My friend Joe and I walked to the Coffeehouse On Cherry Street one recent chilly, bright day, and wedged into the bottleneck at the cash register. An older gentleman in front of us ordered a decaf.
“Yes, sir. One decaf,” replied the brisk and appealingly bohemian-looking young barista.
“But don’t tell me it’s decaf!” he added with some urgency.
“Oh, no, sir! Of course not! It’ll just be a couple of minutes while I brew a pot of, uh….regular coffee.” She made little quotation marks with her fingers around the word “regular”. While she got his coffee brewing, Joe and I passed the time by admiring the visible parts of her surprisingly tasteful tattoos and scanning the room for familiar faces and available seats. A quick scan located only one visible empty seat –in the midst of a noisy group of caffeinated teenagers who sounded like a large flock of mating shorebirds.
Once we’d completed our purchases, with full cups carefully in hand, we searched through a noisy warren of alcoves and niches furnished with comfy-looking mismatched seats, all taken, and garage sale tables, ending, finally, at a massive dining room table with four chairs, only one of which was being used –by a young man intensely preoccupied with his laptop and his latte.
“Hello, there,” Joe said, all smiles, as we sat. “Hope you don’t mind if we join you!” If you know Joe, you know that wasn’t meant as a question. Not even a rhetorical one.
The intense young man looked up, startled. “Well, actually, I have some friends joining me. Sorry. They–”
“Well,” I said, “If they ever arrive, we’ll be sure and try to make room for them. What’re you working on there?” I nodded toward his laptop –all smiles.
“What? That’s not really—“
“Because we could help. We’re very good. Especially Joe here –this is Joe, I’m Richard—Joe here is actually a professional teacher, so if you need any help there with your assignment or whatever it is—“
“It’s not an—“
“I’m sorry. How presumptuous of me. Here I am offering your professional services, Joe, without even consulting you.”
“Well, you haven’t talked price yet, so no harm done.” Joe looked down his glasses at the two of us.
“So, young man –I didn’t catch your name—you want to talk price? Hmm?”
His startled expression hadn’t changed. He took a deep breath, with a somewhat ragged edge, no doubt from too much caffeine. “All…. I…. want…. is to…. oh, never mind.” He clapped shut the laptop, pulled the plug, stood and left without replying when Joe asked him if we could deliver any messages to his friends.
“Well, that didn’t take long,” Joe observed once we were alone. He put his feet up on the recently vacated chair and took a sip.
Just then, the older gentleman appeared at our table, “regular” coffee in hand, and a hopeful look on his face. As he opened his mouth to speak, I pre-empted him. “Sorry, sir. Our wives are just parking. They’ll be in in a moment. Sorry.” He shuffled off and sat down, frowning, in the midst of the shrill teens, which had a temporary calming effect on them that the rest of us appreciated as we sipped our coffees, and spoke of many things.
2 responses so far ↓
elaine // March 31, 2007 at 1:00 pm |
This is why I like my coffee on my porch.
Jerry Hawkins // March 28, 2008 at 10:06 pm |
A very recent visit due to an invatation by a good friend, Norris landed me for the very first time inside the walls of the Coffee House on Cherry Street.
Over the cell phone Norris gave me his usuall “OnStar” directions to said Coffee House.
And there it was..!
It’s a Comfie – do atmosphere and they offer great coffee’s and tea’s. The girls behind the counter are very nice and most certainly prompt to attend to each individual’s needs who enter, in my experience.
Good stuff I must say, their Tea’s….!
And so as Norris and I sat and chatted for awhile about greatly prominent ideas and discuss..he later introduced me to a lady, Michelle…working dilgently behind her Dell Laptop Computer.
Now this lady was quite an experience, in as much as her interests and endevours are so much of a different span of experiences than the average, mundane, dull or other wise boring people whom I so often meet in life. Forensics! Whew…!
As we discussed many famous people of criminal mindedness, she revealed herself to be quite well versed in law and forensic medicine.
All during my conversations with Michelle, Norris insistantly twiddled with his eyeglass ear peice in efforts to use the tips to push specific buttons on his unusual Cell Phone. He’s got some kind of Wi-fi sorta who ditie on his phone. Pretty Kewl Beans I would say.
Anywho, this Coffee House on Cherry Street seems to have an intelligent crowd of people who just like to hang out there.
Thanks for the memories Norris…!