The Expensive Shoes
13UNITED STATESSHORT STORY
Idris
3/23/20261 min read
Idris saved money for six months to buy fashionable trainers.
Everyone at school wanted the same brand.
When he finally bought them, he kept the box beside his bed.
He avoided mud, grass, and crowded buses.
During football, he changed into old shoes.
His friends admired the trainers for one week.
Then a newer design appeared.
Suddenly, Idris’s shoes were “last season.”
He felt cheated.
One afternoon, he saw a younger boy walking home in sandals with a broken strap.
Idris offered his old football shoes.
The boy’s face brightened.
The next day, Idris wore the expensive trainers to play.
They became dirty within minutes.
At first, he panicked. Then he continued.
By the end of the match, the shoes were scratched and covered with dust.
They also felt more like his.
Idris did not stop caring about clothes. He still liked the design and cleaned the trainers afterward.
But he stopped protecting them as though their purpose were to remain proof that he could afford them.
Shoes were made to carry someone somewhere.
Value disappeared when fear prevented them from moving.