The Red and Gold Shoe
The Red and Gold Shoe part 7/7
They passed the shoe from hand to hand, and Lata watched jealously as they examined it.
"Can I try it on?" asked one of the girls, and Lata looked at her for a long moment. "Only for a second-just to see what it feels like," the girl pleaded.
This was something new indeed-to be asked, instead of ordered, shouted at, or even pushed. And then to know that she had the choice of answering yes, or even no. She had to be careful here, and so she said, with that cunning that comes from being treated like nothing for too long: "What will you give me in return?"
It started off with a piece of sesame crunch saved from the recent marriage feast to which they had not invited her. She shared it promptly with Joseph, and from there it went on until, at the end of the week, she had for him a top without a point, three plastic bangles for herself, first place at the tap on two occasions when she overslept and was late, and even an invitation to a not-so-important doll marriage, For only the first week that was a good run of luck indeed, and Lata had reason to feel happy. The conditions laid down for the wearing of her shoe were stern. It must never touch the ground, nor be scuffed against anything to wear away the gold. This was no ordinary shoe and therefore it must be treated as no ordinary shoe was ever treated. Such conditions were bound to affect the wearer too. The betel seller's daughter borrowed the shoe for a whole afternoon and she wore it when her relatives called on the family from their village. All through the visit she sat sedately on a trunk, one leg folded under her and the other hanging down.
