I’m sorry – I didn’t want to keep you all on edge a la sands through the hourglass etc etc and finish on a cliffhanger of sorts- I just ran out of time.
See here for previous episode.
How stupid of me to just tell her to come by to pick up the clothing. I should have offered to take it to her place! How humbling, utterly humiliating it would be for her to knock on my door to ask for the clothes.
I watched outside my window in the early morning, hoping to catch a glimpse of her children as they walked to school; I sometimes drove in the general direction of her home, stopping outside each house to watch for any sign of her or her family (I didn’t have her address.) The clothing I had kept out for her left my lounge room and found a place in the garage. I worried she may have moved to another suburb or worse – back to Darwin. I often thought of visiting the school, to ask whether the children were still in attendance but realised that may be confidential information that the school had no business giving out to complete strangers. Goodness I didn’t even know her name or the names of her children.
Then one ordinary day while out driving home with my in-laws, I spied two young African boys. I unceremoniously parked the car on a roundabout, ran out of the car and chased after them. I am sure they thought me crazy but one of the boys recognised me from the meeting in the park and they both humoured me enough to show me where they lived. I grabbed the bags of clothing from the garage on the way to their home.
I had only planned on dropping off the clothes but she was so happy to have company that straight away she ushered us (my father-in-law and one and half year old came as well) into her lounge room. I saw in the corner of my eye, the boys scrambling for the bags and already fighting for the warm jacket that sat at the top of the pile. One of the older boys quickly offered us cool water to drink. We sat and talked for a while, while her children kept running in and out giggling. Her little girl however entered with a solemn and very sad expression.
I had no clothes for her so they let her wear a “Hot Wheels” t-shirt. She was only mildly impressed but her brothers thought it quite funny. I promised her next time I would have lots of girls’ clothes as my sister had a little girl. This seemed to brighten her spirits. As we left, her mother thanked me and told me to come again to visit.
I plan on doing just that this weekend inshaAllah.
