"Back in
March, a year and a half ago, when I was a freshman at Ole Miss, my older
brother Sammy, who's a Pi Kappa Alpha at Delta
State in Cleveland, Mississippi, invited me to drive over for the day and go
to this big party they have there called the 'Deer and Beer.'
Pikes and their friends from all around
come to this thing. In the
afternoon they rent out this club called Po Monkey's and after dinner, the party
moves to this other club called Brickhouse.
Trisha
nodded in acknowledgement and anticipation.
Then Kelly continued, "I wanted to look
nice for the party, so I wore this real cute new outfit
- a pair of white Capri’s, a lime green
knit top without a collar and a brown, orange and olive print blouse, unbuttoned
and tied above the waist. I also
wore a pair of these neat-looking pewter croc Yellow Box slides with a
low heel that I had just bought at the mall in Memphis a few weeks before to
wear on Spring Break in Biloxi. I
had a good time slapping around in them and meeting all of his friends and the
other Pikes. After dinner, a few of
us went outside of Po Monkey's and continued to 'shoot the breeze.'
(This
below is the whole story - including stuff that Kelly did not know to
tell:)
Outside,
in front of Po Monkey's, one of Sammy's frat brothers, Bo, was bragging about
what a good baseball player he was in high school - said he was a center fielder
who on several occasions threw out the runner at home, throwing from deep center
without bothering to hit the cut-off man.
Luke, another Pike brother of Sammy's, who was sort of a devious
prankster who liked to tell jokes and make petty bets with folks, dared him to
prove he had a good throwing arm.
Bo said, "I'll prove it!" and he looked around for something to throw and
someplace to throw it."
Luke
said, "How about throwing something over the back of the club - it must be at
least 50, maybe 60 feet deep and 15 feet high.
No one's standing back there and there's
only a few club staff vehicles parked back there.
That'd be pretty
good.
Bo
replied, "No problem! What can I
throw?"
Everyone
looked around and all they could see were sticks and pine cones from nearby
trees and rocks from the gravel parking lot.
Without speaking, everyone knew those
would not be suitable.
About
that time, while not paying too much attention to the bet challenge, Kelly back
kicked her left shoe on the front of her right shoe and lifted her foot up to
remove a pebble from the gravel parking lot that had wedged itself in the
sole. Luke, who had had his eye on
cute blue-eyed, sandy-blonde Kelly all afternoon, looked down to observe her
empty shoe. Then he suddenly picked
it up, much to Kelly's surprise.
Luke
quickly said, "Hey, Kelly, that's a real pretty shoe.
Looks like a crocodile died a horrible
death for it. (Luke paused to look at the shoe from all directions) It has a
square heel and I bet Bo would have an easy time slinging this over the roof -
from 40 feet back even - if he's the all-star center fielder he claims to
be."
Jumping
on one shod foot, five-foot-one Kelly protested and tried to grab the shoe away
from the much taller Luke who held her shoe high in the air just out of reach.
Kelly appealed to her brother, Sammy, for help getting her shoe back, but he too
wanted to see Bo prove his bragging words and see Luke lose some money.
He also enjoyed seeing his sister in a
bit of distress. He made a habit of
annoying her and picking on her any way and it was nice to accomplish this
without doing the dirty work himself.
"Siskelly,
just be a good sport. Bo will throw
your shoe over the back of the club, we'll walk back and get it and bring it
back to you. You can just stand
here while we get it if you want."
Sammy
came up with this fun little pet nickname for his little sister several years
ago. It was a pun on the Jackson,
Mississippi furniture store Miskelly.
They used to see their commercials all
the time when watching Jackson TV stations back home.
Bo took
the shoe away from Luke and asked him, "So how much will you give me when I
clear the back of building?"
Luke
replied, "$20 Dollars; and when you miss, you owe it to me.
We have to have proof that it cleared
the back of the building for you to win."
Kelly
voiced a little, actually a lot of concern, "It's getting a bit dark, will you
have any problem finding it?"
The guys
all dismissed her doubts as silly and Bo, standing about 40 feet from the front
of the building as Luke requested, reared back and threw her shoe high into the
air - it made a pretty arc into the dusky sky.
From the angle they were all standing
they could not see the shoe after it got about two-thirds of the way over the
club, though. Then because of all
the noise in the parking lot they heard nothing, either. Leaving a nervous Kelly
in front of the club alone wearing one shoe, the guys ran to the back of the
club to look around for her shoe.
Luke
hoped he had won so he took a rickety old ladder he found next to the kitchen
entrance and made his way onto the roof, hoping to find Kelly's shoe and collect
his $20 and win some level of affection from her when he slipped it back on her
bare foot. Bo and Sammy walked
around looking for Kelly's shoe at ground level and saw absolutely nothing.
Several minutes passed and Luke gave up
on finding the shoe on the roof.
Just as he was about to get back on the ladder to come down and concede
defeat, he spotted Kelly's shoe in the back of one of the old pickup trucks
parked out back - a baby blue but rusty 1969 Ford, that belonged to one of the
club's staff, who had come out to help work the party.
He knew if he told the guys where the
shoe landed, he'd be out $20 dollars, but if not, Kelly would be in one shoe the
rest of the night and he would have to share the responsibility for paying for a
replacement pair. He'd also miss
his opportunity to play her Prince Charming.
