Day 63 Project 365

Chances…

Chance encounters? What are the odds? The big question…

What are the effects!?

I always loved to go to the coffee shop and read books and do crossword puzzles.  I started when I was 16. Gran and I would go and stay till 4 in the morning! Anyway when I was about 20 I would do a little weekend helping out waitressing at my local coffee shop. When they were too busy I would help out for the tips I got! Not too bad… but most I would just be there! All the time!

There was a regular crowd of course and I knew them all. From time to time a stranger would come in and do more than eat and run. The Kettle (sounds so pokey and bad… it was!) was on a major highway so it got a lot of traffic. You never knew who you might end up having a conversation with. Or what kind of weirdo might come in! lol!

We called him Book Bob… he was a man that started to come in at night regularly. He was about 35 tall, thin, he had glasses, and looked TOTALLY out of place. The Kettle wasn’t the nicest place in the world! This new regular was out of his league here but about every other night or so he would be there. He would sit in a booth alone and have his coffee and read. I don’t know exactly how long it was before everyone started to get curious about him… finally he sat closer and closer to the main regular group and we started chatting to him.  He was smart and had a good sense of humour, but still he just didn’t fit in… I don’t mean it in a bad way but he just wasn’t the regular, regular! The waitresses and I had all asked him where he was from and what on earth was he doing in The Kettle? He would never say… so we all started our theories! When he would come in we would all have our latest theories… a spy? A murderer on the run? A saint? The theories got more extreme! It was a bit of fun we would all have a good laugh and he didn’t seem to mind! One night I was talking to him and asked again… seriously. “ what are you doing here?” he said I can’t tell you now but I promise I will come back here one day and tell you… wow! That’s mysterious! I just figured it was one of those answers to get me to shut up! I'm pretty sure The Kettle must have corrupted that poor man in some way! I don’t think he was quite used to people being so totally crazy! The place really could be a madhouse sometimes! There were fights in the car park! Drunks everywhere causing trouble! There was a motel next door and usually some drama there too! Funny it was just a place… nothing special… just a restaurant, and not a great one at that… nothing special…

I was sitting in the front booth one day about 2 or 3 in the afternoon working on my crossword as usual. It had been a few months since anyone had seen Book Bob. He just stopped coming in. We had a bit of fun with our favourite theories and then no one really thought about Bob anymore. That’s the way it was there. People would come and go.

Book Bob came in the door and over and asked if he could sit… I was surprised to see him! No book in hand and he didn’t look like he would be staying long.

 Cup of coffee and a promise kept…

I sat looking at this person… I didn’t know him only from a shitty restaurant late at night, but what he was about to tell me would shock me and shake me to the bone.

He said to me… “I live in San Antonio I work in a museum. I have a daughter that has a rare blood disease and the treatment is here not San Antonio. My wife and I have been staying here while she has been getting the treatment. I had started to come in here to relax with a book just to get a break…but you people are all completely mad and every time I was here I would laugh and for a little while I would feel normal”

I was speechless… and must have looked it too.

“My daughter was 12 she died”

He went on to say how hard it had been and how all of us had been just what he needed to let steam off. He just hadn’t known what to do or how to cope. But by some weird chance he choose that particular coffee shop… nothing special….