I sat here, like a loyal friend by her floor bed. Waiting for my owner, Samira Khan, to wake up. She did in a while. I saw her frowning and looking groggy. Lying on her pillow, she reached out for a wooden box which held her medication. Last night, like every other night, she’d filled up her small pitcher and placed it beside her bed. She took out a pill blister pack, pinched one out, and popped it into her mouth. She swallowed hard with some water. With a sigh of relief, she lay back on the pillow. She looked vaguely at a pair of pants hanging from a hook on the bedroom door – not hers. The morning was dull and dreary with deep, hanging clouds. She pushed and rolled herself out.

A vegetable vendor was shouting on the street. Just as well, I also heard his croaky voice and readied myself. Samira was going to run downstairs. He always came along with his cart at this time of the day. My owner slid her feet and rested them roughly upon my tongue. She checked her vegetable basket, and decided to buy some potatoes and green papaya from him. She craned her neck through the window and told him to pack her one kilo of potatoes and one medium sized papaya. Quickly, she picked up her purse and climbed down the stairs. On the street, the vendor had wrapped her potatoes and green papaya in an old, crumpled newspaper sheet. Samira opened her purse and gave him the money for a kilo of potato and a green papaya. The vendor took the notes with a polite smile, but said that the price had gone up because of inflation.

“Since when?” Samira asked.

I listened.

“There’s inflation, didn’t you know? It was in the news?”

“I know. High electricity bills, petrol price hike, and what have we. How much?”

The price had doubled. Samira frowned and looked into her purse. There was no money left.

“Stay here, I’ll have to go upstairs to fetch the extra some.”

“Okay. Please don’t be late. Time is money. I got a family of five to feed.”

“I know.”

Samira smiled and left, as he hung around in the dull street. She went upstairs and searched for money. She went through all her purses scrambling for coins and loose notes, here and there. She gathered them in a rush, and sat down to count them. It was barely enough. She took it all and raced downstairs to the waiting vendor. She gave him all she had. Mad, she had the right amount – somehow. As she turned around, I felt a pressure pain and soon I caved in.

“Uff,” I uttered.

Thumbing her temples, she slowly came back up the stairs. She would have to get dressed in an hour to go to work. The bus-stand, thankfully, was not far. She went straight into the kitchen, grabbed a peeler off the rack and began to peel the potatoes and the green papaya. She mixed it with turmeric, red chilies, oil and a dash of salt. Turning on the stove, she placed the pot and reduced the heat. While it cooked in the gentle flame, she went into the bathroom to take a bucket bath. Her feet released me. I felt relieved.

A few mugs of pail water down her back; after the bath, she dried herself with a towel and put on a cotton sari, combed her long black hair. She added some lipstick to her pale lips. The curried potatoes and the green papaya were cooked by now. She sat down in bare feet to have her meal in the kitchen with a couple of dry chapattis, left overnight. There was no time to make tea. She washed her hands, picked up her purse, slid her feet into me. Off she climbed down the stairs again. On the street, she hurried towards the bus-stop. But her bus had stopped and left; she was late. Her jaw fell. She called a passing rickshaw and got on it. I felt rested. Just then, she realized that she didn’t have enough money to pay him. Which meant she would have to borrow from a colleague once she reached her office? Unless, she went into her bank first. She asked the rickshaw to stop in front of the bank. She told him to wait here. The man wiped off his sweat with a soft towel around his neck and inclined against the passenger seat where she had been sitting. Samira crossed the street. I was her sturdiest, the best pair of sandals she’d ever had, and which she’d been wearing for donkey’s years. She crossed the street and entered the bank. A quarter of an hour passed; she returned. Her rickshaw was still there.

A good Samaritan, at the office, she paid fare and some extra tip to the rickshaw-puller because she made him wait. The man took it happily; not everyone was fair. Most people haggled. But Samira didn’t, not even with the vendor this morning. She walked over five high steps, dipping her weight duly into me and entering the office building where she worked as a secretary. It was awfully noisy today. What was wrong? She asked a colleague. The colleague replied that the company was folding. They were all out of jobs.