While
pondering this dilemma and still standing on the roof, the owner of the truck
onto which Kelly's shoe landed, Cappy Johnson, who always wore am old Ole Miss
baseball cap that was faded like the memories of Coach Vaught, walked out the
back of the club, got in his truck and drove off with Kelly's shoe.
Then he turned north toward his home
near Mound Bayou. Luke started to
make a motion for Bo or Sammy to stop him, but after a moment of indecision, it
was too late. Luke descended the
ladder and said, "I could not find the shoe on the roof, but unless we find the
shoe out back of the club we'll have to call the bet off as a draw. Soon all
three were looking for Kelly's shoe, but Luke's search was a obviously a
farce.
While
the guys were gone, Kelly felt stupid and vulnerable standing in the parking lot
wearing one shoe. She noticed a
couple of cute guys wearing Ole Miss Sweatshirts coming over in her direction.
They happened to be Pikes who had also come down from Oxford for the day. Kelly
found herself nervously crossing her bare foot at the ankle, placing it behind
the shod foot in a useless attempt to draw less attention to her embarrassing
condition. The fact that these guys were from her school, made it even
worse. The very bright fire engine
red toenail polish she was wearing did not help make her pretty feet less
noticeable, either. The guys
arrived and started to strike up a conversation with Kelly.
Of course, they asked her about her shoe
and they seemed somewhat familiar with Bo and Luke - one of the guys played
baseball against Bo in high school and remembered him having a great arm, so
they were not surprised at what had happened.
Soon the subject was steered away from
her missing shoe and onto learning more about each other - especially about Ole
Miss stuff. Kelly was wanting to
make a good impression with these nice-looking Ole Miss guys, but as luck would
have it, after only a few minutes, their girlfriends came around from the back
of the parking lot to pick them up to drive them out to he next party. This left
her alone again in the parking lot, still with one lonely crocodile
slide.
Kelly
was now really frustrated and limped across the gravel parking lot around back
to see what the problem was. Most everyone else had left to go to the next party
elsewhere and the guys were still trying to find the shoe so they could leave as
well.
Kelly
sternly questioned them, "So, where's my other shoe!"
She tapped her bare foot on the gravel
and stood with her arms tightly folded in front of her.
Sammy
tried to calm her, "We're still looking, Siskelly, but I'm sure it's back
here."
Kelly
replied harshly, "I bet it's on the roof!" She glared over at Bo as if to let
him know she did not believe his arm was a strong as he made it out to
be.
Luke
answered with, "I looked over that roof with a fine tooth comb, I don't know
where it is."
"So I
guess I have to spend the rest of the evening and the drive back to Oxford
tonight wearing one shoe. Are you
guys going to pay for a replacement pair if you don't find
it?"
Bo
asked, "Just how much did they cost?"
"About
$40"
Luke was
relieved they weren't terribly expensive shoes.
He suggested that he and Bo each give
her the $20 dollars they bet and go ahead and go to the next party.
He did not mind spending $20 dollars to
pay for his folly, but he could not admit that Bo had beaten him on a bet.
That would never
do!
Kelly
took their $40 dollars and said, "Okay, where are Cinderella and the three dorks
going next?"
The guys
were glad she was being a reasonably good sport about her missing shoe.
She could have started crying and
refused to go anywhere, but somehow, she raised the courage to continue in just
one shoe a little longer that evening.
Luke was also glad to have more time to get to know her, although he
wondered what Sammy would think about him liking his little
sister.
Cappy
got up some speed on old US 61 and in between beats of the song he had blaring
on the stereo. He suddenly heard a thumping sound in the bed of his pickup and
slammed on the brakes then pulled on to the shoulder of the highway.
Doing this so abruptly, he unknowingly
sent Kelly's shoe airborne in to the tall wheat-like grass a couple of feet out
from the edge of the shoulder - hopelessly abandoned, just like old US 61 had
been when the nice new 4-lane was opened.
After observing the truck and seeing no problem, he left again and now he
no longer heard the same noise. He
dismissed it as a fluke.
Meanwhile,
back at Po Monkey's, Sammy, Kelly, Bo and Luke, got in Sammy's car to go to the
next party at the Brickhouse club back in Cleveland where Afroman was playing.
Kelly was glad to have a paved parking
lot this time on her bare foot.
Kelly
and the guys eventually made their way into the crowded bar after a long walk
from the far edge of the parking lot.
They got settled into listening to the music and tried to talk to each
other, which was hard considering the loud music that Afroman was playing in the
crowded club.
A couple
of Sammy's frat brothers came by and started talking to them and Kelly.
He told them the whole sad story about
Kelly's lost shoe and soon word about her dismay spread throughout the
club.
Luke,
who had kept his feelings for Kelly to himself all day, decided to break the ice
with a casual request. "Hey Kelly, wanna dance?"
"Maybe.
What about my shoe?"
"Honestly
in this place, and that shoe style, you're better off without 'em.
It would just slip off
anyway."
Kelly
agreed faster than Luke expected, "Okay, but I still have to put it
somewhere. I'm hoping that Sammy
will be able to find the other one when it's daylight and keep it for me.
This is only the second time I've worn
them and I don't want this to be the last, so I need to keep up with this
one."
