The Coffee Shop Dialogs

 Monday.

"Why would anyone cheat on you? I  hear that one a lot. People think I'm a good person I guess.... or that I'm able to control someone else's feelings... I don't really know for certain if you can even call it cheating." she shrugged and looked down,  "before I knew it, he was with her and I was old news... it had only been two weeks... I never heard from him again."

Charlie sat in silence.

"He left before I could tell him about the baby."

She looked out the coffee shop window. When she saw that he didn't look shocked, she continued. "He said he was with someone else. That was it, I suppose."

"What did you do?"

"What was I supposed to do?!"

"Right."

"He wouldn't pick up his phone.... and he planned a party."

"He planned a party?!"

"Yeah, I knew then that he had some issues."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't to tell all his friends that he might be a father. I mean can you imagine?!", she let out a soft chuckle but her smile quickly faded. "Obviously I wasn't invited. I'm pretty sure he's a con-artist. They still don't know."

"He needed something to do, I guess."

"Who does that?!"

"Lots of people throw parties, Liz. All the time. It's a pretty common practice."

 She looked at him and grinned. She liked this kid.

"Robert was there."

"At the party?!"

"No, when I found out. He drove here from Utah just to bring me a cupcake."

They both laughed. 

Liz looked at him over her warm cup of chai. "It was the sweetest thing anyone had done for me in a long, long time."

"So what did the doctor say?" Charlie's previously sarcastic tone was replaced with concern.

"I'm not dying."

"Well, that's good to hear! No... seriously.... are you going through with it?"

The sounds of cups crashing to the floor made them jerk.

"She's new here." he mused, "I think she's nervous about all the customers with tattoos."

Liz grinned up at Charlie. He looked so much harder on the outside than he was behind his skin. She was relieved that he wouldn't judge her. It made it easier to tell him about her life.

"I'm pretty sure it was just an accident."

"The boyfriend or what the doctor told you?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Ha! Um... Both? NO Silly, the teacups exploding all over the floor just now!" She rolled her eyes, but knew that he could tell she wasn't serious. She liked that about him, too. He could always tell...

"You know a lot of girls have this problem."

"And you would know this......  How?!" she laughed.

Charlie chuckled. "Well,  I would assume so.... I mean... um... it can't be that uncommon from what I can tell. I'm sure it happens a lot..."

Liz looked down at her belly.

"She said I could have surgery or take some pills."

"Will it help?"

"Will what help?"

"Will taking pills or having surgery take care of it?"

"Oh... well, um... I'd like to think so! I mean she is a doctor... she should know."

"Right."

"I think I'm going to wait though and not do anything."

"Won't it just get worse?"

"I thought you were the expert on these things, Charlie?"

"I never should've seen him that night..."

"You didn't know this would happen, Liz."

She sighed and kept drinking her tea.

"So, um.... are you gonna get it removed?" he edged his seat closer to hers.

"I don't know what I was thinking... but you're right, how was I supposed to know that needle wasn't clean?"

"Heck, I dunno Lizzie..." Chuck's eye fell to the floor, "at least you can't see it all the time."

"Yeah."

"And, I mean... it could be worse..." He smiled at her.

"I guess... it's pretty gross looking from all the infection." Liz admitted.

"Does it hurt?"

"Sometimes, not right now though. The doctor put some ointment on it and bandaged it up."

"I'll bandage you one!"

"What?!"

"Uh... haha... Nevermind."

 Liz stared at Charlie. He didn't even look awkward about it. He was just as relaxed as when they first got here. 

"What kind of person is allergic to tattoos?!"

"You're not allergic... you just have bad luck."

"Bad luck? This isn't luck... this is my body!"

"Mmm... True."

"I guess if this hadn'tve happened, I wouldn't have known my skin would be so volatile..."

They both sat in silence with their drinks in their hands.

"Well, at least you won't scare that waitress whenever you come in here..."

Liz just looked at Charlie. He was grinning and thumbing over his shoulder at where the crash had come from.

"Right. My entire reasoning for getting rid of this tatoo is so I don't scare away the local coffee sellers."

"Hey! That's what some people might think, ya know... I'm just sayin' is all..."

"Have I ever cared what other people think, Charles?"

Her eyes flashed a smile.

"Haha. Right." 

Liz finished her chai and smiled as she set the cup down carefully.

Tuesday.

"Are you disappointed I am not a pirate?"

"Well, I was kind of hoping your career would take off and I'd get to do some swashbuckling with you, but ya know... a man can dream."

Liz laughed and Charlie chuckled. 

