It’s a trite axiom to state that uncommon events happen uncommonly; however, most of us who are attuned to casts would probably agree that random sightings of walking casts in the general population are rather uncommon events. Depending on where a person lives and where their daily activities take them, a person might see half a dozen or so walking casts in a year. To encounter two people wearing a walking cast at the same time is truly an uncommon event, but one that I have twice participated in while wearing a walking cast. The first instance was a truly rare random event for those who observed it. I was a senior in high school and was wearing my very first walking cast, which has turned out to be only medically-necessary one that I have ever worn. I was waiting in one of two lines for service at a fast food establishment when I noticed laughter and loud conversation from some people behind me. Initially, I didn’t pay much attention until I heard someone say, "Looks like we’ve got a matched pair." This was followed by more laughter from a group of men in their twenties and thirties, who I discovered were looking at my cast. I didn’t respond to them and had no idea what was going on until I noticed a man in the line to my right who was also wearing a walking cast. Only then did I realize that these men were reacting to this uncommon event which they found humorous. The other cast wearer never saw me and was not aware of the little stir our casts had created. The second time I encountered another person wearing a walking cast while I was also wearing one occurred a few years later during my tenure in graduate school. This was not a totally random event for those who observed it since my cast was recreational and I took the initiative to put the two of us together in the same field of view for an observer.

This was a period during graduate school when I was self-casting at every opportunity that arose and I had applied one to wear for the weekend. I had been throwing caution to the wind and didn’t really care if I was caught "white-footed" by someone who knew me, thereby forcing an explanation for the cast. There was a large, upscale shopping mall not far from my residence and I often went there when wearing a cast. Although there was some chance of discovery, it was not a place most graduate students frequented and meandering with the crowd at a leisurely pace and stopping in stores and cafes while in a walking cast was sheer joy for me and well worth any risk of discovery. After I had been there for a couple of hours, I stopped for a cold drink and was sitting on a bench outside of a café on the main concourse near a pair of escalators. I was savoring being in a cast and found simple erotic pleasure by just looking down at it and feeling it on my foot. Some of the other people sitting around me would glance at it occasionally but I didn’t detect anyone with an obvious desire to study it intently or even inquire casually about it. I was debating whether to see a movie and maybe then going to eat and finally browsing in a favorite bookstore where I knew that my cast could always distract someone perusing books. But for the moment, I was content to enjoy the parade of people passing by, which included many lovely women displaying their bare feet in alluring summer footwear.

As I was surveying the scene and glanced toward the nearby escalator bringing people up from the lower level, I noticed a very attractive woman about thirty years old on the escalator in a line of other shoppers. She had thick black hair pulled back in a twist, a slim and strong athletic body, and a stylish, pale blue and white, casual summer dress. Her legs came into view as the escalator ascended and, almost unconsciously, a sudden torrent of excitement shot through me. A cast was emerging below her right knee and instantly I knew what I was about to see since there were no crutches visible. As the escalator delivered her to the top, I beheld the beauty of a white plaster walking cast encasing her right lower leg with red polish adorning her toenails. On her left foot she wore a white leather, backless, platform wedge slide with a single broad band over the instep which nicely exposed her bare toes and also showed off the graceful curve of her arch as well as her lovely heel. Her beauty, and that of her foot alone, was enough to delight any foot fancier, but the cast made it one of those truly rare events that encompassed every aspect of my attraction to women’s feet. She strode off the escalator effortlessly because the elevation provided by the platform sole of her slide matched that of the cast’s walking heel and she walked without a discernible limp. For her, it appeared as though the cast was not an impediment but rather was an exotic piece of footwear which she wore with style and confidence. Even the shoe she had chosen complemented the cast. It had a thick, white, wedge sole which matched the bulk of the cast and the simple band over the instep framed her toes in white, mimicking the front of her cast.

My initial instinct was to follow her discretely as I would normally do with such a tremendous sighting, but I quickly realized that my being in a walking cast meant that setting up a situation where we crossed paths would appear more natural and coincidental, rather than pursuing her in the hope of getting a few more views of her cast. Fortunately, she proceeded into a china and gift shop about twenty feet from where I was sitting and began browsing through the merchandise. I watched her for a few moments through the store’s windows and open door and knew that I had to act quickly. Under normal circumstances, this would have been just another cast sighting in which I would have strolled casually into the store and browsed near her in a good position to see her cast for as long as possible. But this was different; my strategy was not only to observe her cast more closely, but also to take advantage of a rare opportunity to possibly meet her directly. Recalling my earlier chance encounter with another casted person from some years before, and the minor stir that a pair of casted individuals caused among bystanders, I realized that a similar thing could happen now but I didn’t want to lose this opportunity.

