All of Trisha's friends had also found someone to dance with - they were actually in high demand, being they were some of the prettiest girls there. Amber continued to help the lead singer, Keona, lead music. Soon, much of the group became part of a huge conga line where everyone grabbed the waist of someone else and the leader walked them all around the grounds jumping and kicking. Trisha and Evan joined in and after a few minutes of fun, the line broke up. Trisha took a moment to catch her breath and she took a step toward the stage.
"Oh no! Where's my right shoe!" In the fun of the conga line, one of Trisha's Cole Haan slides with the flower adornment had fallen off her right foot somewhere. She had not realized her problem until now for several reasons. Her shoes were comfortable. They did not slap against her feet with each step and the ground was very warm and soft.
Evan looked around where they stood and noticed her single shoeless right foot and the tropical pink nail polish. "I don't see it around here."
"It could have come off at any point while we were in the conga line."
"Oh my Trisha, that could be anywhere on the lawn! This is a large area and it's dark..."
Trisha continued, "And the grass is tall. Can you help me?"
"Sure, let's start on the right side of the tables." Evan pulled out a small flashlight on the end of a key ring and started aiming the beam at the grassy lawn. Then, he looked at his watch and saw it was 8:58PM. "Oooh, it's almost nine. I have to go soon. Maybe we'll find your shoe on my way out."
"Evan, I'm sorry we're departing on such clumsy circumstances. I hope you and your band does well at the game tomorrow. I enjoyed getting to know you today, you're a nice guy."
"Thanks. I enjoyed your company today as well. I hope you and your friends enjoy the game. Maybe our Cavaliers won't beat your Bulldogs too badly."
Trisha did not care about that really, but she did give Evan a nice hug before he walked out, leaving Trisha his flashlight. As Evan left the gate at the far end of the lawn, Trisha called back, "Hey did you need your flashlight back?"
"Oh no, consider it a gift. Besides, my dad gives those away at his business back in Charlottesville."
Trisha continued the hopeless seemingly futile search for her missing right shoe while the Hawaiian music stopped and a break was announced. Amber and Keona took a walk on the beach to get better acquainted. Also unbeknownst to Trisha, the three Navy guys arrived and walked toward the stage around the opposite side of the luau tables; therefore they and Trisha did not see each other. For the second time in one day, Trisha seemed to have completely lost one of her shoes. The situation was becoming serious and really frustrating, now. All she had left for the rest of the trip was her blue daisy slides and her black clogs. Her casual beach footwear was becoming extinct.
While looking, Kimberly and another girl from Virginia, Lauren, ran into Trisha and saw her shining the flashlight on the ground and wearing one shoe. They put two and two together and figured out her problem.
"Did your shoe come off in the conga line?"
Trisha seemed a little embarrassed that her new friends from Virginia had seen her plight. "Yeah, and I'm not sure where."
Kimberly spoke for herself and Lauren, "We'll help you. I know the feeling of having a lost shoe." This statement piqued Trisha's interest.
Meanwhile, Wayne and his Navy friends looked around through the crowd for Trisha and they did not see her yet. Johnson asked, "You think she's still here?"
Wayne replied, "Probably, but this is a big place, we have to look some more." As they continued their walking toward the stage, Wayne felt something when he lifted his foot. He looked down and saw what was actually Trisha's discarded shoe. Wayne picked it up and looked all around for its possible owner. Campbell sarcastically theorized, "Maybe it belongs to Trisha." Johnson continued, "Yeah, and you're supposed to be her prince...again."
Wayne picked up the shoe and held it out so that anyone who was looking for it would see he was holding it. Unfortunately for Trisha, she was on the far end of the lawn. He continued with the shoe up to the main stage and handed it to the emcee that was alone on the stage and on his break along with the band, which had already left the stage area. Not considering a missing shoe an emergency in tropical Hawaii, he agreed to announce the finding of the shoe to the group only when the band returned to play.