Sammy
suggested, "I could walk it out to the car,"
Kelly
protested, "No, that's too far to go there and back just for me and my
shoe."
Bo who
had already lost one of her shoes had the audacity to suggest, "I'm not much of
a dancer and I'm wearing a blazer.
I could keep it."
Luke was
secretly kicking himself for not thinking of that idea for himself.
But getting to dance with Kelly was the
important thing.
Kelly
nervously agreed, Okay...but you will keep up with it
though?"
"Sure,
Kelly. I'll not let it out of my
sight. Besides, I'd like a chance
to make up for losing your other one."
Luke and
barefoot Kelly hit the dance floor and left Bo and Sammy chatting with a couple
of other Pikes. A trio of girls
from the local DSU Kappa Delta sorority walked by and Sammy knew one of them
from an English class his Freshman year, "Hey Julie!"
Julie
looked over and saw Sammy and returned the greeting. She and her friends, Karen
and Christie started talking to the guys a bit and Sammy asked Julie to
dance. She accepted the
invitation. The other Pikes, Jeff
and Bill, in turn asked Karen and Christie and soon Bo was alone with Kelly's
shoe.
Kelly
was slowly warming to Luke, but she still thought of him as just one of Sammy's
buds. They got into the mood of the
music and the dancing and had a lot of fun together.
Sammy similarly enjoyed getting
reacquainted with cute Julie, a strawberry blonde with piercing green eyes and a
flashing smile. He had tried to ask
her out back in English class, but he could not get up the courage, but now as
an upperclassman, he felt more confident to pursue his
desires.
Soon, Bo
was no longer alone. Two more Pikes
and their dates came over to chat with him and said "Hey, we heard about you
throwing Sammy's sister's shoe over Po Monkey's and getting it
lost."
"Yeah, I
feel bad about it. I feel pretty
confident that it cleared the roof but Sammy and I looked
everywhere."
One of
the girls, Nancy, chimed in, "I bet it landed on the
roof."
"Well, I
doubt it. Luke got up there and
looked for it and he had $20 dollars to gain if he found it
there."
The
other girl, Connie, asked, "So what did it look like?"
Bo
hesitated but replied, "Well actually, she had no place to put it while she hit
the dance floor so (he paused to pull it out of his jacket pocket) here it
is."
The
girls both grabbed at it and Connie gained control and said, "They're cute
little open-toed slides! They have
a crocodile skin design and a stylish heel.
Bo tried
to protest, "Yeah, but..."
Nancy,
who also had one hand on the shoe and was trying to read the label printed
inside noted, "They're made by Yellow Box.
Looks like the style is called 'Panda'."
Connie
added, "We'll have to look for a pair of these in the mall next time we get up
to Memphis." She said while
slipping off her own brown loafer flat and slipping her toes into the shoe.
"It fits well!'
She took it off then replaced her own
shoe then said, "I need to show this to Ashley!
She said she was looking for a new cute
pair of slides."
Bo again
protested, "But, you see..."
Connie
started walking away and ignored Bo's protest, while Nancy and the guys
continued to chat with Bo who strained his neck to watch Connie show the shoe to
Ashley from about 30 feet away.
Nancy
asked Bo, "So who'd you come with?
I haven't seen you dance."
"I
didn't bring a date. I'm not much
of a dancer and I like my freedom to talk to all the girls, not be tied down to
just one."
Seeing
though the veil of bunk, Nancy asked Bo, "Have you ever met my sister
Tracy? She's on the volleyball team
at Mississippi State and doesn't know many people here.
Fantasy
visions of pro volleyball player Gabrielle
Reese danced in his head then he replied, "Can't say that I have.
You say she plays MSU Volleyball,
huh?"
"Yeah,
and since you played baseball, you might have something in common, both being
athletes. Do you want to meet
her?"
Bo asked
the politically correct question that every guy needs to know, "So what does she
look like?" Suddenly, Bo no longer
cared about Kelly's shoe that he had been entrusted to
watch.
Nancy
motioned over to Tracy and she waved in reply.
Bo saw that she was a athletic-looking
pretty brunette with a cute long pony tail.
"Sure, I'd like to meet
her."
Nancy
signaled for Tracy to come over and she introduced her to Bo.
The three of them chatted for a few
minutes, then Nancy left to rejoin Connie and now Ashley. She intended to return
Kelly's shoe to Bo. "I'll return that shoe for you if you want.
Who's got it?"
Ashley
replied, "I ran into Dawn and she took it to show her
friends."
"But, Bo
needed.." At that time, Nancy's date returned and pulled her to the dance
floor. Soon, Kelly's shoe had more
than six degrees of separation between it and her.
Luke now
dared to hold Kelly's hand; then he led her off the dance floor to take a
break. Word about there being a
cute barefoot girl, whose remaining croc slide many had seen, spread throughout
the club. One of the guys who had
gotten to see Kelly's shoe was scouting the dance floor for a barefoot girl and
when he saw Kelly and Luke standing off to the side of the dance floor, he
decided to make his move.
"Hi, I'm
Richard, a friend of Ashley's"
"Kelly
replied, "I don't know Ashley, but my name's Kelly."
Richard
had the name match her had hoped for so he pursued farther, "I was wondering if
you'd like to dance, Kelly?"
