Brittney, the Tapgirl Princess

English teacher Susan Wilms had really fallen for high school student John Baker. She knew he preferred confident, independent girls like Brittney Davis, and she knew how to press his buttons—tough-looking outfits, bleached-blonde hair with dark roots showing, and huge and noisy metal taps on massively big boots. On their weekend trysts, she would wear a black leather jacket with racing and beer decals, silky blouses worn either open down the middle or tied up in front showing her belly ring and her new tattoo, a leather micro-skirt, and big oversized boots with noisy double-thick horseshoe heel plates, taps on the sides, and bumper plates on the toes. With that outfit and her hair now in a punk style of bleached white-blonde with dyed black roots, she looked tough, young, and sexy. She'd even figured out by watching him around Brittney and some of her friends that John liked to watch girls smoking cigarettes, so she took up smoking again, just as she'd done as a teenager. She loved how he stared at her as she took deep inhales and made smokey exhales.

To keep out of trouble with her colleagues at school, Susan limited her smoking to times when she was off campus, and her weekday clothing and footwear styles had a more acceptable shade of adult vampiness. In the shoe department, for example, at school she continued to wear steel-tipped stiletto heels, but also now more often wore open-toed sandals and ballet flats with number 3, 4 or 5 Eagle taps—whatever sized metal plate would fit on the smaller heels. After she got her punk-style haircut, on work days she covered it up by wearing a more conventionally styled ash-blonde wig. But on the weekends, Susan was a rocker! She loved to show off for John, and each Saturday -- their "play dirty day" -- they got in her Miata convertible, tore down the hill and out of town, and rolled into other towns, sometimes driving all the way to Port City, where it was easier for John to get into bars with a fake ID. To keep up with Susan, John developed an even stronger, tougher look than came naturally to this muscular almost-16-year-old. He'd invested in the coolest, toughest cowboy boots he could afford, and had triple-thick horseshoe plates attached to them, along with huge continental taps on the toes, and big #8's on the sides of the soles. All his shoes and boots now had horseshoe taps on them, even the loafers he wore around the house and the new dressy oxfords his mother still had him wear to church.

But as the Spring wore on, John got increasingly uncomfortable being Susan's boy-toy, and he found himself more interested in hanging out with girls closer to his own age. One afternoon, he'd come by Sam's Shoe Shop just to chat and pass the time away, and he found the shop filled with a gaggle of 7th and 8th grade girls from the middle school. They were all there to get metal taps put on their flats and loafers.

"Hey, John," called out Sam as he walked in the door. "What am I going to do with these girls!" he shouted over the din. "They all want taps on their shoes, and I can only do so much!"

The girls started ooohing and aaahing over John as this young handsome boy walked in wearing tough-looking engineer boots with double steel horseshoe plates and toe bumpers.

John looked around at the eight or nine really cute girls crowded into the shop, and he thought to himself, "hey, these girls are actually much closer to me in age than Susan Wilms is!" Then, he kiddingly asked the girls, speaking to no one in particular. "So, are you girls getting horseshoe taps put on your shoes?"

A tall girl with strawberry blonde hair named Megan, who seemed to be a leader among them, was the first to answer. "You wi-ish!" She said with a wry smile, feeling a little full of herself. "My sister says high school guys go nuts when girls have horseshoe taps on their shoes." All the girls around her giggled loudly. "No, we're just getting some half-moon taps put on our loafers and flats," and then she added, "so the heels won't wear down so fast!" She felt pleased with having thought of that response, something she'd heard her sister say one time to a disapproving aunt.

"John," Sam called out again. "I could get this done faster if you would come back here and help me."

"OK, boss," shouted John. And he took a running leap over the little door that separated the back of the shop from the customers' area, the shiny silver plates on the bottoms of his shoes easily visible to the girls as he jumped. Going over to where Sam was, he looked at all of the pairs of shoes in front of him. (Several of the girls had carried in one or two other pairs, in addition to the shoes they were wearing.)

"If you want," John offered, "I could put the taps on some of these shoes for you."

"That would be a big help if you thought you could do that."

"Sure I can. I've watched you plenty of times. I'd put the taps on my own shoes if I had the equipment you have…and if I didn't like coming in here so much!"

"O.K., then, why don't you put the heel taps on and pass the shoes over to me and I'll put the toe taps on. The toe taps are tougher because you have to cinch the nails to make sure they don't go through the sole."

"O.K. Sounds good. So what size are we putting on – number 7's?"

