If the Boot Fits
In a small town in north Texas, Katie Wethermock lived in a tiny blue house with her sturdy grandmother and their border terrier, Jack. Next to their faded blue house, a three-stalled barn sat half-sunken into the dry, cracked soil. Every morning, when the sun was still hiding behind a faraway hill, Katie tossed aside her quilt, slid her toes into dust-covered riding boots, and made her way sleepily out to the barn.
One morning, as Katie slid open the wooden door to feed the horses, the familiar squeal of rusty metal grated in her ears.
Why does that have to be the first thing I hear every morning? Katie wondered, wishing for the millionth time that they had the money to replace the rusty hinges.
In the first stall, Whitaker, an old dapple grey gelding, snorted his friendly greeting. Next to him, Lula, a Palomino mare, shook her head in welcome.
“Of course you all are happy,” Katie grumbled. “We spend all our money taking care of you, and you don’t realize how poor we are.” Then Katie rubbed her eyes and switched on the flickering light above the rafters. Moose, a dark bay yearling who already stood as tall as Whitaker, whinnied in delight.
“And you’re the trouble,” she said, shoving his nose aside when he nestled her shoulder. “Trotting down the road out of nowhere, all scraggly and scrawny…of course we couldn’t turn you away.” She plunged a large plastic scoop into a barrel of oats and dumped it into his bucket with a loud clatter. “But three horses is a lot to feed.”
That afternoon at school, Katie noticed Olivia Wince’s ballet flats—shining, expensive, and one-hundred-percent Olivia’s. Olivia’s mother was always spending money on her—new dresses, new shoes, fun parties.
“I love your shoes, Olivia,” Katie said, unable to take her eyes off her friends sparkling gold toes.
“Really?” Olivia asked. “If you want… you can have them.”
Katie’s eyes widened. “Really? But what would you wear all day?”
“I’ll wear your boots!” Olivia said. “Mother never lets me play in the mud with the other children, or even walk along the river because she says I’ll get my clothes dirty! But with those boots, I could go anywhere I want!”
And so, Katie and Olivia traded shoes. Olivia skipped around the edge of the playground, where the ground was dustiest, and Katie sat staring at her new, shiny shoes. They pinched her pinky toes, but she didn’t care—she finally had something new for herself.
On her way home, Katie walked slowly along the gravel road, careful not to let any dust mar her new shoes. It took her twice as long to get home, and by the time she opened her front door, she’d missed her afternoon baking session with Grandma.
Later, she went to the barn to work with Moose, but the horse wouldn’t let her anywhere near him because the shimmer at her feet made him skittish. With a sigh, Katie walked back to the house and sat on the couch, where she tapped her toes together, watching the reflection of the overhead light glimmer on her toe.
“I could paint,” Katie thought, for she loved to paint—pictures of her horses, of her grandmother, of the sunset. But then she realized she might splatter brown or green on the perfect gold shoes, and they’d be ruined.
“Grandma, do you need help with dinner?” she asked hopefully.
Her grandmother gazed at Katie from her station at the stove. “Oh no, honey, you might splatter grease on those pretty shoes of yours! I got it.”
Katie sighed, and she didn’t leave the house the rest of the night.
The next day, she slipped her toes into the gold ballet flats, wincing when the sore skin of her pinky toes hit the end of the shoe. It was five-o-clock, even earlier than she woke to feed the horses. She walked down the lane, past Gower’s pond, and onto a paved street filled with towering houses. Spotting a wide house with pink bricks, Katie marched up the front steps, knocked on the door, and waited.
The door opened slowly, silently. “Hello?” A tired-looking man in leather house shoes poked his head out the door.
“I need to see Olivia,” Katie said. Moments later, her friend appeared at the door, rubbing her eyes. Katie bent down and yanked the ballet flats off her feet. “Here!” she said. “You can keep them. They’re pretty and all, but… I can’t paint, I can’t cook, I can’t even feed my horses!” And those are the things I love most, she realized—but she didn’t want Olivia to know that her favorite things were so dirty.
Olivia’s tight, sleepy face melted in relief. “Oh, thank goodness!” she said. “Here!” She reached behind the door and appeared with Katie’s old, dust-covered boots in hand. “Mother wouldn’t let me go to afternoon tea! And I wanted to go dress shopping, but she said they wouldn’t let me in the stores! I’m sorry, Katie, but… I guess these just aren’t the shoes for me.”
