Good and Evil

I knew a man whose business it was to make shoes, but regarding himself wore none. He received orders from bemused customers that took stock of his defeated countenance. Such a dower expression afforded him enough of an uncomfortable buffer to work in quiet leaving his clientele to guess about his bare feet covered in abscessed sores. Those of a religious orientation surmised that he was a throw back to penitents in the mold of self-flagellating monks. Less inventive minds believed him to be a popper working off some kind of gambling debt. He was one of two hands that aided the shop keeper in every operation. Perhaps it was some kind of silent protest. None of these explanations satisfied an obvious reason why he went without footwear. It was a horrible advertisement. One can not know how many transactions he turned away with his odd practice. In the morning he would favor his left foot where the bulk of his blisters were to be found. Nearing the approach of our lunch hour, he was hobbled by the right. Children did not bite their tongues. They would ask about the condition of his feet only to be meet with indifference. Upon naughty insistence, they would be hushed with penny candy and a pat on the head that turned into a push away. This was the parent's cue to scold their kids for pestering the cobbler. It worked like a charm because he never disclosed a word. And do not think that anonymous gifts of shoes were not bundled by the shop corner. It was simply treated as resale product. As mangled as his feet had become, no pungent odor followed. There was an older lady from which he hid himself making excuses to go to the bathroom. She was something of a neighborhood fixture. Everyone had a story about her without knowing her exact name. She seem to think the man was like so many orphans she knew that could not tell their left from their right. Though we chuckled at such a simple guess, we had to admit how many times he was told to switch out the shoe for aggressively trying to fit it on the wrong foot.