Cafe-Girl: A Girl Conquers World Novella

Matthew froze as he saw Deborah cross the street towards them, then girded himself against any impending emotional outcry. She stood at the bottom of the stairs of the patio, looking up at them, questions uncertain in her eyes. James stood at the top of the stairs looking down at her and Matthew sat behind him, watching. They all waited, the tension of raw emotion and something akin to love, hung in the air. At last, Deborah took a long breath and said,

“I'm not here to fight or rub salt in any one's wounds, I'm here because...because I can't stay away...from...any of you. I realize now that we are...we are...family, I guess, yeah. And, I'm here, and unless you tell me too, I'm never leaving you. So...?”

She waited then, looking over each of their faces, imploring, begging, for some reaction, some hopeful answer of acceptance. She looked over the rugged face of Shaggy, his floppy brown hair falling in his eyes, eyes peering out at her with amusement at this spectacle, she looked over at Ray, his long red dreads criss-crossing down his back under his snow-cap, at Thomas, buttoned up in his suit for work, his eyes darting back and forth cautiously between James and Matthew, at James, whose eyes, as usual, bore into her soul, searchingly, and then, finally, hesitatingly at Matthew, whose blue eyes, full of emotional longing and sadness, would not look into hers. Finally, Shaggy, looking around at all of them, shrugged and said,

“Well, its fine with me, but you've got to be initiated, that's all.”

“Initiated?” came Deborah's reply, full of curiosity about what that initiation could in fact be.

“Yeah, down at the plaza, there is the Lithium fountains,” Shaggy began to explain. “Let's all go down there and you'll have to drink from it.”

“Um, I've done it before,” but no one answered. Shaggy and Ray jumped up with enthusiasm, Ray not just because of the lithium drinking event but because of the prospect of heading to the convenient store for some alcoholic beverage. Thomas eyeing James and Matthew for some sort of response got up to follow them. James headed down the stairs towards Deborah, taking her in his arms, he whispered,

“Let's just be friends, I guess, all right?”

Deborah nodded, pinching back the tears in her eyes, as she hugged and released him from her grasp. He turned and followed Shaggy up the hill. Lastly, Matthew got up and crossed down to her, looking her over tentatively,but not catching her eyes. He passed by her and only said,

“Come on then.”

She followed them, as usual, letting them lead, up the hill towards the town plaza.

The plaza small and centered in the middle of town was in possession of two types of water fountains. One full of regular clean water and the other full of lithium water which flowed down from the mountains surrounding the water. The five boys and the one girl approached this particular fountain. Deborah walked up to one spignot and turned to them.

“Its not like I haven't tried,” she began to explain. Shaggy waved her off, with “Just drink!”

She put her lips to the fountain, pressed the button, and the salty water flowed into her mouth. She took a big gulp down, then felt the familiar gagging response. Her five boys gathered around her and began to chant.

“One of us, one of us, one of us,” they continued until she could take it no longer. The water came out in spurts as she burst into laughter.

“Well, all right then, I'm one of the gang now,” was all she could say between her giggles. The others laughed, even Matthew, found some enjoyment in that. Perhaps a friendship could emerge between he and Deborah after all, after the effects of the heartbreak were lessened through time. Perhaps. Although at this moment, he felt that he would never cease to have this longing for her, this ache for her touch once more full of curiosity and desire for more. “Now what?” she was asking to the group of them.

“Now we drink,” Shaggy began and Ray coupled it with, “Here, here!”

“In celebration,” Shaggy continued not noticing Ray's response. They moved, then, down the street to the local bar and grill, to their usual perch, the bird's nest view, of the rest of the deck and bar. Clutching their Guinness's, wine, and gin and tonics respectively, they drank, rolled cigarettes, and let the night's darkness envelope them in the warmth of youthful exuberance and friendship.

Cafe-Girl: A Girl Conquers World Novella

Mari bounced out of her front door and skipped over to Deborah's car, opening the door with a flourish and plopping down in the passenger seat.

“Isn't it a great day to worship the Lord?” exclaimed Mari. Deborah winced out a smile. She knew partly that Mari's enthusiasm for church was that she was going to see Eddie, the worship leader and Mari's knew potential amore. “He's so godly,” Mari had explained to Deborah. “Such a true seeker.” This was all code for “He'd make the perfect husband.”

Deborah pulled out of the parking lot of Mari's apartment complex and headed down the street in the direction of the mega-church where Mari attended.

At the church, she drove around the parking lot in search of the perfect spot and pulled in to park. Mari jumped out, seeing some friends of hers, and bounded over Bible under her arm, exclaiming, “Hi!” with such enthusiasm even Deborah felt swept away by the spiritual fervor, whether or not it was founded in truth was to be known only by Mari.

