If you’d like to be included in this slot, please get in touch: estherchilton@gmail.com. Poems can be up to 60 lines and prose 2000 words. If you’d like to add a short bio and photo, then great. All I ask is that there’s nothing offensive.
This week I’d like to welcome Dan Ince to my Guest Writer Spot. Dan has recently started to take up my writing challenges and has produced some brilliantly creative pieces. It’s his first time as my Guest Writer. I hope you enjoy his story as much as I did.
If The Shoe Fits
By
Dan Ince
At 3pm the following day after the event, a group of girls were led into a room and told to stand in a line.
They lined up more or less in age order, starting from nineteen at the younger end of the line to twenty-six at the other. A nervous energy cast over them as a tall, handsome man walked into the room, accompanied by an assistant.
The assistant carried a ladies shoe and notably cast his gaze across the feet of the girls standing lined up before him. The tall, handsome man focussed more on their faces, and his eyes slowly moved from girl to girl, securing eye contact with any of those able to meet his eyes. Most of the girls unconsciously flicked their hair or patted down their clothes.
“Hello, ladies,” said the tall, handsome man.
He stretched out an arm and motioned to his assistant, “This is my associate, Stuart, and he’s going to be helping me today.”
Noting an almost imperceptible nod in his direction, Stuart addressed the awaiting girls.
“Ladies,” he said, “you may have noticed I have a shoe with me today. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, only for as long as it takes for you to try on this shoe.”
The eight girls, almost synchronised, took a look at the shoe, then at Stuart, and then at the tall, handsome man.
“Are we all clear?” Stuart said.
He looked across at the girls for some form of affirmation, even though he had a job to do and was going to do it anyway.
He started with the girl closest to him, the youngest at nineteen. As if to punctuate the fact, she periodically rolled a blob of chewing around her mouth from cheek to cheek.
Stuart put the shoe on her foot. Once in place, the girl held up her leg so her foot dangled in the air and the shoe practically fell off without any encouragement.
He moved onto the next. This girl’s feet were bigger than the first girl’s feet, but not so much that it wasn’t worth the effort. Initially, her foot slid into the shoe. But when introducing her heel to the shoe, Stuart needed to apply force, so much so that he conceded defeat and moved onto the next girl in the line.
He gave the tall, handsome man a glance and a slight shoulder-shrug. The man stood quietly, wearing a patient, yet somehow charming smile and offered another barely imperceptible nod to Stuart to continue.
As Stuart worked down the line, he found issues with each. There were a couple of girls whose feet easily fit inside the shoe, but with a practiced feel around the end of it, his fingers prodding around to locate the toes, he ascertained they were not the owners.
There were several with feet either so small or so large, he discounted them immediately, but still tried them for size so as not to offend those girls in particular.
He arrived at the eldest and final girl. The most blonde of the girls with the electric blue eyes. Unkempt and with a retreating demeanour, she barely made eye contact with either the tall, handsome man or Stuart.
Stuart gently took her foot and slid the shoe into place. The perfect fit. He pressed around where the toes should be and sure enough, each were positioned where he’d expect them to be. He looked up and saw her eyes were wide and her body had a slight quiver.
The tall, handsome man smiled that charming smile of his.
“Thank you, ladies,” he said, raising his arm in the direction of the door and watching them file out of the room.
He turned to Stuart.
“Large party for an armed robbery. Unusual for them all to be female too,” he said.
“What’s so important about the shoe?” Stuart asked.
“Eye witnesses have told us the one who fired the shot who killed the security guard lost their shoe as they were fleeing the scene.”
The tall, handsome man turned to the girl with the perfectly fitting shoe.
“Please, take a seat,” he said, “My name’s Detective Carver, and I’m arresting you on suspicion of murder.”
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Dan Ince Bio
Dan Ince is father to three and husband to one. When he’s not wrangling children and developing software for a living, he’ll be learning languages, reading or at the cinema. He can also be found writing a short story or two, uploading coffee break-sized fiction to danince.com
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Image credit: Pinterest
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