I rose from my seat, discarded my drink, and walked slowly toward the store as though something in the window had caught my attention. I was nervous, yet collected, as I entered the store and smiled at a young woman clerk who had noticed my cast as I walked in and had smiled at me. My subject had moved further into the store and was at the end of an aisle between displays of merchandise some fifteen feet or so to my left. She was engrossed in her shopping and, being turned slightly away from me, was not aware of my presence. My strategy now was to proceed slowly to my left while browsing, with the hope that my casted left foot would move into her peripheral vision if she turned toward her right or backed up. When we were about six feet apart she suddenly became aware of me in the aisle and, from the corner of my eye, could see her reaction when she noticed my cast. Almost immediately, she let out a surprised laugh and exclaimed, "Well, isn’t this somthing, a matched pair of cripples." I feigned surprise as though I had been unaware of her and turned toward her smiling. "Pardon me", I asked. "Matched cripples", she replied lightly as she lifted her cast from the floor and held it toward me in the air for my inspection. "Well, what happened to you", I exclaimed while looking directly down on her lovely toes framed by the front opening of the cast. I could see much of the sole of the front portion of her cast and noticed that the walking heel was identical to the one on my cast and that the plaster on the underside showed the smudges and bumps of probably a couple of weeks of wear. She rotated the cast from side to side a couple of times for my inspection, flexed and fanned her toes, and then returned her cast to the floor. "I broke a bone in my foot while I was running, and this is the result", she replied while looking down at our casts with amusement. "How about you", she inquired. I claimed that mine was being worn to treat a case of plantar fasciitis and that I would need to wear it for several weeks. As I guessed, she had been in hers for two weeks and told me with a tone of mild resignation that she had at least three more to go. She said that this had greatly upset her husband because they had to cancel a sailing vacation. Being a sailor, I agreed that it was the proper decision to cancel the trip; a rolling deck or a slip overboard is not the situation to be in while wearing a cast.

"We make quite a pair, don’t we?", she remarked as she moved to my immediate left and placed her cast next to mine, bumping them together to compare their size and appearance. This was a moment that I could have dreamed about for a lifetime and could barely believe that such a thing was actually happening. Here I was in an erotic haze gazing down on a walking cast being worn by a very attractive woman as it touched my very own walking cast. Either one of these situations by itself was highly exciting, and having this once in a lifetime event occurring left me trying to conceal my arousal with my loose summer clothing. She then moved and stood opposite me and we both placed our weight on our good legs with our casts pointed toward one another and our toes only a few inches apart. As we continued our brief conversation, we glanced at one another periodically, but our eyes were mostly fixed on our casts. This scene had attracted the attention of one of the store clerks and several other shoppers who had paused in amused interest at the opposite end of the aisle to observe this unique situation. My casted companion paid no attention to this and told me that this was the first time that she had worn a cast and that it was not as bad as everyone had told her it would be. She had found the cast easy to walk in when she wore an elevated shoe on the other foot, found that the weight of the cast was not a real problem, and she was surprised that it actually felt comfortable and remarked that it would be nice to find shoes that felt as good. I told her that I had worn a walking cast before and, although they could be a bit restrictive at times, we agreed that others who had told her that it would be equivalent to a mild form of torture were merely whiners who would complain about any inconvenience. With that profound conclusion we smiled, wished one another well, and proceeded with our shopping. I continued to browse mostly so that I could look at her cast from across the store and savor the interaction we had just completed. I noticed a small brass paperweight in the form of a sloop and purchased it just to keep as a memento of the experience. I then caught one last glimpse of her and her beautiful cast as she walked further into the shop, and then I left the store and entered the flow of people in the concourse of the mall. My mind was still a blur of excitement and I was torn trying to decide what to do next. My initial desire was to rush home and pleasure myself repeatedly with the events of the afternoon fresh in my mind. This would leave me exhausted and I would likely remove my cast prematurely and then regret doing so later in the evening. Instead, I calmed down and discovered that this encounter had left me with such a feeling of contentment that the best way to keep the pleasure building toward eventual gratification was to simply do everything that I had planned for the rest of the day. The best way to enjoy a cast to its fullest is to wear it as long as possible. There was no other way to experience its feel, to admire its image reflected in store mirrors and windows, and to watch others watching me. It was the ultimate satisfaction to continue indulging my secret erotic fascination while others perceived me as just another unfortunate fellow with a broken foot. Consequently, the events of that day are still remembered without any regrets as to how things unfolded and, most importantly, with an undiminished capacity for providing pleasure.