The lattes flowed. The laptops and smartphones glowed. Customers young and old chattered above the churn of the espresso machine. Just another work day. The only difference was that the morning had a washed-clean feel from an ionizing storm the night before.
“Some lightning last night, eh?” one said.
“Yeah, did you lose power?”
“It flickered for a sec. But nothing more”
“Yeah, glad I was inside.”
“Me, too. But did you hear about the old man in the tree?”
“The what?”
“Yeah, some old guy was stuck up in a tree all night during the storm.”
The other almost blew his coffee up his nose. “Crazy jerk!”
“No! Really! He thought he was saving someone.” He read on, scrolling the screen up.
“What? You mean someone’s cat?”
“No, the kids. You know, the bus kids.”
“Wait. What? You said in a tree, right?”
“Just shut up for a second.” the coffee drinker explained slowly. “He thought they were still in the hospital. There was, like, a wire or something. He thought it was going to break.”
“So, it was ‘the old man in the tree,’ huh? Sounds like a novel I had to read in High School.” a joker in the crowd added.
“Oookay. Now I don’t know who’s up a tree.” A third patron poured cream into his coffee. “Hey, what are you doing this weekend? Wanna check out that new pub on Harrison?”
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