Daniel's Shoe Trail Story

Another story (enkatini) from Daniel, our neighbor (from my memory of last night's telling and translation)...

When I was a little boy, I really did a lot of stealing.  Now, there were young men and boys of many ages that liked to come and hang out at our house sometimes and stay through the night, talking and having a good time.

One evening, a boy came, he was much older than me and much bigger.  I noticed his shoes. He had some nice shoes, with plastic over the toe and an open heel.  I decided I needed to have those shoes.

So, I pretended to go to bed and fall asleep, but then I would get up and go to where he was to see if he was sleeping yet. First I got up to check and he was still wide awake talking away. A while later, I went again, but he was still awake. Finally, I got up to check and he was asleep! So, I grabbed his shoes and put them on my feet.

As I said earlier, he was much bigger than me and so my feet were very small in the big shoes, so I had to shuffle along. I went out the door and around to a little hiding spot where I took off the shoes and hid them till morning.

Next morning, the boy was looking for his shoes. "Who took my shoes? Have you seen my shoes?" He was asking all around. Of course, I was avoiding him because it was me! Then at some point, after he had almost given up, he went back to where he had left the shoes and noticed a wide trail on the ground.

 He followed the trail of me shuffling along in the big shoes, out the door, around the corner and right to my hiding place!  My mother said, "It might have been Daniel, he tends to do these things!" But of course, I said, "Shoes? What shoes?!"

This cutie is another neighbor. I was reminded of this photo when I heard the shoe story.