I Heard Flip Flops, Part 6
(Posted on Friday, February 8, 2002)
This story was submitted anonymously by Tock.

To read the 1st part of this story, click I Heard Flip Flops, Part 1.

This was the first time I was sent to one of the boring meetings with company big shots and the meeting was out of town. It was three days of boring meetings, with the coast-to-coast big shots. Amazingly, it was just as boring as a regular meeting.

The meetings were in a conference center in a hotel in Houston. There was a four level shopping mall, adjacent to the hotel. I was staying in the hotel, where the meetings were. It was easy to run up to the room after the meetings were over for the day, get out of the damn dress clothes and check out the mall.

The first day of meetings was on a Monday. It was over 100 degrees outside. I thought about going outdoors after the meeting. When I heard the temperature, I shot that idea straight to hell. 1 would go hit the mall for an hour or two, then go jump in the hotel swimming pool, once the sun went down some.

Like most malls, each floor has a main drag, for you to walk along, to see everything on the floor. On one floor of this mall, there was one stretch of hallway, sort of tucked away from the main drag. There were only about five shops. One of them was this jumbo hot dog placa. It was the wonderful smell, that brought me over and I was able to notice this short stretch of tucked away shops.

I was standing just outside the entrance of the hot dog place, trying to decide what to-get, for an early supper. The next thing I knew, I heard what sounds like music to my ears. It was the wonderful flip flops sound. Many people were wearing flip flops on this terribly hot day in south Texas. But, this was easy to hear coming at me. It was where not many mall shoppers were, because of the tucked away location.

A slender Latin woman, with medium length hair, in a powder blue T-shirt, and cutoff jeans came zipping on by. I motioned for her to go ahead of me. She smiled and went on through. She knew exactly what she was getting, got it and went sit at one of the tables along the tucked away hallway. She had a bunch of packages that she just plopped down on the table, sat down and started in on her hot dog.

After I had decided on what I was getting, I headed out of the hot dog shop and out onto the hallway. I had an Astros baseball cap on. When I looked to my right, which was the direction which the sweetie in the flip flops were in, I could see her swinging her arm, as if she wanted someone to come towards her. I couldn't imagine it was me, she was signaling for. But, there wasn't anyone else around.

"Hey, I see you're an Astros fan!" she said enthusiastically. "I love going to the games. I've been a season ticket holder for two years now. Do you go much?"

I told her that I've only been to one game and that I was visiting from Tennessee, I wished they would have been playing at home, while I was in town. But, unfortunately, they were on the road.

I was pleasantly surprised, when she welcomed me to sit and join her. I don't make a practice out of hitting up on women, while they're trying to eat. But, an opportunity like this doesn't happen everyday. There were three chairs at this table. She was in one and she had her feet propped up on another. I sat in the remaining one and considered my chances to sneak in a tickle.

She said her name was Juanita. We talked about baseball, how big the mall was and how hot it was outside. She mentioned something about having to go pick up a niece at daycare. I know I better think of something fast. No one was in the stretch of hallway, where our table was. There wasn't anyone else to make a scene in front of.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't resist." I said to her. "You have your feet right here next to me and I just can't help reaching over and going KOOCHIE KOOCHIE KOOCHIE KO-O-O-O-O-O."

She started laughing, not loud but rather heavily, as I swung my index finger, up and down, just above her right heel. She sat up and acted as if she was going to take her feet down.

"Oh, no you don't," I told her, as I took her by the ankles and placed her feet in my lap, under the table. "You're not getting off that easy. You have some cute little feet and some shoes that are easy to take off. That's the recipe for a Little fun."

"Oh my. My feet are so ticklish," she said as I firmly held her ankles with one hand and quietly slipped off her flip flops with the other. "Oh, don't tickle my feet out here in public. Put my shoes back on. Don't do that. I'II make too much noise."

"Don't give me that." I answered. "There is no one around here to see us. If you have to laugh out loud, just use one of your shopping bags to laugh in. It's not every day that I get to sit with such a pretty lady, have a good hot dog, have some good baseball talk and have little feet like yours placed so close to me. But don't worry. I'II be gentle."

"Oh, you are so funny," she replied. "I never had somebody want to tickle my feet like this."

From there, I held her big toes back and began gently scratching between the toes and balls of both feet. "Oooooooooooh, mother in Heaven. No please don't tickle me there."

It was just at that time that about six senior citizens came by. I knew I would have to wrap up the fun, but wanted to get one more dig in.

"Okay, I see that we have company." I said softly. "I guess I have to behave myself. I will put your shoes on,....right after this." I ran my fingertips around her insteps in a circular motion for about ten seconds. She kept smiling and though it may not have been easy, she was able to hold in her laughter.

We talked for another ten minutes, then it was time to head over to day care. We walked together, out of the hallway and to an elevator, in the center of the main drag.

"I hope you aren't mad at those old people." she said jokingly. "I know they broke up the fun we were having."

"Well, I'm glad you had fun too." I said. "It's not everyone who can allow somebody she just met to tickle her feet in a shopping mall and be so nice during it all."

"Well, I did have them right next to you," she added. "I was kind of asking for it. Besides, if I am gonna have somebody tickling my feet like that, I want it to be a baseball fan. Ha, ha!"