The Wonderful Magic Shoes

By Eliberto Manuel Olivares

“Ven aca mejo… Venga… Sientate… Sientate…”

“Si Papa Grande… Un momentito…” Geesh… My grandfather was calling me again. Why does he always do that when I’m having fun? He probably just wants to tell me another one of his dumb stories. I am ten years old already, much too big to sit on his lap anymore.

My mother and father are always telling me, “Mejo… Listen to your abuelo. He is a very wise man. When you are old, you should be blessed to be as wise as he.” But all I know is that when ever we come to visit, he wants to tell me stories. They never make any sense to me. I would much rather be playing with my cousins. I’m getting to old for this. I’m not a baby anymore.

“Juanito? Donde esta?”

“Aye Caramba!” I’d better get this over with. “Si abuelito. Hay voy!”

****

It was another Sunday at my grandparents house. My grandmother, my mother, and my Tia Concha were all in the kitchen making tamales. Where ever you were in the house, you could smell the food; the chilies, the tender pork meat. “Que sabroso…” The tamales were always very tasty. No one could make them like my abuelita, except for my mother of course. She would always make plenty, so she could send some home with everyone and have some to give to the neighbors too. She had a big clay pot of frijoles on the stove as well. I watched my abuelita cut a huge slice of slab bacon and put it into the pot with the frijoles. The aroma of the beans cooking along side was enough to make anyone loco with hunger. I’m getting hungry again just talking about it.

I was the official taste tester. I volunteered for the job. Because making tamales took so long, they would end up making several batches that day, and I was there to try a sample or two, maybe three, or four. Well… I’m not good at keeping track, but I would get really stuffed at the end of a tamale making day. “Aye mejito,” my mother would always say. “You’re going to split your pantalones.”

My brother Antonio and I would play most of the time with my cousins in the back yard. We would only come in to eat or get something to drink. Sometimes we’d forget about eating, but not today. It was impossible to resist those tamales. My father, my Tio Carlos and my grandfather were sitting in the living room watching the football game.

I was all hot and sweaty from playing with my cousins. We had been playing for hours, so I came inside to get a drink and a little food. My father was eating tamales at the kitchen table. My grandfather was still sitting on the couch. That is when my grandfather saw me and called me over to him. The football game must have been over. I love my grandpa very much, but he is getting pretty old. He can sometimes go on for a long time with one of his stories. When I was little, I would sit on his lap as he told me tales about Pancho Villa, or Emilliano Zapata, or some other famous hero. He has told me that we are related to Pancho Villa somehow, but I’m not sure I should believe him. He would tell stories about animales, gigantes and all kinds of things. My father has told me that Papa Grande’s stories have deep meaning sometimes, but I do not hear these meanings. They say he is very smart, though he did not have the chance to go to school. I do not get very much of what my grandpa tells me, but I used to have fun listening to his stories.

Now that I am older though, his stories seem boring. I had not really been paying much attention anymore. Maybe I’m too dumb to understand these things. My mother had given me the look that says, “You’d better go and sit with your abuelito mejo, or your going to get it when we get home,” so I think I’d better listen to her.

“Juanito?”

“Hay voy… Hay voy…”

****

I sat down next to my grandfather and he pulled me over to him and hugged me close. Caramba, he was getting old. The salt and pepper mustache that grew from his upper lip covered most of his mouth, he had gray stubble all over his chin too, and he had black and white hair sticking out of his eyebrows and ears. Much of the hair on his head was white and his face was as wrinkled as a prune.

“It is a good day today, eh mejo?”

“Si papa grande.”

“Are you and your brother having fun today?”

“Si abuelito… We are having lots of fun.”

“Que bueno. That is good. Yo tambien mejo. I am too,” he smiled at me. He was missing a few teeth. I got the feeling that my grandfather was trying to tell me something again.

“Look at your abuelita over there,” he said. “A fine woman. She is beautiful mejo. Que no?”

I looked at my grandmother. She did not look so beautiful to me. She was very old like grandpa. Her shoulders were bent, not straight anymore. She had a hump in her back and she had trouble walking. She looked over at us with a toothless smile as she worked a new batch of masa. She brushed her straw like white hair from her face with her forearm because her hands were covered in dough. She was not wearing her dentures today because her gums were sore.

“She is very beautiful abuelito” I said.

He gave me a great big smile and hugged me close again. “Ha ha… Mejo… Have I every told you the story about the Wonderful Magic Shoes?” He had a twinkle in his eye.

“No papa grande. I don’t think so.”

