Stale Coffee

Another weekend, another night.  Let me do something different today, lets write a short story instead of poetry; so here I come taking my first short at writing some sort of a story – let’s see how it pans out….

Stale Coffee

Jay never enjoyed coming back to Miami, though he had spent a lot of time during his college years in the city but since then he never felt comfortable in the shadow of Miami. It was difficult to convince his client to meet at his branch office when all the required game players were in the head office next to the beach in Miami. His line of business has never given him much room to choose the rules of the game he played – usually these were decided by the comfort of his clients. He was pretty successful in the business. Though the economic slowdown has some impact on him as well but he was better off than a lot of mates he has known. 

The cab driver was mid aged Mexican – he looked tired with the day’s work and it appeared as if he was looking for his last customer of the day before going back to his home and relaxing with the cold six pack of Carona’s. He kept on complaining about the city traffic most of time and told him it will take more than 90 mins to get him to the Marriott as it was peak traffic time on the highway and traffic was barely moving. Waiting all this time in the cab Jay already started regretting coming back here and that old unflinching feeling came crawling back, suffocating him with the memories of the past as if the stale wind was blowing right though his soul and leaving behind a pungent smell of the past events. He opened up the window of the cab but it didn’t helped either, the traffic was too much to have any kind of positive impact on him, he closed the window after 5 mins only and cabbie gave him the look as if cursing him in a monotone saying “I told you so…..”.

It was spring time of the year and the streets were full of the young teens in their adolescent years having fun of their lives. While coming from the airport to the hotel he saw young couples walking along the road holding hands in hands enjoying the sun set; On reaching the hotel he got his checkin formalities sorted out as soon as possible with the minimal exchange of words with the reception, he was feeling as if the town has refused to greet him and giving him the silent treatment like and uninvited guest at a party.  He went to his room straight away almost jogging, the room was okay and the window opened directly in to the sea view of South Beach. Sun was almost setting and many shades of yellow and crimson were occupying the sky, sea was looking grey as if a unending slab of limestone has been laid across and the waves of water are thrown on it by someone standing at the other side of the shore in an effort to clean all the sand of it. He opened the window and the suddenly the cool sea breeze pinched him all over his body, it was unusually cooler for this time of the year but it helped him in a way of bringing back his mid to present from the automatic mechanical movement he was performing since he entered the hotel. He just realized that he should take a quick shower thinking if the time permits he should visit his favorite sea side joint to gorge on the fish fillet burger with the side of shrimps he loved.

He entered the place – nothing much have appeared to be changed in last five years, it was the same interiors, the same tables and chairs and the same classics being played on the juke box located at the corner next to the facilities. The place was less crowded then the past he thought; maybe it was due to the fact that a lot of new pubs have opened across the street offering young teens opportunity for the binge drinking. He looked around the tables - there were no familiar faces, this helped him relax as he was not planning in getting in touch with any one from the past. He found a small table at the end of deck and moved there slowly there.  It was quite part of the deck and the nearby tables were all empty, he looked at the menu, it was the same, it gave him the feeling of comfort as well as made him nostalgic at the same time.

He ordered his usual and ate it up pretty quickly as well. After meal he decided to stick around for a cup of coffee, he still needed to work on the presentation for tomorrow morning as flight from Texas to Miami was not sufficient for him to prepare the same for the client meeting and it still needed the final touchups to make the kill tomorrow morning.

The waiter who was a young boy in his teens served him the cup and asked if needed more cream or sugar. He looked at him and for the first time he actually noticed his face. He was a young boy in his late teens probably going to college, had good build, blond hair – not short but not long as well, hazel brown eyes, there was a flair of innocence around him which suddenly reminded him of his good old days when he used to flip burger in the beach side cafes to earn some extra cash during spring break; he told him he will need some cream in a smiling polite manner and waiter moved out to get him the cream.

Sun was set long back and he was sipping his coffee slowly and thinking about the work which needs to be done on the presentation and going over and over again in his mind the core issues which require the at most attention during the tomorrow discussion. Suddenly he noticed some one has came, looking at the menu card and giving order to the same waiter, sitting couple of tables away from him. It was difficult to see the face as lights were always dull on the deck, but the voice of the person sheared his thought process right away. This was the voice of the person who he was dreading and dying to hear at the same time. It was Ananya!!!. His first thoughts were of the panic and looking for the ways to exit without being noticed while thinking how Ananya would react seeing him here, after all they had so much history behind them, still he sat there frozen  - like a frozen deer on a highway on a dark night. He felt as if all the eyes in the cafes were suddenly looking at him – asking him the questions which were haunting him for last five years and he dreaded to answer. 

Slowly he regrouped himself and realized she had not seen him as she was sitting with her back towards him. He noticed she was looking beautiful as ever, her long black hair were now trimmed to the shoulder length, she was wearing jeans and some old pink tee, she was not wearing anything warm but carrying a denim jacket with her hanging between the straps of her bag, which in turn was hanging on her chair’s back. She was not the same college gal as he remembered her but the time had added grace to her. He suddenly felt as if he has been moved on to a new universe where his sole existence depended upon talking to her and she was not even aware of the him, as if a wall of bitter harsh past has created a kind of a see through mirror between them where he can see her but she does not have a clue about his presence.  He started thinking now – Shall he go and talk with her, let her know that he is there in the town, how he is feeling, what he felt when he loved her, what he felt when they broke up, how he has felt every morning since last five years…. He did not had the courage, he felt naked - as if someone has stripped him off of all the guts, charisma and confidence by which he has won many hearts in few moments. Still it was an opportunity to make amends, to change his present and future, if he wanted even to a remote shot at peace of mind this was the moment, he had to talk with her, explain her how thing went from bad to worse between them, why he left without letting anyone know where he is going after the fight they had. Time was passing by very very slowly as if was presenting him the opportunity, he suddenly felt the old flame coming back from the past, he realized he still felt the same (may be even more) about her and it was his anger at himself for messing up things so bad that was stopping him from coming back in Miami, he was in denial till now, and still even a glimpse of Ananya was good enough to bring him back to the true reality and on his knees seeking forgiveness. He decided to go to her and take his shot. We walked towards her, holding coffee in his hand and thinking about the reactions which he will provoke on seeing him, he was taking small steps. When he reached behind her back he realized she was holding a young baby in her lap and talking with someone over phone, he did not heard the words but realized she was married and talking with her husband who was parking his car somewhere nearby. Suddenly he felt his coffee was stale, so stale that he can not have a sip of it … He moved back slowly in to his dark table realizing deep inside his heart that his only chance of having peace and happiness is now gone…..

~lokesh v. (XVII)