Another Xmas Story | shoe, foot, stockings

Natalie Carroll sat in her desk chair with her right ankle tucked under her left knee. It
was Christmas Eve morning and Natalie was looking forward to getting two full days of
work done before people began returning on the day after Christmas. Natalie swiveled
her chair towards her computer to begin typing. As she typed she began to feel an itch on
the instep of her right foot. She ignored it and continued to type but the itch persisted.
Finally she paused to read what she typed. She rested her left hand on top of her right
foot and slipped her slender finger into her high heeled pump to sooth the itch. The itch,
again, persisted and she pushed more fingers into her shoe popping the heel of her pump
off of her foot. As she continued delicately scratch her foot, so as not to run her
stockings, her pump continued to slip further off her foot until it was dangling off of her
big toe. At last the itch subsided and Natalie returned to her typing.

The shoe dangled to and fro, finally falling from her toes and landing on the floor with a
loud muffled thud. It was particularly loud because the office was completely empty.
Natalie decided to stop celebrating Christmas feeling it was a waste of time and money.
She did not begrudge other people’s celebration or tried to persuade people to adopt her
philosophy. She just felt she was smart enough not to get caught up into the Christmas
spirit. Being an astute business woman, though, she realized the importance of making
an appearance at the Chief Operating Officer’s Christmas open house. This was why on
a day she would normally wear boots, jeans, and a sweater, she was dressed in a red
cocktail dress, shear white stockings, and her red sequined party pumps. After she
finished work she would drop by the party to schmooze for an hour or two head home.

She stopped typing again and began proofing her work again. Lowering her left hand,
she absent mindedly began stroking her right foot slowly and rhythmically. Starting at
the heel her fingers glided lightly across her smooth high arch. Her hand paused
momentarily to gently grasp the ball of her foot then the slid on toes where they lingered.
She pinched the seam of the reinforced toe of her stocking and stretched it away from her
toes giving them a tiny bit more freedom to wriggle. Natalie’s left foot suddenly seemed
too warm and restricted in its shoe, so she dug the heel of her shoe into the carpeting and
pried the foot free of the shoe. Deftly, her stocking foot repositioned the pump into an
upright position where she could easily slip into it when she wanted. She finished
readjusting the toe seam of her stocking and pulled her foot from beneath her knee and
lowered it to the floor. With both feet under her desk, she stretched out her legs and
pressed her stocking sheathed toes into the smooth wood of the front panel of her desk
while she finished proof reading.

Satisfied with her work she printed the 21 page analysis to her desktop printer and went
on to the project plan. After finishing work on the project plan, Natalie grabbed her
printout and decided to proof the hard copy. She leaned back in her chair and propped
her stocking feet on the corner of her desk. This was something she would never do with
the office full of people. As she read she felt the itch return to her right foot so she
rubbed her arch vigorously across the big toe of her left as a violin player would rub his
bow across the strings. This soothed the itch and Natalie never stopped reading.

The hard copy was perfect, ready for copying. Natalie got up from her desk and started
heading out of her office in her stocking feet but stopped realizing she did not want to
soil the soles of her stockings. She remembered the time that she had kicked off a pair of
painful shoes and worked on a presentation most of the day in her stocking feet not
knowing how dirty the bottom of her feet got. During that time she had sat with her foot
curled under her butt and left a footprint on her white skirt. The presentation was
successful but Natalie still shuddered at the thought of everyone seeing her dirty foot
print on her ass. Returning to her desk, Natalie slipped into her shoes and headed to the
copy room.

Someone had turned off the copier. Now it had to warm up before copies could be made.
Natalie disgustedly turned on the copier and leaned against a table in the copy room. She
thought of returning to her desk to do some more work but the pesky itch on her foot
started up again. Lifting her right foot up and moving back under the table, she rotating
her ankle once and pushed the toe of the shoe into the floor. The heel of her foot popped
out of the shoe and she lifted her foot up again but the shoe seemed determined to stay on
her foot. Finally after a good shake the stubborn shoe fell to the tile floor with a hollow
clop. Natalie began rubbing her stocking foot against the toe of her left foot to end the
itch but it was to no avail. She lifted her foot to where her hand could scratch it finally
stopping the itch. Lowering her foot, she felt for her shoe under the table.

