Black Buckle Shoes
“So she was twirling around and around out in the street and I asked her what she was doing. Dude, she said she was dancing to the music in her head.”
“Where was this at?” Asked the taller of the two boys.
“Euclid Avenue, in the Central West End. It’s like this whole different world.”
The boys, both just short of driving age, were spending their Saturday afternoon in the mall, while outside the perpetual flurries and burning cold of the St. Louis winter mocked them. Having already looked through all the interesting magazines at the bookstore, they wandered towards the nearer of the two record stores.
Just outside the crowded store, the shorter boy stopped. “Dave, oh my God, look at her.”
“Who?” Dave asked, noticing a curiously poetic looking girl in the cassette section.
“Dude, there, that’s the girl I’m going to marry. She’s beautiful.”
“You know her?”
“Not yet, but I’m gonna. What d’ya think I should say to her?”
“Ummmm, oh I got it. Hello my name is Jerry, run away before I hurt you.”
“Dave, come on, I’m serious.”
“Jerry, come on, I don’t know. I met both my psycho girlfriends through you. Since we had complaining about you in common, it was easy.”
“Really, they kept talking about me?”
“Oh man,” Dave shoved Jerry, “shut up.”
“All right look, you wait out here, and I’m going to go talk to her.”
"Why do I hafta...” Dave muttered and sat down on a bench out in the mall. Glancing up, he noticed tree branches overhead and frowned. The tree was painfully fake, and staring at it didn't make it any more real. He looked back towards the record store just as his friend was on his way out.
“Well?”
“Dude.”
“And?”
“She’s so hot. She’s even better up close, and did you see how she was dressed? All black with that long skirt and leather jacket? I didn’t, I mean I gotta... Dude, I don’t want to screw it up. I’m in love. Do you know what that means? I’ve never been in love before. Not Jeanette, not Sunny, not even Tracey, nobody. I didn’t even lie and tell them I loved them.”
Dave, still sitting, looked up at his best friend and held his tongue. Yeah, he thought, you didn’t tell them you loved them, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t lie. All they wanted to talk about was your sick relationships, even when... “Yeah, so what did you say?”
“I told you, I didn’t say anything yet. Man, my mouth’s real dry. Why don’t we get something to drink and if she is still here when we get back, that’ll be a sign.”
“Cool, but you owe me a slice of pizza for the bus fare.”
As they descended the escalator to the food court, the conversation changed to skateboarding. “I’ve been practicing in my basement, they’re getting huge. I bet I could ollie over your mom.”
“Only if she was dead and buried. I want pepperoni, and get me a Coke too, I’ll pay you back.”
Jerry ordered two slices of pepperoni, a large Coke, a large Sprite, and paid for them completely oblivious to the counter girl’s flirtations. “You carry the tray, and when are you going to get a real board? What am I going to say to her?”
“What? Get rid of the Rat Bones special? No way, I painted it myself. God, does this taste like it’s been sitting out all day or what? Hey, I do think I’ve got my mom conned into buying me some real wheels and bearings.”
“You didn’t grab any napkins? Damn, I have to do everything.” Jerry wiped some lukewarm sauce off of his chin with his left hand and then got up to get some napkins, returning with well over a hundred.
“You seen the Bones Brigade Video Show yet?”
“Huh-uh. Give me a napkin.”
“Matt’s got it on tape, his dad’s got two VCR’s. I’m trying to get him to tape it for me. What if I ask her a question?”
“I don’t know Matt.”
“The blonde guy, from St. Mary’s, rides a Gonz with those freestyle wheels.”
“The guy with the Camaro?”
“No, no, the other one. But anyway, what if I ask her liked, what Depeche Mode album ‘Somebody’ is on?”
Dave laughed. “Huh-uh, nope. She’ll either figure that you’re an idiot or that you have a girlfriend. I still say the warning is the way to go.”
“We are friends right? This is so stupid, I don’t even know if she’s even still there.”
Dave threw away their trash, including Jerry’s pizza bone, his almost untouched slice, two nearly full sodas, five used napkins, and still well over a hundred unused ones. They were nearly on the escalator when a large blue-white neon sign grabbed Jerry’s attention.
“Dude, that’s it!”
“What?”
“Check this out.”