As the three girls now looked all over for Trisha's other shoe, Kimberly began to relate a story that happened to her less than a year ago:
"Last spring, some of the girls in our sorority had a dressy dinner party at a lodge over in the Blue Ridge Mountains about an hour away from campus with a fraternity. I wore my new pair of red thong sandals with a 2-inch heel. They had a single narrow band across the instep and a gold leaf chain extending down my foot to the leather toe thong. They were really neat. After dinner we did some dancing and that chain on my foot did not go well with dancing. I took them off and put them partially under the couch to get them out of the way when I danced. The dancing died down and we had several hours until we planned to return home. I went to get my shoes back on and one was missing. I looked everywhere and enlisted the help of several of my friends, but it was nowhere to be found. Just to spite whoever stole it, I boldly wore the single shoe the rest of the night and all the way back home. She denied it, but I think that a jealous sister took it after I had danced with her boyfriend. I found my shoe hanging from the doorknob on the outside door to my room in the sorority house. Good thing I did not throw the other one away."
Lauren then reminded Kimberly of another incident. "Do you remember the time we had the Sunday picnic over at Lake Anna State Park? You wore your black thong sandals."
"Oh yeah, I remember, now. I had almost blotted that out of my memory. (Sarcastically) Thanks for reminding me. Lauren and I got invited to this picnic for the Student Government Association out at this lake and this friend of mine, Mark, who was interested in me was there. I was sitting in a lawn chair with my legs crossed and one of my thong sandals was dangling halfway off my foot. I guess that was an inviting opportunity. He came jogging by and without stopping he grabbed my shoe and took off wanting me to chase him, so I did. I had trouble keeping up with him wearing my one sandal, though. I did corner him on the boat dock, and I knew he would not throw it in the lake. About that time his roommate came over to "help" him out. Mark threw my shoe over my head and outstretched arms and his roommate caught it. Mark probably wanted him to run with it. When I chased his roommate, though he instead threw my show back over my head to Mark who was standing on the dock, surprised. He jumped up to catch my shoe, but his roommate had thrown it too hard and high. He missed it and my shoe landed out in the lake and sank. It was March so it was too cold to get in the water and look for it. So I spent the rest of the day in my one sandal, telling everyone who asked what had happened and whose fault it was. The guys were good, though. They split the cost to buy me a replacement pair."
While Kimberly finished her story, the girls finally crossed paths with the three Navy guys. Trisha stood flat-footed and like they discovered earlier, the lush tall grass made it difficult to see she was missing one of her shoes. She introduced the guys to Kimberly with long shiny straight brown hair and a perfect complexion and petite blonde Lauren with a flashing smile and the six of them began to chat and get better acquainted. Johnson and Campbell were impressed at how cute the two Virginia coeds were. Wilson was even more impressed at how nice Trisha looked in her outfit.
Trisha wondered when her missing shoe would be revealed - she certainly was not going to mention it. Just to play it safe, while the guys were not looking down, she carefully slipped her left foot out of her remaining shoe and rested the sole of her foot on top of it. Just as she finished this maneuver, Wayne noticed Trisha's foot activity and happened to look down at them and seeing only her bare feet and tropical pink nails.
"I see you're enjoying the nice soft grass."
"It does feel nice."
Trying to help Trisha out and justify her being without shoes, Kimberly removed her red flat-heeled thong sandals and Lauren removed her medium heeled slides. Lauren, while rubbing one of her feet back and forth on the grass said, "It does indeed feel nice."
Wayne asked, "You want to go claim a spot nearer to the stage? Some of the band's returned to the stage."
The three girls looked at each other and nodded in agreement and Trisha spoke for the group, "Sure, sounds great!"
Everyone was back on stage except the emcee and Keona who was still enjoying a nice stroll down Waikiki beach with Amber hand-in-hand, a few minutes away. The band's steel guitarist saw Trisha's shoe on stage next to the emcee's microphone. He thought to himself 'What's that shoe doing up here in the way?' And on that thought he tossed it off the back of the stage - seemingly harmlessly out of the way of everyone.
The guys led the way out in front while Kimberly and Lauren retrieved their shoes and carried them by hooking their right index fingers through the straps. Trisha wanted to pick up her single left shoe but was not sure how to do so without calling attention to the fact there was only one to carry with her. She decided to memorize her proximity to the surrounding tables so she could go back and pick up the shoe later. Therefore, Trisha walked on with the group barefoot - keeping up the ruse that she was simply attending the luau barefoot and not having absent-mindedly lost one of her shoes while dancing the conga.