With a
slightly jealous Luke looking on, she accepted his request and returned to the
dance floor for another vigorous set.
Luke returned to find Bo and Tracy hitting it off.
For the
next hour, Kelly had half a dozen guys dance with her with very few breaks.
Her aerobics classes were coming in
handy for her cardiovascular stamina.
All the attention, which unbeknownst to her was primarily from guys who
had seen her cute croc slide and heard about her losing a shoe, really flattered
her.
Eventually,
Kelly was worn out and she found Bo, Tracy and Luke back near where she had left
over an hour ago. Kelly did not
want to ask Bo about her shoe while he was talking to another girl.
He was obviously trying to impress her
so she just hoped and assumed her shoe was still safe in his jacket pocket.
Sammy also returned from the dance floor
and introduced Julie to everyone.
Kelly asked Sammy, "Why don't you buy me a beer? I'm
thirsty."
Sorry
Siskelly, I'd be a bad brother if I let you drink this soon to you having to
leave and drive back to Oxford.
I'll buy you a soda, though.
What time do you need to leave, anyway?"
"I need
to get back to the dorm before it's locked at midnight and it's a one and 3
quarter hour drive."
"Okay,
so we need to drive you back to my dorm to pick up your car a little past
ten. What time is now, I forgot my
watch?"
Bo
quickly replied, "It's half past nine."
Sammy
responded, "Let me get you a soda. What about you, Julie?"
Julie
told Sammy what she wanted and he left to go to the bar.
At the same time, Tracy excused herself
to the restroom and Kelly asked a nervous-looking Bo, "Okay, you can give me
back my shoe now, I suppose."
"Well,
Kelly (pause) about your shoe."
"You
didn't lose it did you!"
"Well,
Connie wanted to see it then she showed it to Ashley (Kelly remembered Richard
saying he was a friend of Ashley's) then I met Tracy and sort of forgot to track
it down after that."
With a
voice that was starting to get a bit raised, Kelly sternly asked, "So are you
telling me that in one day you've managed to lose both of my cute little croc
slides?"
"I'm
sure it's in here somewhere."
Kelly
looked around at the crowd that must have been near a thousand and considered
the futility in trying to figure out who had her shoe.
"You're going to find it! You have 30
minutes, okay?"
"Okay,
please tell Tracy I'll look her up later when she
returns."
Bo left
to find Connie and hopefully Ashley who was the last possessor of her shoe.
After wandering the club for 15 minutes
he found them well on the other side.
"Hey
Ashley, I need that shoe back."
Ashley
replied, "Oh, that's right Dawn was looking at it."
"Who's
Dawn?"
"Richard's
brother."
A
frustrated Bo replied, "Who's Richard?
Please, Kelly heeds the shoe back in less than 15
minutes."
Ashley
agreed to help Bo look for the shoe.
They were able to find several folks who had seen the shoe but no one
knew where it was.
Kelly
nervously waited for Bo's triumphant return while Luke tried to get to know her
better. He thought she was a cute
girl who had a lot of spunk and he liked that.
Sammy and Julie relaxed over a beer and
had their own conversation going and they were getting better acquainted as
well.
It
became almost 10PM and just when Bo was about to go back to tell Kelly the bad
news, he happened to glance up on stage at Afroman who had Kelly's shoe in his
right jacket pocket. The top of her
shoe was sticking out of his pocket like a baby kangaroo in its
pouch.
In
respect to the artist, Bo waited until the song was over before approaching
him.
"Hey
Afroman, my friend Kelly needs her shoe back."
"This
shoe?" Afroman said pointing at Kelly's slide in his
pocket.
"Yeah,
that's the one. Can I take it to
her?"
"No, I
want he to come up here to get it."
Immediately, Afroman approached the microphone, held Kelly's shoe high
and addressed the club, "Will Kelly, the owner of this nice-looking shoe please
come forward to claim it?"
Back
where Bo left her, a frazzled and worried Kelly pushed and shoved her way up to
the front of the club to claim her shoe.
Once there, Afroman talked to her in front of the whole club. "So you
must have been having such a good time tonight that you walked right out of your
shoe, huh?"
Not
wanting to make a scene Kelly played along as he handed the shoe back to
her. Afroman looked down and
noticed she was completely barefoot.
"Hey
where's your other shoe, girl?"
Kelly,
by then was half way back to where Sammy was waiting for her to drive her back
to her car. She thanked Bo for
helping find her one shoe and she also thanked Luke for the fun they had dancing
together. She slipped the single
shoe back on her foot and walked back to Sammy's car.
Kelly
left Sammy's dorm in her Corolla around 10:20 so she knew she'd have to drive
pretty fast to make it back by midnight.
She kept her one shoe on her right foot to drive off on her way to
Oxford. She managed to make pretty
good time on Highway 8 to Grenada, then after a brief time on Interstate 55, she
decided to take the Water Valley short cut on mostly 2-lane Highway
7.
All
along the way, Kelly was nervous about being late and having to call the RA
(Resident Advisor) to let her in after midnight and wearing only one shoe.
Around 11:45, Kelly was on the Water
Valley bypass - the only 4-lane section of Highway 7 - and it was a good
opportunity to make up some time. Kelly crept up her speed to the high 70's even
though the speed limit was 65. Soon, she had flashing red and blue lights and a
siren behind her.
