Im right here, dear!

On my daily jog in the mornings, I've been seeing a woman sitting on the corner of the street next to a school. This street is a no through street for cars, only pedestrians can go through it.

The first time I saw her, I was quite startled, because just as I turned the corner, from the street on the other side of the school, there was this person, right in the middle of nowhere sitting on a chair. 

When I got closer, I realised, it was not a chair, but an extension seat jutting out from her walking frame. 

She must have come there with great difficulty, walking with this apparatus from one of the houses close by, and then getting tired must have sat down there. I had thought. 

She was quite a frail looking woman, maybe in her late 70s, but not sure, as her hair was covered under a scarf and she had a mask on her face. Her eyes were big and they followed me, may be, till I got to the other end of the street. 

I turned to check  but she had lost interest and was looking ahead again, towards the main road. I reached home, and forgot about her. 

Then again another morning, I saw her, at the same place,  perched on her seat in the same pose, looking far away towards the main road, as if waiting for someone. I waved at her and she responded with the flicker of her eyes. They were dark and shiny, under her black scarf. I noticed she had prayer beads in her hand, that she was continuously turning. 

Since I always ran in that area, mostly in those streets, and was always engrossed in listening on my headphones, each time, seeing her came as a shock, like someone  suddenly appearing out of the woodwork.  

I would turn the corner and she would be there, her face from her chin up, slightly lifted,  like a sunflower facing the sun. 

It was, as if, she was able to see or feel something far away, may be someone, for whom,  she had been praying, with her fingers busy with her beads. 

I'd cross her still running, but would slow down when close to her to wave at her. She never responded in any way, other than, just taking her eyes off from where she was looking, to look at me. Hardly acknowledging my presence, she would then go back to staring whatever she was able to see ahead, somewhere in the horizon. 

And today, I took a longer route, from the school, instead of turning back, I kept going and then I crossed the main road, and walked into another set of streets on the other side, the higher side of the main road, a bit more sunny too. 

After a few hundred meters of jogging, and getting three streets away,  I decided to turn back. 

And there on the front parch of a house, there was an old man, sitting on a chair, facing the other side of the road. He looked as if he was also praying, though his hands were not holding a rosary.  He was, I realised, turned away from the Sun, facing towards the school area, yes the street corner where I had always seen the old woman. 

Weird, I thought, and kept jogging and when I crossed him, I waved. He waved back. 

Oh winter is tough on older people, I was thinking. As I would always see older men and women sitting in their front porch, or in their verandas or inside, near a window, basking in the morning sun. Nothing peculiar about it. I decided. Poor old people. 

I turned back, jogged across the road and reached the point where the woman always sat.  She was there, same place, same pose, her face in the direction, from where I was coming. 

She saw me coming, I was sure. 

I waved at her, when I crossed her, though I didn't stop. 

And suddenly, I heard a voice, asking softly, "was he still there?"