Shoe Repair.

Arnold and his wife were cleaning out the attic one day when he came across a ticket from the local shoe repair shop. The date stamped on the ticket showed that it was over twelve years old. They both laughed for a few minutes, before realising that it wasn't actually that funny, and tried to remember which of them might have forgotten to pick up a pair of shoes over a decade ago.

“Do you think the shoes will still be in the shop?”, Arnold asked.

“No I do not”, she said, slowly shaking her head.

“It’s worth a try,” Arnold said, pocketing the ticket. He went downstairs, made some toast, and attempted to drink the cold coffee that he had forgotten to drink 40 minutes earlier. He added some sugar, before remembering that he was no longer permitted sugar in his coffee. He threw the coffee away, then hopped into the car, and drove to the store.

Before entering the store he had memorised a few carefully chosen words to say to the man behind the counter, just incase he was quizzed on the elapsed time of the ticket. Then, with a straight face, he handed the ticket to the man behind the counter, and instantly forgot what to say if quizzed on the elapsed time.

With a deadpan expression, the man said, “Just a minute, I’ll have to look for these.”

He disappeared into a dark corner at the back of the shop.

Two minutes later, the man called out, “Hey, here they are!”

“No kidding?” Arnold called back. “That’s terrific! Who would have thought they’d still be here after all this time.”

The man then came back to the counter, empty-handed.

“They’ll be ready on Thursday,” he said calmly.