The mystery of the missing shoe.

The thunder and lightning raged above my aunt's house in Cape Girardeau, Missouri as I stepped out of the vehicle, looking scared out of my wits at my aunt's house down the driveway. My other three siblings and I were dropped off there, ready to spend a few days so my parents could attend a funeral.

This happened in 1991, when I was a mere five years old. My grandfather on my father's side passed away and they couldn't take four little kids, the youngest being me, to his funeral. As a result, we were dropped off at my Aunt Junie's house so they could attend. This was the first real instance I was away from my parents for an extended period, as I hadn't attended elementary school yet like my elder siblings. I remember crying when my parents drove off without me, but I was sat in front of the television with a movie playing and quickly became distracted.

My parents were gone for three days, leaving in the evening time on the first and returning in the afternoon on the third, which gave the four of us kids plenty of fun, happy, quality time with our aunt Junie and Uncle Norman. The first night was indeed a fun time with movies, dinner, and sleeping, which is ironically my idea of a fun time as an adult, but I digress.

The first day was a fun-filled trip out through Cape Girardeau. We spent the day seeing the sights of the town, going down by the great Mississippi River to collect shells and rocks, and going to a Chuck E Cheese. This was indeed a fun, wonderful time that I will always cherish in my memory. The second day, however, was where the real fun began.

Our plan for the second day was quite simple, we were to go to the park. My aunt and uncle lived next to a small park just down the hill from their house and we were going to go there for a bit to have fun. There was just one tiny problem: my right shoe was missing. I had my left shoe on and ready to go, but the right one was completely gone.

My aunt tore up her house looking for that shoe. My siblings joined the search, I joined the search. If it weren’t so frivolous, I'm sure my aunt would have called the search and rescue squad to find it. Alas, it was all to no avail. No one person in the house could not find it, and all we wanted to do was go to the park. So as a way of continuing our plans for the day, my aunt took my shoe and looked up the size and walked down to a nearby store to get me another pair.

Breaking in my new shoes, we went out to explore the park and surrounding area. While sitting on the swing set, I looked down at my brand-new white shoes and enjoyed how they felt but did feel guilty over my aunt having to buy a new pair. After a while, we returned to the house for food. My aunt walked into the kitchen to make lunch and a very loud "are you effing kidding me?!" resonated across the house. My siblings and I walked into the kitchen and right there, on the counter next to the sink, was my missing shoe. To this day, no one knows how it got there or how anyone missed it while searching the entire house.

So, I got a new pair of shoes out of the deal, while my aunt most likely got five years taken off her life. When my parents came to pick us up the next afternoon, my aunt told them about the case of the missing shoe as well as her desire to never have children. However, my family laughed about the events of the weekend the entire way back home to Kansas City.

On occasion, when I do visit my aunt nowadays, the first thing I do when I walk in is take off my right shoe and ask to put it on the counter.