The Wicker Slippers

by Jon Jacks

  Janet grinned in embarrassment, glancing over at Lee in the vain hope that he would say something.

  Even if he’d just say there had been something between them later, when they were older, she would have felt happier.

  She was regretting coming here.

  This wasn’t going at all well.

  Max really seemed to have something against her, though she couldn’t understand why, seeing as how they had only just met.

  ‘These slippers are cleaner than ever!’

  Max took the slippers off Greg, twirling them on the ends of her fingers as she looked at them closely.

  ‘And look at this!’ she said in amazement. ‘I’d never noticed these before; there’s a straw couple, a boy and a girl, on each slipper!’

  *

  Chapter 9

  ‘I can’t remember those being there before,’ Lee said, studying the cleverly constructed straw figures.

  Although they were formed from only a few intertwining strands, it was easy to tell which was a boy and which a girl.

  ‘Oh come on Lee!’ Max said, aghast. ‘The only reason why we can see them now is because you’ve cleaned them up!’

  ‘I haven’t cleaned them up! What would I clean them up for?’

  ‘Well they have been cleaned up,’ Max persisted. ‘Before I wouldn’t even dare to handle them, they were so filthy.’

  ‘Perhaps the soot was damp and grimy,’ Greg pointed out, ‘and now it’s dried out, it’s just fallen away.’

  ‘But…is it just my eyes playing tricks, or are they in better condition than they were?’

  ‘Better condition?’ Max scoffed. ‘Lee, you really do believe in all this magic nonsense, don’t you?

  ‘No I don’t! I’m just saying they look almost wearable now, whereas before they just looked worn! As Greg says, it must just be because the grime’s fallen away.’

  ‘Wearable? Who’d wear them?’

  Max pulled a disgusted face.

  ‘They don’t look too bad to me,’ Janet said breezily. ‘I bet they were quite comfortable when they were new.’

  ‘Hah, hear that boys? Our little guest fancies herself in a pair of witch’s slippers.’

  ‘Max, don’t be so rude,’ Greg said irritably.

  Lee noticed that Janet had been upset by Max’s comment.

  Shouldn’t he have been the one who defended her?

  Yes, he should.

  He had invited her here.

  He was the one who knew her.

  Perhaps some of the hurt on Janet’s face reflected the fact that he’d left it up to Greg to admonish Max.

  But…he didn’t want to offend Max.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Max said. ‘I didn’t mean that to sound as awful as it did. I think she really would look delightful in these slippers, don’t you Greg?’

  ‘Oh, I didn’t mean that I really wanted to try them–’

  ‘Oh go on Janet,’ Greg urged, taking one of the slippers and giving it a vigorous wipe with his handkerchief.

  He dropped to his knee in front of Janet, holding up the slipper to her in Prince Charming style.

  ‘Like Cinderella, you know?’

  ‘Ohhh yes, let’s see if the slipper fits!’

  It was hard for anyone to tell if Max was being mischievous again or simply enthusiastic.

  ‘Bring a chair for the Princess, my good page Lee,’ Max added with a theatrical flourish of her arms.

  Although both embarrassed and angry that he was being ordered around again, Lee quickly slipped a chair behind Janet.

  As a slightly bewildered Janet sat down, Greg reached for her foot and slipped off her shoe.

  In a move so smooth it could have been regularly practiced, he slipped on the slipper.

  Janet giggled, both from the tickling of the straw and the ludicrousness of the situation.

  ‘Perfect! It fits perfectly!’ Greg announced happily.

  ‘So it does,’ Max said curiously. ‘I thought it would be too large; I’d thought they’d seemed like a larger size.’

  Seeing the way Janet seemed to enjoy the way Greg gently caressed her foot as he slipped on the other slipper, Lee felt a strange twinge of jealously.

  Wasn’t it enough that he could have Max without also taking his friend away from him?

  ‘Go on then Janet; let’s see how you look walking around in them!’

  Greg rose to his feet, offering his hand to help Janet stand.

  ‘How do they feel? Comfortable?

  ‘Very, strangely enough!’

  ‘Greg, you sound like some shoe-shop assistant!’

  Max tried to sound like she was making a joke, but there was an unmistakable edge to her voice.

