I like to smile at random people when I walk by, I know they're probably going through a lot, I don't think my smile would help them or anything but I just want my smile to be the only thing you remember of me.
There was a strange lady who I always saw back in 2017, she would wear pajamas and sit out on her porch for hours without talking to anyone. People would greet her and she waved back in acknowledgement. I'd often smile at her and greet her as I walked to work. I was a corp member by this time of my life. In case you don't know, its a thing in Nigeria where you're posted to totally strange and often far away state to live for one year. I think it was created to promote unity in our diversity after the civil war that ravaged the country in the 70s. So here I was, an obvious stranger, wearing my uniform everyday and going to work, smiling at this lady that never talked. It felt like the right thing to do. On one faithful day, she spoke to me.
I smiled and said "good morning ma" like i always do and this time she spoke, she said "come closer son". The world stood still as those few words reverberated through my senses, this lady just spoke to me. I gathered my thoughts as fast I could and walked over to her, to hear what she has to say. When I got closer I realised she was really old, wrinkled skin all over, it was time's toll. As I got closer, she squinted a bit and said "coppa(that's what they call corp members) with the nice smile, how are you?, please can you help me do something?" I felt a bit uneasy because I'd never seen her speak, it was made twice uncomfortable by the weird stares I got from passersby. I summoned the courage and went inside the house with her. "Your house is beautiful ma" I exclaimed. It was truly beautiful, it felt like I just walked into a time machine that took me back to the 90s. She had this retro plaid carpet in pristine condition, there was surprisingly no dust settled on any of the furniture. She had a working VCR and a desktop with floppy disk drive.
Pajamas Lady: "Thank you" she said, "I don't use those things much, my cleaning lady always tries to throw them out".
Me: so what can I help you with ma?
Pajamas lady: I can't reach the top of this shelf.
Me in my mind: I can't reach it too(in my defence, the shelf is pretty high and I'm not the guy to get stuff in high places)
I looked around and found a stool, stood on top of it and asked " what should I bring, there's a lot of bookish stuff here".
Pajamas Lady: Bring the blue book
There were at least ten items with that description so I brought them down one at a time until she said, "yes, its this one". It was a photo album.
"Anything else you'd like me to do?" I replied and she said no. Please sit down in the living room, let me heat up some tea. "That would not be necessary ma, I was..." She totally ignored me and still heat up the tea. A few clangs later, she was walking over to me, frail as I've ever seen,hands shaking from lifting the tea cup and slowly offering it to me.
She sat uncomfortably close to me on the long couch and said "let me show you something". Opened the photo album and said "see, you and my son are like twins"
Me: yeah, we probably are. Why isn't he here?
Pajamas lady: he's in the sky now.
Me: sorry?
Pajamas Lady: he died in an aircraft incident.
Me: I'm so sorry for your loss ma.
After hearing those words, I decided to look closely at the photo she pointed out and she was right. There was an uncanny resemblance between myself and her son. We had similar hairstyle, he also had a gap tooth, wore a big smile and pajamas in all his photos.
She didn't say much after that. She said, "thank you for your smile son" then went quiet for a while, stood up gently and went back to sitting outside on her porch. I finished my cup of tea then made way outside and right before I was about to leave she said "he was a pilot, he loved the sky. Find what you love" then a single teardrop streamed down her face.
She went back to her default mood, I said "goodbye" and she waved it away like she usually would. As I walked out and into the street, it felt surreal, I didn't know what to think.
The days went by and we went back to the status quo, my usual smile and greeting was met by her wave but I was fine with that. The pajamas lady became a part of my life without speaking, seeing her everyday was very important to me. I never got to speak with her again and my service year ended. I left that city because I got a job somewhere else but her voice still resounds in my head.
To the Sky With Love