The Girl in Pajamas

I walked into the bathroom at work just before lunch today with every intention of going about my business in my usually distracted manner when I was greeted by a startled, soft-spoken voice that said “I’m sorry”.

Now that I think about it, I don’t quite remember what was going on in my head. Probably something pointless as is usually the case. But as soon as I heard the voice, I looked up at the only person in the room with understandable confusion. Obviously, I had missed a critical piece of information as I couldn’t seem to understand what I was being apologized to for.

So this was the order of calculations that my foggy brain made in order to work out what was happening.

The first thing my brain thought of was, there is a balding gentleman here and in my distracted state, I have stupidly walked into the men’s bathroom. As I retracted my steps urgently, another piece of calculation occurred which concluded that I couldn’t possibly be this mad, and that this was indeed the women’s bathroom. Alarmingly, my poor brain then tried to deduce if this man had walked into the women’s bathroom by accident and was apologizing for it!

To confirm, my brain started making a few quick observations. He was an inch shorter than me, he was wearing a pair of shorts and a high visibility vest. He also had a bucket of cleaning supplies on the counter near the sink and a mop in his hands. Consequently, my brain hypothesized that he was probably here to clean the bathroom and hence was apologizing that they were currently not available for use. However, a quick glance at the bathroom stalls told me this too was an incorrect deduction and they were currently not being cleaned.

By now I was visibly confused. I looked up at this person again who was staring at me with a strange expression and I stared back hoping for some sort of explanation to manifest itself. It was then that I realized that what they held in their hand was not a mop but a wig which they had been combing when I walked in! It was then that I also realized it was a soft-spoken feminine voice that I had heard and finally was able to put two and two together!

Confusion then gave way to fascination! I have now forgotten how many times I ludicrously looked back and forth between their head and the wig before my brain told me to shake it off and stop being rude! Well, don’t judge me! How often do you walk into the bathroom and find someone combing their wig!? This would certainly be my first.

When she and I had finally understood what was going on, we both nervously laughed at each other and I continued on to the last stall to carry out nature’s orders.

After I came out of the stall to wash my hands, we looked at each other. By this time, she had already put on her wig and we nervously laughed again. As I was leaving the bathroom and in order to ease her awkwardness, I just said, “Nice wig”. She laughed more freely this time but then with a finger to her lips and a serious expression, said, “shh”. I thought, don’t worry lady, your secret’s safe with me, no one will ever know the identity of the cleaning lady who wears a wig!

As I write this, I acknowledge that there are some days when we all feel insecure about a part of our appearance. I think about the number of times I see myself in the mirror with exasperation for having unruly hair and dreaming of soft, silky and lush strands flying in the wind! And now I think, instead I ought to be grateful for having a full head of hair at least. And as I write this, I also regret not telling her that she had absolutely no need to apologise to me! As far as I know, she was just brushing her hair!

Good night

The curly-haired Girl in Pajamas 👩🏻‍🦱