The story of how Erica found some very interesting shoes.
Shoes of the Future
“These are the shoes of the future.” Said the announcer. The advert showed a young woman parading up and down a catwalk. She was wearing a red bikini and seemed to be shuffling somewhat. The camera zoomed in to a close-up of her feet. One would have expected her to be wearing red high heels of some description but she wasn’t. On her feet were two fairly shapeless silver/white boxes and she was having trouble walking in them. “They don’t look much now.” Said the announcer excitedly “But with a press of a remote control…” The boxes shimmered and changed even as the woman walked. The position of her legs changed and she got taller as the boxes morphed into beautiful red mules with a four-inch heel. “The Multi-shoe 4000 can be any sort of shoe or boot you want thanks to its intelligent reactive plastic material.” Gushed the announcer as the woman’s shoes changed many times in shape and colour. Finally the advert was over and the magic faded very quickly as the price appeared on the screen: $7899.
Erica had been watching the advert with interest but was put off by the price. No way could she afford $7899. Still for the rest of the day at work her mind kept drifting back to the advert. When she arrived home she got out her calculator and did a complex calculation over the price of her shoes and how many she was likely to buy in the next 50 years. Being something of a shoe addict it came to over $15000. One pair of Multi-shoes could save her half that. When she felt she wanted something it didn’t take much to convince Erica she could afford it and so immediately after reaching this decision she went onto her computer to see if she could order a pair. Sure enough her favourite online shoe store had a pair at the quoted price. She ordered them without delay.
They took two days to arrive and she was positively quivering with excitement while opening the package. Inside were a large instruction manual and two shapeless, blobby boxes of the sort the girl in the advert was wearing. Right at the bottom she found a tiny, black remote control with buttons on it for all types of shoe and colour. Disregarding the manual she put the boxes on the floor (they felt cold and slippery to the touch) and contemplated them. Finally she slipped off the three inch black pumps she was wearing and, still wearing her nylons, stuck her left foot into the left blob. The surface yielded to her foot and felt cold and slippery, as her foot went further in the material closed around the top of it completely enclosing her foot. It felt very odd but she wanted to persevere and began the same procedure with her right foot. Soon she was sitting in a chair in her kitchen with a shapeless silver blob shimmering on each foot. They had ceased to feel cold moments after she had put them on and she was getting used to the slippery sensation of having them on. Before trying the remote control she decided she would try to walk like the woman in the advert. Getting slowly to her feet she made to walk across the kitchen. She found walking extremely difficult at first; the surface of the unshaped material was as slippery as ice. She nearly fell on her butt a couple of times but managed to sit on a chair in time. The main problem apart from the texture of the soles of her “shoes” was the fact that the material was constantly changing shape. The woman in the advert must have practised a lot to walk up and down the catwalk for even a short amount of time. Even she looked to be having trouble. Still Erica wasn’t worried. When the shoes morphed they must change texture or walking in high heels as slippery as that would be impossible surely.
Sitting down again she determined it the right time to reach for the remote control. It really was quite small and she considered a long time before eventually deciding on white peep-toe pumps. In this way she would test three of the shoes capabilities. Carefully she selected the three buttons to do the job and pointed the remote at her feet. First she pressed pumps and the material of both “shoes” remoulded itself around her feet to make two pumps of perfect size and shape. They were however still silver and shimmering. Delighted with the results she pressed the button that said white. The silver sheen was replaced with a perfect white colour. Beautiful. Finally on the features section of the remote she found peep-toe and pressed it. She felt the material pull back from her toes and could see them through this new perfectly shaped hole. The newly formed pumps were indistinguishable from and ordinary pair and much more comfortable as they were perfectly moulded to her feet. There was only one thing wrong, heel height. Presumably for reasons of safety the default height was set at one inch but Erica wanted a lot higher than that. She found five inches and pressed it. Her heels that had been nearly flat on the floor were lifted up and her foot arched. It was a strange sensation but not painful. Now to walk. Naturally with a shoe collection as extensive as hers Erica had no problem walking in heels and these were the most comfortable pumps she had ever worn. She strolled easily across the kitchen and back again. The pumps felt rather odd inside compared to other shoes but apart from that they were fine. If all the combinations were this good she had a real bargain.
