Feet

Last month I flew down to Savannah, Georgia for business.

One morning I woke up super early in my hotel room—I’ve never been able to sleep well in hotels—and decided to go for a walk. It was still dark out but the sun was beginning to rise. I tried my luck at two different coffee shops but neither were open. I pulled out my phone thinking I would try one more. Gallery Espresso, the shop was called, and it was opening in 10 minutes. I made my way there and arrived a few minutes early. I sat on the bench out front waiting for it to open. I got my coffee and made my way to a park across the road from the coffee shop. I was about to sit down on a bench when I noticed a Banana Republic paper shopping bag to the right of it. I glanced inside it and saw purple tissue paper on top. I wondered if there was something inside and whether someone had accidentally left it there. I pulled the tissue paper out and that’s when I saw it. A human foot, severed just above the ankle, some wet red flesh pertruding out. It was real. I knew right away that was, though there were no flies around it or anything. It was a man’s foot, I think, judging by the size and amount of hair. when I saw it I jumped back and dropped my coffee. I looked around me shocked that those around me weren’t also terrified. No one knew, of course, but the emotional tidal wave that hit me just made me assume that everyone should feel as I did. I didn’t know what to do.

I should have called 911, obviously, but I didn’t. I ran over to the coffee shop (which was empty except for two baristas) and went up to the counter. “There’s a severed human foot in the park,” I said. The barista just looked at me and said, “what?” No doubt trying to decide if he misheard me or if I was crazy. I said it again. A woman barista who had her back to us, turned around and said, “shit it’s happened again.” I asked her what has, and she said that this has happened every couple of months or so, and that she thought the city was somehow covering it up because it would be bad for tourism. I asked if she would call the police and she said she would.

I had a meeting I had to get to and so made my way there. I don’t know why but I didn’t tell anyone else about it that day but that night as I was headed to my hotel room there was a homeless woman standing out the front holding a banana republic shopping bag. She looked at me and said, “nice night for a pedicure.” I asked her what she had in the bag and she opened it in my direction and it was empty. I rushed inside the hotel to tell the manager that someone had threatened me but when I turned back I could see through the large glass windows that she had left. I slept poorly again that night and in the morning made my way home to Indiana where I live. I have no idea if those crimes have ceased, I have no idea, really, if that homeless woman had anything to do with them but one thing I do know, it’s time to call the police.