One afternoon Cherry came home from the playground wearing only one shoe.
“Maybe Babu and Daddy won’t notice,” she thought, looking down at her mismatched feet. On her right foot was a pink and white sneaker with sparkly laces. On her left foot was a yellow and blue box that said “Choco Zings.”
There was a picture of big, shiny chocolate squares where her shoelaces should be. The toe of her pink sock poked through one end of the box.
By the time Cherry reached her house, the box was dirty and torn. Her foot stung a little bit. She was glad to walk on the soft carpet in the front hallway. “I’ll go right upstairs and change my shoes,” she said. “That way I won’t have to explain anything to Babu and Daddy.”
With only four more steps to reach the stairs, she heard Babu’s voice. “Cherry Chaterjee, where in the world is your shoe?”
Cherry turned and smiled. “It’s on my foot, Babu,” she said truthfully.
Babu elbowed Daddy in the ribs. “She’s teasing us.” He said to Cherry, “I don’t mean the shoe I can see, young lady. I mean the one I can’t see. One of your shoes is missing. Did you lose it?” He and Daddy crossed their arms and squinted their eyes, waiting for Cherry’s answer.
Cherry looked down at her feet, and then up at her dads. After heaving a huge sigh, she said, “I hoped you wouldn’t notice. I didn’t want to tell you about the dragon.”
“What dragon, Cherry?” asked Daddy.
Cherry flapped her wings and ran in a circle. “When I was out playing, a dragon picked up Jooyung Ji.”
“The neighbor boy?” Babu sounded doubtful. “A dragon picked him up?”
“Yes. We were building a sandcastle, and the dragon came down from the sky. Dragons like castles, you know.”
“Do they, really?” asked Babu.
“They do. And our sandcastle was especially nice.” Cherry closed her eyes and smiled. She pictured a huge sandcastle with green and black flags flying from the towers. She had never built any such sandcastle, but in her imagination it seem real.
“The dragon came to your castle?” Daddy prompted her.
Cherry’s eyes popped open. “I think there must have been wizards chasing it, so it was grouchy. It went right for Jooyung. He tripped on his sand bucket, so he couldn’t run away. Up, up, poor Jooyung went, in the dragon’s claws. The only way to save him was to throw my shoe at the dragon’s wings. The dragon swooped back down to the ground, and Jooyung wriggled free.”
Both dads were quiet for a minute. Then Daddy spoke up. “I don’t think that’s how you lost your shoe.”
“Neither do I,” Babu agreed.
“Why not?” Cherry asked. “Little boys get snatched by dragons all the time.”
“Don’t dragons breathe fire?” Babu asked. “If you fought a dragon, you should smell like smoke.”
Cherry sniffed her shirt, but it only smelled like laundry detergent. Looking down at her feet again, she admitted, “You’re right. There was no dragon. I just didn’t want to tell you about the ocean.”
Babu put his hands on his hips. “The ocean?”
Daddy tapped his foot. “Go ahead. Tell us about the ocean.”
“Well, we were just minding our own business, playing outside.” Cherry scooped her hands through the air like she was swimming. She could picture blue-green water and bubbles all around her. She could even taste salt on her tongue. “All of a sudden the ocean waves crashed onto the playground. There was water everywhere. And fish, too. I climbed the monkey bars really fast, but Sara Stern wasn’t so lucky. She got swallowed up.”
“Really?” said Daddy, winking at Babu. “Sara got swallowed up?”
“Yes. Of course, I had to dive in and save her. A shark chased me, but I shook my fist and scared it away. After I swam around a while, I found Sara tangled in a swing. My shoe got stuck in the wet sand while I was untangling her. Sara was running out of air, so I had to hurry. I must have left my shoe behind.”
Her dads did not look happy. “If you were swimming in the ocean,” asked Daddy, “shouldn’t you be wet?”
Cherry hadn’t thought of that. “Um, I guess I must have dried.”
“Also,” added Babu, “we don’t live anywhere near an ocean. Where did the water come from?”
“It’s a mystery,” Cherry shrugged.
“I don’t think you were in the ocean,” said Babu. “Were you?”
Cherry spread her fingers to look like claws. “You’re right. I wasn’t in the ocean. I was just trying to save you from the awful truth.”
Babu’s eyebrows shot up in amazement. Daddy slapped his forehead in shock. “And what is the awful truth?” Daddy asked. “We’d both really like to know.”
Taking a big breath, Cherry pictured a huge cat with a shaggy mane and gleaming fangs. “There was this lion,” she explained. “It escaped from the zoo or the circus or someplace. Suddenly it jumped up to the top of the slide and took a flying leap at Robbie Rocker. That lion was going to bite Robbie’s head off! So I shoved my shoe into its mouth.”
“Cherry Chaterjee!” growled Babu. His eyebrows were scrunched down almost to his nose. This only happened when he ran out of patience. “The circus is not in town. If a lion escaped from the zoo, we would hear about it on the news. Young lady, you have one more chance to tell us the truth.” He frowned. “What happened to your shoe?”
Cherry sighed. Sitting down on the floor, she pulled the candy box off her foot. She held it up to her dads. “Lizzie Lupino had this box of Choco Zings. I was hungry, so I traded my shoe for the chocolate.”
“Now, that’s a story I can believe,” said Daddy.
“It sounds like something you would do,” Babu commented under his breath. He nodded at Cherry, taking the empty box from her. “Finally, we get the truth. But why didn’t you trade both your shoes?”
Cherry gave her dads a huge smile. “That was only fair. Lizzie had already eaten half the candy.”
“Ah-hah,” said Babu, who no longer seemed angry. A mischievous look spread across his face. “Wait here.” He went into the next room. Daddy whistled a silly tune, but wouldn’t tell Cherry a thing. She worried how she would be punished. Maybe she would never be allowed to watch TV again. Maybe she would never get to have another new pair of shoes.
When Babu returned, he was carrying something behind his back. He was also grinning, which made Cherry nervous. Babu whispered something to Daddy, who peeked behind Babu’s back and started laughing. Now Cherry was downright suspicious.
“Aren’t you mad at me?” she asked. “I lost my shoe, but it wasn’t for a very good reason. I wasn’t saving the world or anything.”
“What matters is that you finally told us the truth,” said Babu. “It took a few tries, but we got there eventually.”
Daddy bent to kiss Cherry on the nose. “Cherry, you tell wonderful, exciting stories. Maybe next time we ask you something, you will tell us the truth first and make up stories later. Agreed?”
“Okay,” Cherry sighed. “I’m sorry.” She was very glad her dads weren’t angry.
Pulling his hand from behind him, Babu held out another pair of Cherry’s shoes. “Put these on now, so we can leave.”
“Where are we going?”
“To get your shoe back, of course,” said Daddy.
“But I traded for the candy. And I ate the candy already. Every single piece.”
Babu, who was taller than Daddy, reached onto a top shelf in the kitchen and pulled down a jar of candy. He poured some into a bag. “We’ll give Lizzie this in trade, okay?”
Cherry narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t even know there was candy up there. Why do you keep it so high up?”
Both at once, Babu took Cherry’s left hand and Daddy took her right.
“We have a very good reason for that,” said Babu, “but I can’t remember what it is. Daddy can tell you.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Daddy told her. “We want to keep the candy safe from dragons or oceans or lions that might try to get it.”
Cherry thought that was a very smart idea. Losing a shoe was one thing, but losing a whole jar of candy was quite another.
