Football shoes

Nothing's as exciting as the visit of a favorite uncle with gifts from the US.  We had been polite enough to turn down his offer of gifts from that prosperous land. We said a decent "just having your company for a few days is good for us".  But somewhere in the middle of the conversations Kris had sneaked in an urgent request for football shoes.  From the time the uncle reached our home, Kris started eyeing his uncle's large suitcase and his excitement reached a crescendo as the suitcase was opened.  Out popped the football shoes.  He could not subdue his jubilance as he took out the colorful shoes.  "Oh! this one has spikes and this one is a turf" he cried.  The uncle wore a satisfied smile.  Kris dropped the shoes on the table and sneaked out with one of our phones.  A few minutes later he came back with a request to take the shoes to school the next day.  "These shoes are for next year" we responded.  "But my friends want to see it.  They don't believe these are from US; they say these are duplicates". The uncle cried an indignant "these are as original as it gets.  Your friends are crazy.  Change them and not your shoes".

The shoes went into a secret space in our closet and Kris continued using his old shoes.  Soon, uncle's departure date arrived.  He was leaving from Mumbai and called up to speak to Kris.  As usual Kris' conversation consisted of a number  of "hmmmm", "Ok", "Yes" and "No".  Somewhere in the middle he mentioned "I promise"; not once but twice.  We were curious about the promise but decided to ignore it.  But by the second day, we lost control and asked about the promise to Kris.  "Oh that, he asked me message anytime I needed something" said Kris nonchalantly.  "We will kick your butt if you ask him anything" we warned.  Kris coolly responded "Oh don't worry! I will only ask him something when he comes over to India".