music: you can't stop thinking about me - blues traveler
reading: insurance policies and stacks of paperwork on my desk

everytime I go into a store, I go to the shoe section. if I'm someplace like Target or somewhere in the mall, nine times out of ten I will see the newest in 80's retro fashion: patent leather heels.

but there is one pair that always catches my eye. they are red patent leather heels - oh, no, maybe not heels, but stiletto heels. I probably cannot walk in them.

a little, small part of me wants to put them on. sometimes I do, sometimes I just look and remove them from their box for a peek. Other times I am more courageous and slip off my shoes in a hurry, eager to cup them around my feet.

they are so shiny and red, and their very redness is what makes them bold. they are quite obnoxious and a little over the line. they toe the line, if you will. they shine and my reflection, my smile, shines right back.

some of them have red gingham inside of them and some polka dots; a few have red and white lines and others still just a daring black with a cherry print. they all have slender heels and a full back, and they urge you to wear them, to clack down a marble or concrete hallway, to make sure you know their very redness before it approaches. it is untamed and has unbrushed hair and walks with a silly gait on strong tanned legs. the redness asks permission from no one.

its redness creeps out of your closet at night and tiptoes down the stairs, sneaking out on a date. the redness and shine go out on the town and find the local nightlife, the redness finds a boy to dance with and another to buy her a drink. there is salsa music, all night, and of course the redness partakes in the siesta every chance she gets.

removing them from your heel, you feel the redness leave. Holiday Golightly called them 'the mean reds' and I'll be damned if she wasn't right. the gingham (or stripes or cherries) beckon from the inside and invite your toes. the height, the shine, the magnificence give you a boost of confidence and the redness knows it.

I always inevitably leave the redness in the box for lack of anything to wear with them. it'd be a struggle to find anything in my closet that would even remotely look decent.

I'd like to wear the redness out some day, though - out to the beach, to a friend's party, out to the bars on the Newport shoreline or out for an afternoon of baseball and beer. I'd like to wear them onto the softball field and hit a home run. nobody would stop me as I strut to first base, the mean reds shining on the faces of anyone who'll look.