Neighbors

Source

He had moved into his apartment about eight months ago, and he’d never really spoken to anyone in the building. Just the head nods in the hallway.
There is an elderly woman who lives opposite him. Very quiet. She always waters the little plants outside her door every morning at 7 a.m. A couple of weeks ago, in the parking lot, he saw that one of her grocery bags had torn and the oranges spilled out. He assisted her in gathering them, he took the bags upstairs, and that was pretty much it.

From that point on, whenever she lays her eyes on him, she smiles at him as if she is already friends with him. He was tired when he came home from work and found a small bag with 4 pieces of cake and a sticky note outside his door that said

“You thanked me for helping that day. Today would have been my husband’s birthday, and too much for me was the thought of being all alone.”

For a full minute he stood there, with his eyes fixed on the note. Then he looked across the hallway. Her door was a bit opened and he could hear an old radio playing.

He knocked the door. She looked surprised when she opened the door. He raised the plate and asked if she needed any help to eat the remaining cake.
She stayed in the room almost two hours while he looked at the old photo books, and talked about her husband.

And in the first several minutes she barely opened her mouth. All he did was just slice off little pieces and stare at the old photos that were on the table next to her. Then gradually, she began telling him stories about her husband. The way he left the toast burning every morning. The awful dancing he loved to do in the kitchen.

She was laughing so much at one point she had to remove tears from her eyes.
When he started to go, she accompanied him to the door and thanked him once more, this time in a more nice way

He was back in his apartment, he realized what it was that was troubling him just a little. Before tonight, he had live across from her for 8 months and didn’t even know her name.

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