"No, for these girls – I think for most of them these are their first metal taps. I don't want to get into too much trouble with their moms, so I'm just putting on #3's on the heels and #2's on the toes. Here, use these half-inch nails for them."

So John picked up a random pair of shoes and looked them over, a pair of almost-new white skimmers with broad, flat heels – a shame to be putting such little taps on these, he thought to himself. He picked up one of the small size 3 Eagle taps from the box on the work bench, shrugged his shoulders, and went to work. He flipped the shoe over and placed it upside down onto the form-fitting anvil in front of him and placed the metal tap down onto the back of the heel. Then he turned the tap about 45-degrees to the outside and placed it right at the very edge of the heel, just as he'd seen Sam do for half-moon style plates – though he himself didn't put that style on his heels any more. He took the hammer Sam had put in front of him and gently tapped one of the nails through the leftmost hole in the metal tap until the nail made secure contact with the hard rubber of the shoe's heel. Then he pounded harder until the tap felt tight against the heel. Kind of a nice feeling, he thought. He did the same with a nail through the rightmost hole in the tap, and then a third nail through the center hole. After all three nails were in, he turned to Sam and asked, "Should I file the nails down on the machine, or are they o.k. like they are?"

"I'll do it, John; just pass the shoe over to me and go ahead and put the tap onto the other heel."

When John had finished both shoes, he put them down on the wooden bench. They made a small click as they landed. He thought, "Why bother? They don't make much of a sound." Then he picked up another pair of shoes -- some size 7 brown Bass penny loafers.

"Sam," he said as he looked closely at this second pair. "I really hate the idea of putting such little taps onto these penny loafers. Can't I put some bigger taps on them?"

"Well, I told you I didn't want trouble from the parents. But why don't you take the loafers out there, find out who they belong to, and ask the girl what size taps she wants," Sam suggested.

So John walked around to the front and raised the pair of loafers into the air. "Whose Bass pennies are these?" he called out.

Megan, the tall strawberry blonde he'd spoken with earlier yelled back, "Those are mine! Is there anything wrong? I hope you didn't mess them up or anything!"

"No, replied John. "I just wanted to make sure what size taps you wanted to have on these." He held up the size 3 Eagle tap and placed it against the heel of the loafer. "This is the size Sam gave me to put on." Megan walked up to inspect the tap more closely, and John looked her in the eyes and lowered his voice. "I was thinking that a pretty girl like you needs to have bigger taps on her shoes, especially on penny loafers. Probably you need horseshoe taps." He smiled. "In fact, if you had horseshoe taps on these, I know a couple of really hot 9th grade boys who would love to go out with you."

Megan turned to one of her friends and whispered something in her ear. Her friend whispered back, and then both girls blushed, red-headed Megan most obviously so.

"Umm, o.k. yeah, I think horseshoe taps would be good." Then she paused and turned to her friend again and blushed some more. "I sure hope my dad doesn't throw me out of the house," she whispered to her friend.

"These other taps," John continued, showing Megan the #3 Eagle plate. "Shall I have Sam put them on the toes, then?" Megan nodded yes and blushed again, plainly excited over the horseshoe taps she was going to have on her shoes.

John went back to the work area. "She wants horseshoes," he said to Sam quietly.

Sam laughed. "You put her up to that, didn't you." John shrugged his shoulders. Sam continued, "Well, o.k., but now all the other girls will be jealous. We better get all these taps put on before everyone comes back here to ask for bigger taps!"

John found several boxes of horseshoe taps, each box with different sized plates. "Which size do I put on these?" he asked Sam.

"How wide are the heels? Here let me check." Sam took his ruler and put it up to the heel of the loafer. "Hmm, two-and-an-eighth inches. That would be size 2-3 in the horseshoe type. I'm not sure I have any of those. Here, why don't you put on 3-4's. They're just a little larger and I'll bet that she'll like that the taps will stick out over the edge and people will see them easier."

So John took the loafers, two horseshoe taps, and a dozen nails from the box (the horseshoes required six nails each). He placed one horseshoe tap carefully over the heel, so it protruded just a bit on both the inside and outside and was just a bit over the edge at the back of the heel as well. He smiled as he thought how good the steel plate looked placed against the girl's loafer. As he started hammering the nails in, one by one, he started thinking about how that cutie of a girl was going to react seeing her tapped-up loafers and how she'd be clicking and scraping her shoes along the floor and sidewalk in just a few minutes. As he hammered away and the nail dropped into the heel, he actually felt like he himself was becoming a part of her heel too! He touched his finger to the edge to the metal plate. It made him all tingly just thinking about that strawberry-blonde cutie in her newly horseshoe-tapped loafers.