Erica tried a few more combinations before deciding she should take the shoes off and read the manual even though she seemed to have got on all right on her own. She took each shoe off (she was wearing red strappy sandals by this time" and put them down. Then she reclined in her chair and began to read the manual. It turned out that she should have pressed the button to revert the shoes to their natural state after taking them off. She did so now. It was very odd watching the beautiful sandals melt into silver blobs particularly the way the red colour drained away. The shoes (the manual said) could retain whatever shape they were made into indefinitely but it was best not to leave them in it after taking them off because it could weaken the material so it got worse at staying in its assumed shapes. Leaving the shoes out of their natural state for too long may cause the shoe’s ideal life expectancy of 45 years to lower but not significantly. Apparently the material of the shoes was programmed (she didn’t understand how) to respond to electrical signals sent by the remote control and change shape. The material itself could have many beneficial properties in industry and medicine but its manufacturers wanted to make something “fun” for now to test market penetration.
Stowing the shoes away for the night Erica went to bed. She had been reading the manual for a long time and it was nearly 2am. When she saw the clock and realised the time she hurried getting in to bed because she had work tomorrow. Still as she lay in bed wanting to get some sleep before her 6am alarm call she kept thinking about the shoes and what combination she would wear to work the next day. As it turned out the choice wasn’t hard to make. The office where Erica worked had a strict dress code and only black shoes were acceptable. Also it had rained heavily in the night meaning wearing sandals or mules would have been foolish as her feet would get horribly wet as she walked through the (heavily pot-holed) parking lot to reach her building. In the end she decided on a simple pair of black leather pumps with a four-inch heel. She took out the box with the Multi-shoes and placed them both (still in shimmery silver blob form) onto the floor. Again she placed her panty hose clad feet into the blobs and felt the cold, shiny material close around them. She took out the remote and found the relevant buttons. The shoes flowed and morphed around her feet as they changed into the pumps she wanted. She glanced at her watch and saw the time was 6:45; she would have to hurry. Erica tucked the remote in her top pocket (just in case) and scuttled to the door. On the way out she tripped on the step in her haste and cursed as she heard the heel of one of her pumps crack. Then she remembered and watched with a smile as the silvery material joined closed and the heel was perfectly reformed. It was when she bent down to witness this close-to that it (to use a cliché) happened. The remote fell from her top pocket onto the wet ground and Erica didn’t notice. At least not until she got up and took one step forwards. Feeling something hard and rectangular beneath her foot, she bent down again and saw that it was the remote and she had trodden on it hard. Picking it up she examined it closely and saw that all the plastic buttons had been pushed home. The shoes didn’t seem affected and she was sure she could prise the buttons out again but it was still annoying. Sighing she slipped the remote into her briefcase and got into the car.
Driving in the Multi-shoes was easy enough. The only difference being that she could feel the pedal more easily than normal for some reason. She pulled up in the parking lot at 7:58. Two minutes otherwise she would be late! Snatching up her briefcase she opened the door and swung her legs out in preparation for a quick dash. To her dismay her right shoe flew off her foot and landed in a puddle. How irritating. Normally the Multi-shoes fitted perfectly. She started to hobble across the parking lot to retrieve it but stopped when she felt her left shoe flapping against her foot in a manner that threatened to fall off as well. She glanced down and saw that her left shoe had turned into a black backless mule. Her pumps must have changed into mules slowly while she was driving. She swore again for standing on the remote, she had no other shoes here and hoped they were not going to change all day. Still the shoes cost a lot of money and she wasn’t about to leave one of them lying in a puddle. She tried to hop but found it useless, hopping on one high heel wasn’t easy but hopping on one backless high heel was impossible. She reluctantly lowered her right foot to the wet ground and limped towards the shoe. She stepped in many puddles and her right nylon was soaked and filthy when she reached it. She picked the shoe up and examined it, as expected it was now a black backless mule. Sighing in a “this is going to be a long day” manner she slipped the mule onto her right foot and shuffled towards the building.
Of course Erica was late owing to her slow progress across the parking lot. She didn’t like wearing mules much and her collection didn’t feature many. She was not looking forward to wearing them all day. Being late meant her first hour of pay was docked, not something she needed after spending $8000 on what amounted to a pair of shoes. She walked as quickly as she could to her desk-ignoring people glancing at her feet. Marie Salter, possibly her best friend looked her up and down. “Look what the cat dragged in,” she said with an amused smile at Erica’s dishevelled state. “Looks like you wore the wrong shoes today, I didn’t think you liked mules.”