"Oh my
God! A cop! What am I going to do!”
Kelly cried out where no one could hear, except God who she had addressed
but He seemed intent on letting her get caught speeding.
She thought about how Sammy had not let
her drink at the party and now she was very thankful.
She hoped she would not have to get out
of her car and therefore keep her one shod state a secret.
After pulling over, she rummaged through
her purse and located her driver’s license.
Then she located her car tag
registration, knowing the officer would need to see both.
Behind
Kelly was a Mississippi
Highway Safety Patrol officer who regularly ran the Highway 7 stretch
between Grenada and Oxford. It was
a lucrative way to make money catching unsuspecting Ole Miss students.
Officer Jones stayed in his car and did
a computer tag check and found out Kelly had a clean record.
However, he did notice her car had an
Ole Miss sticker and a AOPi sticker in the window.
Officer Jones realized he had not only
an Ole Miss student but also a sorority girl.
She was doing 78 in a 65 zone so getting
off free was not an option. He
especially liked to catch sorority girls and fraternity guys.
He considered them to be rich snobs who
sometime showed him little respect as an officer of the law.
This time of night, odds were high that
she had been drinking. Officer
Jones finished his paperwork, left his patrol car and walked slowly to Kelly's
window.
Wanting
to be cooperative, Kelly rolled down her window and waited.
The officer asked for her license and
registration and he looked them over.
She seemed okay, but at near midnight on a weekend he almost always
expected DUI or worse, DWI. Much to
Kelly’s chagrin, Officer Jones said, "Please step out of the car,
Miss."
Kelly
paused and was not sure whether to take off her shoe and risk getting an extra
ticket. 'Was
driving barefoot legal in Mississippi?' she wondered.
Not wanting to risk it, she stepped out
of the car wearing only one shoe.
Officer
Jones looked her over. She was
cute, but so were almost all the sorority girls he'd ever stopped.
Looking at the ground, he flashed his
big flashlight at her feet and noticed she was wearing only one shoe.
"I see you're wearing only one
shoe. Did it come off in the car or
on the ground when you got out. If
so, I can help you find it with my flashlight."
Kelly
replied, "No officer, I lost it earlier in the day."
"How did
you lose it?"
"I was
visiting my brother down at Delta State and one of his friends threw it over the
roof and we could not find where it landed."
In 18
years or keeping Mississippi highways safe that was the lamest excuse he had
ever heard. Suspecting intoxication, he told her, " Walk this line,
miss."
Kelly
was really embarrassed now, walking the white line of Highway 7 at midnight
wearing only one shoe. She did
fine, but of course she had a bit of one shoe limp.
The officers then had her hold out her
hands and touch her nose, which she did okay.
For one last test, he did a Breathalyzer
and she registered 0.00.
"Okay,
you're okay, all you're getting is a speeding ticket."
A few
minutes later, Kelly, nervously shaking, was allowed to drive off, this time
obeying the speed limit. Around
12:30AM, Kelly returned to her freshman dorm and had to call the RA to let her
in. She tried to hide her one shoe
condition by carrying it, but the RA noticed and asked her about it.
She had to tell the embarrassing story
again and promise to call her in advance if she was going to be late like that
again.
The next
day, Sammy went out to Po Monkey's to look for Kelly's shoe some more.
Of course, he was unsuccessful.
On Monday, Luke went out there as well
and found the 1969 Ford pickup and went inside to inquire of the owner.
He met and spoke with Cappy
Johnson.
"Cappy,
on Saturday, my friend's shoe accidentally landed in your truck bed.
Did you find it?
No, but let's go and
see."
Luke had
already seen the shoe was not in there so he stopped him.
"It's not in there.
Do you think it could have come out
somehow."
"No, I
can't think of anything. (Pause.)
Wait, I seem to remember hearing a rumbling out on Old Highway 61 a couple of
miles north of here. But I did not
see the shoe. After I stopped, the
rattling stopped so I forgot about it."
"Do you
think you could show me where you stopped?"
"Sorry,
it was dark and I probably could not get you within a
mile."
'Well,
thanks anyway," a dejected Luke left and started to turn south toward
Cleveland. Instead, he jerked the
car north toward Mound Bayou. He
put on his hazard lights and looked at the road and shoulder for over an hour
but he never did see Kelly’s shoe.
Of course, it was laying 5 feet off the road in the tall grass and he did
not think to look there. Even if he
had, it would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.
Luke returned to the Pike House and he
and Sammy never did any further searching for Kelly's missing
shoe.
November
came and Trisha did indeed come to Oxford for the football game as
promised. She talked Amber into
driving over Friday after lunch and coming back late Saturday after the
game. It was a 7-hour, nearly
400-mile trip each way. The game was being regionally televised by Jefferson Pilot Sports so it was a 11:30AM
kickoff. This worked well for the
girls to get home after the game.
Trisha
and Amber made it to the AOPi house at Ole Miss around 7:00PM and Kelly and her
friends were there to greet her and take her out for dinner and
night-before-the-game fun. They had
a nice evening and Trisha and Amber were impressed with their 'Magnolia'
hospitality. Kelly had bought two
regular price tickets for them but promised to squeeze them into their sorority
block in the student section once they got into the stadium. But Amber revealed
that she'd rather stay at the house and watch the game on TV and offered to pay
for the ticket. "Amber, are you sure you don't want to
go?"
