when i was younger, i had this elderly woman who lived across the street from me. she would always sit on her rocking chair, whether it be at dawn when i left to go to the bus stop or at dusk when i got home from going out.
one afternoon in summer, my cousins who were around the same age as me came over to celebrate my birthday. we were in the lawn with water balloons, cake, and popsicles.
the elderly lady was in her rocking chair as usual and i grabbed an extra popsicle before deciding to walk across the street and introduce myself for the first time.
she smiled and waved for me to come closer so i walked up the three steps that went to the porch and handed her the popsicle. i asked her why she always sits out here alone and she told me to sit down since she was about to tell a story.
out of curiousity, i did and waited patiently as she finished her popsicle so she would begin the story. when she started talking i listened with my attention solely on her.
she told me how when she was around my age she met a boy. how he had the sweetest smile and softest tone when he spoke. she had a crush on him and worked six years to become someone to him, even if it wasn't someone whom he felt any romantic feelings towards.
since she was now twenty and he was now twenty three and they both had stable jobs, she figured if they were to be in that kind of relationship now would be a good time to start that relationship.
she told me about the night where they strolled all throughout downtown, window shopping and eating icecream while sampling food as they passed by small business restaurants.
that same night as they were walking back towards their separate homes, she had asked him how he felt about her.
his response was that he had known he would never be able to walk away from her ever since their first meeting. that he was unexplainably drawn and in love with the person she was. how he had plans on marrying and staying with her till tomorrow was no more.
she tells me how to this day, she has still never heard anything more sweet than the words he told her that night, and how after that said night they moved in together as a happy couple.
they spent another two years side by side till one day they decided to have a child. they both agreed that although it wasn't traditional to become parents before becoming wed, it was what they wanted.
so, that is what they tried to do. sadly, reality landed on their front door (her words not mine) and they were unable to have any success. off to the doctor they went.
she said that it was her who was the problem and that the doctor had said she was to have an early menopause: one that was very soon in the future.
distraught, she ran away from her beloved relationship as she felt she had only brought shame to it. she had grown up with strict and traditional parents who had told her that marriage and childbirth were her only worth's.
how she must've felt at that point i couldn't possibly understand.
she says how she was lost for the next 8 to ten years, traveling down a dark path.
one morning with no remembrance of how, she woke up in a strangers home. a home that smelled all too familiar.
she sat and smelled and wondered and wondered who that smell could've possibly reminded her of until suddenly a door opened and a man walked in.
that face of her first love, the one who had become blurred over the years finally had become clear. down to every crevice and look she had ever felt and seen on him came flooding back as she took in how the years changed but kept every feature.
she said that the tears just fell and there was no stopping them as he consoled her by rubbing her back and solftly sobbing beside her. during that moment there was a silent understanding of how much they truly missed the sight of one another.
when they both calms down, he gives her a chance to wash up and change her clothes before they sit down together and she asks how she came to be in his home. he tells her how he had received a call, as he did every other night from a drunken her who always told him what state and bar she was drinking at. last night when she called, she hung up suddenly and it had worried him. the bars address she had mentioned was across town and he had went to pick her up after being worried.
that's when it hit her after all those years, how she had still kept her first loves number. even after upgraded phones, she always kept that one number within her contacts. and everytime she would get a bit too drunk, she'd wake up with that number being the last thing she remembered.
without remembering what they would talk about, she had called him almost every night just as out of impulse as adding his number to each phone she had ever held.
after that day he began to help her achieve sobriety and get back onto a healthy lifestyle. she tells me how during that period of a few months, she felt more cared for than she did within the past 8 years.
she had forgotten what being in love felt like and what being loved felt like.
a year after staying with him and getting her life back on track, they married. they didn't hold a reception or tell a single person they knew, but they promised the rest of their whole lives together that night and this time neither one of them broke that promise.
then she tells me how he died of illness around 3 years ago in that same chair she was sitting in now.
i look at her with shock and she shoo's me off before explaining how her only wish now, is to die in the place as he did to keep their souls together even after death.
i kept going over to talk with that elderly woman after hearing her story. she told me many more things that i told others to seem wise.
it's been maybe 30 years since i've last seen her in that chair. but her wish was granted, that same year after hearing her story.
i don't think i'll ever forget her,
that missus polly
