Norma's Hat

 

If I passed a water meter being used as a hat rack in downtown Birmingham, it probably would not really register with me and I'm sure I would never rescue it and take it home. But, this is what my friend's husband did a few months ago. He brought it home with the proposal that my friend wash it and wear it in the rain. We had a good laugh at this idea of gift-giving.The hat was thrown on a shelf and forgotten.

This particular hat was unwilling to remain ignored. While cleaning out an armoire to make room for medical supplies, the hat reappeared, still in need of some tender loving care. Searching the inside for the washing machine instructions, my friend found something much more interesting - a name and a telephone number:

Norma Brown (205) 967-***.

Being the less inquisitive of the two, I would not have thought twice about it. My friend picked up the phone and called the number. A gentleman answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Is there a Norma at this number?" (pause) "Norma Brown?"

"No. She isn't here.", the voice replied.

My friend, with good intention, explained how she came to call that number. The gentleman told her that his wife was Norma Brown but that she had died in October 2006. My friend offered him the hat, but he declined.

We later speculated how one might react to receiving such a call, a call from one's (possible) painful past that was perpetuated by something as simple as a forgotten hat. The practical answer, we agreed, seemed to be a hat donated before or after her death that for some reason was left on a water meter. Had the hat lived an interesting life of its own, separate from Norma? Had it lived an interesting life together with Norma, separate from Mr. Brown? Was it synchronicity? Had the hat made Norma's phone number available to someone who was likely to seek out Norma's partner to remind him of her spiritual presence?

My friend lives in a historical building that 100-plus years ago was a saloon that housed, determined from its physical evidence, an upstairs brothel. She is always accusing the ghosts of the 'ladies of the night' of stealing her lingerie. People in the south have always been open to the idea of ghosts and spirits and messages from the beyond. Maybe Norma had a message of her own.