Peggy was so confused. It had happened again. Her shoes had been moved out of place. She liked keeping them very orderly, but lately she'd been finding her shoes mixed up and not where and how she left them. Peggy lived alone with her son Billy, and their husky dog Charlie. Being a 41 year old single mom wasn't easy, especially having to clean up after her messy son. At 18 you would think he would pick up after himself. But Peggy always kept her room perfectly tidy, and she always kept her bedroom door closed so she knew Charlie wasn't the one behind the shoe mystery. It had to be Billy. But why would her son move around her shoes. What was his interest in them. She had to get to the bottom of this. Billy got home everyday around 3:30pm. Every Friday Peggy had a girls night out with her friends Susan and Julia. Peggy had a plan. She would come home a little early on Friday, and hide in her closet until Billy got home. She could leave the door cracked a little and wait to see if Billy really was behind the jumbled shoes. She felt guilty about spying on her son, but she just had to get to the truth.
Friday finally came, and all Peggy could think about was tonights spy game. She started to think maybe Billy was wearing her shoes for some reason. She started picturing him in her sneakers, her flats, even her high heel pumps. That last image made her laugh. 3 o'clock couldnt come fast enough. Peggy raced home, parked her car around the corner, so Billy wouldn't know she was home, and upstairs to her bedroom. She slipped off her favorite flats she had worn to work today. Peggy was a secretary, and was behind a desk most of the day. She loved that she could wear her flats, without socks of course, to work everyday. The only problem was that her feet would sweat so much, that her flats would stink incredibly bad at the end of the day. The smell was so strong that sometimes while sitting at her desk she would slightly slip off one of her flats to scratch an itch, or to get her feet some air, and the stench of her feet would rise right up to her nose. Sometimes the smell made her gag. Peggy had always been embarrassed of her foot odor. She had these pair of flats for years, so there was always at least a hint of her stink even after she sprayed them with sole fresheners. When Peggy slipped them off in her room the smell hit her right away. She laughed and decided to leave these out with her other shoes. "These will scare him away" Peggy said out loud to herself with a smile on her face. She went into her closet and left a slight crack open.
About 25 minutes later she heard the front door close. Billy was home. Hopefully soon Peggy would have some answers. She heard the sound of a plate in the kitchen, so she knew Billy was making himself a snack. About 15 minutes later she heard Billy come up the stairs and close his bedroom door. Soon after the sound of his videogame system started blaring. Another 45 minutes past and still nothing. Peggy decided she would give up and just quietly make her way downstairs and leave. Just as she was about to leave the closet she heard Billy's video game stop. She hunkered down and waited. 5 minutes later her bedroom door began to open. Finally Billy was making his way in. She knew it. She waited anxiously to see what he would do.
Billy stood at the foot of the bed for what seemed several minutes just looking down and his Mom's shoes. Back and forth his eyes moved, almost as if he was trying to make a decision. "What the hell is he doing?" Peggy thought to herself, as Billy just stood there with his eyes wide, staring at her shoes. Finally Billy began to move. He got down on his knees directly in front of his mother's shoes. He slowly reached out and grabbed one of her gym sneakers. Peggy worked out 4 times a week, and always wore her dependable sneakers she'd had for years. by the end of her workouts, her socks were soaked with sweat. All that sweat would seep through into the soles of her sneakers, but they had held up well. In a whisper to her self Peggy said "Why is he holding my stinky gym shoes?"