What? Out of job meant no pay. She saw how the other girls were behaving. Some screamed, some even fainted. Others sobbed silently. She dug her toes deeper into me. She offered them no consolation; soberly, she watched them despair. This level headed person – my owner chose me as her sensible sandals. In all the world, I could never fail her, nor cause her to break a bone, nor lead an invalid life by tripping her. Such a long journey she walked in me, while I had her back all along; I didn’t fall apart. I knew that she felt strangely secure with me – her trusted sandals.

*

Samira thought of bootstrapping as an alternative mode. Typically, the vendors were the real battlers of street struggles; they were her real heroes. They grew and sold their own vegetables. In her view, they never made boots for the kings. Samira decided to strap her boots and invest in a start-up business. She thought of selling jewellery. She took out money from the deep pockets of the pants hanging on her door. She bought jewellery from craftsmen and decided to sell them in a shop. She needed to find a shop. Me – I took her on paths, she never thought of traveling – to walk her walks. Without wasting any time, I took her to a developer. She asked them if she could rent a shop in their newly built glamorous building. They promised her one. On that promise, Samira went ahead to a jeweller and made a deposit of 20%. In one short month, she picked up the jewellery and had a whole load to start her business with. However, when she went back to her developers, they told her that the new shop wasn’t available for rent. This was a setback. It disappointed her. She asked, “Why not?” They told her, because unless all the other new shops were tenanted, she couldn’t have hers.

“What? What a crazy idea? You are breaking your promise.”

“Well, it’s just a promise. No legal paperwork was in place.”

Samira realised that without a shop, all she had was this beautiful dream. Still, she had me. I took her back to the same developers. She asked them to help her out. They told her she could rent a kiosk, instead. Samira agreed straightaway. Although she would have preferred a shop, if she had this kiosk, she could at least sell her dream. Every morning, Samira walked to the kiosk, sat here on long summer days into sunsets. It wasn’t easy at first, like everything else, nothing was really easy. But my soles had not yet disintegrated. They remained sturdy – a friend by her side, rain or sunshine. I took her places where her dream could become a reality.

Sure, the kiosk wasn’t the best option. But the market was changeable too, and she also wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. This, her meal ticket was as real as the cart was to the vendor, and the rickshaw to the puller. Days went by, months and then a whole new year had gone. Samira sold much. She bought and she sold. After about a year and a half, the developer came to her and offered her the shop that she had desired. She couldn’t believe this. In those same loyal sandals – me – she moved her trinket boxes to the shell of the shop which was now going to house her big dream – all done. I did my diligent miles – the dirt and the grime were now hard-pressed on my tongue, mapped out a grim, grimy destiny of strife.

*

Then one night, Samira came home late. She took me off and placed me in my usual place by the bed. She curled up under the blanket. I shivered and sentineled. The next morning, her headaches were also gone. When she woke up, she didn’t look at me even once. Neither were those familiar male pants hanging here anymore. I realised, my days were numbered. Where was I? I was right there where she put me every night. I had worked hard, borne the brunt of it all without a hitch, like a silent sole “scream” painting on a wall. I flew her out on her whimsical air; the promised shop or not, I remained her sandals, worn out but undeterred. Who else took the whole gamut of the idiosyncratic business world in my stride? My tracks marked a solitary, but solid pathway – she was successful. Just as those pants were gone, I was made redundant too, without any consequence to her. I heard her suppress a giggle and mumble – “Funny, this love! But you have to have the looks, too, for me or anyone else to love you so.”

Old shoes – she cast me aside like a pair of disposables! Flat on my face, I saw that she took out another, newer, more expensive pair from a shoe box. She had despised the idea of making boots for kings. Really? In those new shoes, she’d be doing just that. I was morose – someone else’s pants hung on the door.

About Mehreen Ahmed

Multiple contests winner for short fiction, Mehreen Ahmed is an award-winning Australian novelist born in Bangladesh.Her historical fiction, The Pacifist is an audible bestseller.Included in The Best Asian Speculative Fiction Anthology,her works have also been acclaimed by Midwest Book Review,and DD Magazine,Translated into German, Greek, and Bangla,her works have been reprinted,anthologized,selected as Editor's Pick, Best ofs,and made the top 10 reads multiple times.Additionally,her works have been nominated for Pushcart,botN and James Tait.She has authored eight books and has been twice a reader and juror for international awards. Publications/Forthcoming Cambridge University Press,University of Hawaii Press,Michigan State University Press,Perception Magazine:Syracuse University,Straylight Magazine:Wisconsin-Parkland University,The Talon Review:North Florida Univeristy,ISTE,Call-ej,University of Kent Press,The Sheaf:University of Saskatoon,Jimson Weed UVA,Writer's Digest:Six Sentences,IceFloe Press,Litro Magazine,Bull,Otoliths,BeZine,Atherton Review,Ethel Zine,Olney Magazine,Alternate Route,The Gorko Gazette,Minison Project-Shakespear's sonnet reimagined,WordCityLit,Mōtus Audāx Press,KNOT Magazine,The Antonym,Insignia 2022 Best Asian Speculative Fiction Anthology,The Hennepin Review,Literary Heist,Mad Swirl,Alien Buddha Press,Rogue Agent Journal:Sundress Publications,October Hill Magazine,Synchronised Chaos,Oddball Magazine,Pine Cone Review,Noctivagant Press,Coin-Operated Press,Connotation Press,Door is A Jar,ELJ Scissors and Spackle,The Chamber Magazine,Flash Boulevard,Five Minutes,Quail Bell,Ponder Savant,Litterateur RW,ShabdAaweg Review,Phenomenal Literature,Crêpe & Penn,Flash Frontier,Ellipsis Zine,Ginosko#24#29,Brown Bag,The Cabinet of Heed,Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal,Melbourne Culture Corner,Cogito Literary Journal,Literati Magazine,Active Muse,Dreaming in Fiction,Anti-Heroin Chic,Love in the time of Covid Chronicle,Unpublished Platform,Wellington Street Review,Nailpolish Stories,Setu,Impspired Magazine,The Writers and Readers'Magazine,Empyrean Literary Magazine,WINK,Mono,KREAXXXION Review,Thorn Literary Magazine,3 Moon Magazine,Merak Magazine,Sage Cigarettes,All Existing,The Bombay Review,FlashBack Fiction,Down in the Dirt,CC&D,Nymphs,Portand Metrozine,Academy of Heart and Mind,Mojave Heart,The Piker Press,Kitaab,Nthanda,CommuterLit,Angel City Review,Paper Djinn,FreeFlashFiction,Cafe Dissensus,Adelaide Literary Magazine,Scarlet Leaf Review,Terror House Magazine,The Punch Magazine,Furtive Dalliance,Flash Fiction North,Bridge House,Cosmic Teapot,The Hooghly Review,The Chakker and more. Awards/Accolades Drunken Druid's Editor's Choice,2017/The Pacifist Nom James Tait Black Prize for fiction,2021/Gatherings First Place Academy of the Heart and Mind,May Flowers contest 2022/The Phases of the Moon One of the winners,Waterloo Festival,May 2020/Dolly Stream-of-Consciousness Challenge,Cabinet-of-Heed,Drawer Four,April 2020/Black Mirror Finalist,Fourth Adelaide Literary Award contest,February 2020/Flower Girl Honourable Mention in the Weavers of Words contest,Unpublished Platform,March 2022/Silent Bleat Winner Shout Reader Ready Silver, Bronze Awards for fiction 2019/The Pacifist, Moirae,The Blotted Line Nom,Publication of the Month,Spillwords Press April/May 2018/Waheed Murad 3xNom, botN 2020/ Interlude,Lungs,Ylem Nom,Pushcart,2020/Ylem/republished in Ginosko#24 Writer's Choice Best of CafeLit 8 2019/Bats Downunder Best of Mad Swirl twice 2023/Space,Vape Best of Alien Buddha 2023/ Deep well Editor's Pick Kitaab 2023/The Giver Editor's Pick Litro 2023/Sensible Shoes Audiobooks The Pacifist2017 Peeking Cat Literary/Chasing a Dream2021 SweetyCat Press/Rain and Coffee2020 FlashBackFiction/East Bengal 1971,2020 Shortstoryreader/Juliet's Song2021 Flash Fiction Frontier/Blue,Grey,Lavender2020 The Archer/Jingwei2022

• Web
|
• Twitter
|
• More Posts(2)

Editor's Pick Tuesday Tales