"Does listening to American Football as my alarm clock make me hip then?" she mused to herself. She often spoke her thoughts more than she realized them. They had been talking about music and culture and perceptions of what it means to be cool for a couple hours already. Their coffee mugs had rings of unwanted sugar stains and leftover thoughts floating in them.

"So the other day I was listening to this song and I showed it to Mike. All I knew was that I loved that kind of music and I always had, when suddenly two simple words were uttered from his mouth and everything changed."

"What were the words?"

"Pedal Steel."

"He gave it a name! I never even knew my love had a name and suddenly I could obtain my love at the click of a button."  Liz's eyes kept getting wider as she stared at Charlie.

"It was like I had entered the enlightenment era, all because of "pedal steel". Suddenly I could research and access and discover this genre of music I had always listened to, was so familiar with, yet apparently never really, truly knew..." she shook her head in disbelief. "I guess you can be so close to something, yet with no name for it... never be able to define what it was you were with..."

"Exposure does not equal knowledge." Charlie stated.

"I never even knew it had a name. I never thought it needed one.... I always just called it Wonderful and left it at that."

He smiled at her way of thinking. "You can be around something your whole life and never really know what it is until someone puts a name to it."

"Yeah, thats what happened when I talked to Mike I guess."

"Thats deep." 

"Maybe I'll start taking classes again?" Liz thought aloud.

"You should! You're a lifelong learner as it is!" he smiled.

"I think I'm gonna go listen to some of this music now.."

"Alright, good to see you again."

"Bye Charlie."

"See ya Liz."

Wednesday.

Charlie stood over Liz as she poured over a book and contemplated his approach. He had just come in to grab some tea and noticed her in the corner; her small frame taking up the least amount of space amidst the bags and books and winter clothes left in piles around where she had stationed herself. 

"Fancy seeing you here at this hour."

Liz looked up at the familiar voice and her smile beamed. 

He was glad he had interrupted her if only for that.

"Hi!! Yeah.... I have this book for this class... that I'm avoiding getting into."

She shifted her stuff off the couch next to her to make room for him to sit and kept talking, "so I came here to read THIS instead!"

Liz held up a novel with a picture of a gladiator on the front. "Its not as barbaric as it looks."

"Your homework seems to be..."

"I know. I haven't seen you in ages... Life's been kinda crazy. School and work. Ya' know? Blah blah blah. No excuses... I know, I'm horrible. I never come here anymore. "

 She looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time.

"Yeah, its been while." Charlie took the seat.

"I'm sorry."

"So what are you avoiding studying this time?"

"Metaphysics. Just kidding. I dont even know what that is."

"I have to read this book on Chinese Linguistics."

"And you'd rather read about gladiators killing people instead."

"Nooo! That is NOT what this book is about, silly... well... not really... I mean there is some gladitorial spillage of blood, but its not entirely about that. Just about this one guy that earns his freedom and what he does with it as he journeys home."

"Sounds like you."

"I have never killed anyone! Well, not yet at least."
She grinned and lifted her eyes from her book up to his face.

"However, my favorite tree is dying!"
Liz said this as if she had been waiting to tell someone that she knew who killed JFK.

"You sound way too happy about this. Thats kind of morbid isnt it?"

"It's leaves are dying, I mean. They change colors this time of year to a beautiful yellow gold. I love it! It's so enchanting."

"What kind of tree is it?"

"I dunno?! I never asked him. How should I know!?

"You should find out."

"Why?"

"So you can have one of your own someday. Plant one in your yard or something."

"No, I dont think I'd like that."

"But you just said it was your favorite and how beautiful it was and how much you loooooved this tree?!"

"Yeah, but I dont want my own. It would take the wonder out of it. These trees arent anybody's."

"What."

"They are on the side of the road. They dont belong to anyone... they're everyones and nobody can claim them, really."

"So you dont want to know what kind of tree they are because they're homeless?"

"Um, not exactly." Liz shifted her weight and leaned forward.

"Because if I find out more information about them... then theres no mystery left, it would just be a replica tree in my front yard. It wouldnt be special anymore. It would be like I was trying to claim something for myself that wasnt mine to take in the first place"

She paused and looked out the window.
 "Those trees are free... they're there because God put them there. If I planted one... it just wouldnt be the same."

Charlie smiled.

He'd never met anyone like her before. 

 He was scared to think of never seeing her again, but knew he couldn't stop her from going.

It had been months since they last sat here together.

She was on a journey.

He sensed from the moment they first met that nothing and no one would ever want to stop this girl.

She was so much freedom, there was no way of capturing her light.

And no one who really knew her would ever want to.

Thursday.

"I wonder if the technician is thinking about how odd that is? We were talking about Christmas shopping and family traditions and she's sticking a wand up inside of me and moving it around! I mean... what an odd job!?"

