Red Bottoms

Polina Arsenault

Heels speak louder than words. The pieces that people dawn on their bodies whisper through parties, city streets, office buildings, and get-togethers. They whisper just so audible that few can pick up what they say. Short brown kitten heels are soft-spoken, they’re professional and kind. 4’ stilettos speak proudly and stand to be noticed. But heels with red bottoms speak the loudest but do not need to say a word. They speak for wealth, status, and position in society. Wealth being enough to spare. Status being enough for heels to be a necessary part of the position. Place in the world enough where a woman, in the city of only the best, must shine amongst them. Unknowingly, this is what every woman has been working for. She has been working for the CEO position, She has been working for the house and the financial stability. Without knowing it, She has been working for the right to dawn red bottoms. When they’re opened from a box, they radiate at a frequency that only humans can hear and understand. A heart drops and beats the color of the bottoms. It’s a stillness that accompanies acknowledgment of pure success in high society and the primal war for wealth and money has been won. Rich as blood, congealed and glossy, the smell as if stepping into a new car. Stepping into them feels like stepping over other’s heads and squishing them onto concrete. And yet, She does not realize, for the red bottoms speak for themselves.