My flip-flop went on an adventure without me.

One day a lonely little black flip-flop, whose name was Lefty, was lying on the floor of a very messy closet. As it lay there, it saw the cover of an old National Geographic. The magazine had a picture of white-water rafting on the cover, and the flip-flop decided that white-water rafting looked like a lot of fun.

"Hey, Righty! Do you want to go white-water rafting with me?" Lefty yelled across the closet. Righty and Lefty were twins, but they did not think alike.

"What?" screeched Righty (if a flip-flop can screech). "Are you crazy? No thank you!"

"Oh," said Lefty, disappointed. "Well, I'll just have to go by myself then."

"Why don't you ask our Owner?" suggested Righty grumpily. "She likes you better anyway."

"How do you know that?" Lefty asked curiously.

"I have deeper heel marks in me than you do."

Lefty thought about that. "Maybe that means she likes *you* better."

An argument began, stopped only when their Owner grabbed them out of the closet and put them on her feet.

"Yuck," mumbled Righty. "She needs to wash her feet."

"Be nice," admonished Lefty.

"Mmph," was all Righty could manage. After a long, hot car ride, the Owner began walking again and soon Righty and Lefty were swinging back and forth, high in the air.

"What...is she...DOING?" Righty screamed to Lefty between swings.

"I don't...know, but...isn't it...FUN?" Lefty screamed back.

Soon the swinging stopped, and then their Owner began walking in several inches of cool water.

"At least this will clean off her feet," gurgled Righty, under water.

"WHAT?" said Lefty, because the water drowned out Righty's words.

"I said, this will clean off her feet!"

"WHAT?"

Suddenly, Lefty was swept off their Owner's foot and dragged into the current. The Owner and the Owner's Niece ran wildly after Lefty, skidding on the slippery rocks. Much yelling ensued as Lefty hurtled down the smooth waterway.

Lefty fell over a curve of the rock and plunged completely under for a second. Then, due to Lefty's buoyant nature, Lefty popped back up again and was swirled around and around and around...and around and around...and around...

Soon Lefty became dizzy. Rocks splashed loudly into the whirlpool near Lefty, throwing off Lefty's circles momentarily. Long jagged branches stabbed the water and then floated past. Still Lefty spun around and around.

Just as Lefty was about to give up hope, a small tan hand plucked Lefty up and out of the water. Lefty was thrown up, up, up, back to the hands of the Owner. The Owner yelled a desperation-laced "THANK YOU!!!" to the owner of the small tan hand and immediately put Lefty back on her foot.

"What happened to you??" queried Righty. "Where'd you go?"

"Ooofff..." puffed Lefty. "Just give me a minute..."

"Well," Righty mused at the end of Lefty's story, "at least you got to go white-water rafting."

******

And that, my friends, is the long-awaited Tale of the Flip-Flop. Now that I've finished that, look for the Mumford Report soon to follow. :)