Before they took their seats on the grass, Johnson mentioned getting drinks first and everyone agreed and walked over to the fruity drink table. While they were ordering their drinks, the elderly lady from Arizona found Trisha's second abandoned shoe in the grass and took it to the stage to which the emcee had now returned to prepare for restarting the entertainment. When the lady handed the shoe to the emcee he looked puzzled and said, "Yeah, someone much have picked it up off the stage and thrown it off, thanks for bringing it up here. He yelled over to the musicians and asked, "He did one of you guys pick up the shoe that was laying here?"
The steel guitarist ‘fessed up to the 'crime' and admitted, "Yeah I thought it was in the way so I threw it off." He failed to mention which direction he threw it. So now the emcee had a different one of Trisha's shoes to return.
Trisha, Kimberly, Lauren and the three guys found a good piece of grass to claim for their own to relax, enjoy the music and sip their drinks. Kimberly and Lauren both kept their shoes off and discarded at their side. Trisha sat with Wilson while Johnson seemed to take a liking to pretty Kimberly, and Campbell the same with cute Lauren.
Soon the band was ready to play and Amber had taken a seat on the front row. The Emcee addressed the crowd, holding up Trisha's shoe. "Hey, if anyone lost a shoe, you can come up here later and claim it. I'll put it on the front of the stage. It's probably too crowded for you to claim it now." Amber was in 'la-la' land after her nice walk with Keona and was oblivious to the emcee's announcement; otherwise she would have certainly recognized her best friend's shoe. Trisha kept quiet but did make secret eye contact with Lauren and Kimberly who knew that Trisha wanted to be subtle about her lost shoe in front of the guys.
Wilson did not think the announcement was significant to their present company so he kept silent as well. All he cared about was getting to know pretty Trisha a bit better and getting to look at her pretty legs and feet sticking out in front in plain view in the moonlight.
Trisha enjoyed getting to know Wayne a bit better and also his friends and Kimberly and Lauren from Virginia. She had not even thought to realize that this was the first time she had ever had two dates with different guys in one night - and this was even to the same event! She did contemplate, though, about how she was going to get her one shoe from the stage and her second shoe out of the grass without calling attention to herself in front of Wayne.
Shelley and a few of her cheerleader friends made it to the luau finally and they first ran into Brittany and Stacy at the drink table. The 'buzz' was all about how Trisha was dancing with one guy earlier in the night and now she was with a different guy. They also talked about Amber singing on the stage and how she had gone for a walk with the lead singer. Shelley's news was more related to cheerleader practice and her 'Inside Scoop' report she had done live via satellite back to WAGA during their newscast sports segment. Shelley found Trisha in the crowd and made her way over to say hello and scope out the guy she was with.
“So Trisha, Introduce me to your friend,” Shelley said with a syrupy-sweet tone that was decidedly fake and based in jealousy.
“Shelley, this is my friend Wayne Wilson, he’s on vacation with a couple of his buddies from his Naval Base in San Diego. Wayne, this is Shelley Sullivan, she’s also in my sorority and is a cheerleader for the football team.”
Shelley turned to greet Wayne and corrected Trisha, “Actually, I’m the head cheerleader - but who cares about those details.” She went on to introduce her friends to Trisha and Wayne.
Wayne was not as impressed as Shelley would have liked. It quickly became obvious that he liked Trisha better than her for some reason. She decided to get in one more zinger. “So Trisha, what happened to your shoes? You didn’t lose them again did you?”
Trisha was met with a moral dilemma - tell the truth and embarrass herself or lie and protect her secret. Given the spirit the question was given, she decided on the latter. “No, I just thought I’d enjoy the nice soft grass.”
Sensing defeat, Shelley and her friends soon said bye and left to take seats of their own and enjoy the rest of the entertainment.
Soon, the entertainment began to wind down for a break and Wayne asked Trisha if she wanted to walk on the beach. She agreed, but wondered if the luau would still be open when they returned so she could get her shoes. Wayne then asked, "Hey do you care if I run to the restroom first?"
