The Pleasant Neighbor Woman Who Always Smiles at You in the Hallway

Some possibilities are as impossible as they are invisible.

She looks so sweet and friendly

I dunno. She looks so sweet and friendly. I mean, life is essentially kind of lonely, the longer you live it the more you understand this.

So, of course, when you often see a pleasant face smiling at you, nodding a tiny bit as she walks by, you smile and nod back. Just friendly neighbors, you know. Who knows, maybe someday you or she will even pass along some comment bigger than “Hi” or “Good morning.”

You don’t know her, and she doesn’t know you. But getting to know someone is always fraught with good and great, or horrible possibilities, right? Just because we smile and nod doesn’t mean we have anything in common other than, maybe, a lack of fear regarding strangers, perhaps a core trust in the world, and an openness to making new friends, cutting into the loneliness part of the equation of being alive. Again, you don’t know anything about her except that she is pretty and pleasant in her demeanor towards you. Maggi. You know her name is Maggi because of her mail slot in the foyer.

Nice to see you.

Hi there neighbor.

Bye-bye for now.

You like her face, her features, you sense her sweetness, the possibility of her being kind and friendly and appreciative of someone who’d just like to be friendly in return for your friendliness, you know?

In the hallway, all you have is this lovely face, always making the moment better for you. Maggi.

But by pure chance one late evening, while cruising the internet superhighways of social media you see her in some pictures on X or Facebook or some other site, and you see much more than just her smile walking by you in the hallway. You’ve never really paid much attention to her body, hidden in a large coat or jacket. But now, in these internet pics, you suddenly have some additional information about her.

In the photos she is apparently relaxing around her apartment, kind of laid back and content and she looks as friendly as ever, her face is the same, but something else about her, you can’t think just what, but something else creates a further impression:

Hmm, looks like the weather is warming-up, good for you I guess.

To be clear SHE has posted these pics of herself.

And okay, to be totally honest, somehow your thoughts about and towards her shift and you become one of those #MeToo pervs, a #MeToo, #YouToo?, #WhoKnew? kind of guy who just happens to live near her in what is colloquially referred to as Real Life.

And it turns out that she has a “Friends Only” account so if you want to DM and chat more (and see more pics) it’ll cost you money to do this.

She seems so friendly in the hallways, so neighborly, passing by but now you struggle to think of anything you’d like to chat with her about. Your mind seems stuck, unable to free itself from other thoughts:

Nice sweater, a good color on you . . .

Is it just you, you fuckin’ pervo, sexist, misogynist, creep? Why are men so awful, so one-track-minded and sick and terrible?

Naturally, you feel bad about yourself, you feel horrible and filled with shame because you are so distracted by some deep biological imperative throbbing in your head and throughout the rest of your body, calling to you like some kind of fuckin’ Tarzan cry in a savage yet fertile jungle of lust and desire.

You become plagued by a new set of thoughts and feelings:

Let’s face it, not all friendly neighborly relations are meant to go anywhere much beyond saying hi in the hallway.

Not all friendly faces are offered to invite you to come closer.

Not all social relations are meant to be anything other than what they start as being, despite your highest hopes.

Tautologies exist for a reason: “It is what it is” and “Wherever you go, there you are”

So do ironies and paradoxes: “There is no God and he is always watching.” “Eat right, stay fit, and die anyway.” Miracles happen all the time, MIRACLE EMAILS - by Terry Trueman (stories.email) BUT…

Not all friendships are meant to be, regardless of how friendly and good they seemed in your most innocent of neighborly hopes or your deepest fantasies of pleasure and bliss.

Getting to know someone is always fraught with good & great or bad & horrible possibilities.

All photos from an account on X (formerly Twitter).