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 Story: Office |
NylonAlan 
Junior Member
Registration Date: 05-27-2010
Posts: 10
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F
Shoe Loss
The first pages of a story about a woman who loses her shoe on a way to a job interview. The final page requires some editing and will be posted when it is ready. Enjoy.
Office
Sam awake from her slumber to the loud beeping of her digital alarm clock. It was earlier than usual as today she had a job interview at Podo Corp. a well paid and desirable job that didn't come up very often. Blinking at the light streaming through the gap between the curtains, she pulled herself out of bed and began her morning routine of breakfast and shower.
It was 9 o'clock by the time she left. The interview wasn't until 10 and it was a half an hour commute but she wanted to leave herself plenty of time. She checked her watch. 9 on the dot. Sam checked her pockets and made sure she had everything before leaving. She felt very conspicuous walking down the street. She had never worked somewhere that had a strict dress code before, or at least not one that required a suit. A white blouse, with a dark grey knee length skirt and matching jacket. The dress code also required hosiery, of which she had black sheer stockings with a re-enforced toe. The suit was completed with a pair of closed toe slingback heels. Sam wasn't used to walking in heels as she usually only wore them for special occasions
It was 9:13 by the time the bus arrived. Typically running late, but Sam had left early to account for this type of thing. So she sat on the bus, watching the world go by. Houses eventually gave way to large offices and sky scrapers of the business district with only minor traffic issues. Stepping off the bus just a short walk from the Podo office building, she had to quickly step out of the way of a street sweeper piloted by an inattentive young man in ear defenders. "Moron!" she screamed, not that he could hear her, even she couldn't over the sound of a the engine. Sam straightened out her suit and checked her watch again. 9:23am. "Oh. I made good time." she said to herself.
She had plenty of time to spare and didn't want to turn up too early, so she browsed the nearby shops and got chatting to a friendly old man in the shop across the road. After the usual pleasantries and gossip, he asked
"So, your going for an interview at Podo Corp?"
"Yeah. 10 o'clock sharp."
"Well, you best hurry along then."
"I've got loads of time left, it's only nine twenty ...three?" the gears started to turn in her head as the glanced up at the clock on the wall that showed almost 10am. The penny dropped. Looking back at her watch in panic, Sam realised it had stopped. "Oh my god! I've got to go!" she yelled back at the old man as she dashed out of the shop and across the road. Dodging behind a passing taxi she dashed towards the door as fast as she could in office attire. Skipping ahead of the returning street sweeper, she felt a sudden cold and rough feeling under her right foot. Glancing down, and then behind her, she realised to her horror that not only had her shoe come off, but it was being eaten by the sweeper. "Wait! Stop!" she shouted, but it was no good. She scanned the ground behind it, hoping it had been spat out or simply knocked away, but nothing. The sweeper was to fast to chase, not that being able to catch it would help. Sam checked her watch again out of instinct, but it still showed 9:23. She tried to calm herself down, but her heart was still pounding in her chest. She wanted to retrieve her shoe, but she didn't have time to. As her composure returned, she decided to cut her loses, and do the interview, even if that meant doing so in 1 shoe. 'Maybe they won't notice' she thought. She hoped.
It was a mad dash to find the interview room, running on her toes as if she was wearing an invisible heel. "Floor 5" said the receptionist. The carpet was warm compared to the cold pavement outside. Not that she had time to care. Sam ran towards the lift. Typically, one was out of order, but she tapped the call button on the one that worked. The light seemed to take an age to move from one number to the next. The light stopped on 3, and after a short wait that felt like a hour, started going up again. Not wasting time with profanities, Sam ran for the stairs. The undulating sounds of the clop of a high heel and the pad of her nyloned foot echoed through the stairs. Running up stairs with 1 heel, and one bare foot was difficult, slow and tiring. Pausing for a moment, she whipped off her other slingback and bound up the stairs 2 at a time. Soon a door with a bit number 5 next to it entered a field of vision, and she wasted no time in bursting through it. The sudden silence of the hallways was almost eerie. She ran along the hallway, spotting an arrow crudely draw on a piece of A4 copy paper with 'interview' scrawled underneath. Catching her breath, Sam straightened her clothes and reapplied her lone shoe. Suddenly it hit her. She wiggled her toes, thinking about cancelling the interview for fear of embarrassment, but an opportunity like this is rare. It could be years before she would get another chance. 'Maybe I should go in with no shoes at all, or maybe try and hide it' she thought. She remembered the clock was ticking, and decided to pretend it wasn't an issue, and try and hide it if possible. If they asked, she'd simply tell them the truth. Holding her head high, she marched into the room.
