Shoes

In the town of Dartmoor England lived a young shoemaker Patrick. He worked diligently on his families legacy to be the best shoemaker of all times. He had his heart set on marrying a young lass named Alane.

To impress Alane he worked on making her the best shoes possible. The leather was as soft as her touch and would keep her feet warm like her personality. He found the perfect blue dye to make bows that would match her eyes.

The morning came for him to present his shoes and ask her hand in marriage. When he got to his work bench he found the shoes had all fallen apart. Upon closer inspections he noticed the sewing had been undone. Patrick figured it must have been the farmer that wanted her hand trying to demolish his plans. He spent the day redoing what had been undone.

The next morning the shoes were undone once more. With a heavy heart he went back to work fixing the shoes up once more. Before Patrick went to bed he sprinkled the floor and counter top with flour in hopes to find out who it was that meant to destroy his plans.

The third morning Patrick went to check on the shoes and found they had once again been taken apart. Upon looking around in the flour dust he did not notice any shoe prints or smudges from someone leaning on the desk or walking up to it. None of this tools had moved, instead he saw three sets of small footprints on the counter.

“I know who you are now.” Patrick turned slowly around shaking his fists. “Pixies!”

Pixies used to take his Dad’s horses out of the barn and tangle up their main and tails. They would hide things from his Mother in the kitchen. Though never had they destroyed anything. The pixies stopped their pranks when his parents had passed away.

Taking note of the foot prints Patrick went to work on making three sets of small shoes to fit those prints left behind. He fixed up Alane’s shoes once more vowing that he would not have to remake them a fourth time. He set up a small hut that had a tiny mirror in it. This hut was a cage that when entered the door could be locked from the outside therefore trapping the pixies inside. Once caught, Patrick would put them to work to make up time lost of redoing the shoes.

Before nightfall Patrick set the tiny shoes on the counter and made him a nice place to watch for them pesky pixies to come back. He felt his head nod as sleep was trying to take over. A small squeak caught his attention. Yup pixies. Little pointed ears, beady small eyes, leaves for clothes, and acorn hats. They seemed to have admired the shoes. One by one they put them on as if checking to see if they were cursed or something.

Patrick slowly stood up with the hut outstretched in his hands. “Would you like to see how they look?”

One pixie vanished, the other two froze.

“Come on there is a little mirror in here you can go and check out how they look on yourselves.” Patrick pointed at the hut.

“It’s some kind of trick.” The tallest pixie said.

“He seems harmless.” The shortest pixie looked Patrick up and down. “He never did anything to us when he was child.”

“He found our tricks funny.” The third pixie reappeared. “Put that hut down on the table, back away, and we will go check out our shoes.”

Patrick placed the hut on the table. Once all the pixies were inside Patrick waited for the opportunity to lock them in. He heard them chatting in excitement about how the shoes looked and felt on their feet. Patrick reached as fast as he could and snapped the door shut. He pulled off the outer hut to reveal the pixies were in a cage.

With a tapping foot and crossed arms, “I knew this was some kind of trick.” The tallest pixie grumbled.

Patrick shook his head. “I had to do something to stop you.”

“It was all fun and games. We didn’t mean to upset you.” Smirked the shortest pixie.

“You three work for me for the next week making shoes the right way to make up for my time lost remaking these and I will let you go.” Patrick paced backed and forth.

The three pixies huddled in a tight circle discussing things among themselves. Every couple of minutes one would poke its head up and glare at Patrick. Patrick knew it was just them trying to get him worked by using up all his time while waiting. They were probably up to no good and scheming to get pay backs. He knew not to let his guard down anytime soon.

The huddle broke up and the three pixies stood in line. The tallest pixie stood as tall as he could get. “We will only sew for four days and then you won’t see us again.”

“What’s the catch?” Patrick raised his brows.

“No catch. We wasted four days of your time making you redo these shoes. We will sew for only four days then move on to someone else who is more fun to pick on.”

“I open this cage and you will stick around to help and not disappear?” Patrick grabbed the door.

The three pixies nodded at each other then at Patrick.

Patrick opened the cage door and expected them to take off. They calmly walked out and started to sew some leather together that had already been cut. In disbelief Patrick went back to work.

“Patrick?” Alane’s voice rang out. “Patrick you here?”

Patrick covered up the shoes quickly so that Alane would not see her shoes. “I’ll be right out.”

He ran around the work shop and house looking for Alane. He did not find her anywhere. He heard laughing and his ears being pulled. Patrick knew then it was the pixies. He tried to run his hands through his hair and was stopped by all the small knots in it.

Patrick went back to his workshop and finished up with Alane’s shoes. The pixies were gone. Patrick never saw them again.