“It’s a long story.”
“In that case I don’t have time to hear it and you don’t have time to tell it, we’re really busy today.”
“No problem.” Erica got some sheets of paper from her briefcase and spread them out on the desk. Marie walked away with a harassed look on her face.
About an hour later she had to get up and go to the photocopier. She gathered up the sheaf of papers she was going to copy and stood up. Taking one step she tripped and almost fell on her butt. The shoes had changed again! Erica groaned and sat down quickly. Thankfully no one noticed. She lifted up her left foot to inspect her new shoes. She was grateful for two facts; they were pumps again and they were still black. The only trouble was that the heels were a good seven inches and very thin. Despite her extensive shoe collection Erica had never owned a pair that high and had no experience walking in them. They also looked rather too ostentatious for work. She did not like the idea of tottering across to the photocopier wearing these death traps in full view of everybody else. She would have to wait, the shoes seemed to change every hour or so. Maybe they would become more suitable. Not wearing them was a good idea but she didn’t like the idea of exposing her muddy and tattered hose in public unless she had to. Suddenly she had an idea. She fished around in her briefcase for the damaged remote and drew it out. Taking her fountain pen she attempted to prise the buttons loose but the force she had trodden on the remote with had jammed them solid. Cursing she tossed it back into her briefcase and sat and waited. She concentrated on her feet to see if she could feel anything as the shoes changed super slowly but she couldn’t.
During a long and very boring hour Erica had to stop herself from checking her feet. She felt that this would somehow make her situation worse. After the hour was up she lifted her foot and checked her new shoes. At last a pair she could wear! Low cut black flats perfect for the office. Swiftly, as though her shoes might change at any minute she gathered up her papers and hurried to the photocopier. When the job was finished she went to sit down and decided to check her shoes thoroughly all over. She took off her right flat and peered inside. Looked normal enough. She did the same with the left. Nothing to indicate any changing yet they undoubtedly were, right before her eyes.
Of course she found it hard to concentrate on her work with the constant worry of what the shoes were going to do next and she found herself looking down after only forty minutes this time. To her horror the shoes had become bright red flats. Bright red! Not suitable at all. She decided she would have to take them off. Ducking down in the pretence of losing her pen she slipped off the flats and examined them all over. She saw a shimmering piece of silver material where the heel should be and realised that they would not eventually be flats. When the hour was up they would be high heels. She picked them up and was just about to slip them in a draw when it (another cliché) happened again or rather a different it. When getting up she accidentally managed to knock over a bottle of glue that was on top of her desk. Thankfully it was only a quarter full and only a small amount rolled out of the bottle and across the desk. In her haste to clear the glue up Erica dropped the shoes on the floor and began mopping up the spilt glue with a Kleenex. When this was over she threw the glue bottle into the bin and put the shoes into a drawer. By the slightly shimmery look to the material they were going to change soon in any case.
Twenty minutes later Erica checked on her shoes. They had changed remarkably quickly this time. Thankfully they were of a style wearable in the office because another trip to the photocopier loomed. Black, square-cut pumps with a blocky heel. Erica quickly slipped them on (naturally they fitted perfectly) and stood up. When walking back from the photocopier Erica felt a strange sensation around her feet. The shoes were morphing again. So soon! She sat down quickly and inspected them. The heels were flattening out and the colour was changing to green. She watched with fascinated horror as the pumps ebbed and flowed around her feet gradually becoming a pair of thonged sandals. Flip-flops! The last thing she needed in an office on a rainy day. She made to tear them from her feet as quickly as possible but found she couldn’t. The simple rubber-looking soles felt as they were fused to the soles of her feet. Of course, the glue! But that was just paper glue and there wasn’t very much, it couldn’t cause this, could it? With a supreme effort she wrenched on her left flip-flop and managed to get it about an inch from her skin and the sole of her nylon. It was held to her foot by what looked like the intelligent plastic stuff in its natural state. Very silvery and cold to the touch. The only difference was when Erica did touch it it clung to her fingers and she almost couldn’t pull them out again. The glue must have done something to the material as it changed. Erica was close to panic now. She had to go home, to think and to figure out how to get these damn shoes off. As calmly as she could muster Erica put all her work into her briefcase and walked as quickly and as most businesslike as she could towards the door.
She thought she had made it until a harsh male voice called out “Erica Thompson can I see you a minute?” It was her boss; Mr Andrews.