  Somehow, Lee noticed, the shoes seemed to grant Janet a poise and confidence she’d lacked until now.

  Then again, it was probably just Greg’s flattering attentions that had brought that out in her.

  Whatever it was that Janet had gained, Max appeared to have noticed it too.

  She was seething.

  ‘Me too,’ she managed to say light-heartedly, deftly slipping her own shoes off. ‘My turn to try them on now!’

  ‘But I thought you said you weren’t bothered?’

  There was a hint of disappointment in Greg’s voice, as if he would have preferred to continue watching Janet daintily walking round in the slippers.

  Janet remained unaware of this however. Sitting back down on the chair, she slipped off the slippers, handing them to the waiting Lee.

  ‘A woman’s prerogative, Greg; I’ve changed my mind, of course.’

  Max twirled a bared foot in the air as Lee moved towards and knelt down in front of her.

  ‘If they fit Janet so well, Max,’ Greg scoffed, ‘I don’t think they’ll fit you, will they?’

  ‘Are you saying I’ve got bigger feet that Janet?’ Max demanded petulantly

  Taking one of her bared feet in his hands, Lee carefully placed and smoothed one of the slippers onto it.

  ‘There! It fits perfectly,’ Lee declared triumphantly.

  ‘So it does!’ Max said happily, twirling her foot as high as she could in the air in front of Greg. ‘See Greg! So whose feet are too big for their boots now, eh?’

  ‘It must be the lattice work of straw,’ Greg replied, unimpressed. ‘It stretches to fit anybody.’

  By now, Lee had placed the other slipper onto Max’s other foot.

  ‘Let’s see what you look like when you walk around in them,’ he said to Max, standing back and helping her to her feet.

  Unlike Janet, who had simply walked across the floor as if she were trying out the shoes for comfort and fit, Max immediately rose up on to her tiptoes, as if she were putting new ballet slippers through their paces.

  As an extra touch, she waved her arms about her as if she were Snow White giving the Dwarves’ kitchen a clean.

  ‘How does that song Snow White sings go?’ she asked.

  ‘What, Someday my Prince will come?’ Lee said.

  ‘No, no, silly! I mean when she’s cleaning the kitchen with the help of the birds and squirrels and things.’

  Greg laughed.

  ‘Oh sure, Max! I can just see you cleaning a kitchen!’

  ‘If the birds and squirrels were prepared to help me, I would!’ she retorted. ‘Oh, if only these were witch’s slippers, eh? Then I could get the animals to clean the place up!’

  ‘Then you’d really be able to bewitch everyone.’

  As soon as he’d said it, Lee wished he hadn’t. Everyone but Janet knew that Max didn’t need any witch’s slippers to bewitch him.

  ‘Don’t I already do that Lee?’ Max asked with a playfully hurt voice.

  ‘Some are immune to your charms, Max,’ Greg chuckled.

  ‘Ahh, but not forever, not forever Greg!’

  Max turned her Snow White-style traipsing into the twirl of the White Witch from Oz.

  ‘Not now that these magical slippers have granted me all the po
wers of a witch!’

  She halted right before Greg, as if about to bring down an invisible wand upon his head.

  ‘Would that be the witch of the east or the west?’ Greg asked nonchalantly.

  ‘Oh Greg!’ Max irately pulled away from him, dropping down from her tiptoes onto the flats of her feet. ‘You’re such a spoilsport, you know that?’

  Her eyes widened as, turning around, she spotted the old tarot pack lying on the table.

  ‘The tarot! With my new found powers, I shall divulge what awaits us all in the near and farthest future!’

  ‘Oh Max, give it a rest,’ Greg complained.

  ‘It can be dangerous playing around with things like the tarot!’

  It was the first time Janet had spoken for a while now. She blurted it out urgently, as if it were a warning.

  Max observed her unease with undisguised delight.

  ‘Oh Janet, where we’re from, we don’t get scared of silly little things like that.’

  Lee was embarrassed.

  Why was Janet acting like this, like a silly little girl?

  Her naivety would reflect on him too.

  Hadn’t he brought her here? Hadn’t he said she was an old friend? Hadn’t he been raised in the same village?

