Shoes by Vikram Bhat

This story is about one person who uses multiple pronouns (he/she/they/ae).

His name was Mantis. She considered herself young, but on their way out of her youth. Being at the age of 33, this was an apt assessment. They were born in a small rural town, but they always considered themself to be a city kid, having spent much of their youth in a city. It was in that same city that they resided in as an adult.

She had a lot of shoes. Shoes can bring character. She had formal dress shoes, brown, a hand-me-down from aer father. They had a pair of nice, pink platform heels as well as some more formal heels, black and white. They had two pairs of Converse, one blue and one white with gold stars. He liked to think he was well-equipped for any situation, and aer wallet was happy to agree.

Today, they were feeling casual. Dismissing the dress shoes (a decidedly un-casual choice), he landed on the blue pair. He hesitated. Her outfit was quite nice, if he does say so himself (and he does), but ultimately decided it was not so nice that the Converse would ruin it.

Ae had the day off, a rather fortunate coincidence as aer boss was in a good mood. She went to the mall across town. The mall close by was big enough that she could avoid aer colleagues, but the whole mall just reminded him of work. They passed through the parking garage, watching three parents help their toddler walk along the floor. She gave a little smile. Maybe one day they would have children of their own. Perhaps move back to the countryside. Not the same town they grew up in though. Things, people… they change.