Aggie was saddened when her grandmother died. She had planned to visit her, but things got in the way. She couldn’t recall what things, but she knew he had been lax and hadn’t pursued a visit even for a day or two. When they had visited last, years ago, Aggie had been in the third grade and played in Grannie’s attic. Aggie remembered finding a pair of red shoes. She had put them on and clogged around in the attic wearing the shoes. Grandma just ignored the clopping around and let her do what she wanted to do. She loved Grannie for that . . . and now Aggie felt downhearted.
At breakfast the next morning, her mom was making French Toast . . . a favorite dish of both Grannie and Aggie’s mom. “The funeral is Saturday in Centralia. I thought we should go down and clean out the house, so we don’t get stuck with next month’s rent.” Aggie nodded in agreement. She had always enjoyed visiting Grannie’s place. “Sound’s like a good idea to me, Mom, but isn’t this awfully quick?” “Money is tight and we don’t really know what all has to be done and paid up, yet.”
Wednesday morning Aggie and her mom checked into a motel just off I-5. Two hours later they walked away with money in their pockets . . . well almost. Grannie’s attorney was on top of everything. Aggie got a shoe box. She cried when she opened the box and saw the old red shoes and a check for three thousand dollars.”
Aggie decided she owed her grandmother . . . not for money, not for fun, but for looking at the future and making her one way. She began thinking about the shoes and other possibilities. She had a couple of friends who loved clothes. She sold them an idea. One was attending the University of Washington in Tacoma, and the other was attending Tacoma Tech. Aggie who had been lax with her own studies at the University of Puget Sound volunteered to be in charge of the Valentine’s Day Dance.
Aggie not only planned for a good time, but sold her friends on created stunning red dresses. Each of her friends created their own styles . . . all they needed to set the world on fire was red shoes for the women. Aggie ordered red shoes just like her grandmother wore . . . and had them delivered two months before the event just to make sure. The dance was so huge you could barely walk around, but the dance floor was a magic whirl wind of style and joy. Even people with two left feet where drawn into the movement that seemed to put Anna Pavlova, Donald O’Connor, Fred Astaire, Rudolf Nureyev and Michael Jackson to shame.
As the evening finally reduced everyone to a quiet joy, people walked arm and arm toward their cars . . . often with a little skip, and a turn.
