Slowdown Sunday #12: The Closet Horror by Lynette Esposito

Another example of inanimate objects wreaking havoc on the lives of humans.

Lynette G. Esposito MA Rutgers, is a poet who writes short stories. She has been published in North of Oxford, Twin Decades, Poetry Quarterly, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Deep Overstock, That Literary Review, and others. She was married to Attilio Esposito and lives in Southern New Jersey. She was inspired for this story by her love of beautiful shoes and why they sometimes torture the feet.


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Episode Transcript

(00:14):
Hello, and welcome today seventy fiveof Yaku Monogatari Kai Don Kai, one
hundred days, one hundred supernatural stories. I don't want to tell you anything
about Lynette Esposito's story The Closet Horror. I want you to just listen,
feel the pain that we all relateto in some degree, especially we women,

(00:37):
and then meet me on the otherside. Here's Lynnette Esposito reading her
short story, The Closet Horror.Janice loves shoes, but they did not
love her. They ate her littletoe and gave her such pain. Sometimes
they pinched her big toe on herleft foot so bad it bruised. Then

(01:03):
the black pump started eating her feet. First to go was the skin on
her heels. Then her arches disappeared. Everyone she told said it was normal
shoes do this. Her friends suggestedshe go to a podiatrist. He suggested

(01:23):
she cut off her feet and weara prothesis. Janice thought this was a
terrible idea and never went to seehim again. Janice went to her family
doctor, and he suggested she gobarefoot everywhere and let the shoes starve in
her closet. They wailed so loudthat after a week She took them out

(01:47):
and tried each pear on. Sheclaimed you could almost hear them purring.
She tried cuddling them individually. Shetried separating the pears. Nothing worked.
Shoes still nibbled at her feet.In desperation, she took all the shoes
to the thrift shop and set theboxes outside because it was closed. She

(02:10):
almost made it to her car beforeshe heard the shoes hollering for her to
take for her to take them home. Then it happened. In the middle
of the night, in front ofthe thrift shop. While she was putting
the shoe boxes into her trunk,a Ufol hovered over her. The mothership,

(02:31):
shaped like a stiletto, beamed thebaby's home. A receipt dropped from
the open toe of the hall.It read, thanks for babysitting, here's
some ghost slip ons. They willnever hurt your feet, but they do
like to creep up your legs whenit rains. The net had me at

(02:58):
They ate her little toe and gaveher such pain. Oh my god,
but I don't care. I willsuffer through the blisters, the corns,
the hammer toes, the bunyans towear the perfect shoe with my outfits.
I used to give email Demarcos arun for her money, but now I
live in Japan, where the largestwomen's shoes are twenty five centimeters and I'm

(03:23):
a twenty seven point five. SoI would add a chapter two to Lynette's
story about some poor woman whose shoesare taken away by that great shoe in
the sky, and she is doomedto wander the stores and drool over all
the beautiful shoes out there, butnot be able to buy any. That's

(03:44):
a real horror story, Lynette,you are a woman after my own heart.
Okay, so tomorrow's story is anotherhaunted house story. It's unique,
surprising, and literary in an oddway. Thank you so much for listening
to today's story and to my soliloquyabout shoes. Please like the podcast and

(04:09):
I'll see you tomorrow.