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Clack.
Just as I was putting on my shoes at the front door, I frowned at the odd sensation. Something hard inside my right shoe tapped against me. Even through thin stockings, I could feel the shape of an object in there. Too high up to be a blister. Puzzled, I crouched and slipped the shoe back off.
"...What is this?"
Muttering to myself, I reached into the toe. What my fingers found was cold, hard, round—metal. It was faintly cool against my skin. When I carefully pulled it out, a worn silver coin rested in my palm.
The small engraving had been rubbed soft by time. Probably an antique. I supposed there were people who collected things like this. But I had absolutely no memory of putting one in my shoe.
Tilting my head, I stared down at it—and then suddenly felt someone loom up behind me. Before I knew it, a silver head had popped into view over my shoulder.
"Yo, future wife. Looking good enough to kill. Know what day it is?"
I turned back, bewildered, to find Gold Ship as usual. Silver hair sticking every which way from sleep, loose T-shirt, pajama pants. And somehow she still made it work, which was infuriating. Maybe it was her pale skin and striking features. Maybe it was the breezy way she carried herself.
"...Hm? Today? It's just Saturday, isn't it...?"
"Buzz! Wrong answer."
"Seriously...?"
Grinning, Gold Ship pinched the coin between her fingers and lifted it into the light. Under the entryway lamp, it gave off the faintest gleam.
"Something Four. Not the noodle kind. The wedding thing where if you've got all the right items, happiness is guaranteed. And one of those is 'a sixpence in her shoe.' That's what this is."
"...Excuse me?"
My brow furrowed in confusion at the sudden romantic vocabulary. The information had come at me too fast for my brain to process. Gold Ship delighted in my blank expression and barreled on anyway.
"We've been half-living together how long now? Hell, it's basically full-time at this point. You think I forgot you were going to a friend's wedding today?"
"...Oh."
Right. A former trainer coworker of mine was getting married today. It was a small, homey ceremony, but I had even been asked to give a speech. I had been a little nervous, though I'd done my prep and was about to head out early.
"Which means—"
Gold Ship put a hand on my shoulder and leaned in. For once, her face was not wearing its usual jokey grin. She looked oddly serious.
"'What do you need in order to be happy? Me, obviously.' That's what I mean."
"...Could you maybe not drop bombs like that without warning?"
"Aw, come on, that was a legendary line. Starting to think I could publish 'Gold Ship's Future Book of Great Quotes.' Anyway, your shoe's got a silver coin, you've got me, and somewhere there're old things and blue things and borrowed things and all that, right? Once you've got the full set, you're on the express train to happiness! Straight to paradise!"
She rattled it all off with the speed of a roller coaster, and I could not help laughing. That was what she was like: wild and ridiculous, and yet still thoughtful enough to prepare a sixpence and secretly slip it into my shoe. Reliable when it counted, always hiding kindness inside the joke.
"...Hehe. Still, putting it in my shoe really did surprise me."
"It's standard in the original version, y'know? I asked Mother Goose yesterday. That's a lie, but still. For Gold Ship and her beloved trainer-bestie's glorious future, this kind of staging's not bad, right?"
"Our future...? You mean ours?"
I meant it teasingly, but Gold Ship gave a smile with just one corner of her mouth and replied with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
"Might be a ways off yet, but if you ask Gold Ship, our wedding oughta happen in outer space. Saturn's rings as the aisle, a kiss with the sunset over Mars in the background. Tell me that wouldn't rule."
"...That does sound nice. Enormous in scale, but nice."
"Right? For you and me, a planet-sized ceremony ain't enough!"
It was one of those Gold Ship dreams—so absurd it sounded like a joke, and yet somehow serious too. Irritatingly enough, with her I could almost believe something like that really might happen.
I looked at the silver coin again and then slipped it carefully into my pocket. It felt like this tiny little thing held all of her ridiculous tenderness and all of her honest feelings for me.
"...Thank you. I'm off."
"Yup! We celebrate when you get back! Bring me a gift from the wedding, like some fresh Hokkaido rice or something!"
"Why rice...?"
Leaving her absurdity behind me, I opened the door and stepped out. The May breeze brushed pleasantly against my cheeks. The silver coin in my pocket was only a tiny weight. But it gave the day a weight of its own.
And I had that silver-haired girl waiting for me—the impossible, outrageous girl who was somehow straighter and more sincere than anyone else, and who looked at me like no one else ever had. My very cute lover.
Maybe this was what happiness felt like.
And a Sixpence in Her Shoe