the flinging of the shoe

so mom, dad (well maybe grandpa) and 3 year old boy are shopping my store. well, let me clarify, 3 year old boy is terrorizing my store. loud. running. bouncing balls wherever he pleases...etc. the usual. they make their way into the seasonal aisle which happens to have summer remnants. on the other side of this aisle is back to school. i walk by the front of the aisle to find mom trying to hold a top shelf into place. plastic bottles are starting to slide off the shelf. so i rush over and slide my arms under the shelf and try to slip it back into the bracket. "i got it" i tell her. "my son flung his shoe up there" she replies. "excuse me?" did i just hear her right? she starts to nervously laugh and repeated that his shoe is up there somewhere. so i stretch up on my tiptoes and move around the bottles to look for this shoe. "there's no shoe up here" by this point dad (or grandpa) comes up the aisle with the little terrorist. (i guess he flung and run) dad asked what happened and when mom told him he turned to the little terrorist and laughed and then said "jeez buddy, we can't take you anywhere" so mom says "ohhh it must've fallen in between" ummmm, there is no in between. the gondola is capped off so nothing can slide between the aisles. i explain this to her and said "wait a sec" i walked around to the next aisle and moved a few displays from the top shelf. there it was. the flung flip-flop. and i had to touch the dirty, nasty-looking thing. she put it on him and proceeded to continue shopping. or terrorizing depending on your perspective.