George was glad Mr. Sammon was so concerned about his well being and in his agony he blurted out, “You see Mr. Sammon, my problem is not due to my health or a problem at home, but rather the problem rests on account of my shoes!”
“Shoes?” said Mr. Sammon, and looked down at George’s shiny wingtips.
“Yes, it is truly my shoes! They have caused nothing but pain all day, and I had the lack of foresight that they would hurt my feet this way!”
“Why George, shoes may be stiff, and shoes may be tight, but I have never heard of shoes causing one to make so many mistakes! Are you sure it is not something else?”
But George only pleaded, “Believe me when I tell you that it is my shoes and just my shoes that has caused me to be so careless with my work.”
Mr. Sammon was troubled when George told him this. I manage a bank, he thought, my employees must show strong character, I can’t have someone who blames errors on his shoes. Mr. Sammon thought of the bank, of financial responsibility and customer loyalty, and sadly told George, “You have been a good teller for the past two years, but yet I cannot condone so many errors in one afternoon, and what’s more, I can’t have an employee blaming his poor performance on a pair of ill-fitting shoes!”
And with that, George was fired. His shoes began to bite at his feet so hard that he ran out of the bank without saying another word. George took the bus home and never gave it a thought that he had just been fired because the only thing on his mind was getting those shoes off his feet. He pictured blisters and various open sores covering his feet.
When he came into his apartment he threw himself on the couch to take off his shoes. I must get these blasted shoes off at once! George loosened the laces and started to pull off his right shoe, but to his surprise the shoe wouldn’t budge a fraction of an inch. He loosened the lace some more and tugged even harder, but no luck, the shoe wouldn’t come off. He tried the other shoe but he also had no luck. He even grabbed a spatula to lift his feet from the shoes, but as hard as he tried neither shoe could be removed.