"A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face."

Maya Angelou, American poet and author (1928 – 2014)

Milly slowly slid open the door to Rain On My Parade and poked her head inside. The fragrant smell of mint tea wafted across the shop and brought a sense of calm to her turbulent mind.

A young woman in her late twenties with short brown hair tied back in a bun swept broken glass off the floor. She had a broad nose, and there was a rosyness to her cheeks that gave her a youthful complexion despite being a decade older than Milly. She wore a stained brown apron over top of a plain white shirt and black trousers, and her thin round glasses were perched whimsically on the tip of her nose.

The woman hummed softly to herself, oblivious to Milly’s presence, as she swayed her narrow hips and tapped her feet to a tune only she could hear.

Milly quickly stowed the axe in her inventory, breathing a sigh of relief that the woman was safe. She slipped inside before her tendency towards introversion could take over.

“Umm…hello?” she said uncertainly, feeling awkward as she interrupted the woman’s dance.

Startled, the woman dropped her broom to the floor. It landed with a mighty thump, and the sound carried across the empty lobby.

She relaxed as she saw Milly standing in her doorway in her damp, torn hoodie, clearly exhausted from lack of sleep. She gave her a friendly smile.

“Oh, you startled me. I’m afraid I don’t have any coffee ready. We're closed right now.”

The woman’s voice had a genuine cheerfulness to it—her sweet smile and welcoming demeanor finely tuned after years of serving customers.

She’s…closed? We’ve been transported to another world, and she’s worried about running her shop?!

“Though, if you want, I could put on some tea. After everything that happened today, I can’t sleep, and a bit of company would be welcome.”

“Umm…sure,” she said, slipping through the door and carefully tiptoeing across the shards of shattered glass. Upended tables and plastic chairs were strewn throughout the tiny shop, and the stockroom at the back was half torn apart. “Are you okay? What happened here?

“Oh, there was a fight this afternoon that spilled into my coffee shop. A couple of my tables were knocked over in the scuffle before people remembered to be civil with each other. Just a couple of broken teacups. Nothing to worry about.”

How is she so calm?

Milly pointed towards her stockroom. “And that?”

“Oh, that? Three men helped themselves to my coffee beans,” the woman said, shrugging it off. “People do love their caffeine.”

“You were robbed?!”

“Well, given our situation, I think it’s called ‘looted’,” Rain answered with a defiant chuckle. “I’m sure my beans will find their way back to me. Unless someone has an industrial coffee grinder in their office, the beans won’t be of much use to them.”

“I wouldn’t want to be them after people hear there’s no more coffee,” Milly added, captivated by the woman’s positivity and optimism. She felt a touch of envy and wished she could feel the same way, if only for a moment. “It won’t end well for the thieves.”

The woman giggled as she slipped behind her counter. “That’s true. In the meantime, I still have tea. Would you like some?”

Tea. The last time I had tea was that snowy winter night at the youth shelter when I was sixteen. It was almost flavorless—little more than hot leaf juice—but at least it warmed me up inside. This barista…she looks so happy just to have someone in her shop.

She reached down and grabbed the broom off the floor.

“I would love some tea,” she said, wanting to comfort the woman. “You put on the kettle, and I’ll sweep. I’m Milly, by the way.”

“I’m Rain,” the woman replied, ducking behind the counter to fill her small kettle. “Rain Desjarlais. This is my coffeehouse, Rain On My Parade.”

“Odd name for a shop,” she observed, sweeping the broken glass into a neat little pile.

It feels good to be useful. And a bit surreal, after everything that happened today. No monsters. No magic. Just a broom and broken glass.

“It’s named for all the people who said I was crazy to open my own coffeehouse at the Castle of Glass. But I did it anyway. It took every penny I’d saved and more. It may not look like much, but it’s all mine. Well, mine and the bank’s, I suppose.”

Rain watched the kettle absentmindedly as she flipped through a stack of overdue bills piled high on the counter. A touch of sadness flashed in her eyes, piercing through her optimism.

“I only opened a couple months ago,” Rain sighed, as Milly swept and listened. "Business has been slow. Slower than I’d expected.”

It was her dream, and it was falling apart before it ever had time to flourish.

“But at least I had time for my other passion,” Rain added chipperly.

“Your other passion?” she inquired.

“I’m a tea blender,” she said proudly. “I create new varieties of tea by combining different ingredients. It’s all quite experimental, and most don’t taste very good, but those that do make it all worthwhile. I even try to collect my own ingredients.”

Rain glimpsed at her ransacked stockroom. “They didn’t take any of my teas,” she said, with a touch of regret. “I don’t know if I should be happy or insulted.”

Milly swept the last of the glass into the dustpan and slipped behind the counter. The shop felt different from here—as if she were invading Rain’s privacy.

“Where should I…” she asked, pointing at the glass-filled dustpan.

“Oh, in here,” Rain said as she dragged the trashcan out from beneath the counter. She upended the pan, and the shards fell into the bin, tinkling as they struck the bottom. “Thanks, that’s a big help.”

“What’s next to clean up?” she asked. “I’ve got a lot of nervous energy to burn off. I can’t sleep either.”

