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The
Glass Slippers
By
Rob Rosen
Sally Ann trudged up the stairs of her five-story, San Francisco walkup. She counted as she climbed in order to relieve the inevitable boredom. One hundred and two steps later, she reached her paint-chipped front door, tiredly placed the key in the tarnished lock, and stepped inside her one-room apartment. The vestiges of the sun’s rays spread across her tattered rug and dappled across the water in the goldfish bowl. Her pet, Goldy, swam circles in greeting; though, of course, circles were all he had. Still, Sally Ann liked to think that he was happy to see her; that at least someone was happy to see her, even if it was only a goldfish.
“And how was your day, Goldy?” she asked, sprinkling in his food from up above. Goldy swam back and forth across his bowl and gathered the morsels in his mouth before they hit the bottom. “Waste not, want not, huh, old friend?”
Sally Ann felt her own hunger pains and walked the few steps to what amounted to her kitchen. She placed her lone, dinged-up pot on the tiny stovetop and poured the contents of the soup can inside. Then she removed the day-old bread from the bag that she had been carrying and set it on a tray alongside one of the two bowls that she owned. She sighed as she watched the soup come to a boil.
She’d worked ten straight hours that day, as well as the fifteen days before that, and still all she could afford were the meager offerings that lay before her. Once she paid the rent and all the other bills, there was never anything left over. Still, she smiled as she watched Goldy, and Goldy in turn watched her.
Sally Ann always was one to count her blessings. An apartment to pay rent on was better than living on the street. A can of soup was better than no meal to eat. And a friend like Goldy was better than no friend at all. So, yes, Sally Ann smiled as she sat down on the stool in the cramped, little kitchen and began to eat.
“Mmm, tomato,” she said as she lovingly watched her pet. “My favorite.”
The soup felt warm in her empty stomach and she relished every spoonful, humming a happy tune as her fish swam its circles. Tomorrow, she knew, would be another day. And, more importantly, her first day off in almost three weeks. With the two jobs she worked, sometimes she’d go a whole month without a day off, so she was thrilled at the prospect of having nothing to do the next day. And with that thought in her head, she got undressed, brushed her teeth, wished her friend goodnight, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep atop her lumpy, old mattress that lay on the floor alongside a milk crate that the fishbowl and a small alarm clock rested upon.
The next morning she was woken up by the bright sunlight streaming through her bent blinds. She lifted her head and saw Goldy blinking his tiny, little eyes just a mere few inches from her face. “Morning, Goldy,” she said with a yawn before she sprinkled his breakfast in for him. She then hopped over to the kitchen to prepare her own, which consisted of the toast from the leftover bread she’d bought the night before, plus a strong cup of black coffee to kick start her day with.
Minutes later she was dressed and taking a leisurely stroll down the cracked sidewalk in front of her apartment building in the warehouse district known as SoMa. She wished Goldy were a dog so that she wouldn’t have to leave him alone in the hot apartment all day; better yet, a dog to keep her company. Though by then she was quite used to her solitude, for there was simply no time in her hectic life to find any friends or, better yet, a mate. Oh yes, every now and then she thought of such things, but she knew it was better to set her sights low. And besides, she told herself, Goldy was a lot neater than a husband and he never argued with her.
So Sally Ann smiled and hummed as she ambled down the sidewalk, enjoying the warm summer breeze and the bright sun that beat down upon her. She had to cast her eyes downwards as she walked because the sun was so strong overhead. And that’s how she noticed them, sparkling from the bottom shelf behind the store window that she was walking past at that very moment: two identical glass slippers, both sending multi-colored rays into all directions as they refracted the light. Sally Ann stood mesmerized at the dazzling objects. She’d never seen anything so beautiful before in her whole life.
She walked into the store to getter a closer look. It was the strangest place she’d ever been in before, filled with an assortment of odd, seemingly useless items that she couldn’t imagine anyone wanting or needing. And it all seemed eerily familiar, like objects she’d seen in books as a child and then forgotten about as she grew older. But the slippers beckoned and all troubled thoughts quickly evaporated when she found herself crouching down for a better look. Up close they were even more spectacular than through the window outside.
“They’re something, huh?” came a high-pitched voice from behind her.
Sally Ann reeled around, and there, standing no more than four feet tall, was a pixy-like woman with a halo of sheer white hair perched above a tiny head. Her eyes sparkled like blue sapphires and her skin was nearly translucent. And though she was clearly elderly, her face was nearly free of wrinkles, save for the crow’s feet that scrunched around her eyes as she radiantly smiled at the surprised Sally Ann.
“Oh, um, they sure are,” Sally Ann managed to say. She turned back around and looked longingly down at the two mesmerizing objects.
“For the person who needs them the most, those slippers have been known to be quite, well, magical. Or so I’ve been told. Though they’ve been sitting there on that shelf for many, many years. I guess the right person just hasn’t come along to claim them. Maybe they’re meant for you, my dear.” The tiny lady emitted an equally tiny squeal of delight.
“Oh, I could never afford them,” Sally Ann replied, though she knew deep down that they truly were meant for her.
“Sometimes all you need to do is wish, my dear. And believe. If you want something badly enough, then a wish can be even more valuable than money.” The strangle lady’s eyes twinkled as she said this, and Sally Ann smiled up at her, despite her misgivings.