Inside was a small room. A couple of sofas with a small table between were squeezed in. A few other people were sitting on the sofas waiting to be interviewed. Sam glanced at the clock on the wall. Only 25 seconds late according to that. She sat down on one of the sofas and waited to be called. While they all no doubt saw her predicament. She pretended as if nothing was wrong, tucking her right foot underneath herself in a pathetic attempt to hide it. One by one, various candidates had been called in, and after a bit of a wait, they left again, heading downstairs and she assumed out of the building. Some time had past when a the head of a young woman peeked out of the door of the interview room. "Samantha please." Sam stood up, walking towards the door, stopping only to make sure her skirt was straight before following the young lady into the room. It was almost like something out of the matrix. Muted blues made up the decor of the large, empty room with only a sweeping intimidating desk and a lone chair making it appear like the set of mastermind. The floor was smooth and ice cold on Sam's toes, the nylons seeming to do little to protect them from its chilling bite. The woman took her place at the end of the desk making a panel of 3. A stern looking middle aged woman in the centre, and a young man on the right with a writing pad. Sam marched up to the seat, standing still beside it. The middle aged woman looked her up and down and the man scribbled down a note before the first woman asked her to take a seat.
Sam sat down, crossing her ankles with her shoeless right foot behind, again in a futile attempt to hide the obvious. Sam wondered if the interviewers had already made their mind up. The lady in the middle started asking the usual interview questions. After what seemed like an hour, they seemed to about to dismiss her when the middle aged woman asked the question she had being fearing.
"-and may I ask about the unorthodox footwear?"
Sam smiled nervously "I lost it on the way here. I really wanted the job so I went on without it."
The woman smiled knowingly. "You can leave now, you will be notified by phone or post in the next 7 days."
The young woman showed Sam to the door and called in the next candidate.
The hallway seemed very long now she wasn't sprinting. She realised how difficult it was to walk in one shoe as she limped on ignoring the stares of passer bys. Calling herself a taxi she went home to await a response, though she doubted she would get it after the days events. As she kneaded her toes into the stiff carpet that lined the cab she started to remember why she used to wear stockings all the time. If fact she couldn't recall why she had stopped at all. They felt really nice.
She arrived home to find a message waiting on her answering informing her that she had not only got the job, but that she would be starting tomorrow.
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by NylonAlan: 11-05-2010 07:13.
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11-05-2010 05:39 |
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fantomaZ
Administrator
Registration Date: 03-02-2010
Posts: 403
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thank you very much for the first contribution here. nice story 
greetz fantomaZ
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11-05-2010 13:26 |
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NylonAlan
Junior Member
Registration Date: 05-27-2010
Posts: 10
Thread Starter 
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Glad you like it. It's not done yet. This is about a third of it, but there is a limit on how much you can post at once.
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11-05-2010 19:38 |
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Mandrake
Administrator
Registration Date: 03-03-2010
Posts: 999
Location: NY
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Yes, thanks for the contribitution. It's a nice story.
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11-06-2010 05:30 |
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NylonAlan
Junior Member
Registration Date: 05-27-2010
Posts: 10
Thread Starter
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7 days later
Sam strode into the office dressed in a sharp grey skirt suit. She would have looked very professional were it not for the light blue court shoes. Not having any appropriate shoes and having not received her first pay check yet, the bosses giving her a free pass until she could buy a replacement pair. Until then she was wearing these shoes that belonged to her boss, the middle aged woman from earlier. They were a bit bigger then her size which combined with the nylons to lead to shoes that seemed to take even the smallest chance to escape.