Trisha saw the opportunity and said, "Sure, I'll meet you over here when you get through." She then hurriedly went over to the stage and claimed her shoe; not taking time to notice it was her left shoe - the one she had left in the grass. Then, Trisha went back to get her abandoned shoe and it was nowhere in sight. She looked all around and under the nearby table, but no shoe. Trisha was about to scream in frustration. 'How can I lose a shoe dancing, get it back then lose the other one in the grass after carefully remembering where it was?' Trisha began to recall exactly what she did in taking off the one shoe to leave it in the grass. Then the reality hit her. 'The left shoe is the one I took off in the grass and that's the one on the stage that was found. I'm still missing the one lost during the conga!'
Knowing that Wayne would be out any second, she wondered where to safely keep her one remaining shoe. It would certainly not be needed for a walk on the beach. Quickly, she dashed in the ladies room - she needed to use it anyway - and placed her shoe out of sight inside one of the doors of the sink's vanity. Certainly it would be safe there.
Trisha met Wayne, who was waiting on her to leave the restroom he assumed she had entered, and he reached out for her hand. They had a nice long walk and talked about each other and got better acquainted. It was very pretty and romantic on Waikiki in the bright moonlight. Right before walking back up to the luau, which was coming to a close, Wayne took Trisha's hand he was holding and gently kissed it, like a gentleman and thanked her for a nice evening. They found Johnson and Campbell, who were waiting on Wayne to get back from his walk. Kimberly and Lauren had already gone to their room at the hotel - they had not found their Navy guys as interesting as Trisha did hers.
Wayne offered to walk Trisha back to her room, but needing an excuse to get her shoe out of the restroom, she said, "A few of my friends are still here and they're probably waiting on me. If I don't see you again, I hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation." Wilson wished her the same and he kissed her again - this time on the cheek and left with his two buddies.
Trisha hurriedly went back into the restroom and retrieved her shoe from under the sink and went back out and found Amber, Stacy and Brittany who were about ready to leave themselves.
Stacy asked, "So how come you're carrying only one of your shoes?"
"I lost one dancing in the conga line with Evan."
Brittany replied, "Wow, that must be some kind of record, two lost shoes in one day."
Trisha tried to laugh it off, but the day had been a bit frustrating, but really full of both ups and downs. She spent time with two nice guys and that was certainly fun, but the loss of two shoes was a bit much.
Amber asked, "Do you want us to help you look some more tonight before we go back up to our rooms?"
"No, it's pretty dark and they will soon be closing things down. Maybe the cleanup crew will find it and turn it in."
Stacy suggested, "Maybe there's someone to whom you can report your shoe loss."
Trisha liked her idea and before they left she talked with the Luau director who promised they would get a message to the Sheraton next door if they found her shoe.
The next day, the girls spent some more time down at the beach before having to pack their bags and catch the shuttle to the Airport. Trisha was getting dressed for the football game (she was wearing white shorts and a garnet red t-shirt) and she contemplated what shoes to wear. She had only the right shoe remaining of her first choice - the white Audley slides and only the left shoe remaining of her second choice, the Cole Haan slides with the flower adornment. In trying to keep a good attitude about her folly, she put on the two non-matching orphaned shoes and began to model them around the motel room for Amber.
"How does this look Amber? You think anyone will notice."
Amber laughed and was happy that Trisha was able to joke about it. Trisha replaced her two single shoes in her suitcase and pulled out her aqua blue slides with the daisy on the upper that she'd worn the day they flew into Hawaii.
"I guess I'll wear these, huh? I know they don't match my outfit very well, but I just don't care right now."
Amber noted, "Aren't you glad I found the one you threw in the ocean. You'd really be in a pickle then."
Trisha had forgotten about that and the thought of having three lost shoes certainly caused her to pause for a moment and be thankful she at least had one good pair to wear.
Soon all the girls were dressed, packed and downstairs in the lobby and ready to take the shuttle to the airport. When Trisha returned her Key, the clerk said, "Miss Kendrick, there's a note on your receipt to contact the Royal Hawaiian Hotel next door. It says they have something you lost at the luau last night."
"Really, that's great. Is it my shoe?"