As the foot groped for the shoe her toe felt a curiously thick piece of paper. Sliding the
paper out from under the table with her foot she saw that it was a letter. She bent down
to pick up the letter and also reached under the table to get her shoe. Slipping the shoe on,
she stood up and looked at the letter. It was a letter to Santa. The company had collected
letters from Santa and given them to employees who wanted to fulfill a disadvantage
child’s Christmas wish. This letter must have been lost in the shuffle. Natalie was
struck with a tinge of sadness as she contemplated a child not getting his or her wish.
The copier was now ready to make copies.

Tossing the letter aside, Natalie programmed the copier to make thirty collated and
stapled copies. The copier began churning away and then the itch returned. Natalie sat
on the table and pulled off her shoe. Putting her shoe on the table she started examining
the sole of her foot to find the itchy spot. Not finding any anything to indicate the itchy
spot she just sat on the table in an unladylike position doing some unladylike scratching.
Fortunately for her, the security camera recording her escapade would record over the
scene long before anyone would see it. After the itch subsided, Natalie lowered her foot
and let her legs dangle over the edge of the table. She was not ready to put her on her
shoe lest the itch returned. Instead she pushed the heel of her left shoe off with her
stocking toes. The copier continued to churn as she sat there slight swing both legs and
dangling one shoe.

With no sign of the itch returning, Natalie crossed her right leg over her left and grabbed
her right shoe, which had landed on top of the letter, and slipped it on to her toes; she was
content to let both pumps dangle. Looking at the letter again, Natalie compelled to open
it and read it. It read:

Dear Santa,

Thank you for the toys last year. I’m a big girl now. My daddy lost his job. I don’t need
new toys. All I want is a pair of penny loafers because my shoes have holes in them. My
size is 51/2. Thank you again Santa. Merry Christmas.

Love,

Shondra McGuffin.

The copier continued to churn. Natalie began to think. Shoes would not be that hard to
get. There was a shoe outlet at the other end of the corporate park. I could get the shoes
when I leave for lunch drop them off before I go to the party. But where does she live?

Flipping over the envelope, Natalie saw that the return address was in the city. She
glanced at her watch and saw that it was about 11:30 AM. When the copy job finished
she would head out get the shoes. As Natalie watched the last page of the master
document disappear in the copier she reached down and pulled her dangling right pump
securely on to her foot. She let her left pump fall a few inches to the floor, stood up and
slipped her foot into the shoe.

After placing all the copies on her desk, Natalie put on her coat and headed out of the
building with the letter in hand. She was excited about the good deed she was about to
do. Her heels clicked quickly as she strode purposefully toward her BMW. The drive to
the shoe outlet was short but the parking lot was strangely empty; the outlet was closed
on Christmas Eve. With the same determination she directed towards her work, Natalie
immediately set out towards the mall.

Circling the mall parking lot for several minutes Natalie spotted a young mother pushing
a sleeping baby in a stroller that had several bags piled on it. The woman looked
exhausted. One of her pant legs was caught up on top of an unzipped ankle boot. The
woman was walking towards an SUV in the front row and Natalie quickly positioned
herself to take the soon to be vacated parking spot. The woman saw the BMW waiting
but worked at her own pace. First she buckled the child into the car seat, then she stowed
the gifts in the back and folded up the stroller. When she went to climb into the truck her
foot slipped and her unzipped boot fell to the ground. Standing there with one boot on
and one thin white sock she disgustedly picked up her boot and threw into her truck.
Then balancing herself on her socked foot the woman lifted her other leg unzipped the
boot and pulled it off her foot. She threw that boot in the truck and then climbed it.
Finally Natalie got her parking space.

