At The Café
Madeline added another cube of sugar to her coffee and stirred. She looked into the spinning spiral pattern inside her cup. The sugar cube falling into nothingness. Entropy at work. “Oh, did I tell you? John took me horseback riding the other week.” Madeline didn't look up. Why couldn't Barbara quit yapping on for more than 2 minutes? With time Madeline had gotten good at tuning out Barbara's chatter. She picked up the small porcelain milk pot and began pouring it into the still swirling coffee. White lines were pulled into the centre of the vortex. Madeline watched as the black coffee slowly turned lighter and lighter. Now it started overflowing, light brown streaks running down the sides of the teal cup, slowly filling the saucer until finally that too starts to overrun. It seeps into the newspaper underneath. The milk pot is empty. Madeline looks up. Barbara looks at her expectantly and brings forth a “Hm?” “Oh yes, for sure.” Madeline replies in a near monotone. “That's what I had told him, but he wouldn't believe me! So when we next saw them. . .” Madeline picked the spoon out of the cup. She used it to push the little apple pieces around on the cake in front of her. Tiny pieces of apple on a tiny piece of cake. Why do people pay for this? She started sorting the crumbles of dough to one side and the pieces of apple to the other. Never mind other people, why was she going to pay for this? She never had had any intention of eating it. She was done sorting the pieces and now started to transfer the crumbles into her cup one by one. And yet she had ordered it. The waitress came over. Madeline had guessed that she couldn't be older than 20. “Everything to your liking?” “Oh, very much so. This raspberry cream tart is delicious.” Madeline glanced at the untouched piece on Barbara's plate. “And you?” “Good.” The waitress left again. “What a cute little thing,” Barbara started again, “I remember my first job as a waitress.” I'm sure you do, thought Madeline, tearing pieces of napkin and placing them on her cake. Tell me all about it.