"The Cobbler", a PHC Bedtime Story

An entry into the PHC exclusive challenge to write a new bed time story: https://steempeak.com/community/@zord189/powerhousecreativescontestcanyoureadmeabedtimestorycontestdetails-e7ify4ae4j, run by @zord189. Apologies, @zord189, I have no visual aids for this one, but I promise, should I win, I will retrofit to include suitable images.

The Cobbler, a bedtime story.

Many years ago there was a young man named Ei Jalkaa. Ei Jalkaa was married to a beautiful woman, Heiki, and the two of them had three very beautiful children, Annikki, Tapani, and Kaarina.

Other than his family, Ei Jalkaa was not a rich man. He was a cobbler, a man who made and repaired shoes, and was a man of very modest means. He was a very good cobbler, and even though he was not very rich he was happy with his work. “It is a good job,” his wife would tell him. “Everyone needs shoes. What would people be without their feet?” she would ask and, indeed, people would look very silly if they had no feet.

To size the shoes that he made to sell correctly, Ei Jalkaa would use his own children’s feet to model and size new shoes. These shoes that he made from the size of their feet were very often his best selling shoes; he did not know why, but they were, and so he kept making shoes from the size of his children’s feet in the hopes that one day these shoes would make him rich.

They did not make him rich, these shoes, not at first. But as he was encouraged by his wife he kept making shoes and, slowly, he began to make enough money to do more than just feed his family. He could begin to save, and maybe even buy a bigger house!

One horrible winter night, however, tragedy struck: fire! No one knows for sure just how it started, whether it was an ember in the fireplace that jumped onto the floor and spread, a fallen candle, or maybe even an angry customer who stepped on a stone through the shoes who set fire to the house in revenge. Whatever the cause, the fire was devastating, and nearly fatal.

Fast thinking on the part of the cobbler and his wife got them all out of the house, and alive, but not necessarily whole. The children, Annikki, Tapani, and Kaarina suffered horrible, horrible injuries; they all lost their feet! It took them months to recover, and they were never again able to walk without the use of crutches.

The family lost everything! The children lost their feet, the cobbler lost his shoes, the family lost their home. But most importantly for the cobbler, his children lost their feet! He no longer had anyone to model his new shoes! He was able to replace all his leather and all his tools, but try as he might, he could not replace his children’s feet!

He tried everything he could think of. He tried to carve feet from tree trunks, but he was not a carver. He tried weaving feet together from yarn, but he was not a weaver. He tried forging feet from iron, but he was not a blacksmith. He tried cobbling together feet from leather and, though he was a cobbler, he could make only shoes, not feet. He was at a loss!

Finally, he realized what he needed for feet; he needed feet! Real, actual, feet. He at first dug up old corpses from the cemetery, but found those feet were rotted. He then dug up recent corpses from the cemetery, but found those feet were still not fresh enough. So he resorted to hunting down other children, lured them from their beds at night, and cut off their feet! He would use these feet as moulds for his shoes.

It is said that, even today, he sneaks around houses where young children are in bed. He waits for their parents to be asleep and listens, and if he hears little feet scurrying around out of bed, he snatches the child up and steals them for their feet! So it’s very, very important for all young children when, once in bed, to stay in bed, for the safety of their feet!

(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe