My name is Ray Dryden. I work in a big shoe store in Boston . One day, a woman came into the store with her son. He was about twelve years old and he was looking for shoes. He tried on many different pairs. Finally, he chose a pair of sneakers.

I told the mother the price. Then she walked away from me. She stopped another customer and asked her something. Then the boy’s mother gave the other customer some money. The other woman came over to me and paid for the shoes. I don’t think the two women knew each other. It was very strange.

The boy, Paulino, and his mother are from the Cape Verde Islands. These islands are in the Atlantic Ocean near the west coast of Africa. Cape Verdeans have a belief about shoes. If you give shoes to someone you love, that person will leave you. Paulino’s mother loved her son. She did not want him to leave her. That is why she asked the other customer to pay for the shoes. The shoes were not a gift from Paulino’s mother, so she would not lose her son.

我叫雷•德雷顿，在波士顿的一家大型鞋店工作。有一天，一位妇女领着她的儿子来到店里。那个男孩大约十二岁左右，试穿了很多双鞋，最后选中了一双运动鞋。

我把价格告诉了那位母亲，然后她就走开了，来到另外一位顾客身边，说了些什么，接着把钱交给她，那位女士过来付了鞋款。我知道这两个人互相不认识，这件事真是太奇怪了！

这个男孩帕乌利诺和他的母亲来自佛得角群岛，群岛位于非洲西海岸的大西洋里。佛得角人对鞋子有一种迷信，认为如果你把鞋送给你爱的人，那个人就会离你远去。帕乌利诺的母亲非常爱自己的儿子，当然不想让他离开，所以请另外一位顾客替自己付钱，这样一来这双鞋就不是她送给帕乌利诺的礼物，而她也就不会失去儿子了。