Wednesday, January 18, 2012

old-school polish cobbler/clickity-clack

SETTING: monday afternoon in greenpoint, yelena shoe repair.

RANDALL enters YELENA SHOE REPAIR, a space no bigger than a manhattanite's walk-in closet. the whole place smells like rubber and there are pieces of rubber that will become soles littered on the counter. THE COBBLER stands at the counter doing something to one of said pieces of rubber.

RANDALL: hello, i am interested in getting my shoes repaired?

THE COBBLER: yes?

RANDALL proceeds to remove the shoes in question, a pair of vintage roper boots, from a re-used trader joe's bag. she flips them over to reveal the soles that are cracked on BOTH of the boots. fucking ebay. why does anybody trust ebay ever?

RANDALL: i need to have new soles put on. do you think you can fix them?

THE COBBLER picks up one of the boots and inspects the sole.

THE COBBLER: these very old. sole made of plastic. the heel? also made of plastic. you need rubber sole and heel. i replace sole and heel and put rubber on. okay?

RANDALL: ...okay...

THE COBBLER: friday will be ready. you come in on friday? it will be thirty.

RANDALL: thirty dollars?

THE COBBLER: yes.

RANDALL: that's fine... but can i ask you a question?

THE COBBLER: yes?

RANDALL picks up one of the boots and taps the heel and the sole against the counter.

RANDALL: i really like the clickity-clack noise they make. if you put rubber on the soles and the heels will they still make that noise?

THE COBBLER shakes his head and looks exasperated.

THE COBBLER: no clickity-clack! you want me no fix?

RANDALL: oh, no no no! yes, please fix them!

THE COBBLER: you be in on friday?

RANDALL: yes, i will. thank you.

THE COBBLER writes RANDALL a receipt and they part. END SCENE.


IN CONCLUSION: i am sad that i'm losing the clickity-clack. i like when people can hear when i'm coming. i hope my stomping and marching tendencies are not hampered by these new soles. to be continued. i have heard good things about this guy.

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