The clerk wondered how she could lose a shoe at a luau but when she looked at the note again she told Trisha, "No miss, it doesn't say what they found, but if you lost a shoe I imagine that's what they have."
Trisha excitedly told the girls about her shoe being found and asked them to watch her baggage while she ran over pick up her shoe.
Brittany noted, "The shuttle arrives in 10 minutes, you need to hurry."
"I'm gone!" Trisha yelled while running the best she could in her aqua slides making a lot of noise when they slapped the bottom of her feet along the way. Amber dropped her things and ran with her to keep her company. Trisha had to wait a couple of minutes to get an available front desk clerk at the busy Royal Hawaiian. Finally the clerk listened to Trisha's request and had to call her manager. Finally, her shoe was retrieved from a bottom drawer and Trisha and Amber quickly ran out of the lobby toward their hotel.
They got in sight of their hotel and they saw the other girls loading their luggage in the van. Realizing that time was short, Amber encouraged Trisha to run a bit faster. In doing so, Trisha kicked one of her blue slides out in front of her and watched it tumble several times before coming to a stop, precariously close to tumbling down a storm drain. Amber grabbed it on the run before it could fall in, though, and Trisha removed her remaining slide and continued running to the van, which was now loaded and ready to leave. She was quite a sight running with her blue slide in one hand and her once thought lost Cole Haan slide in the other.
As they boarded the van almost out of breath, Brittany commented, "Perfect timing, you just made it!" Trisha, found her bag that contained her other Cole Haan slide and put it on her foot, and then she put on the one she had carried out of the hotel. The aqua blue slides took their place in the bag. Trisha was happier to be wearing a more comfortable pair of shoes to the football game.
Once they arrived at the airport, they checked their luggage through the Delta counter and then took a second shuttle to the Oahu Bowl stadium. She and her friends enjoyed the football game and Georgia won easily. During the game, they got to go down and chat with Shelley who was working hard with her cheerleader duties. She also got to do one of her "Inside Scoop" segments, just like she had already done twice in the days leading up to the game. Everyone was very casually dressed in beachwear. Stacy suggested they dress like that for their first couple of home football games in the hot part of September, but Amanda reminded her and the rest of the girls that they would be ridiculed by girls in the other sororities for not dressing nicely in cute sun dresses as was the UGA sorority tradition.
After the game, they took the shuttle back to the airport and boarded their flights home. Checking their baggage early had worked out well for them. Again, in Los Angeles, Trisha and Amber changed clothes, back into the same clothes they had worn on the flight out of Atlanta with one exception - the hot wool socks were omitted. Trisha spent plenty of time on the flight home playing in and out of her black clogs, which had never seemed warmer after having gotten used to the tropical climate of Hawaii and airy sandals. Amber wore her white sneakers with the backs flattened like mules and even those seemed warmer than she remembered.
With all the hours that Trisha and Amber and the other girls had to sit in the boring airplane on the way back home, Amber took advantage of the time to lay a bombshell on Trisha. "Trisha, I have some news to tell you about. I wanted to wait until our trip was over, but I did not want to wait until any closer to the time we're going back to Athens."
Trisha dropped her clogs on the floor of the plane and tucked her feet underneath on the seat and turned to give Amber her full attention. "Okay, so what's up?"
"Well, remember how when we were growing up how I used to talk about SCAD (Savannah School for Art and Design) and how I wanted to go to Savannah to school?"
"Of course, but you're glad you're at UGA now, right?"
"Yeah, but I got a letter from them around Thanksgiving saying that a couple more slots were opening up."
"Amber, you mean they still had your application from 1998?"
"No, I sent another application this past spring, but I was rejected for the fall semester."
Trisha already began to cry a little thinking this might be their last year together. She was also a little upset that Amber never told her. "So if you transfer in August having finished 3 years at UGA, how much will you have to take at SCAD? And how come you never told me?"
"I'm not waiting 'till August. Classes start January 5th."
Trisha was stunned and speechless and began to cry a bit more. Amber joined her. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I just felt like it would make things awkward. I thought you'd try to talk me out of it so we could stay sorority sisters."
"Amber, of course I'd selfishly like us to stay sorority sisters. We were best friends 7 years before we'd even heard of AOPi. But I hope you know that deep down what ever is best for you and your pursuit of your dreams is what I want for you. That's what friends are for."
Trisha and Amber were getting a little bit of attention from strangers sitting near them - some of whom had also begun to cry in sympathy at this great exhibition of friendship they were overhearing. Trisha and Amber exchanged a hug and that seemed to make everything better. Trisha tried to be more encouraging, "So where are you going to live?"
"I'm going to stay with my Aunt Olivia and help her take care of the house in exchange for a very low rent. She's got a lot to do after Uncle Hector died last month."
"Does Doug know yet?"
"No, but I need to tell him."
Trisha was surprised but she now felt better about being left out of the information loop. If she would not even tell her boyfriend, then that was really significant.
Amber continued, "We're having Doug over for Christmas Dinner tomorrow and I plan to tell him then."
"Are you going to try to keep dating long distance?"
Trisha expected to hear that she would, but then Amber gave her the surprise answer, "Actually, I plan to break things off with Doug."
"You're kidding. You've been dating since 1995. Are you sure? Are you going to break up with him on Christmas Day?"
"Yes and no. I think it's time I move on. Plus I'll be real busy at SCAD - little time to keep up something longer distance than Athens. I don't want to hold him back either. I'm not going to officially break up until right before I leave. Doing it over Christmas dinner would be tacky."
Their conversation continued all the way to Atlanta. When they landed, Trisha located her long ago abandoned clogs and they gathered their things to debark the plane. Trisha was very surprised that so many things were changing so fast. Things were going to be very different come next semester.
Very early that Christmas morning, Trisha's dad, Charles, greeted the girls and took them home. Both napped in the car on the way back from their long trip.
By the afternoon of the 27th, Trisha could hardly hold in her excitement that Tim was coming to town for the Christmas Conference being held at the Holiday Inn Ravinia, located just off the I-285 perimeter about 20 miles from her house. She had been in touch with Tim off and on since May, but they had not seen each other since their kiss on the steps of her Sorority after their Sunday picnic.
Trisha had made earlier plans to meet Tim in the lobby of the hotel at 11AM, grab some lunch then attend a couple of early afternoon sessions. She wanted to look nice but not overdressed so she wore a nice pair of jeans and a red sweater with matching red socks and the same black clogs she had worn on the plane trips to and from Los Angeles enroute to and from Honolulu. She added a red ribbon to her ponytail for added adornment. She was feeling low after learning about Amber's transferring to SCAD in Savannah, but she hoped that seeing Tim would lift her spirits.
Trisha parked in the parking deck and found her way to the lobby and took a seat in one of the comfortable plush chairs - then almost immediately crossed one leg and bounced her foot causing her clog to dangle and wobble. After a short wait Tim came into view looking nice and carrying around a conference notebook. He saw Trisha and hurried over to her. He outstretched his arms and Trisha quickly stood and gave him a hug, he hugged back, lifting her off the ground several inches causing her clogs to fall off.
Trisha giggled at having to recover her clogs and the two of them talked a bit before going into the cafe across the lobby to have lunch. As they sat, ate and got caught up on the seven months they had been apart, Trisha played with her clogs under the table. Tim recognized the sound and grabbed a few secret glances whenever he could.
Soon it was time for their first session where all students from Florida schools were attending (As he had already told her, Tim was there with a group from his church in Ocala - most of whom attended Central Florida Community College). After some lead-in praise music, the emcee announced that there would be a mixer for everyone to get better acquainted. On this note, a few helpers holding bags came to the front poised to walk down the aisles.
"Okay everyone, my assistants are going to walk down the aisles and I want everyone to take off their right shoe and pass it to the right end of your aisle and place it in the bag when it comes by. Then we'll let everyone come up to the front and reach in a bag and grab a shoe. When you get it, hold it high so its owner can find you. When you find your shoe and return your shoe to its owner, make sure you know the person's name, school, major in school and hometown. When you have your shoe back and returned the one you got out of the bag, sit down."
