Cafe Girl: A Story of Coffee, Sex, Cigarettes, & True Love

Tom's Diner

Act Two, Scene Seven

Lights fade in on patio, all sit gathered around on patio, raining.

Deborah:

Have you ever read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte? Its about a man named Heathcliff who is brought into this family at a young age and adopted, but he's basically a servant because he's lower class, or family origin unknown. But, the daughter, Catherine befriends him and as they grow up together, they sort of fall in love. But, due to societal pressures or something she marries someone else, and then shortly after that she dies.

Matthew:

Sounds tragic.

Deborah:

Yeah, but anyway right before she gets married she is talking to this maid, Nell, I think and the maid asks her how she can marry someone else if she loves Heathcliff, how she can stand to be separated from him. And she, Catherine, explains that she will never be separated because she and Heathcliff are one, she says after this long dramatic monologue, "if all else fails and he survives, I should still continue to be." I, kind of, always felt akin to that story, you know.

Matthew: W

hy is that?

Deborah:

I don't know why, actually. It just, kind of, hits me in the heart. It makes sense. I read a lot, always have.

Matthew:

That's cool.

Deborah:

Do you like to read?

Matthew:

Of course. You said you were reading The Hitchhiker's series?

Deborah:

Yeah, I just finished.

Matthew:

What'd you think?

Deborah:

Hilarious. Except I found something odd.

Matthew:

What's that?

Deborah:

The restaurant at the end of the universe, which this cafe is named after--

Matthew:

What about it?

Deborah:

That's where they watched the Universe end, explode, sort of.

Matthew:

So?

Deborah:

What's that say about this place?

Matthew:

That, maybe, we'll watch the end of the universe from this place?

Deborah:

And then, what?

Matthew:

Who knows?

Ray:

Will you two stop flirting already? Can't a guy get some service around here?

Matthew:

All right, lawn gnome. I'll be right back, okay?

(She nods, Matthew exits into cafe, Deborah looks outward into audience, thinks.)

James:

So about the book?

Deborah:

The book?

James:

The one you were just talking about--

Deborah:

Oh, Wuthering Heights?

James:

Yeah.  Why do you think it hits you like that?

Deborah:

I guess, I just feel like Catherine, you know.

James:

Like how?

Deborah:

Trapped...somehow.

Ray:

Trapped?

Deborah:

Yeah, trapped. By what others think of you, what you can and can't do, what you should do with your life, love.

Ray:

That is...trapped.  You'll find your way to, let it go.

Deborah:

Oh yeah, how?

Ray:

Well, first, the end isn't always such a horrible thing.

Deborah:

Yeah, but its still hard, you know, still hurts.

Ray:

Pain is necessary.

(silence, thunder.)

Thomas:

Dramatic.

Deborah:

Beautiful though.

Shaggy:

But deadly.

James:

What do you mean by 'love'?

Deborah:

What?

James:

How does love trap you?

Deborah:

What is it anyway? How do you know when you feel it?

James:

You just do, really. Why?

Ray:

You love Matt?

Deborah:

I think so, but--

(after a moment, quietly.)

That's not the only issue.

Ray:

What is?

Deborah:

What if you find yourself falling for...can you fall in love with two people at once?

Ray:

Who says you can't?

James:

(to Shaggy)

What do you mean, deadly? Lightning?

Shaggy:

Toxins in the air. Falling through the rain.

Thomas:

Oh God, is nothing safe?

Ray:

You are so young, Deborah.

Deborah:

What's that supposed to mean?

Ray:

But, you'll figure it out, in the end.

Deborah:

In the end?

(Lightning. Shaggy starts counting quietly.)

James:

So, you think you are in love with two people?

Deborah:

I think so.

James:

Does Matt know?

Deborah:

Well, I haven't said.

James:

Why not?

Deborah:

Because I don't know how the other person feels.

James:

Would that make a difference?

Deborah:

(after a moment)

Yes.

(Thunder, louder.)

Shaggy:

Three miles away.

Thomas:

Better get inside.

(All exit save Shaggy.)

Shaggy:

So, this is how it ends? With a bang after all?  The end of the universe?

(Lights out.)

A few days ago, a week about, the rain fell on the first day of fall and now some days into autumn, the sun shines through the brisk coolness, the leaves are beginning to change their color, and warm coats, wool caps, and mittens are donned.  College kids have replaced the hoards of camera flashing tourists; and the town begins to crawl steadily into the hush of the still lifelessness of winter, to turn into one-selves, lose ourselves in introspection during the cold winter months to follow.  We close down shop (metaphorically), we disappear inside of ourselves, some grow depressed without the glare and daily blast of Vitamin D, and I, too, seem to alter my perspective in the cycles of the seasons and that of the planet, but, save for the monthly hormonal visits, I become more alive as the colors of nature appear, more vivid against the grayness of the sky.  In the cold, my creativity sparks and my zeal for life awakens--even more, and I once again find myself falling in love with the fall, find myself in love with the Ashland fall, not only with the new gentleman in my life, but with autumn itself, and, yes, even with the memories of past falls that once were--

Yet even still my heart sinks with longing for what once was, a certain little coffee shop whose laughter still rings out in my heart, the warm smell of the coffee bean roasting was not the only invitation, but the love, warmth, and acceptance of loved ones--

And what hurts is that this past is truly now past, what hurts now is those pleasant memories are singed with those of the screaming, the throwing, the rages, the paranoia, and the horrors--

At present, I am aware that my first love walks the street of the town I am living in, and despite some fears for my safety, my heart goes out to him with the desire that he have a warm bed to sleep in, food to fill his belly, and the earnest and hopeful prayer that he will seek out the appropriate healing he so desperately needs and be free from the ravaging lies that are so devastating and destructive--

For he is my Heathcliff and I his Catherine Linton, and as she declared in Wuthering Heights, I say of my Scary-Dark-Boy:

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be, and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger, I would not seem a part of it"--and for my part I share the words one character speaks to another in my play written about my relationship with my first love, pointing to his heart:

"Right here.  You are still right here in my heart.  Even after everything that happened, you are still right here.  You once told me that I needed to find a love more that fire, bells, and whistles.  I needed to know that I am loved.  With you, I have that.  Even when you are far away, when you are not here physically, I still know that I am loved.  When I look into your eyes, I see the reflection of my own soul."

And so it is, as the Gershwins penned, "the way you wear your hat, the way you sip your tea, the memory of all that, no, they can't take that away from me."

And so they shan't.

Though, we will never ever "meet again on the bumpy road to love" but you, my Scary-Dark-Boy, will always remain.  In My Heart.  Forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehMx12dSF6w