A Hot Foot Story

Good Afternoon, my Occulties,

Today I have a fun story to share, but since a client was involved, I had to ask permission to share. The names have been changed to protect the privacy of all involved. 

My client, who I will refer to as "R", had been working for a small business where she shared an office with a woman I will call "L," who would clip her toenails at her desk frequently. Yes, you read that right. 😛 This, understandably, was disgusting to R, and after the first or second time it had happened, she had asked L to stop doing it or to at least do it in the bathroom. In reply to the first request, L had gone on about that R only wore "ugly orthopedic-looking shoes" which meant she didn't understand how imperative it was to not allow one's toenails not to become overgrown, and if she ever tried to wear the fashionable heels that L wore, she would be more understanding, etc, etc. 

Now, look here, kids, your old friend Cat also likes fancy shoes with big heels, and like a normal person, I clip my toenails in private (often after a shower,) not at my desk. :P 

That said, my client is a nice person, and a tolerant one, apparently, as she put up with this, as much as it disgusted her, for over a year. Meanwhile, L kept regularly trimming her toenails at her desk until one day another coworker sees it. It wasn't the boss, it was someone at about the same level as both L and R. This person goes and complains to the boss. Then L gets called in and reprimanded for clipping her toenails at her desk ("What if a client saw that!") and for reasons only known to L, she decides my client is the one who RATTED HER OUT. So she turns on my client. She says a lot of lies, calls her lazy, and a bad worker, dishonest, scheming – you name it! And dear, sweet R, who has put up with this toenail-clipping butthead for a year (someone who has talked down to her more than once well before this happened,) is about to snap, as now L is making others think terribly of her, so when it happens that L clips her toenails at her desk several weeks later, R just about snaps. When L leaves them right on her desk (ugh!) and goes to use the washroom, R grabs 3 toenails, wraps them up in a paper, and hides them in her purse.

This is where I come in. R comes to me and tells me her story of woe. And when she's done she says "And I have three of her toenail clippings."

"Oh, perfect," I say. "So did you want revenge, or did you just want her to leave, or what?" After some discussion, we formulated a plan, and she dropped the toenails into the mail. When they arrived, I immediately put them in a vial and poured a little hotfoot oil on them, and said "(Name of target), your feet burn, and itch, swell and ache until you are far from (client's name), and stay far from (client's name) forever!" while shaking these toenails in the vial. I let those toenails soak for nine days, shaking them once each day while saying the command 9 times. There is a bit more to it, but you want the exciting results part, so as I'm doing this soaking of the toenails, R notices that L, is having "itchy feet." She shrugs it off as maybe she's looking for something and so finding a "false positive." L also seems "bitchier," but towards everyone.

But my work was not yet done. After soaking these toenails for nine days, and saying the above chant, I write out a name paper, and place the soaked toenails into the center, sprinkling a powder upon them of my own creation…. It was not exactly a goofer dust (too harsh), or even a "black arts" (still too harsh) level of cursing powder, but it wasn't nice, either. I then folded the paper up in such a way as the toenails and powder would remain inside, and wrapped it with red and a sickly yellow color thread while saying a chant. Then I secured the package with little wax, and placed into a very small box, and mailed it off. As far as presentation goes, it didn't look like anything too exciting, but thankfully, R is someone I've worked with before, and wasn't looking for a fancy bit of pretty fluff – she wanted something that worked. When she received the package, she waited for L to leave the office, carefully removed the packet from the box WITHOUT TOUCHING IT TO HER BARE SKIN, and secured the packet in a private place where L would not see it, but would come into proximity to it. Then, she waited. >:)

It was about 2 days later, that L came in wearing "unstylish" shoes. When R innocently asked what the problem was, L complained that she had an infected nail bed in one of her toes, but that it would pass in a few days. Within a week, L was noticeably limping. Then QUARANTINE. So, both L and R were relegated to working from home. And R sighed "Well, I can't tell if she's limping or anything on a Zoom meeting." Both of us were disappointed. But we agreed to see if the situation changed for the better when they returned to work.

Finally quarantine ended. The first day they were back, R noticed L wearing lovely, fancy, high heel shoes and asked after her foot (everyone had noticed her limping before the quarantine.) L told her that it was the strangest thing, that she'd had one toe get infected and it had spread to the one next to it, and had even somehow gotten into her pinky toe even though there were 2 toes between the infected two and the pinky (little) toe, and that just when she was about to call a doctor, they got stuck at home in quarantine and it "cleared up like it never happened." That she had thought about it and had thought it must be a specific pair of shoes she really loved because she was reasonably sure those had given her a mild case of athlete's foot right before the toenail infection. 

Disappointed L's leg wasn't gangrenously hanging off of her (ha!), R smiled and acted as if this infection clearing up was good news. And she waited. About 3 days of being back at work, she noticed L was wearing flats and looking pained. "Oh no," R said, "Did you wear the bad shoes again?" (meaning the ones L had assumed had caused the problem.) "It's nothing," L said, "I think I just clipped my big toe too close to the nail bed." R, doing her best to look concerned, asks "Oh, did you just do that today?" (Meaning did she clip her toenails just a few hours previous). L shoots her a dark look, and then says "No, I won't clip my nails here again. Between you and me, R, I kind of wonder if there is something in our air system. I just don't feel right when I'm here. Maybe it's allergies or something, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe they sprayed some disinfectant or something in this building that I'm allergic to. And I mean, it's the same toes that are starting to bother me, so I would guess it's something in this building. It's very dirty here. I'm sure of it." 

R just nods her head, tries not to smile, and tries to pretend to be concerned. Within about a week, L became progressively more uncomfortable, she's snapping at all of her coworkers, and her feet were clearly bothering her. Finally, L tells the boss that she either goes back to working from home, or she will quit, and the boss-lady basically tells her that's fine, consider herself looking for a job, she doesn't need her. So, my client is now working alone in what is now her own office, with no one there clipping their damn toenails at their desk and talking down to her. 

As for L? As I said, R is a very nice person, and she really wanted to be sure that L didn't suffer any physical long-term illnesses. She checked up on her. Apparently, L's mystery illnesses and itchy and infected feet totally cleared up in about 3 days after leaving, "as if there had never been a problem." 

Hope you all enjoyed that story! :) 

~Cat