Timberland Boat Shoes
Standing in line at Macy’s for the store to open
I left the house early so I could find a parking space near Macy’s near Union Square in San Francisco. Times have been tough, so I’ve been waiting for the Christmas sales.
Early as I was, I was not the first in the line, not even fiftieth. I checked my watch. 9:30 a.m. The store wasn’t set to open for another half hour.
The thing is, and this is the truth, I haven’t bought a new pair of shoes in two years. I saw that Timberland’s boat shoes were in the sale, real leather, the kind I like. So, a week ago, I decided I would stand in line to get a bargain. With just ten minutes left before the store opened, I noticed an old man squeezing by in a wheelchair; he was a second world war Vet. He still has his legs, but they were useless to him.
He wheeled down the line of people rattling his can. I knew I had three, crisp, twenty-dollar notes in my wallet. I knew, too, I must buy some new shoes. It was then the guy behind spoke up. It was still a chilly December morning, and the early sun kept sliding into shadows.
“Shouldn’t be too long now, I suspect,” the stranger said.
I don’t know him, but there was something familiar about his features, but no, I had never met him before. “I hope so, I’m bloody freezing,” I said.
The stranger, without intention or rudeness, asked what I intended to buy. I told him I was hoping to get new Timberland shoes.
“You?” I asked in return.
He smiled, then said that he, too, was looking to buy footwear; a new pair of sandals.
“Look,” he said, slipping off one sandal, “I haven’t bought myself a new pair in two thousand years,” and turned them sole side up.
Too funny! Two thousand years indeed. Funny or not, I could see, quite plainly, there was a very real possibility, looking at them, they were indeed two thousand years old! I smiled, and nodded, out of politeness.
I turned away but did think that was the best one liner I ever heard. The guy was freaking hilarious.
“The world is not as it should be. Do you agree? Too many lost souls, too much strife, it’s not at all what my Father had planned,” he continued.
The stranger struggled to put his sandal back on, again using my shoulder to lean on. I felt the sudden warmth, it was more than the sun. I turned my head, carefully, having had two surgeries, but still plagued with problems.
Wait! The ache has completely gone.
“I blame my father. I believe he screwed up royally. It is supposed to be a better world, but that’s the way of things, He couldn’t get everything right, but as far as I know, He is still trying.
“You say your father screwed up?” I asked.
I wondered why these things happen to me? What goes on in my head? I’m just a guy standing in line hoping to buy some new shoes. Is this it? Is this what I’ve become, waiting for some future insanity to take me home?
“Oh, you’re not so bad. You’ve got a good heart. I just thought I’d come and keep you company, it could have been here or maybe fishing together off the harbor wall.
I mumbled quietly to myself… just my kind of day, I guess. Down on my luck, needing to stand in line at a sale for a pair of shoes, and who have I got to tell?
“I’m always listening,” he said, smiling. His eyes the brightest blue. “Hey, look. The doors are opening.”
The movement forward was anything but orderly. Grown men and women jostled each other to get to the door. I felt like there was every chance I could get get a tooth knocked out.
“Have you ever seen anything like this in your life?” I asked the stranger.
“Not since my crucifixion!” He said.
I don’t know why, but I burst out laughing.
“It wasn’t that funny. It hurt like hell!” He said, straight faced.
Wherever this guy is appearing next, I want to be there. The line was disappearing into the store like a snake in the grass.
The stranger said something else: “You’ve done some good things. You keep scraping by.”
I didn’t look around, half afraid, and the stranger continued. “You’ve got to forget what you did wrong. Do some good, okay? You’re not finished, you have a chance. People still believe in you. Just make sure to tell those people you love them. It doesn’t get any easier. Look at me, I’ve been trying to sort this mess out for two thousand years. Sure, you pulled some stunts, you got lost, but you found a way to do something good,” he said.
I was still shuffling forward. I wanted to cry. I wanted to ask the stranger for help.
“You don’t need me. You need to believe in your friends and your family, tell them you love them and that you’re doing your best. Hey, look, we’re almost there,” he said.
As we approached the door, I saw the guy in the wheelchair. He held a hand-written placard that read: ‘No sob story, no work, just need help.’
I looked down at my old shoes, only two years old. I left my place in the line, and went over to the Vet in his wheelchair. I put my three crisp twenty-dollar notes into his tin can.
When I looked around, the stranger was no longer there. Not surprising, actually, in my old age I imagine so much, every day some new weird thought, some grand idea, something to say to someone, no-one, anyone. Is this my life, to imagine everything?
I crossed over to Union Square, chuckling to myself, and sat down to watch the last of the line enter the store. I was about to leave when the man who was in the wheelchair walked passed me, no longer sat in a wheelchair.
He was staggering, and then walking, and staggering a little more, each step gaining in strength and many people were coming to gather around him and stand near him, and they were amazed.
The Vet was wearing a pair of sandals. They looked at least two-thousand-year-old.
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