It took nine years, one month, and twenty-four days. But I finally got them ~ the Spanish flamenco shoes I’ve always wanted.

Way back in the day when my first-born was a toddling one-year old and my son was merely a glimmer in our eyes, we hosted an English language student from Madrid. She was a lovely soul who had studied economics and had come to the States to brush up her English. It turns out our Spanish equalled her English ~ da nada. We gesticulated and smiled and admired each other in that friendly nice-to-meet you way most international travellers do. It was then that I started a love affair with Spanish shoes because the girl had a pair I secretly coveted from Day One. They were simple ~black with a delicate strap that said “I am woman. Watch me tap.” They clicked and clacked eloquently across the hardwood floors of our Somerville home, a dancer’s lunge from Boston.  Those shoes, in all their brightness, even made me forget how little the girl and I could actually communicate.

For years I searched high, then low, for a similar pair of those black beauties. Our lovely Spanish student went home after completing her language course, sending us a condolence card of thanks because she must have thought the flower on the front was pretty. Patiently, nay, reverently, I looked for a pair of clackers just like she had in every corner of the city. To no avail.

That is, until I recently found myself in Barcelona on a power of slow trip like no other. My sister and I snatched our passports (and our husbands) for a long weekend on the Mediterranean Coast. Passing by a few boutique stores in search of a new handbag, I spotted the long-awaited footwear that seemed to call out to me like a siren’s song.

Within minutes I was the proud new owner of a pair of Flamenco heels that literally announced my arrival along the cobblestone streets. I smartly clacked my way back to the hotel with a renewed sense of purpose.

It may have taken nearly a decade, but embracing the slow fulfillment of a dream such as this was worthwhile and makes every new step I take all the sweeter for it.