Anyhow, I was sup­posed to return to school the next day, but I had no shoes, which com­pli­cat­ed things. “There are plen­ty of places to buy shoes,” my mom said, “We’ll go in the morn­ing,” but at that point I start­ed to cry. I asked if she thought it would be weird to call Raymond’s mom and ask for his shoes. The shoes kind of made me smile, and in my mind I could imag­ine Raymond telling me I’d sur­prised him but that he was impressed. ~Eva Marie Ginsburg holds an MFA in cre­ative writ­ing from the University of Houston.