Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Ron Gold

November 23, 2006

COLD FEET

By Ron Gold

            New York can be a cold city, especially in January.  So Miss Polly and two of her girls dressed in their stylish and warm mink coats and calf-high boots as they started their shopping trip.

            As they rounded a Broadway side street, they saw a shivering barefooted black boy hopping in place on the wet sidewalk in front of the spacious shoe store window.

            “You must be freezing,” Polly said.

            ‘It is cold,” the youngster said.  “But I wanted God to see the shoes I was praying for—the dark brown ones with the high tops and laces.  I’ve been praying for those shoes for three days but I really need them now!”

            “Let’s all go inside,” she said in a motherly tone.  “Let’s get you out of the slush and into the warm store.”

            The well-dressed ladies and the raggedly dressed shoeless boy entered and

sat in fitters’ chairs in the almost empty store.

            Cherry, the tall young girl with the orange hair, sauntered to the hosiery rack and selected a half-dozen pair of warm socks.

            Lana, the short peroxide blond, sashayed to the desk and sweetly asked for a basin with warm water, a cake of soap and a towel.  She gave these to Polly, who

dropped to her knees and washed and dried the boys feet, watching their color change back from an almost frostbite purple to their natural mahogany.

            She asked the lad his size and ordered the shoes he had prayed so passionately for.  They fit perfectly! 

“He’ll wear them,” she told the clerk as she opened her purse and paid with bills she peeled off her large wad of cash.

The excited boy kissed his benefactor on her bright lips.

            “Are you God’s wife?” he asked.

            The girls giggled and Polly Adler, the infamous brothel keeper, kissed the boy and said, “Some men think so.”

Ron Gold

Ron Gold outthinkresumes@aol.com