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When the fishing industry was still at full tilt the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor community was flooded with transients looking for work. During my fishing years I had no permanent address. I lived on the boats and traveled between seasons. When I returned to find work I stayed at the bunkhouses in the community. I met a woman named Verla who took an instant liking to me. She said that if ever I needed a place to stay to come to her. One season I returned from my travels and there was no place to stay. All the temporary housing was taken so I went to Verla and asked her for a place to stay until I found a boat. I ended up living at Agnes Beach with Verla and various roommates for several years. There were three cabdrivers who also lived at Agnes Beach, Jim, Bob and Ed. I had got to know them pretty well because I often rode in their cabs and each ride was more of a social visit than just a cab ride. Such is the way of things in a small community that personal relationships develop easily. But Jim had a peculiar habit that didn't reveal itself until he became my roommate. Every time I get off a ship I go through a period of adjustment to land life. My sleeping pattern is completely disrupted by boat life because it is a catch-as-can situation with no steady hours. Some of my friends called me "the woman who never sleeps." After finally collapsing into a coma-like sleep one afternoon I didn't wake up until late the next evening. I was groggy and not entirely awake yet. Jim and Bob had come home from work and were sitting in the livingroom watching TV. I padded into the room with bare feet, got myself a cup of coffee, and then sat down to wake up and see what was on TV. It was then that Jim revealed his weakness. Jim looked at me with his popped-out froggy little eyes and and then asked, "Chelle, could you do me a favor? It' really important!" "Well . . . sure Jim, I suppose I could," I answered cautiously as I wondered what he could possibly want. "What can I do for you?" "Don't ask any questions, it's really important!" Jim warned me with an urgent tone in his voice, "Just go and put some socks on, please! I really mean it, hurry up and put some socks on!" "But why, do my feet smell or something?" I asked while my curiosity began to mount. "Please, just do it, I will explain when you get back!" Jim urged me with a pleading voice that was beginning to sound really distressed. When I returned with my socks on Jim thanked me profusely. He told me that I had been driving him crazy because I always ran around the house in bare feet and he couldn't stand it any more. Then he gave me a sultry look and told me there was something I needed to know about him. I felt the faint stirrings of panic rise in me as I looked at his expression; whatever was going on, I just knew I wasn't going to like it. It seemed that Jim had a fetish that obsessed him. He was completely enthralled by women's bare feet and loved sucking their toes! Here in Alaska his weakness hadn't been much of a problem because everyone wore shoes or socks or houseslippers. Then I moved in and began running around in my bare feet, tempting him with every foot step. When I crossed my legs and fully exposed one foot or the other it was all he could do to restrain himself from getting down before me to suck my toes! I wish I could have seen my own face. I was in total shock and completely horrified by his admission. I quickly looked at Bob, who had a carefully neutral expression on his face. I thought to myself, It must be true! Oh no! I am living with a pervert! Visions of waking up some time with Jim's lips wrapped around my toes began to parade through my head and the panic which had been a mere whisper now consumed me. I began to quickly assess my situation. There was NO place to move to, what could I do? The next fishing season wasn't far off and the boats would be hiring again soon. Maybe I could buy a tent and stack a couple of pallets on the floor to keep me off the cold ground? I could buy a hibatchi barbeque and burn coals to keep myself warm. That would get me by until I got another boat. Then Jim asked me, "I have another big favor to ask you. You see, I love to wash women's feet and massage them with soap, and all I ask is that afterward you let me suck your toes. Don't worry, I will stay on the other side of the shower curtain! I don't want to see anything else! You can let me know when you are ready and just stick a foot out for me to wash. I guarantee that once you've tried it you will love it and want me to do it all the time." At this point that tent in the snow looked really wonderful. I decided that I would go into town and set myself up with some camping gear. I was not staying in this house any longer than I absolutely had to! But I carefully answered Jim with, "I don't think so Jim, actually I am thinking about moving. I don't think this living situation is right for me. If I lived closer to the docks I would have an easier time of finding a boat for the next season." It was then that Jim started to laugh, he knew exactly why I had suddenly announced my plans to move. "No, no, I didn't mean to scare you that bad! It's a joke! I've never sucked anyone's toes in my life!" he told me. It was then that Bob finally relinquished his composure and began to laugh. It seemed that Jim was always playing jokes on people and I was only his latest victim. Bob had been a witness to this joke at another time without knowing what Jim had been about. He had fallen for it as hard as I had as he watched Jim tell some woman in a bar the same story. He had fully sympathized with my feelings, but he hadn't wanted to spoil the joke. What a rat! When Ed heard about what had transpired he started calling Jim "Toenan." Eventually I drew a caraciture of Jim with a huge knife. I dressed him in his usual t-shirt and jeans with suspenders, but I put bunny slippers on his feet. I labeled the picture, "Toenan the Barbarian Pedicurist." And added the caption, "My pedicures are the wildest experience in town." Verla pinned the picture up on the wall and every time someone commented on it the story was retold. Jim's reputation as a trickster began to spread far and wide across the island and the Bering Sea.
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