Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

"Who left their shoes!? Seriously man! You have no shoes! Come on, somebody, anybody!"

Darren Doorful was having a bad day. No one mentioned his twenty-fifth anniversary with the TSA. He knew the young-ens wouldn't, but his uppers should have.

Clueless faces turned towards Darren without saying a word. No one came forward to claim the abandoned bucket.

"These shoes didn't just walk in here by themselves. They got to belong to somebody!" He scanned the travelers like an eagle for prey.

They scattered, adverting their eyes, desperately trying to avoid Darren's gaze. One gentleman tripped over a carry-on in his attempt to evade the gaze, inadvertently triggering a small stampede.

"Now, you all stop that! No running!" Darren said.

The herd obeyed. The gentleman who fell stood, accidentally making eye contact with Darren.

"Hey, you! Yeah, you! Are these your shoes!?" Darren raised the abandoned bucket, shaking it like a billy club.

The gentleman shook his head, shrinking into the crowd.

"That's right! You better get your clumsy butt out of here." He continued hunting for the culprit. "Now, this is getting ridiculous. Don't make me come looking for you. This isn't rocket science. If you don't have shoes, I've got them, and you need to get them."

Mothers with children shielded their offspring from the agent's prowling eyes.

"I'll find you, Shoeless Doe. You can't hide forever." He abandoned his position behind the rollers like a lion crouching for unsuspecting prey. Lowering his search from faces to feet, he inspected the sea of shoes like Sherlock for a clue.

He spied a foot without a shoe. "You! Without a shoe!" He ran to the unshoed man, scaring him senseless.

"It is me in the passport. I swear. I just shaved my beard." The shoeless man braced for a tackle. "You guys said I was alright." He closed his eyes before impact.

Darren didn't tackle the idiot, although he wished he could have. "I don't care about your passport. Why didn't you come get your bucket when I called?"

"Sorry? What do you mean?" The dude was genuinely puzzled.

"I have your shoes."

The dude shook his head, "My shoes are over there." He pointed to a lady sitting on a bench with a pair of shoes by her feet. "My wife has them. They're new, and I needed a break--they're giving me blisters."

Darren looked around at the stunned faces surrounding him and the shoeless man. "Sorry for scaring you, but you've got to read the room. This is a bad time to go without shoes."

Darren widened his search. He was not turning in an unclaimed bucket to his boss on his twenty-fifth anniversary. He refused to admit he dropped the ball, and he refused to admit the reason for dropping the ball.

"You might think this is funny, but I ain't laughing. No one's flying shoeless on my watch."

"Hey, Darren," Jack, Darren's lead, calmly got Darren's attention by gently placing his hand on his shoulder. "Come on back. We're getting behind, and we need you."

"But the bucket?"

"The person will return, or we'll take it to lost and found. It's alright. Don't trouble yourself over it."

Darren returned to his position behind the rollers, to his monotonous job and endless explanations of items that must go in the bucket. He kept eying the abandoned bucket with the shoes, unable to take his mind off the stupid idiot who left them.

Determined not to let another bucket debacle happen, Darren stepped up his game. He did not allow anyone into the secured area until they emptied every bucket on the rollers. He knew he shouldn't have allowed the first one to get away, but daydreaming about his dream job finally cost him.

He spent twenty-five years at the same pointless job—a job he hated but feared leaving. He knew nothing else. His work anniversaries usually brought agitation and a few days of depression, but this one took him way over the edge, causing him to scare a man whose only crime was blisters on his feet.

He could retire after thirty years, but would he survive five more? Or should he chase his dream of owning and running a home security company? Nothing too big, just a few clients to keep him busy. He could make more, but there would be no guarantees.

The battle raging inside Darren caused the mishap. It prevented him from doing his job right. He would have to make a decision. If he stayed, he would have to forget the home security business. But if he left, he would have to let go of certainty and embrace the unknown. If he continued straddling the fence, he knew he'd eventually fall on his family jewels and sing like a little girl for the rest of his life.

Jack motioned for Darren to join him. "Darren, this is Mr. Nigel, the one who accidentally left his belongings in your care."

"Good to meet you," Nigel said as he extended his hand.

Darren shook it, quickly rubbing his hand on his pants leg, trying to rub off the stupid. Nigel didn't notice, and Jack pretended not to.

"I was just telling Mr. Nigel how these mistakes happen all the time," Jack said, his look indicating that Darren better agree.

"Oh, yeah. All the time." Darren wanted to unleash his frustration - to tell the idiot that he had never had anyone forget to grab their shoes, but he held his tongue.

"Darren will take you to your belongings."

"Sure will. Follow me, Mr. Nigel." Darren turned without seeing if Nigel was following. They found the bucket, and the man put on his shoes. "Could I ask you a question?" Darren could not hold back. "How did you fail to notice you had no shoes?"

"I don't know, but since it happens to a lot of people, I guess I'm just an average Joe."

"Mr. Nigel, in all my twenty-five years here, I've never had anyone forget their shoes. You forgot yours because you're stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid."

Jack overheard Darren and ran to intercept before things got out of hand. "Darren, could I talk with you privately?"

"No. I don't want to talk privately. I don't want to work with idiots. I want to protect people from stupid, not pretend that stupid isn't stupid."

"Darren, that is enough." Jack placed himself between Nigel and Darren.

"And as for you," Darren turned his eyes to Jack. "Twenty-five years deserves something!" Darren removed his lanyard, which held his identification and dropped it to the floor. "Thank you, Mr. Nigel, for helping me make up my mind."

With that, Darren left the monotonous security of a steady paycheck for the exciting adventure of the unknown. But he didn't go quietly. The entire TSA team, along with Nigel, heard Darren repeating one word over and over again until he exited the building.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

At first, he sounded angry and frustrated, but towards the end, he changed his tone to free and happy.