Observing the Coffee Shop People... And a Little Love and Passion - Entry 9

 Image courtesy of Sura Nualpradid /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This started as a writing exercise as I sat at the coffee shop observing people for character development.

Reading over it one day I  decided to write a short story based on the characters.  I kept it in the form of a journal.

July 19th…

Crowded today and hot, makes it a good day for iced coffee.  Well Football Hero hasn’t been here for a while. Maybe this isn’t his regular store he could have just been passing through.  I probably should change coffee shops, seems to be about the right time for that. 

Now this man coming in isn’t bad.   He is talking about making sausage to the young girl at the next table.  Hmmm is making sausage a code statement for something else?  He must be my age and he is another one in good shape.  Very good shape!

Observation – people in good shape drink plain coffee- no whipped cream piled high over the cup - no huge hunks of coffee cake totaling a million calories each.

Sausage maker says he is sixty-seven, - wow my grandpa didn’t look like that come to think of it my father either.   He is talking about his granddaughters’ birthday. She is as old as my daughter. Another observation – maybe the coffee shop is the fountain of youth.

My energy detector is going off full throttle.  It’s him. Football Hero he’s back and looking better than ever today.  He must have been running today… so that is how he keeps in such great shape.  He is getting an iced coffee, number two thing in common.  Should I say something?  Yes…. No….remember high school’s embarrassing moments?

Getting the courage to ask the football star to the turnaround dance.   Back in those days girls waited for boys to approach them.  Once a year in the spring the school would sponsor a dance to give the girls the opportunity to feel the fear of asking for a date – feel the rejection that the boys felt when they didn’t meet the standards expected of them.   Of course I did get to experience all that rejection and humiliation and here I am fifty-six and still scared. Guess I earned scars from the whole experience.  Well remember this is the twenty-first century, talk to him what can happen?  I am not proposing marriage, but hmm, I think I would want to propose a little encounter, more than just a weak little ‘hi there, how are you’?  Just go up to him and say ‘haven’t I seen you in here before, care to join me’?  Oh my I’m going to die on the spot if he rejects my invite. Make Note: Better wait, no can’t afford to wait...

© Copyright 2014   Eileen A Partak

Wrong Call

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Jason Randhurst was jubilant as he stepped out of the elevator of the Dumont Towers building.  He had just left an interview for the top securities investment company in the country. He could hardly believe after almost a year of looking for a job that he would have an interview go so well.  Every other interview he had ended up with an unexpected rejection.  This interview sounded certain that he would be getting the job of a lifetime.

He stepped onto the brightly sun-drenched city sidewalk when his cell phone rang.    Reaching into his pocket and pulling the phone out he realized it was not his phone.   In the excitement of the interview he must have grabbed the interviewer’s phone. When he looked at the caller ID he noticed the call was from Frank Randhurst, his father.

Oh good, Jason thought. Dad wants to know how the interview went.  Then he stood in a confused state staring at the phone.  How would Dad know I have this phone? he thought as he reluctantly answered it.

“Hello” he said in a quizzical sounding voice.

“Hey there Howard this is Frank,” he heard his Father’s domineering voice on the other end.  “I hope you will follow through as I told you to and give that position to my son. You know what I told you. I know everything you did and I will keep quiet if you give my boy that job.  No job and I go to the authorities and tell everything,” Frank said in a self-important voice.

Jason was horrified as he listen to his Father speak.  What was his Father doing?  It wasn’t he, Jason Randhurst who had impressed Howard Southwick, CEO of the Dumont Securities Company with his brilliant resume?  Was his Father blackmailing Mr. Southwick?

“Like I told you, your secretary who you think is so loyal to you isn’t.  She let me in on how for the last ten years you have been embezzling from the company,” Howard said with a sinister snicker. 

“You know I want my boy to work at the top company.  Every other place he has interviewed at I submitted an anonymous devastating reference.  Your company is where I want him to be, you will give him the position and at a mammoth salary.  You understand this, do you not?”

Jason stood stunned listen to the threatening words his father was delivering.  What should he do?

“So Howard,” Frank said in an arrogant way, “what do you have to say?”

“Hello Dad.” 

© Copyright 2014  Eileen A Partak