Leather Rose

A few months ago, Buster drew my attention to a high school girl that was walking past our house. For some unknown reason, she has the same effect on him as other dogs that dare to walk past the front of our house.

Buster sits in the window making sure that all of the bad influences in the world are either frightened away or by making sure he has done his duty and warned us of some impending danger. Unfortunately, I don’t speak dog and I therefore think Buster is just an idiot that doesn’t deserve the treats that I give him. He always barks when this poor girl walks by and of course I too sit in the window watching her go to school in the morning and come back in the afternoon.

I have never talked to her, I am always pretty careful not to become known as the creepy, scary old guy at 108. Now that I think about it, sitting in the window watching young girls walk by the front of the house with my dog is creepy enough. She is a little overweight and sometimes seems to be floating by surrounded by a bubble of happiness and at other times I can almost see the weight of the world as it hangs from her shoulders. Mostly though, she is just a girl going to school and about her life like most other girls in the world.

She reminds me of Luna Lovegood, friend of Harry Potter. For those that haven’t read the Harry Potter novels (shame on you) she is sort of like Phoebe Buffay from the friends TV show. On the surface she appears to be flakey and just a little off centre, but there is a depth of personality that will sometimes come out to surprise all of us. I find that for what ever reason I am uplifted when she walks by and if possible I will be at the window when she goes by. It might also be because I no longer have to go and sit in class a couple of weeks before final exams.

Years ago when I was working at the Post Office I was covering another guy’s walk who was on holidays. A good part of this guy’s route in the morning was one very long, very straight road and it seemed to take forever to go up and back. The second day on the walk, I was stopped at the top of the street by this old guy who asked what happened to Craig. I told him that he was on three weeks holiday and would be back misdelivering his customers mail before too long. The old guy looked crest fallen and said that both he and his wife looked forward to Craig coming every morning. Their house was at the top of the street and they enjoyed watching Craig walk up the street every morning.

He explained that Craig walked like a duck with his feet splayed straight out to the side and it started their day with laughter. I knew he walked kind of funny, because instead of a narrow pathway across the snow on the customer’s lawns, he swept a three foot pathway. I made a point of walking like that for the rest two and a half weeks when I came close to the end of the street, just to give the old couple a laugh to start the day with.

Yesterday, I was walking up to the library and this girl was coming home from school, I said “Hello” as we passed, but she was too deeply involved in thought to say hi back. On the walk home, I noticed a round strip of leather with a leather rose on it. It was odd enough that I stopped to figure out what it was. It turns out that it was a leather shoe without the sole. Twenty feet further on there was the other shoe on the sidewalk, I guess if one shoe is damaged, there is no reason to keep the other undamaged one. I’ve walked with only one shoe, and it is pretty uncomfortable so I understand kicking the other one off. Did I mention the shoe belonged to the girl? I know this because when we passed earlier, I thought they were pretty girly shoes to be wearing.

They looked fine on a girl, but I imagine someone like me would look stupid in shoes with leather roses on the toe. I doubt that I will never learn her name and that is a good thing. Sometimes it is best to have a favourable impression of someone, rather than find out that they are indeed someone that you don’t want anything to do with. Ignorance is truly bliss.

I think I’ll start to call her “Leather Rose”.