Until someone loses a shoe

- It’s all fun and games, said the bald man. 

The sun stood behind him like a golden shadow of his skull. 

- Follow me, please, mind the two steps. 

The hall was darkening as they were getting ahead. She felt the slippery surface with her soles. Good thing she was wearing her good shoes. She loved those all leather shoes that she got from her mom. At the end of the hall came the two steps she has been warned about. They were well covered in thick darkness and a viscid unfamiliar substance. 

- The keeper awaits. 

- The punter is ready. 

The two voices were coming out from the bowed ceiling, as their owners were behind the red bricks. They felt familiar although it was her first time going down the punter lane. They were so similar, but yet not the same. Maybe it was her impatience to meet the keeper, all the preparation and rehearsals, but she was very confident. 

She stepped down and one of her shoes got stucked and her foot slipped right out and caused a brief loss of balance as the naked foot plonjed on the second step. After pulling, pushing and balancing she got off the steps and down to the door that was leading to the games. The silence was even thicker than the darkness. What if nothing was behind the door? She shook her head and chase the bad thought away as she would have casted off a flying bug.

A miniatured buttler welcomed her with a grim smile.

- Mylady, you lost a shoe. Such a pity, they look like good leather shoes. 

There were good and precious shoes, but if things went the way she was hoping, a pair of shoes would not make the difference. She bowed to him as the rules stated, and winked as she knew she should. 

- The keeper awaits. 

- The punter is here. 

The voices were coming from the sides where the all the darkness ran from the center. In the middle of the room all the light from the chandellier was kept captive. The spiral stone table was turning as it did for thousands of years. But now it was turning only for her.

- Let the punter sit. 

- Let the keeper roll. 

She read that sometimes the keeper was showing, but there was no sign of they. Their presence was somehow floating around and then the table filled with their stone balls that started rolling following the well known ancient routes. The moment was so close that she could smell the keepers scent, they were somewhere close covered by the thick darkness. The balls stopped. It was the easiest path known, all she had to do was to keep her balance on the table wearing just one shoe. Her sharp long nails reached to the first ball and scratched the surface in her own direction. The ball fell in the groove and rolled to the center of the table when she jumped and landed on the shoed foot. The balance was good, all she had to do was keep it as the second ball was aiming her. 

- The punter has jumped.

- The keeper has failed first attempt. 

You go, girl! One done, two to go. 

She switched legs. She was feeling the cold stone of the table with her bear foot now. The third ball rolled and missed her, and so did the fourth. 

- The punter has won. 

- The keeper does not keep. 

The darkness thined once, thined twice, thined trice and there was the light. 

Somebody was leaning over her trying to open her eyelids.

- What the fuck, girl! You scared the shit out of me. 

​She was hearing but not understanding the words. The bald man was talking to her, but what was he saying? Did she win the game? Was that even about the game? Where was the light ball? 

​She wide opened her eyes. There was nothing known around. She was laying on a dirty matress on a concrete floor with her arms hanging on her sides. She could see her black hair laying on her shoulder, but it didn’t felt hers. Her black jeans and shirt were unknown clothing items, but there they were on her skin. The sharp pain in her left arm made her shriek as the man pulled the needle out. She was missing a shoe, and with the bear foot she could feel the cold concrete floor, moist and disgusting. Her fingers were sore. She looked at her feet. She knew those shoes. She loved those shoes. 

​- Where’s my shoe?

​- You came like this. You must have lost it on your way up.

​- Where am I?​

​- At Jimmy’s dinner. 

​That didn’t look like a dinner. Where the fuck was she?

​- Can I see a menu?

​- I only cook China white. 

​Am I loosing it? 

​And then all came back to her. She did loose it for a brief period of time between the injecting and waking up. It was her first time here, she knew nothing about this dinner and the cooker. What if they gave her something else. She was feeling exhausted and could use a good sleep.

​- No, no, no I won’t let you fall asleep here. Go home, sleep there I have a long waiting list.

​- Please, just five minutes. 

​Behind the bald man, the sun was either rising or setting, she couldn’t figure out. On his right on the wall an old calendar was hanging crooked. The picture showed a pinball table carved in stone with shallow grooves that led to a strange spiral in whose center a woman was looking for her balance standing on one foot. It’s all fun and games said the slogan above. 

​Her eyelids closed and she fell back into the darkness while the bald man pulled her by the legs outside the room where an extremely short man grabbed her arms and he pulled her down the stairs to the corner of the building where he found the missing shoe and rested her head on it. 

​- There you go mylady, I found your missing shoe. 

​