Galactic Coffee Run
What does a lady biting her nails while looking out into the distance, a man clacking away at a keyboard and a priest have in common. If you guess nothing, then you were right. They have nothing in common, but in this fateful time, they will all, at the same time, witness something spectacular. Each flash of time spent on each other’s ideas let them know that. Something like this might just happen today. When each of them stepped out to look at each other, then and only then did they notice the light coming in through the large windows of the cafe. A pinkish green light poured in, cascading and taking over all the other colors in the room. Each one, did not seem bothered by this. They stared out into the color and gave a look to each other to make sure that they were all seeing the same thing. By which seeing the colors and expressions on each other’s faces, they knew it was true. The lady had started to bite her nails even faster and harder. The priest took another sip of his coffee, and the man kept typing away. All with their eyes glancing towards the windows and still at the light. Pouring in.
Then it all went normal. the light disappeared and outside sat a large saucer object. It was a dull gray and stood on four thin legs in the parking lot. The man on the keyboard sighed and bit into a bagel. He peeked up just a moment from his screen to acknowledge the object. A small door opened and a ramp extended out from it to the ground.From the craft a small gray thing appeared and made its way down from the ramp and to the front door of the cafe. The door slowly opened in a fluid motion and the thing stepped in. It’s large head held two large black ovals that shined back at everything. There was no mouth and its body was small with short arms and legs. It waddled over to the front counter past the three of them and looked up at the menu hanging from the ceiling. The barista leaned over the counter at it and stared for a moment. She nodded and disappeared into the back. The gray alien hopped up next to the man typing away and sat to wait. He didn’t seem to mind only giving a quick glance when it hopped. It’s legs hung and swung as it waited making no sound. The priest and the woman looked over to the man. He could feel their stares and broke his eyes from his screen to glance at each. They all rose their eyes rows at each other and then went back to what they were doing. The barista came back up front and the alien hopped back to the ground and approached her. She handed it a small black and gray coffee cup with glowing green and blue liquid inside which projected out through the drinking spout. The alien bowed slightly and waddled back towards the door, then out to it’s ship. The purple greenish light returned and the vanished quick this time. The ship was gone. Each sat still occupied by what they were doing, each did not say a word to each other. None ever brought it up and never told. Even if it happened every Tuesday at 2 a.m.
Inspired by the people in Starbucks with me as I wrote this