Lesser Known Christmas Stories

This story was told to me when I climbed the Himalayan mountains, by a wise old man who lived at the summit. He was a clever fellow, but kept a pet snake that bit him every night, he insisted that one day it would get tired of biting him, but it never did. Oh, how we laughed when the snake tried to bite through his coffin at his funeral! That's another story all together, but this is his most famous fable.

A kid gets out of the pool after an hour of swimming, and goes to the entrance of the pool where his and everyone's shoes are lined up. It goes

Pair of Shoes. Pair of Shoes. Empty Void of Concrete. Pair of Shoes.

Empty void of concrete is where his shoes are supposed to be, but they aren't.

He inspects the line up again, but it is quite evident to him that his pair is missing, like a front

tooth, missing from a smile.

He counts the shoes again, tapping each pair in the air as if he were playing piano with one finger.

When no one is looking he grabs a pair of shoes, walks off and clomps around in size 10 sneakers, the closet to his shoe size, all the way home.

The guy who owns the size tens does the same, and the person that finds their shoes missing next does the same until the last kid. The last kid has no shoes to take home.

The next day, the kids come back wearing each others shoes, they laugh at the absurdity, reconcile their short comings, and as they walk hand in hand to enter the pool.

They find that the pool is closed because of contamination.

The kid who didn't have any shoes, the kid who walked home barefoot, took an angry dump in the pool. The rage was aimed at no one in particular, and at the same time, at everyone, especially those with shoes.

I never knew what to make of this story, the old man said I wasn't "wise enough yet."