She realised that a man sitting on the bench just in front of her was the man in the book shop. The shoes started to misbehave. It was too late to turn back, she would feel a fool ‘turning on her heels’ just as she approached him. She just needed to keep her nerve long enough to make it past him. But the shoes weren’t having any of it. Just as he looked up and smiled at her in recognition, snap went the right heel and over she went right into his arms. She looked up at him right into his eyes and burbled something about being sorry it’s the shoes. ‘Lucky I was here to catch you’ he said. He placed her on the bench and knelt down to look at her ankle. It was swelling up like an elephant footstool. ‘You won’t be walking on this for a while.’ he said, as he gently held her foot like the Prince in Cinderella. Only this time he was taking off the shoe not putting it on. ‘Do you live far?’ he asked. She only heard violins playing and birds singing but attempted to blurt an answer. He promptly scooped her up and carried her all the way home. As he placed her on the sofa, the door bell rang. She woke up and wiped the saliva that had dribbled from the corner of her mouth. Bugger, I’ll kill that Lucy. Terrible sense of timing.

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