The Shoe's Tale

I didn't touch it. I didn't arrange it. There it was, without its mate, in its final resting place of glass shards and gravel. Caked with dirt, gnawed by some mysterious mammal, the suede shoe cast a jagged, menacing shadow. In the stillness of the bright April afternoon, why was a chilling ripple of darkness spreading along my spine? What was the shoe's tale?

Shoe found in the parking area for the Appalachian Trail, Pawling, NY, 4/08.