Doodle's Shoes

                              (2003)                                                                         (2010)

He slid his foot out of his shoe and placed it firmly in the metal foot measuring device. His heal was too far forward to get an accurate shoe size so she helped him slide his foot back to where it should be. A smile curved the edge of one side of her mouth as she got a whiff of his freshly laundered white sock which had covered his foot for no more than an hour. It was a combination of laundry soap, bleach, and boy foot sweat, something close to corn chips.

Was this red headed wonder of a son really ten years old?
She placed her hand on top of his toes and glanced down at the numbers at the end of his foot. As she read the numbers her mind briefly wandered through a handful of treasured memories, a new born baby that completely filled the hospital bassinet, a sunny day on an Oregon beach with jackets and rolled up pant legs while she watched his pudgy baby hands push through the sand, countless ocean books read, the smell of baby shampoo in his bright red hair and a laugh that could light a city. The memories gently slid through her mind and the smile pulled on both sides of her mouth.
The numbers read 7 ½.
Wow his foot had really grown. The last pair of shoes she’d bought for him was size 6 and that was only 3 months ago.
“Well,” she said, “let’s go find you some shoes and he pulled his foot off the foot thing.
As he moved she happened to glance down at the device and read the words printed on the side.

Women’s Shoe Size

The smile turned into a full size giggle.
“Opps! I’m sorry son we just measured your foot with a women’s shoe size thing. You wear the exact same size as me!” she said.
He laughed, that light up the city laugh and she loved it.
She placed her foot next to his just to see if it could really be true.
His foot being the same size as hers was just too strange and hard to wrap her brain around but there it was visible with her own two eyes, two feet, one his one hers the same size. And they laughed again.
Then he said, “That’s cool. That means our arms are about the same size too because a person’s foot is usually the same length as their forearm.”
They held their arms next to each other and they were oh so close.
“How did he get to be so big and so smart?” She thought.
As they looked for shoes she thought of how every evening after dinner he complimented her and thanked her for “the delicious meal”. She knew it was only a matter of a few moments before this boy was towering over her and thanking his own wife for “the delicious meal”.
And she was grateful for the blessing that is her son.