morning streets-- alive to the voice of day-- and as each boutique along The Boulevard opened their doors for business, a pair of slippers nestled a windowpane of streamers and antique ornaments. An Eiffel Tower tinged with blue, pillared center stage amongst a luster of blinking lights as two pair of multicolored Maryjane’s stood sentry to either side. Pluming lilac feathers adorned the wooden mantle, satin ribbons lay eager within this visionary exhibit of pink and periwinkle, and Ruby waited.

Perhaps, today she would find a new home and the thought alone filled her with joyful expectation of what was yet to come. From her tiny pedestal of freshly polished silver, Ruby sat vanguard in the storefront display watching the muddle of faces pass one by one as if a moist canvas of painted imagery. Parents scurried the bustling city sidewalks… a fruitful balancing act between shopping bags and roving strollers. Young boys whistled quietly, parading the town in little leaguer’s faded baseball caps and bubbly little girls skipped circles of excitement, fully clad in princess costumes and new dance shoes. It would be another eight-hour surveillance of window shoppers, present seekers, bargain hunters, and boutique peekers… but Ruby remained one such hopeful to an air of possibility.
The afternoon seemed a springtime bloom of excitement.

Outside the quaint little shop called Twinkle Toes, a myriad of patrons stared on, praising her vibrant color that cloaked Ruby in a veil of crimson shimmer. Lighting up the storefront, Ruby appeared an effervescent arrangement of glitter and delicate lacing straps. She was ideal for twirling or dancing, for skipping or prancing, and she belonged to someone… but to whom, Ruby did not know. Competition was fierce. There were simply too many shoes to elect the best… Primagirl ballet slippers, Pipsqueaks fishing waders, Jellies, Little Tykes clogs, Moishie Moishie flip-flops, Euro-Frenchie dinner flats, and Daylily garden sandals.

Nana Maris, proud storekeeper of Twinkle Toes for more than ten years, had freed Ruby from within her captive shoebox packaging and dingy storage room surroundings thirteen days ago. And to this, Ruby was certain for she’d been counting as if a watched pot that never boils. After all this hard work and dedication, finding a home had become her only wish… and Ruby was convinced that one day, her dreams would come true.

Unexpectedly, someone approached the window display with a ruckus of anxious cries. Could this be Ruby’s destined moment? Was she finally going home? A gentle hand reached towards her as if a shield of warm comfort, the laughter of a child chimed the sound of contentment, and for a second Ruby thought, they were coming for her.

“I want those! Please, can I? Can I?” The little girl squealed in an octave loud enough that if Ruby had ears… it probably would have hurt. “Right there, right there… I want those black Maryjane’s! If we don’t buy them… my life will be completely over.”

The little girl went on in frenzy and what Ruby suddenly realized was a harsh reality followed by the blunt delivery that they hadn’t chosen her after all. Without a second thought, the patent leather Maryjane’s giggled in resonating delight of saying goodbye to the others left behind. A low rumble of jealous moans ping-ponged the storefront window. Soon the workday found its end, the streets grew empty as they did quiet, and Ruby watched Nana Maris hang the fateful sign. A glaring white of handcrafted string and cardboard painted with bold black letters that now read, CLOSED. But more than a store emblem of hours, it reminded Ruby that another day had passed to the unvoiced spill of dreams… twilight had closed its eye without securing a home.

Ten days long passed in a linger of moments, counting one to the next until a total of nine months had come and gone, and the course of days felt never-ending, as if a long hot summer without breeze. Nana Maris missed work several times and Ruby grew tired, dusty, her pedestal tarnished, and windowpane smudged. What had gone wrong? She wondered. How would she ever find her place in the world if she were not at her best?

But then something happened and the harmonic strike of rusty bells-- sashaying from above the front door-- rang out in operatic crescendo. It was Nana Maris… she had at last returned. Marching determinedly toward the window display with an air of enthusiasm, she began a ritual of cleaning. It seemed an attack with a force built on the strength of cleaner and dust towels, while muttering something about the untidiness of Twinkle Toes… although Ruby didn’t quite understand, she was too happy to notice.

Even amid her squabble of chores, Nana Maris never looked more pleased than she did while holding Ruby.

Almost immediately, she was back to a sparkling array of crimson glitter, her pedestal replaced with one even more radiant than the first, and the blinking lights that had all but burned out flashed for the first time in many long awaited days. The storekeeper had a certain glow to her cheeks that hadn’t been there before and a contentment that lit the room with or without blinking lights. Ruby was turning over a new leaf and she had Nana Maris to thank. Two hours passed before the cleaning had finished and then Ruby felt herself being hoisted into the air. At this rate, she was positive her journey was leading her to the mound of Retired Shoes, or worse, she was moving from the respected window display to the dreaded Clearance Section. But something different occurred. Nana Maris placed Ruby into a cotton slip drawn by two ribbons tied at the top. After several long minutes of delicate packaging amid crinkling balletic dance of tissue paper, boxes, and shopping bags, the view to The Boulevard had never seemed so far away. The bumpy ride lasted all of twenty minutes and Ruby was home at long last. But with whom? A gentle coo of a mother’s lullaby settled among the soft intonement of a child and her newborn sister, as the sugared aroma of cookies ensued the warmth of Ruby’s heart.

“My Little girl will just love you.” Nana Maris whispered, gazing upon Ruby with earnest affection flooding her eyes. “Aubrey will be over-the-moon for you.” She smiled, her voice trailing off.

For all she had waited, Ruby had found the best home of all… though somewhere in her little pea-sized mind, she marveled of her lonely days behind the guild of a storefront window. She wondered why, until this moment, no one loved her enough to provide a home. And then like a gust of wind, her answer came within a voice Ruby had quickly grown to love.

“Mommy,” the little girl began, “thank goodness I hung the Not for Sale sign above Ruby. I know someone would have taken her home… taken Ruby away from me.”

Nana Maris winked, watching as Aubrey carefully slid her tiny feet into her new favorite pair of slippers.