Liz looked over at Charlie across from the table.

It was  a Thursday.

Things felt different on Thursdays. There was something about them that he couldn't explain, but ever since he could remember Thursdays were just... different.

"Yeah, I dunno Lizzie. I think you probably just get used to some things that others might think as strange. I mean, look at us! We're quite an odd pair.... but we're used to that about each other." 

He hoped he hadn't offended her.

It had been three years since they had re-united and started their coffee shop rituals... three whole years...

"True." Liz's voice was flat.

He knew today was going to be... different.

"I dunno, she sighed, "I just was laying there on that doctors table thinking how crazy that job must be! That technician has seen more vaginas in one day than most people would their whole lives... ever! And not only that, but also babies... pre-born ones... like ones nobody else sees or maybe nobody will ever see?! Ya know?" her voice trailed off...

"If you put it that way, yeah... it is kinda eerie... or it is just one of those jobs most people would never think about... unless they have an experience to... like you just did."

Liz chuckled. "How very lucky of me then!"

"Ya know... now that you mention it... What else is a really odd job?!"

"You mean other than being an uber friendly ultrasound technician?"

"Ha! I mean think about it?!  There's got to be thousands we've never even heard of! Hand modeling? Santa Claus Posing? Beta testing dog biscuits?!"

They thought and talked and laughed for a while. Trying to think of the strangest jobs they had ever heard of and laughing about how odd some people are and how odd life is and how odd it was they were even talking about all of this.

"You know, I dated a turkey farmer once... for a summer." 

She grinned.

"We met through mutual friends. He really wasn't as strange as the job sounds."

 She paused and thought for a moment.

"Okay, so maybe he was a bit of odd bird... hehe... but we had fun together!!"

"Birds of a feather, flock together!"

"That was truly  Un- nest- a- cessary Chuck!"

Charles shook his head and looked down in feigned disapproval. 

Trying to hide his grin he kept his head down.

 "Doesn't surprise me." were his last words on the matter.

Friday.

10 years later.



Liz cautiously stepped through the familiar doorway into the smells of coffee beans and magazines, newspapers and old books. Even though she knew she was in the right place, she glanced around just to be sure this was real. So much time had passed.

"This was the last place I ever saw him" she looked down at the bundle in her arms.

"We met here every week... Fridays were my favorite. Fridays were Pastry Day, so we'd always split something. Every other week we'd trade off who got to pick it out. I would usually choose the cheese danishes."
Liz walked over to the counter.

"Look Charlie!" Liz pointed to the golden pastries inside their windowed cage.

The bundle in her arms squirmed and cooed.

"He was my best friend, ya know." saying this more to herself than anyone else.

Her voice was so full of memories she didn't have room to eat a danish today and decided to go find her favorite chair instead.

Liz settled down and un-swaddled her baby boy.

"Your father knows all about how Charlie saved my life... he loves him for that and I'm happy for those times we got to spend here. I promised him I would come back and tell you that. I promised Anna I would, too."

"He was always there for me." her voice trailed off as she looked around her.
Eyes wide open with thoughts far away.

"So here I am. And here YOU are!
Chuck would've loved to have met you, little man!"
She smiled, but her eyes were full of tears.

"He believed in me.  He always challenged me and encouraged me. I felt like he knew I wouldn't be able to stay...  and yet he was the one who had to go...
Life never turns out like you think its going to.
You just have to enjoy the moments you are given.
Why waste your time worrying about the future and
missing out on what is right in front of you?"

with that she took a sip of her chai.

"I know you're little now and won't remember this, but I promised Charlie I'd be here. Anna needs to know that too."

The baby looked up at her and made noises that sounded like he was trying to answer her.
Liz couldn't believe the miracle she held in her arms. As she was staring at her baby boy and thanking God for all her unanswered prayers and all His wisdom she felt someone's presence at the entryway.

"Anna!"

Liz stood up and rushed to embrace her.

"Thank you so much for coming, Lizzie!"

"Of course! Of course! I'm so glad to meet you! I'm so glad you're here! Come sit down!"

Liz took Anna by the hand and led her a few paces back to where her son sat in his car seat.

"Meet Charles"

Anna started to cry as she picked him up and the two women just looked at each other knowingly. With tears in their eyes they sat together on the couch and held hands so as to hold the other one up from the inside out. Anna kept holding him and staring at Liz.
Liz stared back in wonder at the strength of this woman whom she had never met, but already loved so deeply.


As they looked into each other's eyes their tears began to dry.

Anna smiled and said,


"I was told once that Friday is Pastry Day... who's turn is it to choose?"




Fin.





"I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee."