Brittney, the Tapgirl Princess

Just as Brittney's wearing taps on her shoes and boots started the fad among the girls, after John Baker had come into school for a week straight wearing his double-horseshoed harness boots, other guys made their way over to Sam's Shoe Repair to get taps put on their own boots and shoes. Even though most girls had the smaller half-moon shaped taps on their shoes, most of the boys asked Sam for horseshoes for theirs. Only when Sam ran out of the horseshoes did guys put up with the half-moon taps, but even then they almost all picked the largest ones, numbers 7 or 8, that Sam had in stock. Along with toe taps and taps on the sides of their soles, the guys soon were making more noise with their taps than the girls did. Plus, they were more into making sparks and running and sliding down the hallway floors, their taps acting like skates on ice.

Of course, just as with the girls, not every guy was willing to be so brazen in their walk. Barry Browne, the boy in Brittney's English class who Brittney had called a "weeny" because he'd be too shy to put taps on his shoes, had thought long and hard about having taps on his shoes. But as more and more boys began to put taps on their shoes, he decided he'd go over to Sam's with his pair of black oxfords that his mom had just bought him and see if Sam could put some taps on that wouldn't be too loud.

"Hello, Mr. DiMaggio," said Barry as he walked tentatively into the shoe repair store.

"Hello, son, what can I do for you?" asked Sam.

Barry paused for more than a few seconds. Sam guessed why.

"Let me guess," said Sam. "You've seen all your friends start to put metal taps on their shoes, and you're wondering if you should do so too."

Barry stood there in amazement. "How did you guess?"

Sam replied: "Well, I've been in this business for so long and I've dealt with teenagers for so long, I pretty much know what they want when they come in here. And now it's taps. For everyone."

"Well, yes, I guess I want some too, but not so big as the ones John and Brittney and the others have. Just some maybe an inch across."

Sam showed him some taps that were about that size. "If you want those, o.k., but you might as well not have any taps at all on your shoes. No one will even hear them, not even yourself! Why don't you try some like these?" And Sam showed him some size 5's that were about 2 inches across. "Those will be fine on the shoes you've got on now."

So Barry took off his shoes, and gave them to Sam to have taps put on. "Can you put some on the front, too, under the toes?" Sam nodded, smiled at Barry, and without a word, took Barry's shoes and walked to back to get down to work.

As Barry turned to sit down, he suddenly noticed that there was already a patron in Sam's store, waiting on the sofa to have her shoes repaired, most likely. When the woman looked up, Barry's face flushed bright red. It was Ms Wilms, his English teacher! He was so embarrassed that Ms. Wilms saw that he was here to put taps on his shoes—and after he had complained about the noise that Brittney had been making with her taps in class!

"Hello, Barry," said Ms Wilms. "I see you're joining the tap parade too!"

"Well, yyyyea, I guess so," Barry stammered, his face getting red again.

"No need to be embarrassed about putting taps on your shoes, Barry," said Ms Wilms. "After all, that's why I'm here too!"

"Really?" Barry exclaimed. "You're going to put taps on your shoes, too?"

"Well, Barry, when you and Brittney got into that argument earlier this week about the taps on her shoes, I remembered that I'd had metal taps on my shoes back when I was in college. I suddenly realized that I missed hearing those nice clickety-click sounds that they make so I thought I'd put some on my own shoes and that might help everyone feel better about wearing taps."

"Gosh, Ms Wilms. If you're putting taps on your shoes, then I guess it must be ok for me to do that too."

Just then Sam came back with both of their shoes—Barry's oxfords with #5 taps on the heels and #3 on the toes and a pair of dressy navy blue hard-sole oxfords for Ms Wilms with even bigger taps on hers--#7s on the heels and #5s on the toes.

"Gee, Ms Wilms. Those are pretty big taps on your shoes. Did you want them to be that large?"

"Oh, sure. I thought I'd better keep up with the kids in my class. And they're just a little larger than the ones I used to put on my shoes in college. "

As Ms Wilms turned and dropped her oxfords to the floor, her newly #7-tapped shoes made a noisy clang as they hit the cement. Then, as she slid her feet into them, the shoes made a noticeable scraping sound on the floor. Both Barry and Sam were now totally focused on this attractive young woman and her dressy navy oxfords with the large metal heel and toe plates whose edges were clearly visible even when flat on the floor. Watching her every move, they stared at her while she carefully laced up her shoes, stood up, brushed herself off, and, with a final wave of her hand called out, "'Bye Barry, 'bye Sam!"

"Bye, Ms Wilms," they replied in unison. They listened to her click her way out onto the sidewalk, and watched her cross the street, her pretty face beaming, walking very authoritatively, clearly happy to have metal taps on her shoes once again.

Barry then turned to Sam. "Mr. DiMaggio, can I ask you a favor? …Would it be too much to ask you to change the taps you just put on my shoes? I think I'd like to have the same size taps on mine that you put on Ms Wilms' shoes."

"Sure, son, I'd be happy to do that for you."

So Sam took back the oxfords, went back to work, and a few minutes later returned to give Barry his shoes once more, this time with the larger #7 heel taps and #5 toe taps that his teacher had on her shoes. Barry looked at the large metal plates now attached to the heel and sole of his shoes. He thought about Ms Wilms and the identically sized taps on her own oxfords. It was kind of like a bond between them, he thought. As he walked out of the store, hearing the solid, sharp clacking sounds of steel on the cement coming from his own shoes for the first time, he felt a surge of emotion inside him. What it was he couldn't say: The noise of the taps? The attention others were giving him as he passed by? A sense of power he'd never felt before? Hard to say, but he knew it had something to do with Ms Wilms.