On Saturday afternoon, Mary Contrary brought back a pair of shoes she was not pleased with. Mary had gone late-night window-shopping the previous Thursday.

Pay day was not until next week and she had not really intended to enter the store itself but the very nice older man standing out the front, a certain shop assistant by the name of Mr. Sean Fawn, had enticed her in and before she knew it she was walking out with a brand new pair of shoes which she could only wear on special occasions because they were bright red.

“Hello again Mary. It is Mary isn’t it?” said Mr. Fawn jumping up from tending to a customer to greet Mary as she walked slowly into the Easy Shoe Store.

“Take your time trying those on dear,” he said with a bright smile to the elderly lady seated on the cushions surrounded by three to four pairs of slippers and sundry cartons. “I’m not letting you leave until we find the perfect ones for you”.

“Come to buy another pair of those gorgeous shoes have you Mary?” he said without taking a breath. “I told you that black suited you as well as red and it was better to buy two pairs rather than one didn’t I?” he continued with his smile opening wide to show gleaming white teeth and she noticed his bushy grey eyebrows rising simultaneously which gave him a kind of knowing, fatherly look.

“You didn’t have to bring them back in to show me you know,” he said softly as he took her arm with the shoe box in it and ever so gently directed her towards a red velvet faux Louis Quinze arm-chair facing the large wall mirror.

“I would remember you anywhere, anytime. You have the perfect ballerina’s foot my dear, as I’m sure you’ve been told many times before. I’ve seldom seen an ankle as slim and delicate as yours in this town Mary. Dame Margot Fonteyn would have died to have ankles like yours, I’m sure,” he said with a deep chuckle.

“Stop it Mr. Fawn, I came here to give them back as I can’t get the wear out of them. Steep price. I was silly to let you talk me into taking them”.

Little bigger than a jockey with a face like one of the little people, he looked up his nose at her again, which was a long way indeed and with eyebrows pumping like a frog on a hot plate, he said, “Just you sit here and relax Mary, while I show you the perfect colour for your needs,” and he sat her down in the arm-chair.

Mary felt his elfin presence sweep around her and there he was down on both knees with a flourish, like a magician pulling a rabbit our of a hat. “Here are the black ones Mary, the style’s called Business Black, just slip this left one on first because I think you have a slightly higher arch in the left don’t you, yes, of course.”

“Business Black is so elegant on you. You’ll be the envy of your work mates, won’t you?” touching her arm again lightly. “Identical pairs Mary. Business Black and Wicked Red. One for work and one for play. Work hard, play hard, that’s what I always say, eh?”

“You do go on, don’t you Mr.Fawn. If you don’t stop you’ll make me giggle again.”

“Ah well Mary, they don’t call me Sean the Faun the Leprechaun for nothing! But seriously Mary, these black shoes compliment the red ones so well and you wouldn’t get that price anywhere else on the High Street. Really, you can’t afford not to.”

Mary relaxed back into the arm-chair, reached for her hand bag to admire her shoes, looked again at Mr. Fawn and said, “Do you take Visa?”