Leaving the flower shop with a long stemmed white rose in his hand, Jerry bounded up the escalator two steps at a time, and nearly ran his dream girl over at the top. By the time Dave had ridden up to the main floor, the girl, the interesting looking, dyed-black pageboy girl, was holding the rose close to her chest with both hands. She sniffed the flower and smiled at whatever it was that Jerry was saying.
Dave walked over to another plastic tree and watched. After fifteen minutes of casually but secretly viciously plucking plastic leaves, he noticed Jerry sauntering over to him. He dropped his handful of leaves through the useless metal grating that surrounded the base of the tree and onto the fake moss below.
“Dude, I got her number. Her name is Sam and I’m supposed to call her tomorrow. I gave her the rose and I didn’t know what to say, so I asked her to marry me. She said she doesn’t clean house. Man, after that I felt so comfortable, it was like I was on auto-pilot. I mean boom! Everything I said she laughed at. Dude, that’s a cool name don’t you think?”
“Uh huh.”
“Hey, look it’s not too bad outside and the Asylum’s right up the street. You wanna go up there and look around? Pick out your wheels or whatever?”
“I figured you’d want to be with your girlfriend.”
“Take off, she’s not my girlfriend yet. Besides, she’s gotta go meet her mom.”
“But it’s getting late and I’m supposed to be home for supper.”
“After I just fed you? I see how you are.”
Waiting at the bus stop and on the ride home their conversation, or rather, Jerry's monologue, stayed centered on skateboards.
Jerry’s stop was first on the bus ride home and gave Dave almost ten minutes of warm silence before he had to face winter again. Walking home slowly in the snow, his jealousy and irritation at Jerry faded into a general depression about himself. Oh boy, here comes another girl I can be a brother to. He sighed and trudged on.
Dave didn’t hear from Jerry at all on Sunday, and by Monday morning he was eager for news about Sam. Waiting for the school bus, which was for the first time all year running very late, Dave recalled her appearance. He remembered her girlish hair, her almost chubby cheeks that glowed when she smiled, her ankle length dress, cut full and mysterious underneath the leather jacket; he remembered her clearly except for the shoes. She had definitely been wearing shoes, they were probably black too, but he couldn’t remember anything about them.
The bus arrived at school twenty minutes into the day, and as Dave picked up his late pass from the office, he was still racking his brain over her feet. He remembered something white, but white shoes would have looked stupid and she hadn’t looked stupid. However I’m stupid for dwelling on it, he thought and resolved to think of something else as he walked into first period Algebra. He didn’t see Jerry until lunch and by then had conceded his resolution to be a failure.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Did you talk to her?”
“Huh? Oh, no, I got home and I realized I was being an idiot. I’m too young to be in love. Besides Tracey came over Saturday night.”
“So... Jesus you’re a sleaze. I thought you were done with her.”
“Well... I, uh...What did you tell her anyway?”
“About what? I haven’t talked to her since Friday.”
“You know what I’m talking about. Dude, that was lame. I basically had to tell her you were lying. Then she was all mad at you, so I had to convince her that you just misunderstood.”
“You’re the one who dumped her without even telling her. I was just being her friend, she had most of it figured out anyway.”
“Well, everything’s cool now, but dude, be a little careful O.K.? You were my friend first remember?”
“So you didn’t call her yet.”
“No, I would have, but I lost her number. My mom probably washed it, she’s so stupid.”
“You lost it?” Dave asked too loudly. Partly elated and partly crushed, all he could think about was black buckle shoes.
“Black buckle shoes with white socks.”
“What?”
"She was wearing black buckle shoes with white socks."
"So?"
“So nothing." Nothing at all, or everything, or whatever. Sam wasn’t with Jerry and that was something, but she wasn’t around to get to know either and that was something else. Unnerved and confused, Dave laid his head down on the lunch table. He ignored the noise that continued to go on around him and he thought. Maybe I’m not supposed to meet anybody. Maybe I’m supposed to be alone. I’m so stupid, I’d be miserable if he’d called her and I’m even more miserable that he didn’t. I just need to get over it.
The next Saturday was bitterly cold, but sunny, and Dave smiled at the almost warmth on his face as he walked from the bus stop into the mall, alone but not over it.
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