In a spirit of hilarity, about 80 college students followed instructions and soon there was a wild scene of one-shod students seeking their shoes and getting information about those they met. Quickly, the shoe that Trisha had pulled from the bag was claimed by a guy from Florida State so then she was able to focus on finding her black clog that had ended up no telling where.
A few minutes passed and the last few students exchanged shoes before sitting down. Trisha remained in one black clog and one bright red sock that stuck out like a flashing neon sign. Seeing everyone else sit down and the emcee call the group to order, Trisha had no choice but to return to her seat. She whispered to Tim, "No one has my shoe!"
"Maybe it got dropped somewhere. We'll find it afterwards." Tim tried to calm Trisha's fears and meanwhile he enjoyed the sight of her one red sock that she tried to hide with little success. The speaker soon came up to address the group and he talked about holding small group Bible studies in dorm rooms. Trisha tried to focus her attention and forget about her missing clog. Soon she was dangling her remaining clog off the end of her toes in full attentive view of Tim.
The emcee came to close the meeting and he said the following, "Oh, I forgot one thing. I never did find the owner for my shoe." He held up Trisha's clog. "If this is yours, come up here and I'll return it."
An elated but somewhat upset Trisha made her way out of her row and walked in one clog to the front of the room. The emcee did not make it easy on her. Still holding her clog, he placed the portable microphone in her face and asked her, "So what's your name... He continued to ask the same questions he wanted everyone to ask and Trisha quickly answered them. He then asked another question, "So tell me, were you nervous that you wouldn't get your other shoe back?"
Trisha replied, "Sure, I had no idea what had happened. I felt self-conscious with my one red sock."
"And it's a nice-looking sock indeed."
"Can I have my shoe back?"
"Just a moment, Cinderella. I need to make an announcement. You're the official winner of our game today and we have a prize for you." The emcee handed Trisha her shoe and sticking in it was a $25 gift certificate to the Houlihan's restaurant next door. "You and a friend enjoy a nice meal."
Trisha removed the gift and replaced her shoe on her foot then returned to her seat.
"Hey, Trisha, you won a nice prize."
"It sure is. How about I treat you to dinner tonight. I have some stuff to talk with you about."
Tim and Trisha went to a couple more sessions and soon it was time for dinner. They walked down the street to Houlihan’s to enjoy a nice and free meal. The walking and the long day had made Trisha's feet warm so before being seated, she excused herself to the ladies room and while taking care of other business, she removed her red socks and placed them in her purse.
Tim noticed Trisha's change in footwear as she walked toward the table to join Tim. She soon was into her typical array of shoeplay and dangling activities for Tim to enjoy. Trisha began to open up to Tim about Amber.
"School starts in a week and all of a sudden, Amber tells me 4 days ago that she's transferring to SCAD."
"I'm not familiar. What's SCAD?"
"It's the Savannah School of Art and Design. And it's a great school and it's always been her dream to go there. I guess I'm just surprised."
Tim tried to focus on what Trisha was saying while catching quick glances at her cute shoeplay. "Is it an expensive place to go?"
"Yes, but she got a scholarship and she's going to live with her aunt who was recently widowed."
"Are you happy for her?"
"Certainly! She's my best friend. We've been together since 6th grade..." Trisha went on to describe some of the good times they had had together. Tim did his best to console her and encourage her to move on. Trisha soon questioned Tim about his time in Ocala and Tim had an encouraging report about how his church had pulled together in their time of distress.
Tim and Trisha continued to catch up and enjoy their free meal at Houlihan's. Tim walked Trisha back to her car in the parking garage, with her clogs slapping with every step, and he kissed her goodnight for the evening before she left. Tim stayed at the hotel and visited with his group from Ocala some before returning to his hotel room.
Trisha drove out to see Tim a couple more times including the big New Years 2001 Millennium concert their conference was putting on. During this same time, Amber and her dad drove over to Athens one day, while no one else was around, to clear out her part of her room at the AOPi house; leaving only Trisha's stuff behind. One afternoon, Tim drove up to eat lunch with Trisha and her family to get better acquainted. Everyone in the Kendrick household strongly approved of Tim. What they did not know about Tim, however, was that he had met someone else from his church in Ocala and that relationship would challenge the progression of anything between him and Trisha for the coming weeks and months.
