Walking on Suds

                After graduating from college about six months went by before I unpacked the last bag from school. The bag had my after ski boots in it and a bottle of liquid detergent. During the summer and fall I hadn’t needed the boots. I hadn’t been near snow. And my parents provided detergent in the cupboard over the washing machine.

In the bag, the detergent had spilled everywhere, even though I’d double bagged it.

The boots had selflessly absorbed a great deal of the soap.

They were my Rite Aid boots. Up in the mountains where we go skiing every year I’d gone out shopping without the intention of buying boots. My mother and aunt were with me. After walking a ways through the slushy snow I found the boots I was wearing were filled with freezing water. I discovered my old boots, which were actually my mother’s boots from the year before, had a large rip in them.

“Why did you let me use them if they were ripped?” I yelled at my mother. She hadn’t known. I whined about the cold. At twenty years old I was far too big to be whining to my mother about being cold. I’m not proud I did it.

Taking pity on me my mother agreed to stop in a Rite Aid. As soon as I entered the boot aisle my boots and socks came off. Free from the cold water I skipped through the aisles in my bare feet. My feet were warming up and my mother agreed to buy me socks along with the inexpensive boots. The warmth of the new boots felt like I was curling up by a warm fire.  I had boots that were actually mine, the first boots that were mine since I’d always inherited from my sister or my mother, whose feet were about the same size but a little bigger than mine. My boots actually fit. I loved the boots.

But six months after college graduation the boots were soaked in sticky laundry detergent. I washed them in our large laundry room sink. The deep sink quickly filled with suds. I washed them again, and again. Did a couple loads of laundry with them without putting soap in. The clothes came out really clean. And I’d saved the boot, they were wearable but there was a large blue stain on the boot, which had laid in the detergent for six months. It didn’t matter. I was keeping them. And the next time I wore the boots it was snowing and some snow got in through the top. I was walking on suds, but I didn’t care.

I still have the boots. In the mountains again this year I wore them today.