After he'd finished putting the taps onto both loafers, John held up the two shiny horseshoe plated heels to look at his handiwork. The tapped the heels against the steel anvil, and they made a really strong hard sound. Then he took the shiny steel plates and rubbed them against the front of his pants, just above his crotch. He said to himself, "There's a piece of me now in these shoes. When that girl goes clickety-scrape-clicking all over town, I will be part of her every step!" He grabbed his willy through his pants and smiled. John had had his first delirious experience of tapping up a female's shoes. It was not to be his last.


After John and Sam had finished putting heel and toe taps on all 14 pairs of shoes, they started carrying them out to the girls, who started jumping around and yelling when they saw the two coming towards them.

"Hey, settle down girls. After we've brought them all out, we'll give each of you your shoes."

But the girls wouldn't wait. "Hey Carrie, here are yours!" "Michelle! Aren't these red MaryJane's yours? Here, take them!" "Cool! Let me try them on and see what the taps sound like!"

As each girl took her shoes in her hands, she would turn them over, look fondly at the metal plates underneath, and rub her fingers across the tap. Then, she'd slip the shoes on her feet, and stomp or scrape her feet on the floor to hear the sound the taps made. At first, the girls were pretty excited. But then everyone saw the horseshoe taps on Megan's loafers, and several girls' jaws dropped.

"Wow! Megan! Those are awesome! How come you got to have horseshoe taps put on yours?"

"I ASKED for them, of course!" replied Megan haughtily. She let her steel-plated loafers drop to the floor. They made a loud CLANG, and all the other talk in the room came to a halt. Megan slipped her feet into her shoes, each loafer making a distinct scrape along the floor as her foot settled into it. And then she raised one leg behind her and swing it forward, the large steel heel plate making a long scraping sound as it hit the floor. Every other girl stared at her in awe. She beamed with pride.

"Mr. DiMaggio! That's so unfair!" cried Carrie, a 7th grader with a cute little pouty expression. "I want taps like those on my shoes, too!" Several other girls echoed Carrie with similar demands.

"See," Sam turned to John. "You can't just leave well enough alone, can you?" Sam smiled as he said this. "Now they're all going to want me to take these taps off their shoes and put on bigger ones."

But soon the girls just started enjoying the little clicky sounds their feet made with the taps on. They spilled out of the store and onto the sidewalk in front, testing out their taps by dragging their heels along the cement. They didn't leave, though. They were still talking about Megan's horseshoe taps. Carrie and a few others went back inside, and when Sam and John had finished talking, she spoke up: "So sometime can we exchange these taps for horseshoes instead?"

Sam replied, "Sure, some time you can. But not today. I've got too many other shoes in here that need repairing." So Carrie and the others walked outside again and told their friends that they could come back and get bigger taps put on. That seemed to satisfy them and they skipped off, happy at joining the tap-wearing crowd. Still, it was Megan who was the princess, and she led the girls down the street, her horseshoe taps shining in the setting sun visible to all the girls behind her.

After the girls left, John had an idea. "Sam, that anvil I was working on back there. That's an extra one, right? And it looks like it can be unscrewed from the workbench and used on its own."

"Yeah, I guess it can. What are you thinking?"

"Well, I was thinking, I could go around with that anvil and a hammer and some nails and taps and go to the girls' homes and put on bigger taps for them and maybe even they'd want taps put on their other shoes too. Maybe some of their moms would want taps on their shoes too, or maybe they've got brothers and sisters who would, or even some of their dads! In fact, now that I think about it, there's probably a lot of people around this area who would go for having taps on lots of their shoes, if it was easy for them to get them all fixed up at once. I could be like a traveling shoe repairman!" He laughed out loud at this idea.

"Well," said Sam, "that's not a bad idea! Why don't you come around tomorrow afternoon, and I'll see if I can help set you up in business! I'll show you how to put taps on the soles, and to take off the old taps in order to put new ones on."

So the next day, John went back to Sam's and got a lesson in putting taps on different kinds of shoes. There were plenty of shoes to practice on, as several women and a couple of men had left their shoes with Sam for new heels and taps. He even learned how to pull old rubber heel tips off of stiletto heels and replace them with new metal ones. Then he gathered all the equipment he needed – anvil, hammer, screwdriver, pliers, nails, and horseshoe and Eagle taps in a variety of sizes – and put everything in a wheelbarrow and got ready to cart it all off.

