2008-07-10 - 09:40

In the mornings, she usually sits there in the corner of her house, frail with age, with a lost, faraway look. I'd greet her, "ohayogozaimasu", wait for a few seconds to get a bow from her seated self before walking to work. Sometimes, she would not realise I passed her by, yet the silence that follows me is pleasant.

Today, after a week of putting in effort to stop being late for work, I see her again, seated in her favourite spot. My student was buying a drink from the vending machine next to her, and as I walked nearer to them, the old lady waved enthusiastically. I'd have raised my eyebrows in shock if not for the fact that that wasn't quite the polite thing to do. That was the first time she did anything besides a smile and a bow. Maybe she missed seeing me. Perhaps she'll miss me when I'm finally gone. It sure did perk up my morning walk to work.

The people around me, they're so old, yet they're doing things as though age was never in question. As though age never challenged them to anything. When you least expect it, they're even younger than you.

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