Dance Shoes

• Hannah Scott, Grade 6, Braintree School
• Short Story
• 2001

2nd in the '2001/2002 Schools Short Story Competition - Magic and Mystery Theme' competition

It was an early spring day, and Maria and Madison just couldn’t resit sitting down, and enjoying a pleasant day at the park.
“This is really nice.” Madison said as she watched a father and his daughter throw a frisbee back and forth to each other.
“Yeah,” Maria replied, “but look at all this trash people just throw on the ground! Don’t they know that’s called littering!” Maria walked over to a near-by tree to pick up a plastic cup, and a piece of yellow paper.
“Relax! You’re too uptight about littering! People do it all the time!”
“That’s the problem, people do it too much and it gets out of control! Before you know it, people…,” Maria’s attention was directed to the yellow piece of paper she had picked up. “Listen to this, Madison! ‘Attention all dancers! There will be an audition held at the Chandlar Music Hall from 9:00am to 12 noon, Saturday, May, 2nd. Come and show us how well you can dance, and be in our magnificent dance program, which is showing, July, 21st. Please come and share your dancing with us.’”
The girls were silent for a moment, thinking about the news they had just heard, then suddenly there was a shriek of excitement.
“I can’t believe it!” Maria screamed, “this is the kind of thing I have always wanted to do! You don’t know how much this means to me!”
“I think I do, you’ve been talking about dancing since you were 4 years old, and now, 9 years later, you have a chance to make that dream come true!”
“I have to go home and practice, I only have 4 more days until auditions! See you later!”
Maria rushed home to practice her moves. She went right up to her room, and turned on her music. Before dancing, she gathered her long brown hair, and put a hair band around it. Then carefully took off her glasses revealing her big brown eyes. “Yes! My favorite song!” She wasted no time, and started making up a dance routine.
The evening flew by so quickly. Maria must have danced for almost three hours. She decided to get a drink of water and take a break. Sitting there she realized how much her feet were hurting. “Wow, these shoes are way too small for me. Tomorrow after school I’ll stop at The Dance Shop on the corner and see what they have there for dance shoes,” she thought.
Walking to The Dance Shop the next day there was a strong, gusty wind. Maria buttoned up her coat and stuck her hands in her pocket, feeling the money that her mom had given her to buy the new shoes.
As she stepped into the shop, she was struck by all the beautiful colors and designs of the fabrics all around her. As Maria looked around she came upon an old man hanging up the new items in the store front window. He looked like a kindly old grandfather, with his light blue eyes and fluffy white hair. He had glasses which he wore on the tip of his nose and he hummed a sweet familiar melody.
“Hello there,” the man said in a kind voice. “May I help you with something?”
“Uh, ya, I’m looking for some new dance shoes. The ones I have are a little too small.” “Well, let me get down from here and see what I have. What is it that you were looking for?” “Well, I’m looking for some dance shoes to wear for an audition I’m going to, it’s for the new dance program in town.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about that. I’ve been really busy lately getting the costumes together for the final show. There’s going to be quite a big cast, but I’m sure you’ll get in.” He looked at her and smiled. She smiled back thinking about what little chance she had.
“I think I have just the shoes for you.” The man walked into the back room, and came out with some black dance shoes that looked the same as her other ones.
“Here we are! These shoes are very special.”
“Oh! Thank you! Thank you!” She was so excited about the shoes being special that she raced toward the door without thinking. “Oh wait,” she paused a moment and said, “Why are these shoes so special?” The man walked slowly toward Maria, bent down and whispered in her ear, “they’re magic.” As he stood back up and turned around, it seemed he had a little bit of a smile on his face.
At the audition, there were a lot of dancers. Maria felt a little unsure of herself. As she put on her dance shoes, she was thinking about the man at the store’s exact words, “they’re magic.” All of a sudden she felt like she could win! She thought to herself, “They’re working! The magic is working!” When it was Maria’s turn, she danced the best she had ever danced in her whole life. She didn’t need to think about if she was doing it right, or if her steps were on time with the music, all her thoughts went away when she danced. It was like the magic took over her whole body. Maria was so proud of herself. When she made it into the program, she was sure it was because of the magical shoes!
After school on the Monday that followed, she stopped by the Dance Shop to thank the kind man for the shoes.
“Hi!” Marie said, eager to tell him the good news.
“Why hello there! How did your audition go?”
“Great! The magic worked! I just wanted to thank you for the shoes, without them, I wouldn’t have gotten into the program.”
“Yes, you would have. All you needed was a little confidence in yourself.”
“At first I didn’t have any confidence at all, but when I put on the shoes, I felt good about myself! It was the magic in the shoes that helped me get into the program.” Maria looked at the man, he was staring right back.
“No, it was the magic in your heart that helped you get into the program. Those shoes aren’t magic, and it’s not the shoes that helped you achieve. What you were able to accomplish happened because you believed in yourself. Magic doesn’t always happen because of witches and spells, it happens because of what you believe in.