The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
It's odd to come back to your own country after being away for a long time. It's been more than ten years since I lived here, and most of my visits home since then have been brief. When you get off the plane, things look so different from what your eye has become used to that you take it in a bit as you would a foreign country, with that same intense curiosity, the same hyper-awareness of the strangeness and newness of it.
At the same time, nothing could be more familiar and comforting and normal to me than America. In the deepest reaches of my unconscious, where the template for the world is set, this is what things are supposed to look like. This is especially true of my grandmother's neighborhood in Washington, D.C. She's lived in the same building since before I was born. Her apartment is the only uninterrupted, inhabited link to my childhood in the world. I'd swear it looks just the way it did when I was three years old, although they've shrunk it and it's all miniaturized now.
The first and main thing I notice is how easy everything is. The streets are empty; there's no traffic; anything you need or could ever need is right there in the convenience store, which is (as the name suggests), located in a place that is convenient, and everything is clean, orderly, and blessedly quiet--there is just no unnecessary noise.
The second thing I notice is a pair of elegant high-heeled black pumps sitting on the sidewalk right outside the Russian Embassy.
Now, this, I did not expect. Ricochet readers may recall that I had certain issues buying shoes in Istanbul prior to my departure. I eventually found some, but they weren't quite what I was looking for. I really just needed a pair of simple, black pumps that I could wear pretty much with anything--just your basic semi-formal women's footwear--but it wasn't quite the season for buying those in Istanbul, where the stores were only featuring end-of-season summer sandals and new-season contraptions inspired by the timeless elegance of high-rent Slavic hookers.
So I'm walking up past the Embassy (in tennis shoes), just to move a bit after the long flight; it's about ten p.m, and I see them on the sidewalk. Not one, but a pair, clearly not thrown off someone's feet in a haste but placed there, as if on display, just the kind of shoes I need, in perfect condition--new, I'd say--and from all appearances exactly my size. This is a street, mind you, with nothing else on it but trees and squirrels.
I give it a minute or two of perplexed cogitation, then dismiss the theory that God just left them there because he loves me and wants me to be happy. I'm a woman of faith, but I just don't think it works that way. I then dismiss the theory that American capitalism has become so advanced, so sensitive to demand, that Google has managed to achieve this through some algorithm it uses to monitor keywords I use on the Internet and by means of this place items I might wish to consume in front of me. No, no, I decide, America is convenient, but this is a little more convenient than even I can fully take in.
I'm tempted to try them on, but I think better of it--no you may not, I say to myself, they're not a gift from God. Someone left them there because her feet were hurting, she's unpacking groceries or something, she'll be back for them. (Not persuasive, I know, but you come up with a better explanation.)
An hour later, I come back, they're still there, untouched.
Right outside the Russian Embassy.
A signal to someone's handler?
An inscrutable protest against Vladimir Putin?
The last trace of a Russian diplomat's daughter who has just leapt the fence and eloped?
I guess I don't know my country as well as I thought. Does this sort of thing happen often? You guys have a better explanation?
I left them there, in the end. I just felt they were more important to the novel, whatever the novel is, than they would be on my feet.
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Jun '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Girl, do you know how busy Mollie was yesterday seeding the various Russian embassy buildings with shoes?
Jun '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Claire,
I've thoroughly enjoyed your various comments about expat life as I have been one for the past 6 years. I'm currently closing out on the grand adventure after 5 years in Russia and the last year spent in Odessa, Ukraine (not far from you!). You really hit the nail on the head when you describe the "coming home" experience. We grew up there and that standard is permanently imprinted in our minds. Often, I feel that anything I see in Russia and Ukraine is like walking around with blurred vision. Everything seems a bit off .
Yes, so many things are SO easy when you go back home... and the roads, aaah, the roads! Every time I ride back from the airport, I enjoy the sweet, smooth float of the car over a pristine highway. To catch up on a past comment you made, I have no idea what "Lost" is either.
I enjoyed my life abroad, but oh what a relief it is to be home when your gyroscope gets back in synch.
Aug '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Welcome back, Claire. I'm somewhat envious of your arrangement, being able to live in an Asian country with such a fascinating history as Turkey. And to put down roots as well; that's a real gift. Always wanted to visit there, but it just hasn't been in the cards.
It's great fun to travel and experience those unexpected jolts of hyper-consciousness that make every minute seem rich and new. But nothing beats coming home to the generous and abundant country that nurtured us.
I think you should have tried the shoes on, and if they looked good and fitted you, taken them. Not at first, probably, but certainly when you came back later. Miracles do happen occasionally.
There are no accidents when you're connected with God, Providence, the Way of Life, or call it what you will. I've experienced similar serendipity for most of my life, and sometimes it involved loss. The important thing is to know that losses, and theft, also are important turning points - even watershed events.
May '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Hey Claire -- I hope you will keep us posted on public appearances/press so we can listen in if possible. I wish I'd grown up with Terry Gross or something so I could help, but absent that would like to at least listen in.
