Coming back from the garden, I noticed that I didn’t have just carrots and beans with me - my shoes had picked up their share of soil - but I stepped onto the “Willkommen” of my new Dance Meister doormat with eager feet and a smile. I grasped the chrome handles on each side of the door and my left thumb
hovered over buttons marked “Waltz”, “Polka” and “Tango” before pressing “Modern”.
As an electric accordion, contemporary art tune issued from the handles’ stereo speakers, the doormat’s hundreds of bristled brushes the size of toothbrushes started moving. Wiping, whiping and whirling to the beat, some rotated, some moved laterally and some temporarily stood still, supporting parts of my shoes.
I hung on and looked down with satisfaction as my toes touched, my heels clicked and then my feet seem to do a moon walking tap dance.
After 30 seconds I clicked the off button and walked inside with raised spirits and clean soles. I determined that next time I’d sing along, neighbors or no neighbors and didn’t notice until later that the mat’s text had become “Weklimnoml”.