“Does the cafe ever get busy?” It was Lucas’ second day of work and much like the previous day, there was not much going on.
“It’s much busier in the morning. Quite hectic, actually. Valerie and I sometimes have trouble keeping up,” Emilio said with a smile. Lucas imagined a morning rush in the cafe. The thought of Emilio and Valerie being swamped with customers demanding their morning coffee made him feel bad that he could only come in the afternoon.
“Sorry. I wish I could be of more help,” said Lucas. Emilio was confused on why Lucas sounded as if he was guilty.
The cafe door opened and a group of students walked in, talking amongst themselves. Lucas recognized all of them to be in the Nascenshire Scholars program. Lucas wanted to shrink away; he didn’t want them to recognize him or wonder why he suddenly wasn’t in the program this year. Most of the students were looking at the menu, though a few of them were looking directly at him.
They ordered as a group, and none of them made any mention of recognizing him. However, after making their orders and walking to the other side of the cafe, he noticed that they would occasionally glance at him. Lucas tried to hear what they were saying and read their lips, but to no avail. Their faces began to move closer as they began to huddle, but Lucas managed to see their facial expressions as they talked. Whatever they were talking about must have been dramatic, as some of them began to look surprised and shocked as their conversation carried out.
As the time passed by, the occasional customer would come in. A mom came in with her toddler son to get a little treat, and the little boy’s indecisiveness bought Lucas time to look through the money box and prepare the transaction. A middle aged man who looked like a professor came in and ordered a black coffee. He was in no rush and was quite patient as Lucas took his cash and gathered his change. Then, the door opened and as Lucas looked up to say “welcome,” the person he saw surprised him. It was Maria. She was equally shocked to see Lucas behind the counter.
“Crazy seeing you here,” Maria said playfully as she walked up to the counter. Lucas didn’t expect Maria to look happy seeing him. The previous night, Lucas had emailed Maria that he could no longer be in the journal club, with his only explanation being “other obligations have popped up.” Maria looked up at the menu. “Can I get two iced vanilla lattes? Irene said it’s good. She’s actually the one who sent me here on a coffee run.” Lucas scribbled down the order in the notepad with a slight smile. “Also, I got your email last night.” Lucas’ smile disappeared. “Can’t believe you traded the club for this cafe. Irene should have never told you about this place,” Maria said in a joking tone. It was obvious that she wasn’t holding anything against Lucas, but Lucas still felt bad about suddenly leaving the club. When he was writing the email to Maria, he thought it seemed a bit rude to resign in that way, but he still sent it anyway. He couldn’t bring himself to match Maria’s mood.
“I should have spoken to you about this in person. But I didn’t know how. And I didn’t think I would ever run into you ever again.”
“I heard about what happened.” Maria’s voice was serious now. Lucas knew exactly what she was referring to. “I heard it from someone just today. I was shocked, and I didn’t want to believe it.” Lucas looked down at the counter. He couldn’t bear to look at her as shame began to fill his mind. “But it made your email make more sense,” Maria continued. “What you sent me, that was also surprising, but I want you to know that I get it. Life happens, and new priorities come up. Other people may think of you in some way, but I’m sure you have your worries now, too. Don’t worry about us. Focus on what’s important to you right now.”
“Alright,” Lucas said in a weak voice. He didn’t know if he deserved this kind of forgiveness. He was still looking down, and he noticed Maria pulling a credit card out of her wallet. “Oh, sorry, we actually don’t take credit card.”
“Oh, dang. That kind of sucks.” Maria lightly laughed and began looking through the cash in her wallet. She handed him a ten dollar bill and watched Lucas struggle with the money box. “What is that? There’s no cash register?”
“The owner is, um, old-fashioned.” Lucas didn’t know how to explain why the cafe was this way. He handed Maria her change and tore off the note with her order off the notepad.
“Well, good luck with everything. You seem to have a lot on your hands.” She looked at the money box again before walking off to the other side of the cafe.
“Was that your friend?” Emilio appeared beside Lucas. He heard their interaction.
“No, just someone from school,” Lucas said as he handed the written order to Emilio.
“Did something happen at school?” Emilio sounded like a nosy parent.
“No. You don’t need to know.” Lucas stuttered, and Emilio only smiled and got to making Maria’s order. Lucas heard Emilio mutter to himself “old-fashioned” and laugh.
Valerie would come in and out of the break room. Sometimes she would help Emilio prepare orders, sometimes she would do paperwork in the break room, and sometimes she would sit behind the counter and work on a clipboard. Lucas wondered why there was so much paperwork for her to deal with, but he didn’t know anything about running a cafe and assumed it was typical duties.
The cafe was beginning to become emptier, with only two people sitting in the cafe. Valerie eventually got up and out of the counter and announced, “The cafe is closing for the night. Thank you for coming.” Lucas was perplexed. They were not supposed to be closing anytime soon. The two people listened to Valerie, gathering their belongings and waving to Valerie as they left. Once the last customer had exited the cafe, Valerie began wiping down the entrance door.