"Yeah,
I'll stay here and watch the game on TV with some of your sisters.
You go ahead and have fun. Let me pay
you."
"No
wait. I have an idea."
Kelly
looked at the clock and realized that her brother, Sammy might be back to his
room at the Pike house so she gave him a call.
"Hey
Sammy, what's you doing?"
"Oh,
just got in from a party and was getting ready for bed.
Hey, why are you calling me so late
anyway, Siskelly?"
Well, I
have an extra ticket for the Ole Miss game tomorrow and if you want to come up
and buy it, you can go with us."
"I love
the Rebels and I've been wanting to go to a game.
How did you get a
ticket?"
"My
friend from the Georgia AOPi Chapter, Trisha Kendrick, drove over for the
weekend and her friend, Amber decided she did not want to go.
I wanted to give you first
dibs."
"Consider
it sold!"
The next
morning, Trisha and Amber, who slept on a part of the floor in Kelly's room,
discussed their plans for the day.
"So
Kelly, what time do we need to leave today for the game?"
"Sammy
said he'd meet us downstairs around 8:30AM to walk over. So as soon as we can
get dressed, we'll go downstairs to get him and walk over to the Grove and
tailgate our breakfast. The AOPi
alumni cook some wonderful food for us and for them.
Trisha
liked the plan and soon she was ready to go downstairs to meet Sammy.
They were about to leave then Kelly
remembered something she needed to do first.
"Trisha,
you can go on down if you want.
I'll be there in a few minutes.
Get yourself a cup of coffee.
We have a coffee bar in the lobby."
Trisha
agreed and walked downstairs. It was a warmer than usual November day and there
was no chance of rain. Trisha chose
to wear her garnet red Georgia sweatshirt with the word GEORGIA embroidered in
white letters and a black trim across the chest.
She also wore her favorite most
comfortable pair of medium blue 501 Levi’s, which were tapered at the ankle, and
two or three inches short, on purpose. Trisha liked to show off her pretty feet
and ankles and these jeans did a nice job of that.
Her shoes were a pair of Cole Haan tan
backless mules.
Trisha
found the coffee bar and there were already a couple of other girls in
line. While she patiently waited,
she wiggled off one of her mules and began to play with it a bit by flexing her
toes on the back of the heel and lifting it up and letting it drop
repeatedly. As she moved up a place
in line, she temporarily put the shoe back on but then resumed with the same
shoeplay. Sammy was sitting in one
of the chairs in the lobby and he loved the sight of girls in pretty backless
shoes. This girl by the coffee bar, which he assumed by her Georgia sweatshirt,
was his sister's friend, Trisha, was a babe.
He could not believe that he was going
to get to spend time with this wonderful girl who was so pretty and seemed so
fun and carefree judging by her shoeplay.
After
getting her coffee and collecting her shoe, she walked into the lobby and took a
seat in a chair near Sammy. There
were a few other guys and girls in there but Trisha was so intent on waiting for
Kelly, she did not even consider that one of the guys might be
Sammy.
But
Sammy was certainly confidently hopeful that this pretty brunette who was now
sitting with one leg crossed and dangling her tan mule off the end of her toes
was Kelly's Georgia friend Trisha.
He considered introducing himself but he was looking for a good
opportunity.
Suddenly,
Trisha's dangling was just a bit much and her shoe went flying out a foot or so
in front of her, landing between her and Sammy.
She paused and looked like she was about
to uncross her leg and regain the shoe, but Sammy beat her to it.
He reached down, collected the shoe,
knelt down on one knee and went over to put the shoe back on Trisha's
foot.
"I
thought I'd keep you from having to get up."
"Why
thank you, you're so sweet. I love this Mississippi
hospitality"
"My
sister lives here and we're supposed to go to the football game with a friend of
hers from Georgia and I see you're wearing a Georgia sweatshirt.
I was
wondering..."
"You
must be Sammy, Kelly's told me all about you."
Sammy's
hopes were realized and yes indeed he was destined to spend the next several
hours in the company of this pretty girl from Georgia and her cute little
backless tan mules.
"And you
must be Trisha! It's so nice to
meet you."
Sammy
and Trisha made eye contact just as Kelly made it downstairs to break up the
mood and directed a comment at Trisha, "Hey, I see you met my
brother."
"Yes, we
just met. I guess we're ready to walk over to the tailgate if you are."
Trisha replied then threw away her now
empty cup of coffee as the threesome walked out the door.
All
along sorority row, the scene was busy - busier than usual for a quarter before
nine on a Saturday morning. JP
football games were killer on the sorority girls' beauty sleep but on the other
side, it offered a much longer after-the-game victory celebration or consolation
should the Rebels lose.
Along
the way toward the Grove, where
their tailgate was set-up, Kelly told Trisha what all the buildings were and who
used them. Trisha was very
impressed with the Ole Miss campus and its beauty.
Sammy was more familiar with the campus
already so he focused on keeping his eye on Kelly's pretty friend Trisha.
She seemed so nice and she looked very
cute slapping around in her tan mules.
Suddenly,
Trisha stopped and put her left hand on Sammy's shoulder.
