Shaking in My Shoes

BY TRACY BECKERMAN

When I found the boots, it was love at first footwear.

They were a unicorn, or in this case, a shoenicorn. The designer only made one pair in each size and after each pair was sold, that was it. Gone. Dunzo. No-shoe-nus, no-more-nus.

I quickly snapped them up but realized I was going to have to treasure and protect these shoes because once they were gone, they could not be replaced. I could get a new husband if I wanted, but I couldn’t get a new pair of these boots.

But as is wont to happen when you wear the same shoes every day, over time, my boots eventually got scuffed and worn down. It happened slowly, subtly, kind of like when the shine wears off a new car and it loses that new car smell and routinely looks like you rear-ended your garage refrigerator backing in. Not that I ever did that

(more than five times).

So, one day I woke up, looked at my beloved boots with clear eyes and exclaimed:

“Yikes!”

“What’s wrong?” asked my husband.

“My boots need a makeover,” I said.

“You can’t just bring them to a shoe repair shop?”

I looked at him, aghast. “I can’t bring these to just any old shoe shop. These are my BBFs!”

“BBFs?”

“Best Boots Forever.”

He examined the boots I held gingerly in my hands.

“They just need to be shined.”

I shook my head. “No, you shine regular boots. BBFs have to go to a special boot wizard who is a master in the art of boot refurbishment, having studied under another master for 360 hours and then passed a series of tests meant to weed out the true boot captains from the mere boot mortals. Only a crazy person would send their boots to a regular shoe shop.”

“Well, honey, if the shoe fits...”

I glared at him and began my quest to find a local boot wizard. Fortunately, where I live, there are a lot of boot repair shops. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of good ones. I read the reviews, and stories of bootastrophes and sudden shoe death swam before me. One wrong move by a bad shoemaker and -- BAM! -- your boots aren’t made for walking anymore.

Unwilling to take a chance on just a so-so shoe shop, I started asking around. And that’s when I found...

“Geppetto’s!” I announced when I got home after dropping off my boots.

“What’s Geppetto’s?” asked my husband.

“Only the premier shoe repair shop in the city. I mean, with a name like Geppetto, he has to be great, right?”

Berenices will appear higher in the early evening sky, so be sure to get out and search for this delicate and beautiful stellar tribute to Egypt’s Queen Berenice II!

Visit Dennis Mammana at dennismammana.com.

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

“Why is that?”

“Because Geppetto was a famous shoemaker.”

“No, he wasn’t,” said my husband. “He was a woodmaker.”

“What?”

“A WOODMAKER. That’s why he was able to make Pinocchio. You’re getting your fairy tales mixed up. You’re thinking of the story with the shoemaker and the elves.”

“Was he married to the old woman who lived in the shoe?” I wondered.

“No,” he said. “But apparently, I am.”

Tracy Beckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Barking at the Moon: A Story of Life, Love, and Kibble,” available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online! You can visit her at www. tracybeckerman.com.

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS