It’s about 8:30 a.m. on a weekday morning, and I’m on my way to work. It’s early March, and the Winter has been relatively mild. The temperature is in the mid-forties.
As the subway approached the 23rd Street stop, I started to move into position to exit the car. So did others. The doors opened, and we all made the move to get out. As I was leaving the car, just as I was about to move my left foot from behind me to in front of me, the person behind me managed to step on the back of my foot and pin my shoe to the floor. I fell forward, out of my shoe, and out of the car. I managed to get up and start to go back for my shoe, but alas, I was too late. The doors had closed.
I waited right next to the door hoping that it would open quickly enough for me to get my foot in there to keep it from closing, and someone on the inside would hand me my shoe. No such luck. The subway started to move, and my shoe was on a nice little trip to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Dejected, I trudged to work. My little toes got quite cold during the four block walk to my office. I must have looked a little funny walking around without a shoe, but this is NYC, people have seen a lot weirder.
After getting to work, and enduring quite a few comments about my lack of attire (“What, you get dressed in the dark?”; “Can’t afford two shoes?”; etc.) I started to do some work until 10 a.m. when the shoe store a few blocks away would open.
After walking over to the shoe store and finding a pair of shoes that I liked, the salesperson asked what happened to my shoe. I explained, and he told me that I was about the fourth person that year that he had seen with the same problem.
At least I’m not alone.
