LETTER 51
New Shoes
A fictional letter from Management.
Written
Management came to the morning meeting in new shoes.
The left one squeaked.
We stopped beside the door.
The room was quiet.
We put our left foot down again, very slowly.
It squeaked.
We coughed and took another step.
The cough was too early.
Ruth looked up.
“New?”
“Just stiff.”
We took a short step with our right foot.
From under the table came a squeak.
We looked at Ruth.
She was reading the agenda.
We put our left foot down.
Her right shoe answered.
We tapped our left shoe twice.
There was a small pause, then two squeaks.
Mae came in with the papers.
We sat down and folded our hands.
She put the papers on the table.
“Shall we start?”
We moved our left shoe half an inch.
Ruth moved hers.
Management