Con(tinuity)1

One Man’s Homage to His Beloved Pair of Sneakers

by Jules Bleach

I was born into this world bright red, kicking & screaming. From the loving, caring hands of an elderly Asian lady working three different jobs just to be able to feed her children after a fifteen hour shift.  I was one child she would not have to bear the burden of raising. From the moment of my creation, I was taken from my mothers hands and passed down a long line, placed in a crib of sorts & shipped off to another country. After what seemed an eternity of sharing my cabin space with numerous others that looked just like myself (yet came in a vast variety of different shades & sizes like some kind of multicultural gathering), we had arrived at our destination. I had at this stage expected we’d all be headed to the same place, yet upon our arrival some gruff ugly men in horrible bright yellow jackets split us all up. I was once again put in a dark box and carried off to some unknown destination.

[Wit Suicide in Never Grow Up]

Though I’d never needed much sustenance, ironically my box said Handle With Care.I awoke to find myself in some kind of Zoo, on display under bright lights for all to see. Constantly being picked up, tried on, the humans would model themselves with me in front of mirrors, then place me back on my podium. It were a lonely existence spent only with the unfamiliarity of other species parallel to me; some kind of animal with a fur hood and green scaly skin, and a beautiful, yet quiet, Peackockish floral thing. The Summer of 2007 was hot, sticky & lonely. All the other Things had been seen into good homes, yet here I stood. Until he walked in. A lovely, handsome young man with good style & taste with a determined look of hunger in his eyes. We locked eye(lets) over a crowded room of shoppers & without hesitation, he picked me up & took me Home. All I’d ever wanted was someone to pay some attention to me, and the young man took great care of me. Every morning he would take me out of my sleeping box, handle me with soft careful hands, tie me to himself on leashes of sorts, and together we would go exploring the Brave New World.

One morning, the Young Man broke the news to me that we would be going on an international adventure! Together over the Summer of 2007 we walked the woods & worn paths of London, visiting family & friends who would often compliment us on what a great couple we made. We visited the cathedrals of Paris and under the evening lights of Montmarte discussed previous relationships. The Young Man admitted to having a preference for my kind, but that he had treated previous lovers terribly in the past & had laid them to waste, discarding them without a trace of thought once he had felt they had become too old or stale for him. He assured me I was different, that there had never been another quite like me. How was that true when I’d seen others just like me all around!? I felt akin to some airhead blonde, some kind of trophy prize to simply show off and that only provided aesthetic value. The Young Man explained that to me, I was not only a beautiful object, but provided a practical purpose and that he wished to spend the rest of his life with me. Little did he know that we come with a built in obsolescence.

Upon returning from Europe, he took a lover. I could tell immediately they were not right for eachother, and obviously were not a great fan of this newfound situation, but what could I possibly say!? Unexpectedly he still attended to me every single day, and eventually we found a peaceful co-habitance, the three of us. There were times when the Young Man’s lover wished to take him out to a high class restaurant but felt it would I would be out of place with them, and would ‘just not fit in’.The stubborn young man remained passionately steadfast in his decision to stay by my side, and as a result the relationship with his lover eventually degraded. She apparently claimed to not understand the foolhardy commitment and dedication one would display to ‘something’ like myself. Of course this did not affect me, I knew him & I would always be together, our love shown strong through thousands of photographs together.So as I sit here writing this in the Winter of 2010, reflecting on all the times we have spent together, I find myself slowly but surely degrading. I think my partner is in denial of the toils of time, and flatteringly still sees me through fresh, young, bright eyes. But the facts stand. I have lost my firm grip, my skin is tearing apart at the seams, my pallor is fading, I do not have long left. But I rest happy in the knowledge that my partner will never stop loving me, until the day I fall to pieces by his side.