Part 1 of: Bernie the Monkey & The One-Legged Shoe Thief

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago in a land far, far, far away, there lived a small monkey named Bernie the Monkey. One cold winter morning (weather like Ottawa on Dec. 17, 2014), Bernie the Monkey was called upon to drive his niece Kiara and nephew Noah to school. He had picked them up at their school the evening before, joined them at a Christmas school play and then taken them to spend a bit of time with his Aunt Jean McCarthy at her nursing home midway between their school and their home. That is when they caught sight of a one-legged man stealing only half of every pair of shoes he saw. In other words, he was only taking the left shoe. He was leaving the right shoe where it was. "That is very strange", thought Noah (future NHLer and junior detective) aloud. "Yes", agreed his sister Kiara. "Most peculiar!" TO BE CONTINUED Stay tuned for part II of this story. If it reminds you of a B the M story from many years ago, I can only nod my head in agreement since I do recall telling a very similar story to my own daughters after they pressed my bellybutton and activated my internal story machine once when they were small. Anyway, I must go pick up Kiara and Noah at their school now (since the threat of an icestorm scared their schoolbus away). But I will tell the rest of this story very soon. So stay tuned B the M fans! Spoiler alert: the continuation of the above story will involve Santa Claus, a shoe made of snow dyed pink, a gaggle of kids in a shopping centre, a very long shoe lace, etc.