Her voice fell to my ear like it was always meant to be there, like it always knew where it belonged, home. When she spoke to me from behind, for the first time, I turned the way one would to face an old friend, someone I knew so well that it only took the first few waves of the sound of her voice to recognise her, only I didn't know her, or maybe I did. All I know for sure is that when I turned, I found a stranger, with familiar creases in her wide smile. She felt like de javu, somehow, formed flesh and body.
"Well congratulations" she said, "you, sir, have managed to be the saddest looking person in a room full of 327 people for 2 weeks straight. What's your secret? Lost love? Tortured past? Vampire? My money is on vampire."
She looked at me for about five seconds, a curious expression painted across her face, I imagine she was expecting some kind of response. I just stood there studying the features of her face, her strangely familiar face, trying to figure out why she was talking to me and what the hell she was talking about, instead of just listening.
She had these deep dark eyes with only one sparkle of light shooting out of them, like two polished pieces of coal. Her skin was fair, a shade between yellow and bright brown. She had these full lips, that were slightly separated every time she wasn't smiling or speaking, like she was always ready to say something, and two dimples that dug right into her big cheeks, which made her eyes look small. What caught the most of my attention was her hair; the way it fell in curls down to her shoulders, she had two long braids right at the front that fell across her face, it was wet because of the rain, which somehow made it look even more beautiful.
"Oh, you're deaf, that makes much more sense" she continued.
"Do I know this girl?" I kept thinking, because something about her looked, or felt, so familiar. Her voice was hoarse, she sounded a little like she had a cold, or a sore throat, but somehow mellow.
"I'm not deaf" I finally replied, "but you are standing in mud".
She looked down at the wet and dirty black chuck tailors on her feet, chuckled and looked back at me.
"Well hi 'Not Deaf', my name is Nafisi".
She did not move from the puddle of mud she was standing in. We were both quiet for a moment, cold and moist air brushing against our faces, in what felt like a paused moment in time, with an absolute stranger.
"What does it mean?" I finally said, breaking the silence.
"My name? I don't... I don't really know" she said with a chuckle
"What's your last name?" my voice was shaky, barely audible
"What?" she said, squinting as she did, to show that she couldn't hear me quite clearly.
"What is your last name?" I repeated
"Bulayo", she said softly.
At which point the rain decided to get stronger so I turned to leave before I caught a cold or something, but before I did, I turned back to look at her one more time, hoping maybe I could find a familiar pigment on her face, a skip in her laughter, any sort of recognisable trait that would tell me who this girl is, or where I know her from. She looked at me, and then at the sky, and then back at me and smiled. What a strange girl, I thought to myself and started on my way.
"You've got nice hair Nafisi Bulayo" I said as I walked away.