Charlotte was looking forward to her interview for the job on the farm. It was an office based job so she'd dressed smartly hoping to make a good impression. It was a fair walk from the car parking area to the office building. Ever prepared, Charlotte had borrowed a pair of short wellington boots from her friend Lauren in case the path was muddy. She slipped her little ballerina pumps off and popped them into her bag, she planned to put them back on when she arrived at the office, to look her smartest. As she sat on the edge of the car seat with no shoes on, she couldn't help admiring her smart socks. They were smooth, thin black ones, with amazing vibrant turquoise-blue contrasting toes and heels. Smart, dressy socks with a hidden splash of fun colour! So that all she had to do was quickly change back into her shoes she kept them on inside the wellingtons, rather than putting a thicker "boot sock" on, but did find the thin socks made the boots feel rather large! Undeterred, she tucked her smart, close-fitting dark grey trousers into the boots and set off to the office.

Charlotte was pleased she'd borrowed the boots as the path did turn out to be a bit muddy, with some puddles dotted around. It wasn't too bad though, and she was pleased to see the office building away in the distance, she only had to walk about a quarter of a mile by the look of it.

After a little while, Charlotte became aware of a strange noise behind her. She spun around on the slippery surface, struggling slightly in the loose-fitting boots. To her shock, it turned out she had been followed by an enormous black and white cow, and it didn't look too happy! Charlotte had heard the stories about people being trampled and instantly started to panic slightly. This thing looked like it weighed at least a ton, the petite girl's size eight frame wouldn't stand a chance! The path she (and the cow!) were on was about six feet wide, and had fences on both sides. Charlotte quickly scanned the immediate vicinity for a way to get herself out of harms way. She couldn't go back to the car because the cow stood in the way, so she looked towards the building she was heading to (still very much in the distance). To her relief, she spotted, about twenty feet further along the path, a gate in the left hand fence. She started to gently advance towards it, moving away from the cow. When she was halfway there, the cow started to snort and move fairly assertively in her direction. Panicking, Charlotte broke into a semi-run, fumbled desperately with the gate latch, and finally, with the cow's breath on the back of her neck, managed to open it and throw herself through the gap, before slamming it hard shut so that the cow couldn't follow.

With her heart thumping in her chest, Charlotte surveyed the area she now found herself in. Basically, she was in a field, with a poorly defined route across it. At the other end of the "path" was another gate, and then it looked like a choice of left or right, the right turn would get her to the building for the interview. The problem with this alternative route was that it really was very, very muddy indeed. In fact, this whole field was a vast expanse of thick, wet mud, by the appearance of it. Charlotte felt that the best approach was to wait for the cow to go away, so that she could continue on the original, decent footpath.

So she waited. And waited. And still the cow stood there, staring malevolently at her over the gate. The one thing Charlotte was unprepared to do, at any cost, was be late for an interview. She reluctantly realised that she was going to have to use the muddy route. She was suddenly very grateful to her friend Lauren for lending her the wellington boots. She started out across the field, wincing slightly as she stepped into the wet mud. The boots were stylish "short" wellingtons, they came about half way up Charlotte's shins. She was in the mud ankle deep so felt that she would be able to walk across safely without getting her clothes dirty. Mind you, she found it quite a challenge because, as mentioned, the boots were a bit too big for her, especially as she was only wearing her really smart thin socks in them, because she wanted to look nice at the interview. Each step was a deliberate act, really having to pull the boot out of the sticky mud, and she could feel her socks sliding around in the over large footwear. Regardless, Charlotte felt pretty smug that she'd outsmarted the rampaging cow and smiled to herself as she squelched slowly across the mud. Nothing else could go wrong now, she had such a good feeling about everything, mentally she'd already given herself the job.