He certainly didn't mind as he saw what
she was doing. A rock had made its
way into her left shoe and she reached down and grabbed hold of her shoe and
slipped her foot out of it. She
shook out the rock then put her shoe back on.
This gave Sammy a chance to see her
pretty foot up close again. In the
sunshine, her bright red toe nail polish sparkled.
"Hey,
before we get to the grove, would you like to see our student union
building?"
Trisha
replied, 'Sure." So Kelly led them inside and showed them around.
Trisha was impressed with the amenities
inside. It was as good or better
than Georgia's union, she told them.
Sammy was more impressed with all the pretty cute Ole Miss coeds walking
around. But he was happy to have a
pretty Georgia coed in his company just the same.
Kelly
suggested that she and Trisha visit the restroom before proceeding to the
tailgate. Sammy agreed to hold
their stuff and wait on them in the lobby.
Inside
the restroom, Kelly asked Trisha, "So I seem to notice that you and Sammy are
getting along pretty well."
"Sure,
he seems like a nice guy. I'm glad
he got to come and I got to meet him.
I know you think highly of him."
"Well, I
know my brother pretty well and I can tell when he's attracted to someone and he
definitely seems to like you. I
just thought you ought to know."
"I don't
mind, it's flattering actually."
Kelly
and Trisha finished their business and rejoined Sammy, and then they walked to
the Grove for the AOPi tailgate.
Trisha
was completely taken back by the sight of the Grove.
It was a breathtaking scene of old
campus buildings surrounding a huge grassy park with tall oaks.
There were tailgaters everywhere, but no
actual tailgate vehicles were allowed.
All types of picnics were going on simultaneously.
Some simply spread a blanket of the
ground and had make-you-own sandwiches and chips.
On the other end of the spectrum, some
of the high society alumni had portable roofs covering tables with linen
tablecloths, fine china and candles in a candelabrum.
Trisha commented, "This is
incredible. I thought the
tailgating in Athens was pretty good but nothing tops
this!"
Soon,
Kelly found the AOPi alumni tent where some of her sorority sisters were already
enjoying a fine breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns, grits, sausage and
homemade biscuits and jam. This
week it was the Memphis AOPi alumni chapter who cooked the meal for the
group.
Kelly
introduced Trisha to all, and Sammy to the few who had never met him and soon
they were loading down their Chinet plates with lots of good food.
Kelly led the way to a spot of grass on
the side near some of her other sisters [and for about half of them, their dates
also]. Sammy was surrounded by
beautiful girls and was sitting to one of the prettiest in Trisha.
He struck up a friendly conversation
with her by asking questions about Georgia, her sorority, her studies, and stuff
on her interests. Trisha relaxed
and with her legs crossed at the ankle, she dipped both feet and let her mules
slowly slide off, allowing her slightly tanned feet to shine in the sun.
Sammy wished it were warmer weather so
he could see for sure, but she seemed to have very nicely toned legs, based on
how pretty her ankles and feet were.
Kelly
got into the conversation and she asked her some questions as well.
Trisha bent both knees toward her chest
and grabbed them with her arms, allowing her feet to slide across the cool grass
on the way. A few moments later she
relaxed her legs and slid her feet along the grass once
more.
Around
10AM, a crowd started to from around the Grove.
Kelly noted the crowd and alerted Trisha
and Sammy, "The football team is coming through, and we need to find a good
spot."
Trisha
stretched her feet out and recovered her mules, then she stood and followed
Kelly and Sammy to the crowd. Sure
enough a few minutes the crowd erupted as the Rebel football team began to make
their way through the tunnel formed by two rows of fans all the way to the
stadium.
The
crowd dispersed and they made it to the stadium around 10:30AM.
"Sammy, why don't you take Trisha
through the visitors gate and meet me up in the AOPi block when you get
through. You can't get through my
gate without a student ticket."
"No
problem, Kelly." Sammy refrained
from using his pet name for his sister in front of her friend.
He was excited about getting to spend a
few minutes alone with Trisha. He
hoped the line at the gate was long.
Sammy
led Trisha to the end of the line at the Visitors near the North end zone.
There was a stadium expansion going on
in the East side stands and there was a lot of building materials all
around. They finally made it to the
line and continued getting better acquainted.
Trisha asked Sammy more about Delta
State and his fraternity and his studies and showed a genuine interest.
He wished that some of his frat buddies
could see this pretty girl from Georgia being so nice to
him.
Since
the line was slow moving, alternating between starts and stops, Trisha found
herself engaged in some sort of shoeplay at each stop.
Sometimes a shoe wiggle and drop, other
times slowly thrusting her foot in and out of the shoe and yet other times more
pressing her toes on the heel and lifting the toes upward, like she was doing
back in the coffee bar line at the AOPi house.
Near the
gate entrance, there was a temporary bridge installed of parallel 2x8 boards
that covered an area of fine gravel that had spilled over from the adjacent
construction zone. There was
a period of time where Sammy and Trisha had to stand on the bridge and she
continued in her shoeplay while Sammy sneaked a glance downward whenever he
could.
While
talking to Sammy, Trisha lost track of how close she was standing to the edge of
the bridge. She lifted one foot out
of a shoe and in doing so, the shoe landed about half way off the rightmost
board of the bridge, tilted to the right onto the gravel that was only about an
inch beneath the level of the board.
