Whose Shoes Are
They?
by Lucia He
It was almost
11 o'clock and Mr. Smith had to go to the public
toilet because there was no running water in his
building. On going out, he left the door open,
for he knew the door always made too much noise
when locked and unlocked. It took about half an
hour for him to return from the toilet. When he
returned, he went directly to his bedroom. What
did he see? He saw a pair of large leather shoes
by the bed!
“Whose
shoes are they? They are very large. They must
belong to a man,” he said to himself.
Suddenly, a
strange idea came into his mind.
“Is my
wife unfaithful?” he wondered. “Has she
got a new lover?”
In order to
find out the truth, he made a clever plan. He
quietly put the shoes under the bed so as not to
wake his wife. Above all, he didn't want to make
his plan known to her before he could resolve
matters. Then he began to search every room for
the shoes' owner.
Just then, his
wife woke up and said, “Oh, my dear, what
are you doing?”
“I am
walking up and down the room,” he answered.
“You know, a little movement can do me a lot
of good at night.”
Soon his wife
went back to sleep. He continued his great work.
He had looked in every corner of the flat, but
there was no stranger. He could do nothing but go
to bed. While lying in bed, he couldn’t get
to sleep. He thought a lot about his wife. They
had lived together for about 10 years, and she
had always worked hard for the family. No one had
said anything bad about her. There was no doubt
that she was a good wife.
“Oh no,
Smith, you can't trust her all the time.
Everything is changing and so is she,” he
said to himself. “Tomorrow I am sure I will
catch her. I will or else!”
The next
morning Mrs. Smith got up early, as usual. After
she arose, she cleaned the rooms and then
prepared breakfast for the family. After
breakfast, she went to work by bike. But Mr.
Smith didn’t go to work that morning. As
soon as she left, he began to think about the
shoes again, smoking one cigarette after another.
“Whose
shoes are they?” he murmured to himself.
“What does the man look like? When she comes
back, I must pursuade her to let the cat out of
the bag.”
Just then
there was a knock at the door. He stood up and
went to answer it. He opened the door and it was
Mr. Brown, who lived in the flat next door, so he
asked him in.
“I am
terribly sorry,” he said, “last night I
drank too much. I came back and entered your home.
I kicked off my shoes and climbed into the bed.
While in bed, I looked up at the ceiling .To my
great surprise, I found it was very different
from my own. Then I turned onto my side and found
the woman lying beside me was not my wife. So I
threw myself out of the bed and rushed out,
leaving my shoes in your room.”
Having heard
all that, Mr. Smith said, “It doesn’t
matter,” and he gave back the shoes.
When Mr. Brown
left, Mr. Smith sat down in his armchair, saying
to himself, “Smith, you have almost wronged
your wife. You mustn’t take everything for
granted in future!”
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