Whilst having these joyous thoughts, Charlotte stopped paying attention quite so much to the route. Very suddenly she walked into a much softer, deeper area of the mud and sank very nearly to the tops of the, admittedly short, wellingtons! "Oh, Yuck!" she muttered under her breath as she stood there, stuck in the mud. She tried very hard to walk her way out of the mud but could not move the boots. Her feet simply wanted to come out of them, due to them being too big. Charlotte realised that she couldn't stay there all day, although she had plenty of time, she was increasingly anxious about being late! She reluctantly realised that she was going to have to abandon the stuck boots and put her shoes back on. It seemed that she might not be staying completely clean after all.

She reached into her bag and pulled out her left shoe. Immediately, she felt bad about having to put them back on in the muddy field, they were gorgeous shoes! Lovely little ballet pumps, with sassy little bows on the fronts. She sighed, and carefully withdrew her left foot from the completely stuck boot. Whilst carefully balancing, she pulled her sock up, readjusting it so it was correctly on her foot and slipped the shoe on. "OK Charlotte" she said to herself. "This is going to be a bit gross, but it won't kill you". She very carefully placed her foot down in the mud, wincing heavily as she did so. Her entire shoe went down into the soft ooze, the mud came up above the sides of it and Charlotte could feel the unmistakeable sensation of mud covering the exposed, black area of her sock. Her foot continued to sink until she was well over ankle deep. She could no longer see her shoe, or sock, and the bottom four inches of her smart trousers were also in the mud. She was horrified, but also realised that she was halfway to being free of the prison that the wellingtons had become. She reached back into her bag and found her right shoe, and repeated the process.

Once free of the boots, Charlotte stood next to them, in her shoes and socks, over her ankles in mud. "OK, on the downside, I am now muddy, but on the upside, at least I can now carry on walking" she thought to herself. She decided to worry about retrieving the boots later, preferring to get out of the muddy field and maybe find somewhere to get cleaned up a bit first. After all, there was still an interview to get to!

Charlotte carefully pulled her left foot upwards out of the mud. It felt extremely odd, but much easier than when she'd had the boots on. But something wasn't right. She looked at her foot and realised that she was just wearing a very grubby black and turquoise sock on it. Her shoe had been sucked off her foot in the mud! She hadn't even managed one step without losing a shoe. The top of her sock, that hadn't been covered by her shoe was covered in thick mud and she watched in horror as it oozed down towards the bright turquoise fabric at the toe-end of the sock. "Oh my life, I love these colourful socks" she thought to herself!

Charlotte stood there, like some kind of bizarre scarecrow, right foot still buried in the mud, left foot dangling in mid air, with her once dazzling sock now a bedraggled, mud-splattered mess. Her mind went into overdrive. She didn't think she could get the shoe out without overbalancing. Maybe she could somehow get her foot back into it, and get it out that way? She decided to try. She looked at her grubby sock. She could see that it was a black sock, with bright turquoise coloured heel and toe detailing. But it had mud on it! She loved these socks. She hoped they would survive this experience. Not for the first time that day, she sighed. She lowered the sock down into the mud where she thought her shoe was. It made a quiet squelching sound as the slopping ooze enveloped it. I suppose the nice thing about only having a sock on your foot in the mud is that at least you can feel things. And Charlotte could definitely feel her ballet pump through the thick mud. But she couldn't get her foot into it. The shoe had basically filled up with mud and collapsed in onto itself. She couldn't squeeze her socked foot into it and just made it worse as she tried. She pulled her foot back out, still shoeless, with a loud sucking noise. Now her sock was almost covered in mud. Charlotte came to the conclusion that she was highly unlikely to get her right foot out of the mud with her shoe on it, so she was going to have to continue walking in the mud in her socks. She put her muddy left sock back into the mud with a gentle splurging noise, and pulled her right foot out, for the first time since she'd put her shoes on. As before, the delicate little ballet pump was stuck fast and stolen by the glutinous ooze, and Charlotte felt her foot pop out of it as she was once again reduced to her sock. Accepting the situation, she put her still serviceable, but quite dirty right sock confidently down into the mud, and stood there, over her ankles in the thick mud in her socks. She couldn't help smiling to herself at the ridiculous situation, not least of all how she had totally failed to realise that her pumps would be sucked off by the mud! She kicked herself for not keeping them in her bag and just going straight in the mud in her socks.