The shoe store in the mall was extremely crowded. Sales people were ringing up orders
and running around with boxes of shoes. A few women customers were seated trying on
shoes. A couple other women walked around the racks and displays, wearing only one
shoe as they examined the merchandise. The check out line snaked through the store.
Natalie grabbed the arm of a young clerk walking by with two boxes of shoes and
inquired about the penny loafers. The clerk informed her that the store did not carry them.

Natalie faired no better at the second and third shoe store she visited and was beginning
to think that this good deed would be a lot harder than she anticipated. She decided to get
lunch at the food court before she visited the remaining stores. While standing in line to
get a salad, Natalie felt the itch return. Shifting her weight onto her left foot she lifted the
toe of her right foot and pushed the heel of right pump against the floor sliding her foot
half out of its shoe. The itchy part of her foot now rested on top of the heel cup of the
shoe. The bottom of the heel of the shoe rested in a seam of the tiled floor providing
resistance to pushing. Natalie found she could sooth the itch on her foot by pushing
against her shoe and wiggling it back and forth. The itch was almost completely gone
when the heel of the shoe slipped. The force with which Natalie was pushing against her
shoe propelled so that it slid into a lady one person in front of her.

An older woman looked down at the red sequined pump that had just hit her ankle and
turned back to see a dolled up younger woman in a red dress wearing the matching pump.
The younger woman looked mortified standing there with one shoe and the toes of her
stocking foot barely touching the floor. The older woman picked up the shoe and handed
back to the younger woman and said “It’ll be a long party if you have to kick your shoe
off during lunch.” Chagrined Natalie just smiled and thanked the older women as she put
on her shoe.

She sat with her right leg crossed over her left as she at her salad. Her long slender
fingers slid down the back of her nylon covered calf, down the back of her ankle to the
heel where she pushed off the shoe. The shoe dangle again from its toes as Natalie again
began to scratch the itch on her arch. While scratching she looked up and saw penny
loafers on a store mannequin. It was a uniform store and the child sized mannequin was
dressed in a school uniform. The itch on Natalie’s foot completely disappeared.
Quickly she pulled on her shoe and finished her salad.

In contrast to the shoe stores the uniform store was completely quiet. Only Natalie and
the store clerk, a thin petit woman dressed in a white turtleneck, suede skirt and brown
wool tights, were in the store. The two women conversed for several moments and it
was determined that the only size 51/2 penny loafers were on the mannequin. Few more
moments of conversation incurred and the store clerk kicked off her clogs, climbed into
the display window and removed the penny loafers from the mannequin. She then
walked back to Natalie to show her the shoes. Again there was a brief conversation and
the clerk walked back to a store room in her stocking feet leaving her clogs in the middle
of the store. The clerk emerged carrying a shoe box and walked behind the counter.
Natalie paid for the shoes and walked out of the store leaving the mannequin and clerk in
their stocking feet.

The woman at the gift wrapping stand stood with most of her weight on her left stocking
foot as she wrapped the gift. The middle toe of her foot was longer than any other toe on
her foot and it poked out of a small hole in her nylons. The festive red color of her nail
polish, and the creamy whiteness of her skin was in stark contrast to the dull black of her
hose. Her left shoe was lying on its side several feet to her right. She finished wrapping
the gift and lifted her right foot off of the ground until she could reach the ankle strap
buckle with her hand. Undoing the strap she lowered her foot and slipped out of her shoe.
She began rubbing the top of her right foot against the back of her left calf. Natalie
placed her package on the table and the woman slipped her foot back into the unbuckled
shoe. After selecting the paper and ribbon the gift wrapper went to work. Natalie thought
it was strange for the woman to shuffle around with one shoe off and the other foot half
in and half out of an unbuckled shoe as she worked. Natalie thought it would be easier if
she kicked off the other shoe. The package looked beautiful and Natalie was very
pleased. She tipped the woman enough money to buy a new pair of quality pantyhose,
which was actually more than the cost wrap the gift. The gift wrapper thanked Natalie
and wished her a merry Christmas. Natalie returned the greeting; it was the first time she
said “Merry Christmas” that day.

