THE DEADLINE CAFE EPISODE #2
READER FRIENDS: This is the second episode of a serialized story that will take us through the summer. We will be running two episodes on Wednesdays and two on Sundays. Please see “Other Stuff” for more.
The note read “90 Days.”
But what was it? Ultimatum? Promise? Or threat?
He tried not to think about it. Instead, Hank started up the grinder. French roast today. Fair trade. He loved putting his hand into the canvas bag and feeling the beans slip all around his fingers, feeling their smoothness. A Chinese artist put 100 million hand painted porcelain sunflower seeds in the Tate Modern in London. When Hank read that, he told Lissa, his number one Barista, that he would have used coffee beans.
Some morning rituals are practical and others more spiritual. Check the brewers. Take the cups out of the washer. Put out the silverware and fill the water urn. This working meditation ended abruptly. The outer door opened up and Hank heard boot stomping and that familiar craggy old voice.
“You’re late! No wonder that Bobbin’ for Donuts place across the street gets more business than you! Hell of a way to run a business. I’ll tell you, a trained cappuccino monkey from the Lincoln Park Zoo could run this joint better.”
“Good morning, Professor!”
“What’s ‘good’ about it? We’re in the thick of winter, there’s a blizzard coming, people are out there right in front of your little café here, fightin’ over parking spots, and American education’s going straight down the tubes. Don’t get me started. Get me a cup of coffee, will you? None of that latte, frappe, grande nonsense. Just coffee, regular, medium. And black. What’s this? Good.”
The professor nodded when he saw the white mug, centered on the round table with one napkin. And before he could ask, Hank put a copy of the New York Times right there next to it. Hank knew the professor had him trained pretty well, but he also knew the old man made the place interesting. After all, the professor knew everything—just ask him—even that the café used to be a cobbler shop. “Still is,” he’d mutter, “full of lost soles and rundown heels.”
Hank knew the best coffee shops were those that had characters like the professor. Some places had good coffee, wireless, fresh baked donuts and sorbet dishes with perfect yogurt and hand-picked strawberries. But the best cafes worked only if they pulled in some of the eccentrics who made a place interesting, brought their own stories with them and became the center of new stories themselves. And those places with no characters, no stories? They closed quickly and were long gone by the time you tried to find them again.
When the professor spied a brown packet on the adjoining table, he began railing about the myth of raw sugar. Hank didn’t have time to take the professor’s debate bait, so the professor did a solo as Hank filled the first stainless steel thermos with soy milk. He expected the professor to start in on soy beans and how they didn’t produce milk any more than….
“Bad enough you put this so-called raw sugar out on the table even though it’s nothing more than dirty white sugar, but now you let people write down phone numbers on it and put it back in the bowl?”
The professor was squinting at the packet. Hank looked over his shoulder.
89 DAYS
“Want to explain why you’re letting people scribble on the merchandise?”
Hank shook his head and took the small brown square from the professor and shrugged an apology. He didn’t want to have a conversation just now. He had his work cut out for him if he was going to make that ninety-day deadline…or figure out exactly what that “90 Days” meant. Change that--now “89 Days.”
EPISODES #3 AND #4 WILL POST THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 19.