“Coming.” she called brightly, dread welling up in her stomach at the thought of her footwear. Perhaps he wouldn’t notice.
When she entered his office he was standing in front of his desk looking decidedly irritated. “What is going on?” he demanded as soon as she stepped through the door. “I have seen you five times today and each time wearing a different pair of shoes, is this some kind of joke?” Before she could answer he looked down and yelled “Flip-flops! What do you think this is? A beach party?” Then he truly did stare. Erica had been feeling the material in the sole of her flip-flops changing while he was speaking and it was clear he had seen the shoes begin to change. She felt her heels lengthen and the material close around the tops of her feet. Pumps again then. She looked down and saw that they were bright blue and the heels were still lengthening. Five inches, six inches, and Mr Andrews was staring alternately at her shoes and her shocked face, as she got taller and taller before his very eyes. Seven inches, eight inches. Her feet felt horribly bent as she wobbled backwards and forwards trying to retain her balance. Nine inches, Mr Andrews was wide-eyed with shock, his mouth flapping open and shut like a goldfish. Finally the pain in her abused arches subsided as the sole began to thicken bringing the front part of her foot more in line with the heel. They were platforms; she had a few pairs at home but again like mules didn’t wear them much. These ones had an excessively high arch; about six inches. Not waiting for Mr Andrews to recover she turned and walked slightly unsteadily from his office.
She had to go home now. That little encounter had almost certainly cost her her job but she didn’t care. All she wanted now was to get these bloody shoes off. The ground floor was down several flights of stairs. She found she had to pick her way down them owing to her massively high platforms. When she reached the last flight she felt a shift in the soles of her shoes. They were morphing. The trouble was by the time she felt this her heels had already almost completely melted and when she took her next step and brought the heel down it bent and she fell.
She tumbled and rolled about five stairs before coming to a halt. She felt winded but not otherwise hurt. The shoes were starting to reform again. She waited until they did so before getting up. They were now black, strappy sandals, still of course totally welded to her feet. Erica got slowly to her feet and started to walk down the remaining steps. The sandals had five-inch heels, nothing she couldn’t handle and she walked fairly briskly towards the door into the parking lot. When she reached and opened it Erica could see that it was raining heavily outside. She couldn’t wait, the shoes were solid now but she had no idea how long they would stay that way. Holding her briefcase over her head in a mostly ineffectual attempt to keep the rain off she started to run (five inch heels or no) across the parking lot to her car.
Wearing the shoes she was her feet were soaked in seconds as she splashed through puddles and stumbled over potholes. Hurriedly fishing her keys out of her inside jacket pocket Erica shoved them in the lock and turned. Wrenching the door open she made to get in as quickly as possible. She swung her left leg into the car with ease but when attempting the same manoeuvre with her right she found she had difficulty lifting her foot. Looking down in shock she saw that even as she had been standing opening the car door her right shoe had began to morph. It was still in the basic high heel shape but the material was now all silver and it seemed as if the stickiness brought on by the mixing of the glue with the material had spread. As she watched her sandal became a shapeless silver mass enclosing her foot and ankle. As she tried to pull her foot up and into the car the material stuck to the floor and it felt as though she were trying to pull her foot free of the biggest chunk of chewing gum in the world. As she pulled and yanked on her foot, waving it all over the place to get free the silvery stuff stretched. She checked her other foot and saw that the left shoe was still resolutely a black high-heeled sandal. Erica twisted round and sat down in the driving seat of her car facing outwards. Her right foot was still stuck to the ground. She hadn’t the strength to pull herself free and so had no other hope but to sit and wait to see if the shoes changed.
Erica sat with her foot glued to the ground by the sticky silver substance for a whole hour before anything happened. Of course the position of her foot caused her to have her legs out of the car but there is a limit to how soaked you can get. She felt the material of both shoes shift and flow. Looking down with renewed hope she saw that they were becoming the seven-inch pumps she despised again. This did little to dampen her elation however because she though she could probably, at a push, drive in them and so could reach home. When the shoes were fully formed she wasted no time in swinging her legs into the car and closing the door. Then she drove off as fast as she dared. The journey home was not without event. The shoes appeared to have become extremely unstable now and changed no less than five times in 45 minutes. First into flip-flops again (surprisingly difficult to drive in) then high-heeled mules (with them stuck to her feet Erica had no trouble driving in them) after those two, a lower-heeled pair of pumps, some sneakers (bliss) and finally dark blue flats. Thankfully not that sticky silver form however. She parked the car on her drive and ran to the front door. Quickly turning the key she hurried inside and into the kitchen. The manual, she had to reach the manual. As she sat and flicked through the thick book her shoes changed again. Her left became a red, peep-toe pump with a six-inch heel and her right became a white low-heeled sandal. By now Erica was past caring. She reached the troubleshooting section. The closest to her plight was “What do I do if my remote control is damaged while I am wearing the shoes?” The answer said quite clearly
“You should remove the shoes immediately as damage to the remote can cause spontaneous change.”
