Red Shoes

By Aaron Leff, Louisville, Colorado, U.S.

Day 7ish of quarantine, and I have no idea how I’m going to carry 67 students for six weeks through the spring semester, and be a present father to my son, my two step-sons, and step-daughter. How will we handle the stress? How long will this go on?

Day 11ish of quarantine, I decided we should start playing tennis. I rounded up Simon and told him to get ready. I went to my closet to find shoes. I chose a red pair of Kevin Durant Nike’s, KD Six-Treys. They’ve sat in my closet for over a year without my ever putting them on my feet. I was with my dad when he bought these. He wanted a pair of red shoes for playing pickleball. Never one for flash and yet he wanted a sense of savior faire. He liked his accessories subtle. A bow-tie, a pocket watch. But three years into his diagnosis of Parkinson’s, he wanted to be seen. Red shoes.

It took three trips to five different shoe stores before my dad found these shoes. He wore them to pickleball, boxing, spin class. I tried them on one time and told him how comfortable they were.

I told my son and my brother, “When he goes these are mine.”

We laughed.

A year later, he died.

Now, day 13ish of quarantine, a year after he passed, I put on my father’s shoes. The toe box wide enough, the arch just right. My son and I drove to a tennis court with pickleball lines. My feet in my father’s shoes.