Small people in big shoes.

Working in an office at the end of a long corridor in an offices’ block on the 87th story, I often found it quite impressive how easy it was to identify a visitor when still round the corner and metres away. The pounding footsteps of too big shoes on the highly polished marble floor were personalized and carried a unique high pitched scale.

Shoes were too noisy. And too big.

Translating the sharp sound with the carrier’s identification was infallable. Whether Mr. Fuss, or Miss Slim or Mrs Knowall was approaching, was the same as reading identification cards hanging from necks and resting on inviting chests, just like the collar worn by the most faithful domestic creature, presumably, man’s best friend.

What is fascinating is the fact that, more often than not, the heels’ noise was not proportional to the carrier’s status in the agency’s hierarchical ladder. The lower the rung, the noisier the shoes.

This phenomena should be further researched. Some suggestions may be: which of the sexes preferred noisier shoes; is the sound connected with feelings of gradeur such as pride and importance; are shoes manufactured to purposely produce an emphatic noise.

There is no doubt that readers can see beyond the allegories. The bottom line is:”empty vessels make most sound ! “

Further evidence in Aesop’s “Borrowed plumes,” “A voice, or a sound, and nothing more,” and other story tales.


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