Sam strode through the lobby and turned towards the lifts as she did everyday. Today was different as it was her first important meeting. Sam had left herself plenty of time as she always did, or at least tried to. She calmly pressed the button for the lift and waited. The doors opened with a ding. As she stepped in however, her brain quickly did a U-turn when she realised something was wrong. The lift had stopped a clear foot higher then it was supposed to, leaving a large step up. Sam was already in mid step and thus spun 180 as she fell down, landing on her bottom and out of her right shoe. Even though she was momentary disorientated, she had regained her composure. Standing up, she straightening out her suit and then glanced around for her shoe. The lift dinged again to say the doors were closing. Sam turned around just in time to see her, or rather her bosses right shoe balancing on the edge of the doorway below the lift just as the closing door knocked it down the lift shaft. It fell like her heart and landed as a lump in her throat.
Even though there was no one around, Sam suddenly became self conscious about her 1 shoed state. The feeling of the stocking on the cool, crisp floor was like a beacon of embarrassment. Sam kept her cool, and thought about the situation.
"Okay. I've got an important meeting soon and my bosses expensive shoe has fallen down the lift shaft." She thought for a moment. She remembered once seeing a maintenance door in the basement. It was a long shot, but it was her only hope. She set off towards the stairs.
Going down the stairs was difficult in 1 heel. She wondered to herself why she isn't better at this by now. The journey down was slow and tiring. Eventually she reached the door to maintenance. She wrapped her hand around the handle and hoped it wasn't locked. She turned the handle and pushed.
The door swung open. A wide concrete corridor with a lot of water cooler refill bottles on the left. Other then some tools and open computers, the rest of the room was hidden round the corner. A occasional thumping could be heard, presumably the lifts. There was a more pressing issue at hand however. One of the water bottles had leaked or burst, but whatever the case, a huge puddle spanned the hallway. It's narrowest point was in the middle, but even there, it would take more then one step to cross. After staring for a moment trying to figure out alternative ways to cross, she decided to try and cross in the middle with one large swooping step.
Positioning her right foot right at the edge of the water, she took one huge step with her left foot. With her legs stretched out in a very undignified position and after a few minor adjustments, she stepped across bringing her right foot onto the dry land on the other side. Or that was her intention at least. Her heel wobbled, her foot pivoted in her shoe, she thought she was going to fall and break her ankle, but instead she regained her balance. Unfortunately a splash sound and the feeling of ice cold water shooting through her toes and the little yelp it caused told her that her plan had failed. Leaping out of the ice cold water didn't help all that much as it seemed to stick to her foot, having soaked into her stocking in that instant. Sam adjusted to the cold, and moved on.
Arriving at the lift maintenance there were a bunch of tools and access to the shafts. A waist high fence with a small gate was all that stood in Sam's way. The shoe landed the right way, shining like a beacon, the shoe was surrounded by grime, and a few coins and papers obviously dropped down over the years. The black grime was all around, she would have to walk through it. Opening the gate, she peered up to see the elevator was high up and appeared to be moving up. She would have to be quick. Her left foot went in first, followed by the right, it was now she got an appreciation for how thick it was. It was only a dozen millimetres deep, but that was deeper then the paper thin cover she was expecting. Sam reached forward, not enough. Glancing up to see if the lift was near, she took another 2 step in. The grime was clinging to her feet, threatening to pull her other shoe off and tugging at her stocking. She grabbed her shoe and sprang out of the shaft. A piece of paper clung to her nyloned foot. She peeled it off, tossing it back into the shaft.
"Time to get out of here." she said to herself, about to slip on the shoe when she realised. "My foot is grimy. If I put this on now, I'll ruin it." She checked her watch. A little time left.
Sam quickly made her way back, shoe in hand. It was then she noticed her partially evaporated footprints. Looking bad, her grimy, oily prints leading away. She didn't have time to worry about that though. She gritted her teeth and pressed her foot slowly down into the water. Despite knowing it was coming, it was still a shock just how cold it was. Rubbing her foot with a nearby dirty rag which made her giggle from tickling, much to he own annoyance. After a few minutes of water and rag her foot was clean enough, she was on her way. Walking up the stairs to the 4th floor with neither of her shoes on gave her damp foot time to dry a bit more before the meeting. Slipping her shoes back on, she entered the door to the 4th floor offices.
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11-15-2010 08:15 |
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fantomaZ
Administrator
Registration Date: 03-02-2010
Posts: 403
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thank you. nice story again. the poor cinderella girl has to go quite a long way one shod 
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11-18-2010 16:23 |
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