Winners and Losers

The man had lost all patience for the boy.
“And now it’s his shoe, what kind of moron loses a shoe?” the man yelled to no one, with half the museum turning around.
A security guard approached, but the man pushed him away.
“We were on our way out anyway,” the man said as he pulled the hopping one-shoed child away.

“You made me look like an idiot back there,” the man said as they got back in the house. The boy was careful not to sob too loudly.
“You’re going to sit in the bedroom until I figure out what to do with you.”
With short steps and his head held low the boy walked to the room. From inside he heard a knock at the front door.
“Oh, so you followed me,” he heard the man say.
The boy crept to the man’s closet, careful not to knock any ties off the knobs as he pulled it open.
“It’s not right how you treat that boy,” said another voice.
On his toes the boy was just tall enough to reach the middle shelf.
“I hate to see a man mean like that, mine was mean like that.”
The box fell open on the floor as the boy tipped it toward him.
“I oughta have you fired, coming to my home like this,” the man said.
The boy picked up one of the heavy leather shoes that came out of the box. Gingerly he walked towards the window, holding the shoe high above his head. When the boy flung it out the window he smiled. His dad was sure to get the other man fired after this.