The Red and Gold Shoe
The Red and Gold Shoe part 4/7
"What will you buy?" asked Joseph seriously, for he knew this problem called for much thought.
Lata was quite sure what she would do. "We'll have a doll marriage too, and we'll have a feast." So what if they'd not been invited? A marriage and a feast of their own would make things equal. Well, almost equal-for it couldn't be much of a marriage when one had no dolls. The groom was the wooden handle of a chisel with the blade snapped off from Joseph's house, and the bride was the short stout stick with which Lata's grandmother beat the clothes at the pond. Both stood stiffly side by side against the fence, with eyes,a nose, and a mouth put on with a charred stick. For ten coppers the feast had to be modest indeed, with roasted peas served in silver cups made from paper out of empty cigarette boxes they found along the tracks.
They ate the peas slowly and very solemnly' It would not do to gobble them too fast, for once they were gone the feast would be over. Too soon would their pleasure become a thing of the past. The peas had to be chewed and tasted to the fullest so that they could be remembered to the fullest.
"We won't tell anybody-not anybody," said Lata, munching.