Finding Shondra’s home in the city proved more difficult than Natalie had imagined. She
was lost in a bad part of town where each street looked like the one before. On a summer
day the stoops in front of the tenements would be full of people eyeballing a strange car
but on a cold winter day there were not so many people. Natalie turned right looking for
Shondra’s street and the itch on her foot began to return. She tried to ignore it but it grew
in intensity. Finally she could not stand it anymore, so as her car crept slowly down the
street she lifted her foot from the gas and kicked off the shoe as her car glided through a
stop sign. Suddenly, Natalie saw flashing police lights in her rear view mirror.

The police woman got out of her patrol car and approached the BMW. Natalie opened
her window and the police woman looked into the car. She saw a beautifully wrapped
package on the front seat, and a non threatening woman driver who was not wearing her
right shoe. The officer asked for Natalie’s driver’s license, registration, and insurance
and told Natalie that she had stopped her for running a stop sign. Natalie stated her case
about delivering the package in an unfamiliar neighborhood and slipping off her shoe
because of an itch. The police woman was unmoved as she walked back to her patrol car.
Natalie rubbed her foot against the corner of the brake pedal to soothe her itch while she
waited.

In the patrol car, Officer Evelyn Hanover punched in Natalie’s information into her patrol
car computer. She knew if she lingered over this a little bit it would be the last thing she
did on her shift and she could go home and kick off her shoes. Natalie’s itchy foot story
amused her a little. Just as she suspected there were no wants or warrants on Natalie or
her vehicle. A further search showed no moving violations. Evelyn looked at her watch
and waited about two minutes and the started writing in her ticket book.

Natalie was still rubbing her foot on the brake pedal to sooth the itch when she saw the
patrol woman get out of her car. She started feeling for her shoe with her still itchy foot
and was in the process of fishing it out from behind the pedal when Officer handed her
the ticket. It read, “THIS IS A WARNING TO KEEP YOUR SHOE ON WHEN YOU
ARE DRIVING! CONSIDER IT A CHRISTMAS GIFT.”

Natalie, with her foot half in her shoe, looked up at Evelyn and thanked her. Evelyn
smiled and wished her a Merry Christmas. The women had a brief conversation and
Natalie was able to get directions to Shondra’s house. As the women parted company
Evelyn commented on how Natalie took the Christmas spirit to heart.

No more itch. Natalie found a parking space about a half block away from Shondra’s
home and as soon as she started walking to the house the itch on her foot disappeared.
Her heels clicked lightly on the side walk as she walked to the house. She skipped up the
stoop of the row home and knocked on the door; the door bell was broken. There was no
answer. She knocked again. Still there was no answer. Natalie thought about leaving the
gift by the front door but would the gift be safe? Natalie knocked again and waited. She
felt that no one would steal a Christmas gift so she bent down to place it on the stoop.
Suddenly the door opened and Natalie saw a woman’s foot adorned in a red and green
Christmas sock.

Cautiously the women spoke, Natalie found out that the woman was Shondra’s mother
and she showed her the letter. The door opened wide and the two women hugged each
other. Shondra’s mother exclaimed that Natalie was the Christmas miracle she was
praying for and she invited Natalie into her home.

Her home was clean, sparse, and cold. Shondra’s mother offered Natalie some hot
chocolate but she refused and said she had to leave because she had other miracles to
perform. Natalie wrote a check for to pay for two months of heat for their home.
Shondra’s mother eyes welled up in tears. She removed a Christmas broach from her
blouse and gave it Natalie and thanked her.

As Natalie walked back to her car she glanced at her watch. The malls closed in an hour
and a half and her parent’s home was a six hour drive away. Being home for Christmas
would be another Christmas miracle. Natalie kicked off her shoes and walked back to her
car in her stocking feet. Her itch never returned.