Walk hard

So for the longest time, whenever I wore thin socks with my brown Earth shoes and I was walking kind of hard,  I would get a piercing pain in my left heel. 

I often inspected that shoe to see if there was a rock or something in it, but I never found anything. I've been convinced that I had a splinter deep in my left heel that I was never going to be able to get out. Today it was particularly ouchy, and as I limped home I bemoaned the fact that my trip to Italy was going to be RUINED-- RUINED I TELL YOU! How was I supposed to romantically stroll among the piazzas and the vias and the gelatos if I couldn't walk?

But just now I had an idea. I took the lining out of the offending shoe, and sure enough, there it was: A NAIL. It was wedged deep into the sole, and camouflaged by the insert. It was a tiny little guy, but sharp as the tooth of a lion that's riding a shark.

I have been walking on a nail for months.