The New Shoes

Children's Fiction
by Virginia Kop/Kop's Kattery

One day Pandora's Mother asked her 8 and a half year old daughter to sit beside her on the settee as she had some good news for the family. Pandora's father had been unemployed for a year, but finally he had landed a fantastic new job. 

"We are moving, Pandora, to live next door to the Natural Science Museum in Town. Daddy has just been given the job of Head Curator and there is a house next door to the Museum." Pandora thought for a while, then asked what kind of exhibits were there. "There are all kinds of very large rooms in the Museum, housing dinosaur bones, fossils, images of spacemen, even one for super-heroes and live exhibits of reptiles and small mammals. Plus artists' paintings and sculptures. A lot to see and learn about for all of us!" "Will I have to go to a new School, Mummy?" asked Pandora.

"No, darling, you will not be going to any School at all, you will be taught at home for some subjects, like mathematics, but the majority of your School days will be spent in the Museum - learning about all the exhibits - so that Daddy has a good assistant and when he is too old to be the Curator, you will take over his position. What normally happens is that each Head Curator selects a child of their own to follow in their footsteps." After some thought, Pandora had a question "Why do they need Daddy to work there, then?"

"Good question, Pandora! Well, the last Head Curator asked his son what he wanted for Christmas. The boy replied that he would love to have a new pair of shoes - not ordinary leather, something more exotic like snakeskin! His father was not happy with the request as he didn't like the way the boy acted in the reptile room , but decided to buy the shoes anyway. Christmas Day arrived and, in the boy's gifts there was a pair of shoes made from snakeskin. He put them on and went rushing into the reptile section at the Museum, saying he was in charge now he had snakeskin too. However the snakes were so annoyed that one or more of their kind had been used in such an abhorrent manner, they escaped from their exhibits and silently slithered up the boys legs, venomous ones biting the boy all over. The constrictors did their part too. After an hour or two his father missed his son and went into the Museum to see where he was. As he entered the reptile section, he noticed that all the snakes were out of their exhibits and in a great heap on the floor. 'Silly boy,' he said, 'why did he let the snakes out? He has always been nasty to them, teasing them with their food.' Then he saw that underneath the snakes was the body of his son, with his new shoes in tatters."

"After he dealt with the snakes and his son's body, the Curator decided he didn't want to live and work there any more, so he told the Trustees he was leaving to go somewhere no-one wore shoes and learn to live without his son. So your Daddy was offered the job and told that as long as he promised never to have anyone in the family wear exotic shoes or clothes, we would be safe. Do you think we can do that, Pandora?" To which Pandora replied 'I never want to wear anything made from any kind of animals and, although I am sad for the boy, am looking forward to our new home!"