“Emilio, can you set the menu up?” Valerie called from the door. Emilio took out the ladder and climbed up to the chalkboards. He wiped down the right chalkboard, erasing the words. He then started wiping down the left chalkboard, which had nothing on it. Like some kind of magic trick, the other menu began appearing—the one that Lucas had seen the previous night. It was as if Emilio was wiping off a layer that had kept the menu hidden, but that didn’t really make sense since the words appeared to be written in chalk. Lucas had never seen anything so bizarre.
Valerie made her way back to behind the counter, organizing the equipment and cleaning off some cups. Emilio descended down the ladder and folded it up. Lucas didn’t know if he should ask about what he just saw; maybe it was his own mistake and he didn’t really understand what he saw. The entrance door opened and an old man came in. He waved to Valerie as he slowly inched towards the counter. He took a look at Lucas and stopped.
“Who are you?”
“I’m a new worker. I’m the one who takes the orders now.” Lucas assumed that the man could read his name tag if he wanted to know his name. The man stared at Lucas for a while.
“What…” The man’s voice struggled to come out, and he continued to look at Lucas. Lucas turned to Emilio, and Emilio looked nervous, as if he was anticipating something bad was going to happen.
“Will it be your usual order today, sir?” Valerie came over with a smile, snatching the notepad from Lucas’ hands.
“Oh, um… yes, that would be lovely.” The old man seemed to snap back into reality. Valerie wrote something down and handed the note to Emilio.
“Why don’t you have a seat over there,” Valerie said as she stuck her arm out to the table nearest to the counter where customers pick up their orders. The old man inched his way over.
The next customer was a woman wearing a dark cloak. She came up to the counter and quickly told Lucas her order.
“Lizard cocktail,” said the woman in a direct tone. Lucas looked behind him at the menu before writing down the order.
“Will that be all?”
“Hm,” the woman’s voice droned as she rummaged through her purse. “There’s something missing.” Lucas didn’t know what she was referring to. Did she forget what she was meaning to order? Is her wallet missing in her purse?
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” asked Lucas. He didn’t really know how he could help her; he only asked that out of politeness.
“Not me. You. You’re the one with something missing.” She handed Lucas a red ten dollar note, to which Lucas grabbed.
“I don’t know what you mean. I’m not missing anything,” Lucas said as he went through the money box. He was beginning to get into the flow of using it. The woman watched him as he gathered her change.
“You are. Maybe it’s not so urgent for you to realize right now, but there’s something missing in you.” She took her change and walked off. Lucas felt around his pockets before handing Emilio the order.
Hours passed by, with customers coming and going. Everyone who came in seemed to be wearing lots of thick layers, and with the occasional bumping sound coming from the entrance door, Lucas assumed it had gotten windy outside. The bumping eventually caused the bell that was hung up at the door to fall off.
“I’ll go get that.” Lucas figured that he could set the bell back up since Emilio and Valerie were occupied with making orders. He got to the door and picked the bell off the floor. He looked at the top of the door to figure out how to correctly place the bell, and he opened up the door to look at the other side.
“Hey!” Valerie shouted from across the counter.
Lucas looked into the darkness outside. He couldn’t see the sidewalk, the street, or the lampposts. The air was cold, and the wind gently breezed across his face. He began to step out to see if he could find anything, but he felt a hand forcefully grab his arm.
“Stop! Where do you think you’re going?” Valerie pulled him back into the cafe. “You’re going to get lost out there!” Lucas looked back at her, a bit taken aback.
“You’re not scared?” Emilio asked. “What did you see out there?” His calm expression contrasted Valerie’s frantic look.
“I couldn’t see anything. It was so dark. What happened?”
“You’re not like us. If you go out there, you’ll wander off into nothingness and never find your way back.” Valerie put her hands on her hips and took a deep breath. “You can’t go out unless I prepare the door for you.”
“What?” Lucas was beginning to feel scared. He looked at Valerie and Emilio, looked into their eyes, and felt something was different about them.
“Let’s get back to work.” Valerie began walking back to the counter. Lucas and Emilio looked at each other, and they both followed behind her.
Lucas stood at the counter, pondering over what he saw outside and what Valerie said to him. He looked at Emilio, who was making a drink. He then shifted his view to Valerie, who had put on huge rubber gloves and was aggressively scrubbing mugs in the sink. Who are they? What are they? Lucas wanted to learn more about them, but his fear overpowered his curiosity, and he didn’t know if it was appropriate to ask them about themselves. Besides, these were work relationships. He was simply there to work and receive money in return. Valerie took off her right glove and checked her watch.
“It’s time for you to go home. Thanks for your work today.” Valerie walked to the entrance and Lucas carefully followed behind her. Valerie wiped the door knob, wiggled a key in the lock, and stood to the side. Lucas felt frozen. “You can go now,” Valerie said as she opened the door for him. Lucas stepped outside and the door closed behind him. The lampposts illuminated the sidewalk and he could see he was on 8th Street.
Lucas walked to his apartment, looking around his surroundings. As he finished up his homework at his desk, he would occasionally look out the window. He got in bed and faced the window, looking at the dim light from the lampposts peaking through the curtains until he fell asleep.
Comments (0)
See all