Charlotte realised that she would need to retrieve some footwear as once she was out of the mud she wouldn't want to keep walking in her socks. As the boots were stuck fast, she opted to try to dig her shoes out. She stooped down and gingerly put her hands down into the mud in the positions where her shoes had been sucked off her feet. Thankfully, she felt the distinctive bows on the shoes through the mud and managed to haul both shoes out with loud squelching noises.

She saw absolutely no point in putting the shoes on, they were covered in, and also full of mud, and it wasn't like she'd been hugely successful at wearing shoes in the mud so far was it? She resigned herself to continuing in the mud in just her socks, and hopefully she could find some clean water somewhere to wash her feet off. After all, she didn't want to turn up to the interview looking like a muddy weirdo!

Holding her muddy shoes in what were now very muddy hands, Charlotte made her first decent progress since she'd become stuck. She found it almost amusing how easy it was to wade through the deep mud without worrying about shoes. Basically, it was almost enjoyable squelching along in her socks without a care! She did feel a bit sad about how filthy her lovely socks were getting, but hoped that she'd be able to wash them and wear them again when this nightmare was over.

As Charlotte progressed across the field it went downhill slightly, and this coincided with the mud becoming even wetter, deeper, thicker and sloppier. Basically, every superlative you can apply to mud was relevant! The poor girl found herself sinking deeper and deeper with each step, she was actually going in it over the knee every time she put a foot down into the mud. It was really difficult and tiring! Her smart trousers were now covered in mud up to her thighs, and felt really heavy on her legs! It was getting to the point where Charlotte was so filthy that there really wasn't going to be any way of cleaning up acceptably. What should she do? Turn up to the interview covered in mud and tell them what had happened to her? Or just go home and forget the whole thing? She decided to struggle on and accept the embarrassment of turning up covered in mud, I mean, she really wanted this job.

Charlotte felt that her muddy ordeal was almost over as she was only about ten metres from the edge of the field and she could see firmer ground. But as she continued slogging through the knee deep mud, still in her socks, her right foot became tangled up in some buried debris. It felt like a small tree branch or similar. She stumbled, and the world went into slow motion as she realised that she was falling over. She instinctively threw her arms out and in doing so inadvertently launched the muddy shoes that she was still carrying into the middle distance. They landed, with a splash, in the mud. And so did Charlotte. She went down with an almighty squelch, landing on her right side. As she hit the mud it splashed violently, showering her face and hair, and her hands and arms disappeared into it. She laid there, in shock at the situation. How had she gone from carefully walking across the field in wellingtons to taking a complete, comprehensive fully-clothed mud bath in her smart clothes and her socks? Even her handbag was in the mud!

Charlotte was, by a considerable margin, dirtier than she'd ever been in her life. She did a kind of half roll onto her front in the mud and tried to get up onto her knees. As she did so, her knees kind of sank in and although in a kneeling position, she was almost waist deep. She struggled to her feet and just kept sinking. The mud in this area was up to her thighs and there was no way she could even take a single step, let alone walk in it. The final indignation came when the poor girl realised that she'd have to crawl in the mud, to try to spread her weight a bit. She plopped down onto her hands and knees with a squelch and wriggled her legs and feet free of the mud's grasp. She wasn't even bothering to be careful any more, there was no point trying to stay clean, it was far too late for that, she was almost completely covered in mud. She couldn't help having a little giggle to herself as she crawled through the thick, heavy mud. There was certainly something amusing to her about spending all that time getting ready, making herself look nice, choosing a nice smart outfit........... then basically taking a bath in mud. Charlotte actually surprised herself in a way. She felt that she should be a lot more upset than she actually was. She couldn't shake the sensation that there was actually something quite fun and enjoyable about getting really muddy. She couldn't deny that there was something very lovely about the feel of the smooth, wet mud as she pumped her shoeless feet in and out of it and felt it soaking through her socks and trousers.