“Okay then, I’ll give it a shot,” Sally Ann said as she stood up. She then closed her own eyes good and tight and made her wish. When she opened them, the magnificent glass slippers lay magically in her hands. Sally Ann smiled down at the impish woman and simply nodded her thanks, and then the two walked to the front of the shop and out onto the sidewalk.
“Just remember, dear,” she said to Sally Ann before she started her way back home. “Those slippers will only work for the person who truly needs them the most.”
Sally Ann couldn’t imagine anyone else needing them more than her, but she smiled anyway and nodded again before she made her way down the sidewalk with the treasured glass slippers held firmly in her hands. She fairly rushed home to try them on.
She didn’t count the stairs like she normally did. She took them two, then three at a time, and was up the five flights in no time flat. Nervously, she fumbled with her keys in the lock, but finally made it inside. Goldy, as usual, greeted her with several turns around his bowl.
“Look, Goldy,” she practically shouted to her pet. “Look at my beautiful, glass slippers.” Goldy stopped his circling and watched Sally Ann as she flung herself on the mattress and kicked her ratty, old sneakers off. Then she sat up and reverently stared at the objects of her desire that now sat on the floor before her.
“Well, here goes nothing,” she whispered as she stood up and dangled her foot over the left one. Gingerly, she slid her foot into the glass slipper and felt the cool, smooth surface caress her sole. A rush of adrenaline shot through her. She knew that something magical was surely about to happen. Though neither of the next two events that occurred were the least bit magical, surprising as both might have been.
The first was that her foot didn’t even almost fit into the slipper. Four of her toes slid in, but her tiny pinky toe simply had no room. Sally Ann pushed and prodded, but it was for naught. The slipper was simply too narrow for her entire foot. The same, sadly, was the case for her right foot. No matter how hard Sally Ann pushed and shoved, her foot could only make it four toes deep inside before her pinky blocked the way.
The second surprise, however, quickly took her mind off the first dilemma. For just as she was about to fling the lousy slippers out the window, a tremor shook the building. At first it was a slight movement in the earth’s crust that swayed her aged building; which, like most of the neighborhood, rested precariously above nothing more than landfill. But this minor swaying soon gave way to a major rumble beneath her bare feet. Her building pitched and tossed and moaned and creaked. Her two miserable food bowls crashed to the floor and broke into a thousand pieces. Her single coffee mug quickly followed suit. And then, out of the corner of her eye, Sally Ann watched as her fishbowl bumped and jumped to the very edge of the milk crate, before it came to a sloshing halt. And then, just as abruptly as it all started, it stopped. And all was peacefully silent again.
Sally Ann stood with her legs trembling and waited for the aftershocks that usually followed, though none did. But just as she heaved a sigh a relief and started to walk over to put Goldy’s bowl back in place, it started to teeter over the edge of the crate. She watched helplessly as it sailed over and crashed to the hardwood floor below. The bowl, like her belongings in the kitchen, shattered upon impact. Sally Ann sucked in her breath and ran to her pet as he lay on the floor, gasping and flopping about. She made a quick search around her apartment for something to put him in, but everything was either already broken or too dirty. Everything, of course, except one; one pair that is.
Her mind spun circles around what the petite woman had said to her just a short time earlier. “The slippers will only work for the person who truly needs them the most,” she repeated to herself as she held Goldy tenderly in the palm of her hand. She then ran to one of the slippers and quickly filled it with water from the kitchen sink. “Well, Goldy, guess it’s you who needs it the most,” she said as she gently placed her one and only friend inside, and then set the slipper back down on the floor. Goldy, of course, fit quite well inside the glass slipper, certainly better than Sally Ann did.
And then, as Sally Ann watched from up above, the slipper started to emit a soft, pulsating glow. And the glow turned into a light that engulfed the slipper and Goldy right along with it. Sally Ann stepped back and gasped as the light grew and grew and grew, until it was as tall and wide as she was. She covered her eyes with her hands to block the brightness, but even behind her hands she could see and feel the light. And then, all of a sudden, it was gone.
Sally Ann slowly removed her hands from in front of her face and opened her eyes. Oh, but she wasn’t as shocked as one might think, considering there was now a naked man standing before her. After all, a wish, as she’d been told, can be a powerful thing. And what she had wished for when she stood in the store was not the slippers, for that would have been too frivolous a thing to waste a wish on. No, what she wished for with all her heart was a mate to come home to at the end of each day. And who better than your best friend, Sally Ann thought to herself.
“Welcome to your new, old home, Goldy,” she said and started to laugh. “And wouldn’t you know it, that slipper sure fits you better than it did me.”
Goldy looked down and admired the first article of clothing he’d ever had on. He smiled and looked back up to Sally Ann, who was now holding the other one in her hand. She then walked over to him and kneeled down. Goldy picked his foot up and she slid the other one on. “Yep, a sure fit,” she said with a satisfied giggle.
Goldy nodded and bent down. And that’s when the real magic occurred, for he stared deep into her eyes, those eyes that were always so close and yet so far away, and then placed the warmest, most perfect kiss on her lips. And Sally Ann would never be lonely again and neither would Goldy. And the two of them lived happily ever after in their five-story walkup apartment. And the slippers were brought back to the shop where they belonged, waiting for the next person would truly needed them the most, because now Sally Ann and Goldy had each other and who could wish for anything more?
Copyright © 2005 Rob Rosen
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