“Oh that is a good story, a very good story.” He grinned at me. The gaps in his teeth showed though. “Would you like to hear it?”

“Si papa grande. Of course.”

I readied myself for another pointless story from my abuelo. My mother and father had taught us to respect our elders though. This was a good thing. “We do not know for how long we would have them with us,” they would say.

“Que bueno,” he began. “This is the story of the Wonderful Magic Shoes.” He was very happy. Papa grande loved to tell stories.

“A long time ago, a young man fell in love with a beautiful young woman. The woman, she loved the man very much too. They did not have very much money. It was a difficult time to find work and the man would find one job after another trying to make a living, but it seemed that all these jobs would only last for a short time before he would have to find another. They were trying to save money enough to get married.”

“ ‘We will never have the money for a wedding,’ the woman said to the man. Though the man was trying very hard, he had to admit that the woman was right. So they prayed together to God and asked Him for His help.”

“It is sometimes very difficult to hear the voice of God mejo; we have to listen really hard. But He always hears us when we pray and truly look for Him,” my grandfather said.

“Si papa grande,” I replied.

“So,” my grandfather continued. He hugged me again. “The man and the woman decided that they would trust God, and let Him find a way for them to get married. Though they had no money, they set a date with the church for the wedding.”

“Do you know what happened then mejo?”

“No abuelito. What happened?”

“Well I’ll tell you what happened. Si… I think I will…” He grinned. “After they decided to do this, God blessed the man with a good job in a factory. They wanted him to work very long hours and every single day. Yes they did. But the man didn’t mind. He was making a lot of money; money enough that they were able to get married on that very day they had set aside for the wedding. It was a very happy day for the man and the woman.”

“That is wonderful papa grande.”

“Si mejo… It was very wonderful,” My grandfather just stopped then. He was looking off and smiling. I thought he might have forgotten the story.

“Abuelito?”

“Si mejo?”

“What about the magic shoes?”

“Ah… Si… Si… I was getting to that… Hmm? Let me see…” My grandfather just sat there rubbing his whiskered chin.

“Abuelito?”

“Ah… Si… Si… Well… After a time the man lost his job again… As I said before, it was a very hard time. Though he looked and looked, he could not find another one. Yet God provided a way once more for the young husband and wife. The wife was able to find work at another factory. It was on the graveyard shift.”

“What is graveyard shift?”

“Ah… Mejo… That means that you work at night when everyone is sleeping and you come home in the early morning. It is very difficult to do. God always makes a way, but the way is not always easy.”

“I understand abuelito.”

“Do you?” He grinned at me. “Now that is good. That is very good…” He laughed. “Let me see? Hmm?”

Geesh… My grandfather was taking so long. I wanted to go back outside and play.

“Ah… Si… Si…” He cleared his throat. “It was a blessing for the husband and wife, that she had found this job. The husband would greet his wife every morning when she got home. He would give her a kiss and ask her how her work had gone. They were both very happy at first, but the woman was standing up all night and her feet began to hurt terribly. The shoes she had were not very good and they were getting old. Besides that, she had injured herself when she was younger from falling out of a tree and her leg would get numb if she stood for too long. They decided that the only thing they could do was to get her a new pair of shoes. They would have to be good sturdy shoes that would be comfortable through the night.”

“Magic shoes abuelito?”

My grandfather grabbed my chin and shook it lightly. “Si mejo… Magic shoes,” he was grinning from ear to ear and laughing again. “Ha ha… Well- you can imagine that shoes like this would be very hard to find. Very hard. Especially when you had only a little bit of money to spend on them. But the man and the woman took what money they could afford and went down town to the shops.”

“They went from one store to the next, and in each place it was the same. Either the shoes cost too much money or the shoes were not comfortable enough to stand up through the night. The man was starting to get very tired because they had been doing this for hours. He loved his wife very much though, so they kept looking. He did not complain.”

“Finally after going through what seemed like one hundred stores, they found a pair of very comfortable shoes for the woman. They had only one last pair and when she tried them on they fit her perfectly.”

“That is very good abuelito.”

“Si… It was very good.” My grandfather bent over and stuck his face close to mine. “And because they were the very last pair of this shoe, the store had them on sale for over half price off. They would not have had enough money to buy them otherwise.”

“It was a blessing! Que no?” I said.

“Oh… Si… Si… They believed that God must have saved these shoes just for the woman, and they thanked Him for this blessing. She wore her new shoes right out of the store. The wife was very happy and the man was glad for his wife.”

My grandfather was smiling and had that far away look on his face again.

“Abuelito?”

“Si?”

“The story?”