Tell me something I didn’t know, thought Erica sarcastically. The manual went on to say: “If shoes are left on during spontaneous change it may destabilise their transformation matrix, they will alter at random and sometimes just revert to their original form.” So it was her continued wearing of the shoes that did the damage and it was going to get worse. Although the glue incident prevented her removing them immediately at least she could order a new remote. She ran (as well as she could with two heels of vastly differing heights)up the stairs into her study. Turning on the computer she clicked her fingers impatiently during the start-up sequence and as soon as it was ready connected to the internet and went on the Multi-shoe website. She ordered a new remote control and was informed that the unit would be delivered in 24 hours. This would seem to be the answer.
Revert the shoes to their natural state and just slip them off. She would then ask the manufacturers for advice (if she could she had no qualms about wearing the shoes again, provided they were in working order- $8000 is $8000 after all). She could handle another 24 hours in them; she didn’t have to go out again.
Deciding there was nothing else to do Erica began to pick her way downstairs to the kitchen to fix her dinner. On the bottom step she felt the soles of both shoes give way and sat down quickly to await the transformation. The material lazily flowed around her feet and showed no sign of settling down. Erica watched for about fifteen minutes but the shoes did not become solid. She doubted she could walk in them in this state. In fact they were flowing so much it was almost like having her feet in a cold, shiny puddle of glue.
Half an hour passed with no change so Erica decided she would have to try to move. Pushing up with her hands she stood unsteadily with the silver mass around her ankles. She began to walk slowly forwards. The puddle that used to be her shoes was not actually stuck to the floor, which made life slightly easier. However her ankles were effectively bound together by it and she could only take very small steps. It was as though her ankles were held in cold manacles that also covered her feet.
Erica managed in this slow and clumsy way to get into the living room but before she could reach the sofa she felt the shoes hardening up. The material was becoming solid around her ankles! Much alarmed she attempted to run to the sofa but the material was so solid now she couldn’t move her feet apart and collapsed on the ground. Here she managed to crawl to the sofa and hoist herself onto it. This did not improve her situation much as she realised she couldn’t pull her feet apart at any cost and they were likely to be bound that way for 24 hours. Frustrated and exhausted by the day’s annoyances she fell back on the sofa and fell almost straight asleep. “Good she’s awake” the voice sounded distant.
“Hello there, can you hear me.”
Her vision blurred into focus. Erica felt very woozy and had an odd numb feeling all over.
“Wh? What happened? She asked shakily. A man’s smiling face appeared over her. He was wearing a paramedic’s uniform.
“You were just unconscious for a while, nothing to worry about, your neighbour found you and called us.”
“How long?”
“Hard to say, eight minutes we think, you’re lucky but you’ll be ok now.”
“What caused it?”
“We aren’t sure, we’ll have to take some tests when you get stronger.”
“Thank you for your help… I guess, I don’t know what happened.”
“Don’t worry about it you may remember, if you do call us, there is one thing though.”
“Yes?”
“What is that bodysuit you’re wearing? We found you in it and try as we might we couldn’t get it off or even loosen it. It sure is unusual though.”
The paramedic shook his head as Erica looked down at herself and saw with mounting horror the shiny coating over her entire body up to her neck. The material showed off her natural curves perfectly perhaps enhancing them somewhat. She shrank back in terror as she realised what she was wearing but the paramedic was already saying good-bye and leaving. Erica watched him go hopelessly as numbness flowed over her. The silver material formed a perfect covering, the only clothes she appeared to be wearing were shiny silver boots as the material had formed into it’s natural high heeled state.
Erica prodded at the material but it was hopeless. Tears welled up in her eyes and she sat heavily down on the sofa.