Katie took her boots back from her fried. She slipped her right toe into the boot, then her left. She walked home, faster than she had on her way to Olivia’s, for her toes didn’t hurt quite so bad this time. She walked to the barn, where she paused before shoving aside the door, letting the squeal of its hinges ring inside her ears. She smiled. As she entered, Moose raised his head and whinnied his welcome.
“I know!” Katie said, gazing down at her old boots and wiggling her toes. “Aren’t they just the prettiest things?”
Author's Note: My story was inspired by Aesop’s fable, The Raven and a Swan. In this story, a raven is jealous of the swan’s beautiful white feathers, so he decides to live in the marsh and eat and act as the swan does. This ultimately leads to the raven starving to death because he can’t live off of the same things the swan eats. The moral of the story is, “A change of habits will not alter nature.” So I took this theme and told a story about dissatisfaction with one’s own life, and then the realization that we sometimes already have the thing that suits us best. Wearing pretty new shoes did not change Katie's desire to be with her horses, or paint, or cook.
(illustration from original story, by Milo Winter)
Bibliography: The Raven and a Swan, anonymous, copyright 1919 from Aesop’s Fables. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19994/19994-h/19994-h.htm
Wow, Chandler, you really know how to bring a story to life with vivid, carefully chosen details. Between the great photo you found and your first paragraph, I felt totally immersed in the world of this story right from the start. It is great to have someone in class who clearly enjoys writing: the other students will be able to learn a lot from watching your descriptive techniques. Fabulous! And the contrast between feeding three horses and a world of fancy shoes and parties is really strong! And I loved how Olivia was just as attracted by those boots as Katie was by the ballet shoes... even if she does not anticipate how the shoes will not be all she hoped for! Pretty boots: it is a beautiful way to end the story.
ReplyDeleteSo, as you can see, the human world is full of so much complexity and detail that when you translate an Aesop's fable about the animals into the human world, you have lots of options that just don't apply to the animal world, even when the moral is the same. Absolutely fabulous! And, of course, it is great that changing shoes did not lead to Katie starving to death like in the cruel world of Aesop's fables. You did a wonderful job here, and if you had fun working with the fable as a starting point, you will see that there are lots of Aesop and Aesop-like reading units you can choose to read for class. I am an Aesop fanatic, and I never get tired of reading adapted fables: they always offer something totally new, just like you did here!
Oh, for the links: in Blogger there is an extra step to make a clickable link - so there in the Bibliography, you'll want to use link text with the http not appearing on the page, just like you did with the image link, so that would be: Aesop’s Fables (the http is something the computer needs to make the link, but your readers don't need to see it)
Whoa Chandler this story really made me think! I loved how you put so much thought into your storytelling. You described the setting beautifully, and the character development was straight forward. The flow of the story kept me interested to the very end which isn't an easy task for most writers. I liked how you applied the moral of the story to a different scene. Your storytelling made me appreciate what I have in my life instead of being envious of the goods of others. I can't wait to read more of your stories!
ReplyDeleteAs the above comments mention, this story is so impressive. I really enjoyed how much detail you use throughout because it really painted such a vivid picture in my mind and created the scene. I like how you took the story of the swan and the raven and used objects like shoes that is relatable in everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you chose this story because I think this lesson is so valuable. It is so easy to look at someone else and long for what they have. I can think of so many times I've looked at my friends clothes or cars or whatever it may have been and just wished that I could have that too. However, as the story says, we oftentimes have exactly what suits us the best already. If only we can slow down and really think about what is truly important to us. In the story, painting, cooking, and feeding the horses were what was important to Katie. Now, I'm feeling prompted to think about what is truly important to me and how I already have what I need to do those things!
I'm excited to read the rest of your stories and see what other great writing you come up with though this semester!
I will have to agree with all of the above comments. You do a beautiful job with describing the scene and getting a person engaged into the story. The story you choose is a perfect example of how envying another persons belongings and wanting what they have, may not be what you really want. The grass is not always greener on the other side. I like how in the end she realized that she was better off with what she already had. In order to have something that you desire, often means giving up what you truly love and that it is not worth the loss.
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