Happy Birthday JWood201!
Barefoot in the Sand
"Ow! Gilligan, wait!" Mary Ann clutched her ankle and sank down onto the sand. Gilligan, about ten feet ahead, stopped and turned around.
"You okay Mary Ann?"
Mary Ann screwed up her face. "It's this blister," she complained. She took off her shoe and examined her reddened ankle bone, poking at the little sac of fluid filled skin.
Gilligan retraced his steps and hunkered down next to Mary Ann. "Sure is a doozy," he said, putting out his hand to stop her from picking at it.
"It's these shoes," said Mary Ann. "They don't normally give me blisters but I guess it's the heat."
Gilligan looked at her pinched features with concern. "Do you want to cut short our walk?"
Mary Ann shook her head. "No, I'm all right, Gilligan. It's only a blister." She moved to put her shoe back on but Gilligan stopped her.
"Don't be silly," he said. "If the shoes are giving you blisters then don't wear them."
Mary Ann peered into his blue-green eyes. "You mean go barefoot?"
"Sure, why not?"
Mary Ann looked at the blister on her ankle and chewed the inside of her lip.
"Didn't you ever go barefoot as a child?" Gilligan persisted.
Mary Ann brightened. "Oh, all the time!"
"Then why not do it now?"
Mary Ann shrugged. "I guess because I'm not a child any more."
Gilligan flipped his hand as though giving her the brush off. "So what. I'm not a kid either but I go barefoot all the time." He planted his butt on the sand and proceeded to pull off his sneakers and socks. "See?"
Mary Ann watched his toes waggling like little tiny zoo animals released back into the wild. They looked funny and she laughed.
"Boy, it sure feels good to air the puppies," Gilligan grinned.
Mary Ann laughed even harder.
"Go on, take your shoes off," he smiled. "I won't tell anyone."
Mary Ann smiled back and pulled her shoes off. She placed them side by side on the beach and stretched out her legs. Her toes wiggled against the blue of the sea and she delighted in the cooling air that drifted between them.
"Just because Ginger wears shoes all the time doesn't mean you have to," Gilligan said, unexpectedly.
Mary Ann darted a look at him. "What do you mean? I don't wear shoes just because Ginger does!"
Gilligan's expression was at once innocent and worldly wise. "You don't need to try and be like her. She's an actress- you're not."
Mary Ann looked at her shoes sitting neatly side by side on the sand.
"I bet you used to climb trees," Gilligan continued.
"I did," she nodded.
"I bet you had dirty knees and I bet you used to pick up worms."
Mary Ann stared at his grinning face.
"I bet you even had a tree house," Gilligan said. "Am I right?"
She laughed and nodded. "You're right," she giggled. "I had a wonderful tree house, with a rope ladder that you could pull up and a password that only my friends knew!"
"Were you worried about your shoes?"
Mary Ann threw up her hands in resignation. "I didn't care a whit about my shoes!" she declared.
Gilligan threw his shoes into the bushes.
Mary Ann threw her shoes into the bushes.
He stood up and held out his hand and she took it, and they walked barefoot down to the shoreline.
"Your feet are so big," said Mary Ann. She hung back so that she could put her feet into Gilligan's footprints. Her toes reached to where his toes started. "Are you sure you're not the missing Bigfoot?"
"My feet aren't big, it's your feet that are small," laughed Gilligan. "Are you sure you're not Tinkerbell?"
Mary Ann ran to Gilligan's side. She pretended to sprinkle fairy dust on his head. "I grant you three wishes. What will they be?"
Gilligan thought about it. "I wish we could be rescued. I wish everyone could be happy. And I wish you knew how beautiful you are."
Mary Ann's mouth fell open. The pain of her ankle was forgotten.
"Gilligan..." she began.
But he was off and running.
"Race you to the big rock!" he yelled, and she left her cares behind and followed him.