Short Story

A pair of shoe:
I have lived in Mumbai all my life. There s no need t say, that I love it very much. However, I feel very lonely at times here. Everywhere I see people are running after something. Someone is running after the trains, buses, money; love or simply for a moment’s peace. I can’t join them, because I can’t walk. Some might think that I am a handicap. Yes, I can’t walk. But I can still go around in my wheel chair. It’s the same for me. Maybe because I was never able to walk. A rare disease affected me when I was a kid that left my legs very weak. However, I feel these wheels are my two legs. I can do whatever I want to do.
Well almost everything. My father doesn’t allow me to travel much. Cars in Mumbai can prove to be a big problem. There is not enough parking space and the traffic is unbelievable. Trains and busses are the favorite mode of transportation here. It’s no possible for me to travel by train however because it’s impossible to catch a train in Mumbai if you aren’t well versed with the art of fighting. Survival of the fittest is the principle on which our local trains work. Busses on the other hand although being more convenient than trains are highly unadvisable for long journeys. If a train takes one hour to reach some place, a bus will take around two. In Mumbai as we all know, time is money. Then again, being the only child my dad is over-protective of me as well. This is why I never had the pleasure to go and visit a mall before. I had heard about it from my friends nevertheless. My imagination of a mall was given a shape when I got a chance to visit one, which was opened recently near my house. It was humongous and magnificent at the same time. The human feelings and bodies that the place held within it self was enormous. I was very excited to see and moreover feel that place. The buzz about latest fashion, the excitement over new gadgets, and the colorful window displays trying to attract attention. I felt like all the different colors in the place have merged together to form this beautiful rainbow of life. This rainbow had colors that I had never seen, experienced or felt before. It was a two-storey building. The floor above, were dedicated to food and drugstores as well as some very expensive women’s footwear.
I was roaming around, very satisfied with whatever I saw around me. Then suddenly a pristine white pair of shoe in a shoe store, on the first floor caught my attention. It was so white that it made the color white look unclean in front of it. So sparkly that it made the stars look dull in front of it. It felt to me like a fairy godmother has sent those shoes especially for me from a far away fairyland. I was so fascinated by it that I forgot that unintentionally I was wheeling my chair towards it. And suddenly it hit the escalator. I became very frantic. I wanted those shoes. I wanted to try it. There, right then. I wanted to wear them and glide out of that mall. Dance on my favorite song. With my favorite boy. Who I know will never even look at me. Who loves to see girls in high heels. Something I can never wear. Someone who loves dancing. One thing I can never do. Who loves taking his girls for long walks on beaches. Who I know can only be my friend and nothing more than that.
Suddenly I saw the shoes being taken out of the display window. I was frantic now. I was calling for my dad. He was wishfully looking at some high heels he knew I adore. He came running to me noticing the urgency in my voice. By then, another one replaced those shoes in the display window. I told him about them and he offered to go and buy it for me, if it was still there. But I wanted to go with him. Try it then and there. To see the place in person that held such a masterpiece. To see them getting packed. To wear them then and there and walk down the stairs in them, like a winner walking down the podium. While I was thinking all this I saw a lady getting on the escalator. The realization drew on me and I could do never do all that. I can never glide down like a princess. There is no fairy godmother. That boy will never love me. And that I don’t need or want those shoes anymore. I smiled ruefully and went back home.