The day the saddest lady in the world smiled
I don’t know when i first seen her. But the look on her face. The pain she carried. Was that of the saddest lady in the world. I would see her nearly every day, down the business centre of the town i lived in at the time. She was always dressed in a drab plain dress with sandals. She wore no makeup or paid much attention to her medium length brown hair apart from a single hair tie. She was short and slim. But that deep sad look that was always on her face is what got me.
She just looked so sad and lost and it never changed. Winter, spring, summer, raining or beautiful sunshine. That look of sadness prevailed. Every time i seen her, i just wanted to go to her and give her a hug and say something lame like it will be OK or i feel your pain let me share it with you. But in this day and age that kind of public empathy will just get you in trouble. So i could only watch her from a distance and feel deeply her sadness. I asked around some of the old time locals about who she was but no one seemed to know, which was really strange for a small town.
Come this day i was out the front of the bottle shop i worked in, changing special signs that were across the front of the shop when i seen Max wondering down the street. Now Max, God bless him, was the unofficial mayor of the town also the town drunk and at that time the local homeless person. But all of it was self-inflicted. His family use to own a lot of property in the area and when Max inherited it all at a young and stupid age he gambled and pissed it all against the wall to where he is today. He didn’t seem to have any regrets and was happy living the way he did. He wasn’t involved in drugs or crime. He didn’t smoke. He would always have a laugh with everyone as everyone knew Max and Max knew everyone.
"Is my plonk on special today" He asked, coming to a stop next to me looking at the special signs i had already put up.
"Your plonk is always on special Max, How can it get cheaper than $2 a bottle" I replied.
Max would buy bottles of brown muscate, the cheapest, nastiest drink there was. I look past Max to see the saddest lady in the world walking on the opposite side of the street with shopping bags in hand and looking at the ground as she walked.
"Max, who is that lady" Pointing and nodding my head in the direction of her as my hands were busy with signs. Max swivelled on his feet and looked in the direction i indicated.
"That’s Beth, She is married to Jimmy Smith the old prick. He drinks more than me and bets on horses. All he does is drink home brew and listen to the horse racing. That’s Jimmy Smith."
"Oh" I said. “She looks like the saddest lady in the world".
"I have no doubt she is" said Max, He went on." The old prick Jimmy use to beat her, probably still does, he has this anger that comes out at the drop of a hat. I use to drink with him a long time ago and seen his raise a fist to Beth when his dinner wasn’t ready. I haven’t had a drink with him since and don’t plan to, have no care to. Hit a woman like that. He's just a pig dressed up as a human". Memories stirred in Max and he walked away shaking his head.
I watched Max walk away and turned to see Beth disappear up the road knowing now that she lived with a not so nice human and that this is the likely cause of her sadness. I walked back into the shop.
I continued to see Beth now and then walking past the shop to and fro with her shopping. I would always wonder why she stayed in a life that made her so sad, realising that people's relationships are sometimes complicated, lonely and hard to withdraw from. But it didn’t stop me from feeling her pain which was written across her down cast face, her whole being really.
Than one day as i was finishing my shift, i seen Beth walk past on her way home with her shopping and started to wonder if she would ever find happiness and prayed she would and it would be soon.
I was just pulling into my driveway when my pager started peeping. I try to be civic by coaching my sons football teams and helping out with the P&C and also being an auxiliary fireman. A back up to the permanents when they were busy or had a big job. The pager summoned me to the fire station. I arrived in quick time as i lived only a couple of blocks from the station. The truck the permanents used was out so went into the communication room being the first of my crew to arrive and called fire com for instructions. I lifted the hand set
"745 reporting" I said into the phone.
"745 respond to a two-vehicle incident, highway connection road 200 meters past the caltex service station, east bound lanes" the operator said in a dry, calm voice.
"745 responding" I replied and replaced the handset.
I entered the truck bay and got into my firefighting gear. I walked to the truck and started it, hitting the button to open the roller door. As the other crew members arrived i disconnected the truck from power that charged equipment that needed to be charged and got into the driver’s seat. The other crew two members piled into the back of the truck in varying states of dressing and our Captain got into the front passenger seat.
"Vehicle accident, connection road, 200 meters passed the caltex servo, east bound lanes" i said to my captain as i pulled the truck out of the station activating the lights and sirens as i turned onto the road.
The Captain got onto the radio and repeated what i told him to Fire com he also requested an ambulance and police to respond to the same incident.
The incident itself was only three kilometres from the station, we made quick time in arriving. There were two cars stopped in the right-hand fast lane. It just looked like a minor nose to tail accident. I pulled the truck up behind the two cars on an angle to block the whole lane and give my crew protection from oncoming traffic.
"Case one hose real" The Captain said on exiting the truck.
We all knew what our jobs were, so went to work. Being the driver i was in control of the water pump so took up position at the back of the truck near the control panel for the water pump as the other two in my crew took out a small hose real and took it forward. A police car came past and parked forward of the scene followed closely by an ambulance. I engaged the water pump when the hose was out and just waited for instructions. I glanced across to the opposite side of the road only to see Beth standing there with her shopping, staring at the scene. My Captain came over the portable radios we all wore and said there was a deceased man pinned between the two cars. This was a surprise to me as the whole scene looked so innocent. I looked over at Beth, still standing there, staring, not moving. I heard the Captain talking on the radio, he said the deceased man’s name.
"Jimmy Smith, a local" The radio crackled.
I immediately looked across to Beth, realising she knew one of the cars. she was still motionless just staring holding her shopping bags. I took up the hand piece for my radio and informed the Captain that i believed his wife was on the other side of the road watching. He acknowledged what i said and moments later two police officers crossed the road to Beth. I couldn’t hear what was said just see Beth's reaction. She dropped her shopping and brought a hand to her mouth to cover her smiling. She spoke to the police for a little and her whole demure changed as i watched. She stood straighter, her head up. She was happy. She strode away from the scene like i had never seen her do before. I am sure i seen her do a jig as she rounded the corner. I myself were conflicted. I was happy for Beth that her pain had finally ended, but it took the death of someone for her to realise that release. And i felt guilty that i had not an hour ago prayed for that release for her.
I never seen Beth again. I never heard what happened to her or what she did after her husband’s death. He died because his car broke down in the fast lane and he went behind it to warn others coming up behind that he was stopped. But in doing so, got himself killed.
Max came by the shop about two weeks later. and told me he went to Jimmy's funeral. I asked why, and he said
" In death he had he had no-body, and that no-body was me”.
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