Trisha entered the big Arts and Sciences building at time of class change and it was very crowded on the stairwell that went on the outside of the building in-between wings of the building. She was wearing a new pair of tan flat-heeled mules. It was a cool morning so she wore them with white hose. These matched her tan skirt and print blouse nicely.
The combination of the crowd, the stairs, the hose and the backless shoes led to a problem. She was nearing the third and top floor of the stairs when her left shoe slipped on the step (it had a slick leather bottom) and the shoe itself slipped off her foot with a good bit of momentum. It flew in the air downstairs about 8 steps, then without her knowing it, it ricocheted off a guy's book bag he was carrying in his left hand and fell under the hand rail. The shoe fell straight down between the winding stairwells and landed in a thick bush on the ground. In the commotion in the crowd, no one noticed what had happened - or at least no one cared.
Trisha couldn't stop immediately because of the crowd, so she went up a couple of steps with one shoe and stopped on the landing and waited or the crowd (all going upstairs) to clear so she could retrieve her shoe. Of course she thought it had landed harmlessly a few steps down. After a couple of minutes, the crowd cleared enough for her to walk down the steps. She did not immediately see her shoe, but she figured it might have been kicked off to the side or down to the next landing in the crowd.
She looked further and did not find it anywhere on that set of steps. Trisha then turned on the landing and looked down the next set of steps thinking, “Maybe it got kicked down that way.” Still nothing was found. She started to worry then and looked at her watch and realized her class was starting and she had a quiz to take. She decided she would have to continue her search after class.
Trisha went back up the steps and into the building and walked down the hallway to her classroom. She got a few looks from those who noticed she was missing a shoe. As she slipped into the back of the class and sat on the back row, she tucked her shoeless foot under her leg (partially for shame and partially for warmth) and dangled her shod foot a little and soon the quiz began. After class she got up and walked though the crowd back to the stairs to look for her shoe. She made her way through the hallway to the stairwell wearing one shoe but was not noticed much in the large crowd. She waited several minutes then looked on the stairwell again. This time, she made it all the way down 6 half-flights to the bottom and the shoe was nowhere to be found.
Just as Trisha was about to make her way back to her dorm, a maintenance worker was trimming the bushes near the stairwell and happened upon her shoe. He pulled it out and dropped it on the sidewalk next to the bush - thinking he’d have to take it to lost and found or something. Trisha heard the noise of the shoe hitting the sidewalk and when she looked, she saw her long lost shoe and slipped it on and continued merrily on her way.
NOTE: This story can also be found at Dangling.Com.