  A village that Max was increasingly ridiculing because of its belief in spells, magic, witchcraft.

  ‘What harm could it be Janet?’ Lee said. ‘They’re only cards.’

  ‘Only cards?’ Janet’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Lee, you know how people who remembered your grandma used to say how good she was with them. That her predictions always came true.’

  ‘Your grandma, Lee?’ Max’s eyes twinkled with mischief. ‘You didn’t tell us this – that your grandma was a witch!’

  ‘She wasn’t a witch Max, that’s why! Sure, she may have played around with these cards – don’t a lot of people? It’s just guesswork, stating the obvious, isn’t it, when people pretend to read these cards?’

  ‘Everyone said she was incredibly accurate, Lee!’ Janet persisted. ‘It was quite scary, some said.’

  ‘Everyone said this house used to have witches living here too, Janet!’ Lee snapped. ‘Ridiculous! Some people living in this village are still living in the dark ages!’

  ‘Like me you mean, Lee?’

  Janet looked close to tears.

  ‘I think it’s time I left.’

  ‘No, no; please don’t go Janet!’ Greg smoothly placed himself between Janet and the door. ‘I believe you. Don’t go getting upset by these two simply because they’ve got closed minds!’

  ‘Closed minds?’ Max frowned petulantly. She held up the tarot pack. ‘I was the one who said we should use the tarot, remember? How’s that supposed to mean that I’ve got a closed mind?’

  ‘You know full well you meant to do it only as a joke, Max!’

  ‘Oh, so you wanted to do it, Greg, because you really want to know your future, is that right?’

  ‘It was Lee’s gran who told my mum and dad they’d have me.’ Janet raised her head defiantly. ‘They’d been trying for years for a baby, and they’d begun to believe it was hopeless. So here I am; proof that the cards work.’

  ‘And you can’t get more delightful proof than that, can you eh Max?’ Greg grinned.

  ‘Actually, I should get back home anyway,’ Janet said, ‘as my mum and dad weren’t in when Lee called. I’d just left a note saying I wouldn’t be long.’

  ‘But you’ve hardly been here long!’ Greg pointed out.

  ‘Oh let her go Greg! She’s obviously scared about these things, bless her.’

  ‘But I mean I really should–’

  ‘We know what you mean dear.’

  Max smiled, but it was pitying smile.

  Once again, Lee saw Janet glance his way, like she wanted him to leap to her defence.

  Why was she looking at him like that?

  She’d got herself into this situation.

  By dragging him into it, she’d only humiliate him even more, wouldn’t she?

  ‘Don’t listen to Max, Janet.’ Greg glared irately at Max. ‘If anyone here knows about witches, it’s Max!’

  ‘Well, if that’s the case, Greg, then I really will be able to tell everyone their futures, won’t I?’ Max replied coolly. ‘And so there’s not much point Janet staying, as she’s not going to be appearing in anyone else’s future, is she?’

  ‘I think that’s an easy prediction to make!’ Janet frowned at Lee. ‘I doubt I’ll be seeing any of you ever again, thank you very much.’

  ‘Janet, please; I can understand you being angry with these two for their incredible rudeness, but surely I haven’t done anything to upset you?’

  ‘Yes, you’re right, you haven’t Greg. But I just meant that Max is right on that point; there’s no real reasons why our paths should cross again, is there?’

  ‘Personally, I think there are plenty of rea–’

  ‘Greg!’ Max almost stamped her foot, her face creasing in fury over Greg’s continual flirting with Janet. ‘Can’t you get into your head that even she’s telling you there’s no future involving you and her?’

  ‘I should go.’

  ‘Then I’ll give you a lift,’ Greg said with a resigned sigh as he glowered back at Max.

  Suddenly, Lee felt that odd twinge of jealously he’d suffered earlier.

  It didn’t make any sense to be jealous, he knew; yet, strangely, it cursed through him much as he felt jealous whenever he saw Greg with Max.

  Perhaps that was it; perhaps it was because it was Greg.

  Handsome, charming Greg, saying the right things once more, doing the right things, as he always did.

  Offering a lift to the girl Lee knew and had brought here.

  How petulant and childish did that make Lee look?

  ‘No, I’ll take her home Greg,’ he said. ‘She’s my friend after all.’

