pours tea from his cup into his saucer then blows rippling the surface of the shallow brown pond He lifts the pond to his lips and slurps After lunch your father will wash the car Evelyn and I will go to Frederick’s for shoes Evelyn’s mother once read that children’s feet grow fastest in summer so Evelyn spends July and August in open-toed sandals She loved this year’s pair straps of white leather that softened as her skin browned But now her toes hang over the ends a little Evelyn and her mother walk to Frederick’s once a year It’s as sure as Christmas The day hovers between summer and fall the warm air stirred every so often by a cool breeze Suddenly Evelyn’s mother sinks into a bench Och no she moans She touches her heart and nods across the street Evie look Evelyn blinks Frederick’s Footwear is no more The store has been blasted with fluorescent light The wooden sign with swoopy letters is gone Instead a plastic sign with plain letters says BUDGET SHOES What can we do Evelyn’s mother says standing up Evelyn wedges her hand under her mother’s elbow The two step bravely into the street
The brass bell on the top of the door has been removed Instead Evelyn and her mother are beeped in Evelyn studies the plastic speaker low on the doorframe Infrared An invisible tripwire She’d like to try entering the store without triggering it Bellycrawl like a marine Or maybe a kung fu scissors jump would do the trick The biggest surprise is Mr Schumann He’s still here with his watery eyes and grayish skin and hair in his ears like packed snow But he isn’t dressed in his usual brown three-piece suit Instead he wears a T-shirt With a nametag Right Fit Technician FRED Perhaps it’s better this way Evelyn’s mother tells Mr Schumann soothingly after he explains the changes mentioning buy out and franchise a word that to Evelyn sounds like something pretending to be sweet After searching the half-empty shelves Evelyn’s mother finally reaches for a pair of blue canvas shoes Evelyn freezes If she moves a truck will pull up with a delivery of stiff leather loafers the kind that have dug at her ankles every year since kindergarten The blue shoes in her mother’s hands are neither leather nor loafer They’re like runners Lace-ups of course Evelyn’s mother would never buy shoes with Velcro
Velcro she says is for a different kind of family Let’s get you into the Brannock device Mr Schumann says kneeling Evelyn removes her beloved sandals After the long hot summer the leather insoles bear the imprint of her toes permanent oval shadows Evelyn’s mother hands her a horrible clot of stocking that reaches halfway up her shin and Evelyn places her right heel in the cool metal bowl marked R Mr Schumann adjusts the levers squeezing her foot snugly just for a moment He swings the device around and lowers Evelyn’s left heel into the bowl marked L Still just the two feet he asks Evelyn smiles Even with the T-shirt it’s still jokey Mr Schumann become a size five Looks like you’ve been eating your schnitzel You’ve And I’m going into grade five The stars align Mr Schumann takes the blue shoe and disappears through the curtain into the back When he emerges box in hand his glasses are askew and he’s out of breath Here we are he puffs reaching into the ruffle of tissue The last pair It’s a half-size down but the sizing is
wild with these offshore shoes We may be all right Evelyn slips her feet into the near-runners When her mother prods the ends she draws back her toes Take them for a test drive Mr Schumann says Yes Evie take a spin Give them a whirl Evelyn’s mother and Mr Schumann get along in a way that her mother and father don’t Evelyn thinks it’s because they’re both from Europe The Old World Evelyn’s father is from Alberta The near-runners feel entirely different from loafers They bend with her feet The soles are like licorice instead of breadboards Ha Breadboards LOAFers Evelyn stifles a smile They’re good she says as calmly as she can as her heart thrums You can wear them home her mother says She reaches into her purse Does this modern establishment respect hard cash Or only plastic Anything that’s money Mr Schumann says Evelyn lets out her breath Her feet have graduated She’ll be able to play field hockey in these shoes She hands her old sandals to Mr Schumann who tells her they’ll go into the store’s new high-efficiency incinerator