The line moved again and without looking, Trisha thrust her foot back
into the shoe, but in doing so, she slid the shoe off the board and the force of
her foot pushed her shoe into the gravel, which proved to be loosely
packed. Trisha's foot slipped up to
the top of her ankle into the dusty gray gravel and she almost fell over into
the gravel.
Sammy's
quick thinking when he saw what was happening, led him to grab her left arm and
pull her back onto the bridge. When
the dust settled and her right foot was back on the bridge, she exclaimed, "I
lost my shoe in there!"
"I'll
find it for you," an opportunistic Sammy replied.
Soon he was blocking the entire bridge
and kneeling over reaching his hand into the gravel.
Trisha stood in one shoe and one dusty
bare foot that looked like a gray sock, on the other side of the bridge - the
people in front of them in line had moved on far enough to allow her to do
so.
Sammy
dug around for a couple of minutes and Trisha was getting a little anxious.
But the wait had given her a chance to
dust the dirt off her foot and ankle.
"Trisha,
I'm sure it's in here. I guess it
got moved around somehow." Sammy
continued to look. Soon he was able
to secure her shoe and pull it out and shake out the gravel.
He handed Trisha her shoe back and she
looked it over.
I think
I'll just carry it until I can get inside the restroom and rinse it off."
So while Sammy enjoyed the sight, Trisha
walked the rest of the way into the stadium carrying her dusty shoe.
Once inside, she did indeed take care of
cleaning her shoe and when she rejoined Sammy, they made their way up to the
AOPi seat block and rejoined Kelly, whom they had not seen in about half an
hour.
“Hey,
where you guys been? It’s been hard
to keep your seats saved?”
Sammy
protected Trisha’s secret, “Oh, the line was very long and we had to go by the
restroom before coming up”
Kelly alerted her friends that the pre-game festivities
were starting so Trisha took a set in between Kelly and Sammy.
Soon Trisha found herself the center of
the conversation as both Kelly and Sammy tried to gain control of the
conversation. Once the game
started, though, it was so loud that conversation was not as easy to
establish. There was not room for Trisha to cross her legs in the
crowded stands, but she did manage to cross her legs and the ankle with the top,
front foot toward Sammy. Soon she
was twirling her foot and dangling one shoe off her toes.
Sammy was amazed how Trisha could come
up with so many scenarios to play with her shoes.
He wondered what she did when she wore
shoes with straps - did it cause her to have a mental breakdown? Of course he did not know that it was a rare day that
Trisha wore shoes with straps. Only
in the coldest weather or in formal dressy settings did she wear shoes with
backs at all. The ability to
shoeplay and not be confined to her shoes was the primary reason that Trisha
wore that particular style. The game was pretty close and exciting throughout.
There were some spectacular plays
including one where the Ole Miss tailback made an 84-yard run as Kelly and Sammy
cheered him on and Trisha cheered for the Georgia defense.
Sammy began to pay less attention to
Trisha’s shoes and more to the game and getting to know her better as time went
on. He thought she was really nice,
but because of the 500-mile gap that stood between them he knew it was futile to
pursue anything after she left for Georgia.
Trisha’s Georgia Bulldogs won the game that day, 20-17,
but Kelly and Sammy got over defeat pretty quickly.
They went by the AOPi house and got
Amber and then went to get a pizza before the girls had to drive back to
Georgia. They found a booth and Trisha and Amber sat across from
Sammy and Kelly, with Trisha and Sammy occupying the wall seats.
Sammy had gotten pretty conformable and
relaxed around Trisha - especially since he had realized that pursuing anything
long distance would not work. Trisha similarly was comfortable with Sammy but
had no idea that he was even considering pursuing anything more with her. After sitting with her knees bent in the uncomfortable
seats in the football stadium, she was ready to stretch her legs a little.
Soon Sammy looked down and saw Trisha’s
shoe balanced on the seat of the booth in between him and the wall. Sammy dared to flirt a little.
He moved his leg toward the wall and
trapped her foot inside the shoe against the wall.
At first she did not notice.
Then she tried to pull her foot down and
the shoe stayed in its place. Not
wanting to call attention to Kelly and Amber, she made a face at Sammy and he
just smiled. They sat like that for a few minutes then Trisha made one
last attempt to free her shoe, but this time, her foot slipped out and left her
shoe in between Sammy’s leg and the wall.
Trisha reached her leg up again and tried to reinsert her toes in the
shoe so she could try again, but before she could do that, Sammy reached down
and pulled her shoe back out of reach.
When Trisha’s foot landed on the seat, Sammy grabbed her by the ankle and
smiled again. He held her foot for a minute and Trisha made a face that
seemed to ask what he was going to do to her next.
All Sammy wanted was for her to
keep her foot there without its shoe so he let go to see what Trisha did.
She pulled her foot back for a moment
then realizing her only other choice was to put her bare foot down on the floor,
she eventually placed her foot on the booth like he wanted. After a few minutes, Sammy replaced her shoe back on her
foot and none of this was evident to Kelly or Amber.
As they left the restaurant and returned
to the AOPi house for the girls to leave, Trisha and Sammy never did discuss
their ‘interesting’ fun. This was
Trisha’s only road trip to Oxford and one she would not soon forget.