“Ah… Si… The Story… Si…” He grinned at me and started right off again. “Well… The wife went to work that following week wearing her brand new shoes. Every day when she came home, she talked about how wonderful her shoes were and how much easier it was for her to work with these comfortable shoes. She would tell everyone at work about her new shoes and how good they made her feet feel. The man was very glad to see his wife so happy. The shoes were very much a blessing.”

“This went on the next week as well. Each day when her husband greeted her at the door, she talked about her wonderful shoes. ‘They are so comfortable,’ she would say. ‘They are so wonderful. They make my feet feel so good.’”

“I do not think that even a queen had ever enjoyed a pair of shoes so much,” he said.

“Then one morning the husband was waiting for his wife while sitting on the couch. He was waiting as usual, to give his beloved a good morning kiss. He heard the front door opening very quietly, so he got up to look. When he stuck his head around the corner, he saw his wife sneaking into the house in her stocking feet. The man was shocked.”

“Papa grande! What happened to her shoes!”

“Mejo…” My grandfather smiled at me. “Let me tell you what happened.” He Shook a finger at me. “Si… I will tell you… When the man saw that his wife had no shoes on he ran over to her. ‘What happened to your new shoes!’ he asked, perhaps a bit too loudly, for the wife was afraid to tell him. Of course the husband was not upset with his wife, but had thought that maybe they had been stolen or something like that.”

“Was it not banditos abuelito?”

“Oh no no no mejito… It was nothing like that. When the man had finally calmed down a bit and was able to talk softly with his wife, he asked her again. ‘Mi amor,’ he said. ‘My love. What has happened? Where are your wonderful new shoes?’”

“ ‘Do not be angry with me,’ she answered him.”

“ ‘Of course not my love. I would never be angry with you.’ This was true for the man loved his wife very much.”

“ ‘There was a woman at work,’ she said. ‘Her feet were hurting her so badly. I thought that she needed my wonderful shoes more than I. So I gave them to her.’”

“ ‘Who was this woman?’ the man asked his wife.”

“ ‘I do not know,’ said the wife. ‘Just a lady that worked at the factory like me.’”

“ ‘You gave your shoes to a woman you did not even know?’ the husband asked. He looked at her with wonder.”

“ ‘Yes… I am sorry,’ said the wife. ‘She seemed to need them. Do not be angry.’”

“The man did not know what to say. He was amazed. He looked at his wife standing there in only her stockings. He knew that her feet were hurting. Yet she gave away her new shoes to a person she did not even know, understanding that they could not afford another pair. He could only embrace her and tell her how much he loved her…”

My grandfather stopped. He was smiling at me and he gave me a hug. “Well mejo… How did you like the story?”

I did not tell my grandfather, but I felt disappointed. “Abuelito,” I said. “It was a good story. But I do not understand something.”

“Que? What is it that you do not understand Mejo?” My grandpa had a puzzled look on his face.

“Los zapatos… The shoes… I could see that they were wonderful shoes, but I do not understand how they were magic shoes. They did not seem magic to me. They were only ordinary shoes that were very comfortable for the woman to wear.”

“Ah mejo… Heh. Heh. They were not magic shoes for the wife. For her they were just ordinary shoes. Though she loved them very much, she gladly gave them up in order to help another person. These shoes were magic shoes for the husband.” My grandpa was smiling at me as if the matter was all settled. Even his eyes were smiling.

I was frustrated. “I am sorry abuelito, I still do not understand.”

My grandfather picked me up and set me on his lap. He brought his face next to mine till we were touching foreheads. “Mejito…” He looked at me with a warm and loving smile. “The shoes had a magic of the very best kind. To you and I, they might have seemed like just ordinary shoes, yet God used those ordinary shoes to reveal to the man for the very first time, the depth of beauty and love contained in the heart of the woman he married.” He pulled his head back from mine and hugged me again. “For him, they were truly Wonderful Magic Shoes.”

As I sat there pondering what my grandfather had just told me, I heard him whisper under his breath, “Que bonita mi amor…” When I looked at him, I saw that he was gazing at my grandmother with tears in his eyes. She was still in the kitchen sitting on a stool working another batch of masa. She was sitting down because she couldn’t stand for long periods of time. You see she fell out of a tree as a . . . young . . . girl . . . and . . .

****

Driving home that evening I kept thinking of my grandfather and what I had learned from him. We would probably be back the next weekend. It won’t be a tamale day.  That is for sure. My grandmother made enough to last for a very long time. I can hardly wait though. I want to hear another of my grandfather’s stories. He is a very wise man. Perhaps one day I will be as wise as he.