Jun '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
To add a little more...
As for the pumps by the Russian Embassy. After all my time in Russia, I would be shocked that there WOULDN'T be pumps sitting by the Embassy. It makes perfect sense.
Other observations...
I find it odd for weeks or even longer when I hear people speaking English at home.
Recall of my broader vocabulary has been stunted since I have usually spoken simpler English to my Russian friends for several years.
The moment I arrive in an American airport, I notice that many of my fellow citizens are, well, "less slim" than those outside the country. (Sorry)
You can actually predict, with reasonable accuracy, what will happen once you leave the front door.
Edited on Aug 24, 2010 at 7:13amMay '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Claire -- Did you recently flee a ball at midnight, after dancing all evening with a Russian prince? Perhaps he is at this moment sitting inside the Embassy, waiting and watching through their video cameras for the woman whom those pumps will fit.
May '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Welcome home, Claire. I am blissfully ignorant of women's shoes except that I know a certain level of heel will turn legs into gams. (Side note: I also know that sometimes the size of the heel on her shoe also affects the size of the heel on her arm.)
English can be a wonderfully precise language but I never understood the term "pump." Exactly what does it pump?
Jun '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Nyet, Mollie, eez near residential compound on New Mexico Ave. side.
Jul '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
In D.C.? Perhaps a homeless man removed them to rub his feet.
Aug '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
EJHill: English can be a wonderfully precise language but I never understood the term "pump." Exactly what does it pump? · Aug 24 at 7:26am
You made me curious, so I looked it up: according to Wikipedia, nobody really knows why shoes may be called pumps, and "pump" may also refer to men's dress shoes or sneakers, depending on the origins of the speaker.
They note that shoes worn by dancers, especially Highland dancers, are called pumps.
Does that help?
Somehow a single black pump with a stylized rhinestone eagle materialized in my car's trunk one day. I have no idea how it got there, only that I didn't put it there...
Aug '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Perhaps, as our age is too decadent to support a Scarlet Pimpernel, today's hero is the Black Pumpernel, who by mysteriously depositing black pumps throughout the world doesn't accomplish anything heroic, but manages to puzzle women a great deal.
Or does puzzling women count as heroic these days?
Jul '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
I would totally have taken them.
And needless to say but...I'll take you shoe-shopping if that's what you really want.
May '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Did you look around for Alan Funt and the Candid Camera?
Or perhaps there was a sociology or criminal justice graduate student lurking nearby and you totally screwed up her thesis.
Welcome home.
Jun '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
I think I'd assume they were part of an experiment, or a bet. "I bet they're gone inside 30 minutes." "No, $50 says they'll be there longer."
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
Dave, yes, you totally get it, and the rest of you: I'm shocked by how many of you think I should have taken them.
May '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
You found a strange article of women's clothing in your trunk? I take it that was before the divorce?
Jun '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
I'm going to take a stab at this based on some specialized knowledge. I don't think Claire was anywhere near the Russian Embassy on 16th St. N.W. Even on a weekend 16th Street is simply too busy; someone would have picked those pumps up. The Russians do own numerous buildings around town. Could have been near the Economics mission on Kalorama N.W. or another building (purpose unknown) just north of Dupont Circle. But squirrels aren't very abundant in those areas. My bet is that Claire was near the Russian residential compound on Wisconsin Ave. just north of Georgetown. The area just west of the compound is residential, heavily wooded, quiet and full of squirrels. People in this area are close enough to town to walk or take the bus. The woman who lost the shoes was a professional with sufficient income to purchase expensive pumps. Maybe she missed the bus and was forced to walk. She removed the pumps and switched to tennis shoes. She dawdled, perhaps distracted by someone she knew and left the pumps behind. My guess based on street knowledge of the area and mathematical probabilities.
Aug '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
EJHill
You found a strange article of women's clothing in your trunk? I take it that was before the divorce? · Aug 24 at 9:00am
Heck, that item might've made it into my trunk before I even got married -- I'd been parking my car regularly at more than one college campus, so who knows?
And the shoe was in no way erotic -- it was a sort of bejeweled black loafer with a high heel, what a little old lady might wear to be dressy.
I'm sure my husband had nothing to do with it. I blame the Black Pumpernel.
May '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
As non-contributors we can't post pictures, so you can get the Claire Berlinski Coloring Page for this story HERE.
May '10
Re: The High Heeled Black Pumps on the Sidewalk Outside of the Russian Embassy
I think my daughter dropped those shoes when she was moving out of Carillon House.
But, Paules, the Russian compound is actually almost a mile up from the Georgetown Hospital, which itself is at the far end of the campus, so the main campus is at least 1.5 miles away from Calvert. And you have to go a few blocks up (literally- it is a steep hill) Wisconsin yet to get to Mass Ave (turn left), where, indeed, not only do you encounter lots of squirrels, but you have to dodge families of deer when you are out running.