In Another World

She has been taking the same route on her way to the market every week. On a specific street, there was a white-haired man with a moustache who used to sit in front of his doorstep’s house. The elderly man often smiled at her every time he saw her. He used to be in his pajamas, watching people passing by him. Maybe, he was retired and killing time this way or just enjoying doing nothing after a long day at work.

On some days, she greeted him or smiled back at him. On other days, she just ignored him. During the last few months, he hadn't been there anymore. She wondered what had become of him. Is he still alive or did he pass away? Did he move to another house or get a chronic illness? Maybe he got dementia and his family locked him at home! She never dared to knock on the door of his house to find out what had happened to him. She knew nothing about him. She didn’t even know his name.

In her community, it’s not usual to ask about someone you don’t know. In reality, in her case, more reasons made it more unacceptable to check on an unknown person. She was a woman while he was a man. She was a Muslim while he was a Christian.

Maybe you ask yourself how she could know that he was a Christian. Okay, there was a cross on the steel door of his house. How could he have known she was a Muslim? She covered her hair with a hijab. This is very common in a country where religious symbols are significant to those of different beliefs.

It's puzzling that some rules we set in our communities keep a distance between us, rather than making us closer. We allow walls to be built between us for ridiculous reasons.
In another scenario, they could have made friends with each other, exchanged visits and sat together on the front of his doorstep having a cup of tea in the afternoon. Maybe, in another world where differences don’t matter.