  Even as he said it, he silently cursed himself.

  Leaving with Janet would mean leaving Greg alone with Max once more.

  They’d be together again; and all because of Janet.

  All because of her childishness, wanting to leave after only being here less than half an hour.

  ‘No, no; she can’t go!’

  Max’s voice was strained yet urgent. She was speaking with her back to them all as she leant over the table.

  Everyone was amazed, particularly Greg.

  ‘What? Max, one minute you can’t wait to get rid of–’

  ‘The cards say she can’t go!’

  It was said once again as if it were an urgent warning Max was saying under duress.

  She was dealing the tarot cards out across the table at incredible speed.

  ‘Wow Max,’ Greg exclaimed, ‘I didn’t know you could deal like a card sharp!’

  ‘I couldn’t,’ Max almost wailed. ‘I’ve never, ever dealt out cards at this speed before!’

  *

  Chapter 10

  ‘They don’t make any sense!’

  Max wailed again, almost as if she were in agony.

  Yet she continued to not only deal out the cards in an elaborate pattern across the table top but also, once she appeared to be finished, scoop them all up and deal them all out once more.

  ‘Of course they don’t make any sense,’ Greg said, watching her rapid movements in awe. ‘You have to know the card’s meanings to interpret them.’

  ‘But I do know what they mean! I shouldn’t – I mean I never did before! – but now I do! And each time I deal, they’re coming out with different results, different futures!’

  Seeing Max’s pained expression, everyone wondered if they should try and stop her dealing out the cards. Yet her actions were so smooth, so rapid, that they each feared that doing so might be like waking up a sleepwalker.

  ‘Of course they’re going to come out with different meanings.’ Lee frowned in confusion. ‘They’re different cards each time, just as you’d expect!’

  ‘But
that’s just it; most of the meaning is the same! But there’s a subtle change each time, like the future is changing all the time!’

  ‘Er, Max, you know, perhaps the future’s always changing because it hasn’t been decided yet!’

  Both Greg and Lee laughed. Only Janet remained serious as she watched the cards spinning out of Max’s hands.

  ‘No no; I know what she means! The future has been decided! But there are two futures – and, as Max says, that really doesn’t make sense!’

  ‘Two futures?’ Lee smirked. ‘How can there be two futures?’

  ‘Couples. We form couples!’

  Max’s face was more pained than ever.

  ‘Max, stop this!’ Greg cried. ‘You don’t have to keep doing this! Do you want me to stop you?’

  ‘No, no, leave her Greg!’ Lee said desperately, his eyes fixed on the cards. ‘Let’s hear what she has to say! Couples? What couples Max?’

  ‘This is nonsense! Stop it no–’

  ‘Leave her Greg!’ Lee spat. ‘What couples Max?’

  ‘Me and you Lee! Me and you!’

  Lee grinned excitedly. If he noticed the pain in Max’s comment, he put it down to her frenzied motions.

  ‘And Janet and Greg!’

  There was even more pain in her voice and pain as she said this.

  But Lee only smiled all the more.

  Greg smiled too.

  ‘Hey, perhaps Max has got a knack for this after all, don’t you thin–’

  ‘But there’s the other future; Janet and Lee!’

  Although her face remained strained and pained, Max held her head triumphantly high in front of Greg.

  ‘And you and Greg?’ Lee sneered. ‘You’re together in this new future, right?’

  Janet was shocked by Lee’s anger. Disappointed, too, in the way he had dismissed their possible future together as if it were just an annoyance.

  But Lee’s irate question had had an even more profound effect on Max. She was abruptly crestfallen.

  ‘No, there’s no me and Greg! In this future, it’s just you and Janet!’

  ‘Hey Max,’ Greg chuckled, ‘I’m beginning to believe you really are reading these cards if yo–’

  ‘Which future, which future will it be?’ Lee demanded desperately.

  Greg was amazed by Lee’s obvious desperation.

  ‘Lee, they’re just a set of stupid cards–’

  ‘Which future Max?’

  ‘I don’t know!’ Max wailed.

  ‘Oh this is getting ridiculous!’ Greg snapped. ‘Max can’t read the tarot–’

  ‘Yes I can!’