Playing Fool — To Catch Wise

Sitting at the right place at the wrong time, the lady beside me phone rang. She looked at her phone with furled brows, then answered, putting it on speaker, “Hello.”

“Miss Nelson, it’s me, Maya. I have been calling you, but you aren’t answering your phone,” a female voice said.

“Sorry, but if I don’t know the number, I don’t answer my phone. How are you doing?” she answered.

“Do you have any empty rooms. It didn’t work out with my friend, so I need to move again,” she explained her reason for calling.

The smile on Miss Nelson’s face grabbed my attention.

“I have empty rooms, but I can’t rent them to you?” she informs.

“Why not?” she questioned.

“You moved in on my property, lying. You lied about the lady who accompanied you being your mother. You broke the lease and lied about moving in with your sister to save on rent, so I wouldn’t hold you accountable for breaking it according to the law. I didn’t charge you for breaking the lease or for other things you broke, even though you pretended you didn’t know the consequences. You played innocent, pretending you didn’t know how to clean up or do anything. Yet you said your grandmother raised you because your mother wasn’t a part of your life. Grandmothers teach their grandchildren stuff mothers don’t. Everything you did on my property, you were pretending and lying,” Miss Nelson revealed with a sigh of relief on her face and in her words.

I could hear her taking a deep breath, then shock defends, “You knew all along what I was doing and said nothing.”

“Landlords don’t know the people they rent their properties to. But after they moved in, they began telling them about themselves by how they live, dress, think, eat, and treat the property in occupied. You didn’t clean up, even though you signed to keep the property clean,” Miss Nelson explained.

She sighed deeply, then said in a different tone, “Damn, you could see right through me.”

“Life is a game you should never play with lies and cruelty, especially when you get kindness and thoughtfulness. You used my generosity as a weapon to get what you wanted from me, and I gave as I always give to anyone in need. I treated you like my daughter, and you keep adding more lies, breaking the rules you signed in your lease. I love your pretend game. I enjoyed it too,” Miss Nelson said, smiling.

“You pretended that everything I did was ok?” Her regret and guilt defend.

“You were telling me who you really are, and all I did was listen with a third ear. That’s how I operate when I give kindness and get cruelty and thoughtlessness in return. I see with many eyes, too,” Miss Nelson educates.

“But you still said nothing,” she stressed on the rim of anger.

“When humans think they are winning, they will continue playing with the ball, a lie, a weapon, or a tool that handed them victory. You thought you were winning,” Miss Nelson informs her.

“And you allowed me to believe I was winning and waited for me to lose,” she said in anger.

“I didn’t allow you to do anything. This innocence card that you played was your ace in the hole that you had played before and won. But,” Miss Nelson paused, swaying her head left to right. “I think this is the first time you have attempted to play it with a female. The mother in me protected and assisted you. But when the lies began to grow, and you kept breaking the rules you signed to, that doesn’t work for females. Your innocence game would work better with males, at a deadly cost to your safety.”

She sighed deeply again, then snickered, saying, “You are right. It never failed with men. I underestimated the mother in you. You do look like an easy target. You taught me something vital, though. Do any of your landlord’s friends have any rooms they are renting?”

Miss Nelson nods, smiling, then says, “If they do, I can’t recommend you.”

“I must move. My friend and I aren’t getting along,” she pleads with a softer tone,

“You are playing a fool to catch a wise person with me. My landlord friends are older people like me.” Miss Nelson informs. “We older folks can see a lie coming in every direction. Now life will pay you back for using the kindness you took as a weapon. If you had used it as a tool, I wouldn’t have a problem assisting you. Try honesty, its dividend is excellent,” she said and hung up.

This piece is true, but written this way to prevent hell. In my culture, many people play fool to catch wise unaware that wise people listen with a third ear and see what wasn't done and hear what wasn't said.

Honesty, kindness and all of the good we share with others, dividened is excellent.