I swing left to right as the foot inside the boot that I am connected to makes it way across the gravel. The pebbles look up at me with hateful expressions as the heel of the boot shifts down to push them deeper into the dirt. I can hear the minerals beneath me roll, clash, and even bust under the pressure. Of course, they hate me. They spend their lives on the ground, waiting to be stepped on a buried. I can only imagine how they see me. Up here, jumping around without a care in the world. It’s not true though. No, not at all.
I am actually terrified. Every day the wind tugs me side to side, and I can feel the tough leather material of the boot rubbing my back as I scrape against it. I can smell the staleness of sweat around this human’s ankle. It slowly makes my hinge rust. Every day I become more and more worn and tethered. I was once stark black but after months of repeating the same routine, my paint began to chip. Now, I’m almost entirely silver. This human is now finding herself in frustration every morning because of the struggle to move me up the teeth of the zipper.
There are so many things that can go wrong up here, and there is no way to predict when any of it will happen. I’m getting old, and with age comes breakage. Soon enough my rusted hinge will erode enough to break me off. Then what? I’m left to be washed away and forgotten. That thought haunts me. I would absolutely hate to spend the rest of my days not seeing nothing more than the bottom shoes and the sky. I guess in that sense, I’m scared to live like the pebbles. It must be so unsatisfying.
It could be worse. This human could just give up on this old boot and bury us away with the rest of her “favorite shoes”. I have spoken to the ones that came before me. They all say the closet is a forsaken place. They never see the light. They live in eternal darkness. Oh! How terrible that must be, to not just be stuck looking at the same thing, but forevermore be blind to the world outside. That is my worst nightmare. I couldn’t bear that kind of life.
So, to the pebbles, I wish to inform you that my life isn’t all that great either, and my future may possibly be equivalent to yours or perhaps worse. I may be swinging above you, but just because I am higher up, doesn’t mean I’m any better off. I hope that, if I fall, I do not fall into your enraged mouths. Instead, I hope that we can find peace and understanding to these grudges that you hold against me. I mean no harm. I’m just fulfilling my purpose.