The Cinderella’s Shoes

It was December 11, 1994. A couple of weeks before Christmas. I was walking towards Serenity’s Gift Shop and saw Elaine hanging on her boyfriend’s arm. Yeah, it was a cold season but looking at them, something warm was about them. I lowered my gaze, trying to pretend I didn’t see them. But then again, it was not successful.
“Hey Taranee Bron, are you going to Serenity’s? Oops, why am I asking you? Obviously you are. A gift for whom? For my dear Alfred?” An insulting laugh she made after looking at her boyfriend. I was speechless, as usual.

Everybody in the school discovered my secret love for him and since then, they never got tired on picking on me. Alfred was not an exemption. They said I was ultimately boring. If ever I was a duckling, they said I was the ugliest.

I always experienced the pits of treatment ― except when I was home. I was a loser. I was not academically smart and was wearing the most common face in the land. Probably that was why I had no friends in school but Dolly. She was the only good girl that treated me nicely. But she did not hang out with me so often because she had also other friends who unfortunately did not like me. But still, it gave me hope.

One day I reinvented myself. The whole school was surprised when I joined in a singing contest in the school. I knew I could sing and I thought that was the only way I could prove to them that I was also an interesting person. When it was my turn to sing on the stage, I was overwhelmed when I saw the big crowd all staring at me. My first time, and God, I was shaking! Slowly I walked around and ran down from the stage covering my tearful face.

I went home even if the program was not yet done. Why should stay anyway? I was so down until I learned that my Lola went to visit us that day. She hugged me so tight that my bones felt like about to break. She noticed the heartache I was trying to hide from her. She encouraged me to tell her what happened. After she listened to my awful story, she asked me, “Do you know Cinderella?” Puzzled, I just nodded. “I’ll tell you a holy secret. Don’t tell a word to any one, neither to your father nor to your mother. Not even to your friend.” I could not understand what she was trying to say but I kept on nodding.

“I know where Cinderella’s shoes are.” My eyes grew bigger. I knew Cinderella and her magical shoes was only a product of a fantasy. I told her that, reminding her that I was no longer the kid she used to know. “Hush…” She put her index finger in front of my lips to stop me from talking. “Believe me. I know it is not easy for you to believe me but I promise you with all my heart, I know where they are. I don’t lie to you, do I?”

“Where are they, Lola? Can they make me become beautiful? Are they really magical?” She laughed upon hearing the excitement in my voice.

“Excited, are you? Of course, you will become beautiful and not just beautiful but very beautiful.” She said while touching my face. “But it will not be easy to get those shoes.” Swiftly my rising hope felt lost in the air. “But there is a way. However, it is a slow process. But one thing is sure, it is not impossible.” Again, my excitement grew up.

“Then tell me please.” I begged.

“Remember the old summer house we used to go to when you were eight? That old big house belongs to my old friend Sherikka. She was also a loner before during our teenage years until her grandma gave her the Cinderella’s shoes on her seventeenth birthday. She told that to no one but me. We were best friends. After the big change in her life, she got married to Paul. She decided to keep the shoes for she would not need them anymore. We kept the shoes at the basement of that old house.”

The excitement was sparkling in my eyes. “Did you say it is not easy because there are now ghosts in that old house?”

She laughed to that and said, “No, my dear. There are no such things. That house is now on sale but no one can buy the house unless the purpose is valid. And it is so expensive.” I was waiting impatiently to her next words, “No one else is allowed to go inside unless you will buy the house.”

“So you would buy the house for me?”

Again she laughed. “You’re such a funny kid. No. My money is not enough. It is only half of the price of it but I am willing to give it to you.”

“But where should I get the other half, from Mama and Papa?” I confusedly said.

“No, you can’t tell them because I promised Sherikka I wouldn’t tell anybody about the shoes but to the only one who would need them.”

I shrugged and gave out a heavy sigh. “So what should I do then?”

“You need to earn the other half.”

“But how? I am only a high school girl.”

“That’s how you would start, from being a high school student. You need to study harder and when you finally have a college degree you would find a good job and earn the other half.”

“That sounds like a plan but it would take many years.”

“Yes, I know. That is why I told you it is a slow process. But what do you want, stay that way for the rest of your life and let your classmates call you loser or make a change in your life with those Cinderella’s shoes?”

I thought some more and then I agreed. Why would I waste my whole life if there was a chance to change my fate despite the fact that it would take seven or eight years? At least, there was a way and it was all up to me. So I decided to say yes, not just to Lola but to myself. I committed my whole self to that yes.

After that day, I started a mindset that I was a smart girl. I began wearing clothes better and began to act like a real smart girl. I studied harder so that I would make good records in high school. I focused on that goal, being Cinderella one day. Surprisingly, people around me noticed the changes in me. I was even more surprised that I graduated with honors from high school. I never stopped on that. When I entered college, I became more eager. I graduated Summa Cum Laude. It was really wonderful but that was not I was after with. I wanted the shoes. I easily found a well-promising job while continuing the boutique business I started in college.

After those years I checked my bank account and it surprised me to see how much money I had already earned. I could now buy the house even without telling Lola. And so I did. I was so excited. Finally the house was mine. I went straight down to the basement excitedly searching for the Cinderella’s shoes. Night fell and still I found no Cinderella’s shoes until I found a shoe box under the staircase. On its cover read, Cinderella’s Shoes. My hands were shaking as I lifted up the cover only to find a piece of a drawing of a pair of crystal shoes. It was but a joke! I cried when I finally realized the Cinderella’s shoes never really existed.

I confronted Lola. I was so hurt when I learned how she fooled me throughout those years. She made me believe in that childish fairytale. I was an idiot myself. How could a normal person believe on that kind of fairytale? I was so displeased and I decided not to see her anymore.

Until one day I was informed that Lola was hospitalized. I hurriedly went to see her. She was seriously ill. She was crying upon seeing me. I was crying, too. My heart was breaking to find her in that condition. All my pains went away. I knelt down before her bed and cried. “I am so sorry, Lola…”

She smiled at me with tears in her eyes. She slowly opened her mouth. “Taranee, my dear, I am so glad that you found them.” In the midst of my sorrow, I was puzzled. She read my face and smiled, “After we talked that day, that same day you started wearing them in your heart.”

Like a lightning, I was struck with the idea of how things really went on. I had the shoes throughout those years without knowing that. When I was about to say thank you, Lola had closed her eyes and she left me forever with that immortal smile on her face. I cried and was so sorry to what I had done to her. But I knew she was so happy for me.

That was a year ago when Lola died. I could not still believe that I have the Cinderella’s shoes until now. It was funny when this morning this lady came to my office applying to be my secretary. Guess who? It was Elaine. #