"So where are you headed first, John?" asked Sam.

"Actually, I'm off to the park across from the middle school. This morning I saw a few of the girls from yesterday afternoon, and I told them I would meet them there."

When John got to the park, waiting for him were three of the girls who'd had their shoes tapped up at Sam's the day before, including, of course, the cute little 7th grader, Carrie, who'd complained so loudly at not having horseshoes put on her shoes.

"Yay! I'm glad you came!" Carrie shouted to John. "So will you take these little taps off my flats and put some horseshoes on like you put on Megan's shoes yesterday?"

John took a look at Carrie's little pale blue ballet flats. "I can put bigger taps on these than you have on now, but I don't think the horseshoes would work on those. The heel looks too fragile. Horseshoes are much better on loafers and heavier shoes, like boots. But I can put these taps on," and he held up some 2-inch long #5 Eagle taps for Carrie to see.

She said, "Well, I guess that's o.k., but I've got a pair of cowboy boots at home and some loafers too. Can you just come over with your stuff and put horseshoe taps on my boots and loafers at my house?"

John replied, "That's exactly what I was thinking! First, let me put the #5's on your ballet flats and do the other girls' shoes, and then we'll go over to your house."

So Carrie watched as John took the #3 taps off of the heels of her flats, replaced them with somewhat larger #5's, and then started to work on the other two girls' shoes. On Michelle's MaryJane's, he also put on #5's. The third girl, Jessica, had worn black tassel loafers the day before, and those were the ones that Sam had put #3 taps on. But today, she was wearing slingback sandals, so John told her the best he could do with those was to put #5's on the heels, just like on the others girls' shoes. "Can I have toe taps, too?" "Sure," John replied, and he put #2's on the toes of Jessica's slingbacks.

"If you came over to my house, could you put horseshoes on my loafers, like you're going to do with Carrie's?" asked Jessica. "I live right down the block from her."

"And on mine too," piped in Michelle. "I've got penny loafers at home."

"Sure," replied John. "Let's all go together."

So John and his portable tap-mobile, himself dragging his double-horseshoed engineer boots along the sidewalk, led this little troupe of middle-school girls, now all tapped up in their flats and sandals, down Park St. and into the adjoining neighborhood. As this little gang made their way to their first stop, Carrie's house, several kids came up to them and asked what was going on. When the girls explained, every one of the inquirers said that they wanted John to put taps on their shoes too—from an 8th grade boy whose older brother already had horseshoe taps on his boots to a pair of 10 year-old twin sisters, who ran back in their house to ask their mom.

But John couldn't stop for them. Carrie and the others had run ahead, and John didn't want to lose sight of the girls. At the next corner, he saw them cross the street and go into the 2nd house on the next block. When he reached the house, he unloaded his wheelbarrow at the foot of the porch steps. In a moment, the girls returned, each holding a pair of Carrie's shoes that Carrie wanted taps put on—some bright red cowboy boots, her brown penny loafers, and a pair of patent leather MaryJane flats like Michelle was wearing.

"It's o.k. if you put number 5's on the MaryJane's, but you'll put horseshoes on the others won't you?" asked Carrie, batting her plaintive blue eyes at John.

"Sure, if you think you can stand the noise!" John laughed, only somewhat in jest.

"I would love them," Carrie said dreamily. "Megan wore her loafers to school today—the ones you put horseshoe taps on yesterday," she clarified. "And they weren't too loud. They were just right!"

So John measured the heel width of Carrie's loafers, found the right sized taps for them—just a little wider than the heel itself—and started hammering the nails through the tap holes. The noise of the hammering, though, brought some action at Carrie's front door.

"What is going on out here, Carrie Larson?" shouted a woman behind the screen door. John looked up and saw an attractive woman in her mid-30's, blue eyes and blonde hair, carrying a little infant.

"Mah-ahm," yelled Carrie. "It's o.k. This is John Baker. He's just fixing my shoes."

"What's wrong with your shoes, Carrie?" her mom shouted back. Then she opened the screen door and came out on the porch. "Oh, hello Michelle, Jessica," acknowledging her daughter's friends. John had stopped his tapping, momentarily, mid-way through attaching the horseshoe plate to the second loafer.

"And what is it that you are doing to my daughter's shoes, young man?" Mrs. Larson asked sternly, looking down at John's handiwork. She stared at the small brown loafers, now steel-plated all over the heels. "Are those horseshoes you are putting on her shoes?"

