they step into the mom and pop coffee shop sweeping away the snow from their shoes on the welcome mat as an old lady greets them at the counter. the guy orders a large black coffee while the girl gets a medium double double. the guy's shaking hands tries to handle his wallet but he's having trouble. he's shaking. the women doesn't know if he's nervous or just cold. hell, two days ago there was a storm and it's still very cold out for early march. the girl seems equally nervous. or is she cold? either way, the young couple sit down and take a corner booth in the little cafe down the street from the hospital.
as the guy takes off his hat and brushes off his winter jacket, he asks the girl about the next hour. "what are we going to do, jane? this is going to be a long-ass hour, you know".
jane is starring down at the table and starts to look over the day old crossword puzzle that's half done from yesterday's edition of the local paper.
jason continues to stare at jane. "jane!" his voice gets a bit louder and starts to tremble. "what are we going to do? they won't have the tests back for another hour"
"what are we supposed to do" jane snapped at jason as she throws down her fist onto the table, shaking the still filled coffee mug and knocking the stir spoons off the table.
jason is shocked by jane's anger. jane looks up after a minute of stunned silence. "sorry. we just have to wait, jason. just wait. trust me. it'll go by faster than you know. this might be the last hour we have for ourselves for the rest of our lives".
jason looks at jane with forgiving eyes. "that's for sure" he says under his breath.
the couple sit at the small table for most of the afternoon. they're tests were ready a few hours ago, but something about the silence and the peace they're experiencing in the cafe is something they don't really want to leave. just yet. after all, they don't know if they have to give it up when they find out the answers to the tests they took just a few hours before.
most of the afternoon the couple kept to themsleves. reading, just looking at the busy streets outside, going for a smokes, thinking. it wasn't that they didn't like to communicate but they just wanted it that way. silent.
jason looks over at the cover of the cafe's menu browsing the lunch specials. he spots the name of the joint. `sophie's' it says in a yellow bubble letter kind of font.
"sophie". jason says.
"what?" jane clues back in and wonders what jason just said.
"sophie. that's a nice name, eh?"
"for a girl, i guess. yeah." jane says after thinking for a moment.
"yeah. i like that name".
jane and jason gather their belongings and get up from the table. they put a tip on the table and head out of the door - less nervous as when they came in.
No comments:
Post a Comment