With or Without Shoe

Today’s blog inspired by a U2 song of a similar name.

See the stone set in your eyes

Man, had I known that what I was about to see on my Metro trip into class, I would have brought a camera. Let’s briefly set the scene. As I sat one row back from the opening near the train car’s door, said door opened at the East Falls Church stop. On came 7 college-age kids. 4 guys and 3 girls, yammering on how they are excited to be going to the 1st of 2 U2 concerts being held at the MCI Center. They sat in 3 sets of 2, with the odd man out standing between them all. And when the one girl accidentally kicked off her sandal-heel-monstrosity of a shoe, he was quick to pick it up. Shoegirl (as we’ll call her) was none too pleased.

See the thorn twist in your side

It would be one thing for the Odd Man Out to return the shoe to its rightful owner. But instead, to the mild horror of the girl, he jokes with the other guys how funny it would be if he just threw it out of the train at the next stop. Good, buddy, mock the girl. That makes a prank ALWAYS better.

I wait for you

He began to talk a bigger game. As we waited to get to Ballston, he even had the girl, for a fleeting moment, believing that he was going to pull the trigger and launch it. However, the wait for the next stop (Ballston is when you first go underground), seemed a little too long for this adrenaline to last. You could see it in his eyes; he couldn’t go through with such a dastardly deed.

Slight of hand…

So instead, as we got closer to the shoe’s theoretical destination, you could see his new plan, rather than throwing the shoe out to the shock and amazement of Shoegirl, Odd Man Out concocted a new plan. He’ll wait for the doors to begin closing. He’ll then throw the shoe, hitting the newly-closed doors, and the shoe will fall to the ground with a sigh of relief, a silenced yelp, and a hearty laugh from him and his buddies.

…and twist of fate

The Metro reached Ballston. Odd Man Out got ready for the toss. No one got on at this particular stop, which opened up his window of opportunity even more. The girl was just about ready to get out of her seat and grab her shoe from his cocked-back arm, and then the doors began closing. And from what I saw, the shoe was thrown forward, targeted for the sealing doors, and it was then when everyone watching realized that Odd Man Out had jumped the gun. His throw reached the doors – EARLY.

On a bed of nails she makes me wait

Have you ever seen when someone is watching a TV show with a major climactic ending on a videotape, only to find out at the pinnacle moment that somebody else has taped over it accidentally with some commercials? Take that rage and multiply it times eleventy billion.

And I wait without you

As the door closed for good, and the Metro started its way towards Virginia Square, I was on a train with a group of 7 people headed to a U2 concert with only 13 shoes between them. And when Odd Man Out was ordered off the Metro by Shoegirl at VaSquare to go back to Ballston and GET HER SHOE, I wondered the following. When Shoegirl gets to the MCI Center, what happens when she’s stuck in the Metro station hopping on one foot while OMO catches up? Not. Good. At. All.