John and Carrie both started talking at once. Carrie was louder, though, and made her appeal more directly: "Mah-ahm! I ASKED him to put them on. Megan got horseshoes on her loafers yesterday. I really, really, really want to have them on my shoes. They are so cool! Michelle and Jessica are going to have them put on too, right after we finish here." The other girls nodded and smiled.

"Ma'am," John intoned. "Your daughter and all her friends were begging Mr. DiMaggio at the shoe repair shop yesterday to have the larger taps like these put on their shoes. But, well, he didn't want to put them on unless you parents approved, so we put small taps on their shoes instead. But the girls were really insistent, so I agreed to come over today and put them on here. I would have asked you about them if I knew you were home. Anyway," he added, "Sam—er, Mr. DiMaggio—said he thought that well-made loafers and cowboy boots like your daughter's would be fine with horseshoe taps on them."

"Well," Carrie's mom started to reply, "don't you think these girls are a little young to be walking around advertising themselves in this way? After all, taps that large are kind of sending a message, aren't they? I mean, these girls are only 12 years old!"

"Please mom!" yelled Carrie, now frantic that her mom was going to make John take off the taps even before she'd had a chance to wear them.

"Ma'am," John interrupted, trying to diffuse the situation. "I'll do whatever you like, but I really think your daughter will be fine with these taps on. I don't think she wants to have horseshoe taps on all her shoes. She just wants them on these loafers and those red cowboy boots. She likes the smaller half-moon taps she has on her flats that's she's wearing now." Carrie raised the heel of one of her flats so her mom could see the taps, which she had shown her last night anyway (although of course last night the flats had smaller taps on them than they did now).

Carrie's mom looked at the taps on her daughter's flats. Compared to the horseshoe taps, these #5 half-moon taps looked small—although still a bit large for the little heels they were on. But she didn't really have the ambition to fight her daughter over this. Her little baby was giving her enough trouble with his constant screaming at night. And besides, she thought, even Kelly Clark, the local news reporter, had said that big metal heel taps were now fashionable and that Kelly herself had horseshoe taps on her platform boots. In fact, thought Mrs. Larson, thinking about her own footwear and wanting to stay in fashion herself, I really should think about getting taps for my shoes, too.

Carrie's mom was ready to compromise. "I guess cowboy boots would look all right with horseshoe taps on them, but why on loafers?" She paused and thought some more. "Well, what's done is done. O.K., but just those two pair." She looked at the MaryJane flats that Jessica was holding. "Are those your MaryJanes, Carrie? You may NOT put horseshoe taps on those. I paid too much good money for them."

"Well that's the thing, mom," said Carrie. "Since you paid so much money for them, don't you want them to keep their shape, and not get run down? That's what the taps will do for them, see?" And she held up the bottoms of her flats again for her mom to see.

"Yes, those size taps are o.k. on the MaryJane's, but not horseshoes."

"Cool, mom!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!" and Carrie ran over and hugged her mother.

"In fact," continued Mrs. Larson, "John?…it's John, right?" He nodded. "Why don't you bring your equipment inside. When you finish with Carrie's shoes, there's something else you can do for me." She pulled John by the arm away from the girls and walked with him across her front yard, speaking softly so only he could hear. "I think Carrie's probably right about how taps help protect the investment in your shoes…especially large steel taps. Do you think so?" John nodded. "Well, I have at least a dozen pair of nice shoes—heels, dressy loafers, sandals, flats, and four or five pairs of really expensive boots. If it wouldn't be too much trouble,…" and she stopped and gave John a wink and a smile, "I'd like it very much if you could put metal taps on the ones you think could take them. Some of the dressy heeled shoes have rather small heels, and I know that small taps don't stay on long, so I think you'd better put on the largest size taps that you could fit on them. Oh, and one other thing. I have one pair of really nice cowboy boots, with Eagle feather stitching along the sides, and I think horseshoe taps would be especially nice to have on them."

John smiled. "Sure thing, Mrs. Larson." She finally let go of John's arm, and the two of them walked back to where the three girls were examining Carrie's nearly ready horseshoe-tapped loafers.

"Michelle and Jessica," she said. "I think you're going to have to wait to have John put horseshoe taps on your shoes. He's going to be pretty busy for the next hour or so in here. In fact, John, won't you stay for dinner?" She picked up Carrie's loafers, turned them over to admire their shiny steel-plated bottom side, and led everyone back inside the house.