“These are next,” Rain exclaimed with rebellious abandon as she picked up the stack of unpaid bills and hurled them into the trashcan. Her laughter filled the tiny shop. “Silver linings, right? No more banks means no more bills to pay. I can spend all my time focused on coffee and customers now!”

Rain glanced at her stockroom. “Well, maybe not coffee. Just customers.”

“And you’ll have lots of them now,” Milly encouraged. “You don’t have any more competition. You’re the only game in town.”

“A monopoly!” Rain giggled. “I’m the Starbucks of wherever the hell we are.”

They laughed together, the joke slicing through the tension and tragedy of the day. It felt like they’d given each other permission to find the hidden joy beneath all the sorrow and fear.

In that moment, Milly decided she liked Rain.

The kettle whistled on the counter, and Rain snagged two teacups off the shelf. “Milly, can you pick up the tables while I prepare our tea?”

“On it,” she said, ducking out from behind the counter and grabbing the end of the first oak table.

She heaved hard and instantly regretted it. Between her level-up and the bonus from her new ring, she grossly misjudged her enhanced strength. She lifted the table off the ground and nearly hurled it into Rain’s window.

Milly jerked her head towards Rain in a panic and felt relieved when she saw Rain looking the other way. Slowly, and very intentionally, she set the table down and moved onto the next one.

I forgot about the ring. This is going to take some getting used to.

“Do you take milk or honey?” Rain asked, as she loaded up a serving tray.

“Umm…” she stalled, having no clue what people put in tea. She sighed and went with the truth. “Honestly Rain, I have no idea. I’ve never had real tea before. Just watered-down hot leaf juice."

Rain gave an excited gasp and clapped her hands together. “A tea virgin? Oh my god! Don’t worry, you’re in safe hands. I’ll take care of everything. I’ve got the perfect—highly experimental—blend for your first time.”

Rain added the tea bags and carried the tray over to the table. Milly sat down as Rain placed a cup in front of each of them. “Tea is up,” she exclaimed as she sat across from Milly. “Enjoy!”

Milly lifted the cup to her nose and inhaled its scent.

Berries. Mint. And…something else?

She looked to Rain for an answer.

Rain lifted a finger to her nose. “Nope, not telling. It’s a Rain Desjarlais secret. You’ll have to figure it out.”

She tentatively took her first sip of real tea…

And its warmth filled her up inside, stealing away the nightmares of the day. Her muscles relaxed, and she slumped down her seat, hands clenched around the cup.

“Well?” Rain asked, excitedly.

“It’s so good,” she purred with genuine appreciation. Against the backdrop of today’s anarchy, the tea felt like an anchor to a normal life. To a home she never had.

So many people are grieving for home right now. For loved ones they are separated from. Husbands. Wives. Children. And yet…I’m not…

The thought had been buried in the back of her mind all night, just out of reach. Rain’s tea watered it, and it grew into an undeniable reality that she didn’t want to face.

Despite the fear, the desperation, and the anger this nightmare had unleashed within her, she had, not once, truly longed for home.

Did my life hold such little value that I can lose it in an instant and have no desire to find it again?

The dark thought made her frown, and she set down her cup.

“Changed your mind about the taste?” Rain asked, inspecting Milly’s tea. “Not as good on the second sip? It does have a slightly bitter aftertaste.”

“No, it's wonderful, Rain. It’s not the tea. It’s just…a dark thought I can’t shake.”

Rain gave an understanding smile, which quickly shifted to excitement. “You know, I haven’t named this blend yet. I should call it ‘Introspection Tea’. Or the ‘Dark Thoughts Mixture’. Teas are always named after peaceful things, like Morning Glory or Lemon Sunrise. Those names don’t really fit the world we’ve found ourselves in, do they? We need a gritty name for dark days ahead.”

Milly blinked in puzzlement and started to laugh.

In a world of magic and monsters, she wants to name tea. Well, why not? It’s not any crazier than anything else that happened today.

She felt her dark thoughts recede, pushed back by the contentment she’d found in the tiny coffeehouse.

“How about Dark Introspection?” she offered, combining Rain’s two names. “The tea for the gothic soul.”

Rain jumped up from her chair and dashed over to the counter, grabbing a black marker. She snatched the tin of tea off the shelf and printed its new name on the lid. “Done! A new tea for a new world. The first of many to come.”

“Mountain, Ocean, Jungle, and Prairie. Imagine all the ingredients out there. Perhaps even some undiscovered ones,” Milly suggested. “A thousand teas waiting to be created.”

“Yes!” exclaimed Rain, emboldened. Her eyes gazed out the window towards the sandy eastern beach, and she raised her cup. “To many more blends in the days ahead.”

“And to the finest coffeehouse I’ve ever been to,” Milly added, genuine delight reflected in her eyes.

“Wait, how many coffeehouses have you been to? You said you’ve never had tea before.”

She gave Rain a sly smile, took another sip of Dark Introspection, and let her anxious thoughts slip away one by one.

The Non-Canonical Aftermath:

"Why do I feel so jittery?" Milly asks, bouncing in her seat.

"Oh," Rain says, laughing, "This blend had a lot of caffeine. I probably should have started you on something herbal."

"I need more. More!"

"What have you done, Rain?" shouts the Author. "Milly's bad enough without caffeine. Milly, put down that table! Milly!"

Character Art by Ayammbetutu (vgen.co/ayammbetutu)