Their tightness had not mattered early on, and the occasional twinge they gave her while dancing she had been too happy to notice. But now after walking nearly two miles they seemed to be battering her feet to pieces. The narrow toe was pinching her right foot at the sides in a way that she knew would blister before long. Ellie limped along more and more slowly, miserably trying to curl up her toes inside the shoe in a way that would hurt less. The left one hurt too, though not as badly yet. At last the shoe grew too excruciating to take another step. Ellie dragged to a stop and sat down on a rock at the side of the road, and pulled it off. The cool night air went through her damp stocking as she rubbed the sides of her foot, relieving the soreness. A wilted flower grazed her ear as she looked across the road, hanging down limply from where she had pinned it earlier. It was a clear night, and she could see for miles across the darkened prairie sleeping under a mist of starlight. But the wide stillness left her that much more alone; its beauty contrasted more sharply with her own broken night.