"Ooh, mustn't forget those" she said out loud as she retrieved her shoes from the mud for the second time that day. She actually put the mud covered shoes into her bag. The bag had been completely submerged in mud when she's fallen in, so it was another thing she'd given up on trying to keep clean.

Finally, she was able to struggle to her feet as the mud became of a more "normal" depth. It was back to being just over ankle deep. Charlotte thought it was time to try wearing shoes again, and produced the muddy ballet pumps from her muddy bag. She giggled again as she eased her feet into them. Mud squelched and slurped out of them as it was displaced. She hoped the mud would kind of stick the shoes to her feet a bit, and kept her fingers crossed as she lowered them back into the mud. This time, she managed two steps before the little shoes succumbed to the mud's grip and she was back in her socks. "Oh well, it was worth a try" she laughed to herself and retrieved the shoes with a suck and a glug from their oozy resting place. She really was going to have to complete the entire field in her socks then!

Finally, Charlotte reached firm ground having completed her mud-crossing. She looked down at herself in disbelief. Almost every inch of her was a brown muddy mess. Her face was covered in it, it was in her hair, every garment she was wearing was muddy. She looked wistfully at her shiny brown mud-covered socks, before squelching her feet back into her shoes. She wiped mud off her wristwatch and saw that, despite everything that had happened to her, she still had almost half an hour before the interview appointment.

The muddy girl looked around in vain for some water to attempt to clean up in. There was a few deep puddles, but these were very muddy and really wouldn't have helped. She came to the conclusion that she would have to show up to the interview in her current state and explain what had happened. Surely they wouldn't hold her muddiness against her would they?

Charlotte self consciously squelched across the yard towards the building where she had been told to meet the farm manager. As she approached one of the doors swung open and the manager himself emerged. He was a tall, middle aged man with a cheerful demeanour. Charlotte had met him when she had initially applied for the job and had liked him. "Dear oh dear, look at the state of you Charlotte! I see you've met our prize cow, Daisy!" Charlotte was taken aback by that comment. "Err, well yes, the cow basically chased me into the mud, I'm so sorry about the state I'm in........." The manager roared with laughter. "Oh don't you worry about that my dear, this is a farm, mud is a fact of life! Now, can you go into there and wait for me for a few minutes, and we'll talk about your job". He gestured towards a closed door at the far end of the building.

Charlotte thanked him, and walked over to the door. She pulled it open and entered the utilitarian room to wait for her interview. She felt so silly because she was so covered in mud. She had the shock of her life when she got into the room. There was another young lady in there, a pretty, dark-haired girl. But what was amazing was she too, was smartly dressed, but really, really muddy! Charlotte took the lead. "Hi, I'm Charlotte, what happened to you?" The girl smiled. "Hi, I'm Hannah, I could ask you the same thing!" The girls both giggled. Hannah was standing in her socks desperately scraping thick mud out of her shoes. Her socks were covered in mud. She had clearly had a shoe-sucking incident very similar to Charlotte's. She'd been in mud up to her waist by the look of it. She looked up from her shoe-mud excavation and continued. "Well, I was on my way here and there was this massive cow........"

The girls had experienced identical confrontations with Daisy, and had both been diverted into the mud. Charlotte suddenly felt so much better. You know how it is, everything's easier when you're not in it alone!

The door opened and in walked the farm manager. The girls looked at him nervously. "OK ladies, there are two job vacancies here, when can you both start? I'm delighted to confirm that you've both been successful in your interviews". Charlotte stuttered "But, but, we haven't had interviews...?" The manager roared with laughter again. "Of course you have you daft turnip! Daisy is the chief recruiter around here. If you can avoid her and survive the mud, you're in! You two are the only ones to make it to the office!" The muddy girls looked at each other and burst out laughing. The manager continued. "Let's just see you both here on Monday morning shall we? Oh, and Charlotte, don't forget to collect your boots on the way back!" And he roared with laughter again.