In the church, Mari and Deborah moved down the pews, in search of the right position. They chose a pew towards the front, the right position to be noticed by Eddie but not to be too conspicuous. As the worship music began to play, Deborah found her mind wandering. Hands went up around her as eyes closed and voices began singing in unison and off-key. Some people around her fell to their knees, their hands above their heads, and tears streaming down her face. Deborah closed her eyes, in order to look spiritual and not to stick out too much, also to try to maintain her thoughts in some fashion. As the music poured itself around her, she found herself falling, falling into some sort of sleep. A sort of trance came upon her. Opening her eyes, the rest of the church came to a stand-still, completely motionless, still and quiet. White rose petals began to fall from above and descended upon the church floor, the singers, the band. No one seemed to notice as they were completely motionless and lost in their own little worlds. Deborah felt as if she had come into another plane of existence. She looked around frantically at the other faces, waving her hands in front of them, trying to wake them, to find her way back. Then suddenly from the back, walking through the pews towards her came...

Eve.

A shock, a small scream came out of Deborah's mouth before she could contain herself. She stood, wanting to run, but found her feet unable to move herself. She waited because there was nothing more to do.

Eve made her way to Deborah and stood in front of her, looking deep within her eyes. She noticed the chain necklace around her neck and two silver rings attached to it.

“Look into my eyes,” Eve was saying and her voice rang out in a song similar to the chords being played on the other plane in the church. “Look into my eyes and you will understand.”

Deborah looked and she saw...herself. She saw an understanding between herself and this girl before her. This girl who had gone on to another world suddenly became more and more like herself, like Deborah. She saw the resemblance and a shudder went through her. Is that why James had turned to her in his hour of need, because she reminded him so much of his ex-wife, of Eve? Had those words of love he had expressed to her ever really been true? In Eve's eyes came another thought that she was directing into Deborah's consciousness. Deborah sought to understand, to grasp, and then she saw, it was a warning of some sort. Of what she could not yet comprehend.

Eve took the necklace from around her neck and held it out to Deborah. She looked within Deborah's eyes and spoke into her mind.

“Look at this,” she was saying from her mind. “Examine it completely and remember.”

Deborah spoke internally, “Why?” But, she looked at the details of the necklace. The two silver sings hanging side by side, meant love and loss at once. The chain was a simple silver one, something like you could find at a drug store yet still somehow beautiful, maybe made all the more so by Eve herself. But Eve did not respond either mentally or verbally. Instead she started to fade.

“Come back,” Deborah was calling, louder and louder, as Eve started to fade and float away. And, then suddenly hands were upon her, voices from far away. “Deborah, Deborah,” they were calling.

She descended down into her body and her eyes opened. She was laying on the church floor, looking up at the surrounding faces of the other church-goers. Mari was bending over her.

“Deborah, oh my god, are you okay?” she was asking, her voice full of concern and fear.

Deborah shook her head to wake herself and tried to sit up.

“You passed out,” a man was saying.

“I'm fine,” Deborah said and tried to right herself. “I'll be fine, just maybe some water. I'm just really tired.”

The parishioners helped her to her seat and someone ran off to the back to get her the water. Mari put her arm around her friend's shoulder and rubbed her neck.

“You scared me,” she whispered into Deborah's ear.

Deborah patted her friend's arm and leaned back against the pew, silent in her own thoughts. The necklace? She felt like she had seen that, in real life, not just in dreams. But the pastor was starting to talk.

“For God so loved the world that he gave,” his voice began and started to drone on and on into more and more biblical scriptures and his own interpretations of them. But that one line “For God so loved the world that he gave”, kept running itself over and over in mind and all of a sudden all this church talk made a bit of sense. It was about love then, what this world needed, what she needed, it was all about love. And love was, is, God and God is love. It was that simple. She felt a peace descend upon her and a smile stretched across her face, for the first time in days she felt calm and rested, as if she knew everything was going to work out for good, strangely that was similar to a verse the pastor was quoting at the time. She closed her eyes in a silent repose, maybe there was something in this Christianity thing after all, maybe.

The pastor closed the sermon with a prayer and closed his bible. The parishioners started filing themselves out into the foyer and out in the church. Deborah felt lighter than she had in days and she also felt a new sense of purpose and drive. She would be led where she needed to go, given what she needed at the right moment. She just needed to trust in this love to keep her going, to guide her, no matter what, always that.

She dropped Mari off at her apartment and turned her car towards the coffee shop. It had been over a week since she'd entered that building, since the break-up with Matthew. She needed to see him, James, and the rest and to find a way to bring peace to the whole situation.

About a block away from the coffee shop, she parked and sat, trying to catch her breath and steady her racing heartbeat, her hands gripping the steering wheel. Slowly, deliberately, she opened the car door and locked it behind her. Crossing the street, she made her way up the hill towards the familiar coffee shop that was fast becoming like a second home to her.

And, there they all were: Matthew, Shaggy, Thomas, Ray, even James sitting on the patio, smoking their cigarettes, and sipping their coffee, as if nothing had changed. She held her breath and took in that sight, caught it up inside her memory and stored it deep within her heart. Later on, it would become a sweet memory that would strengthen her throughout her later life's darkest hours, these five guys were the truest of companions, a friendship deeper than what was visible to the eye, a connection eternal, this moment and this time was theirs, a season outside the rest of their existence. She crossed the street to them, her coffee boys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7zAPJyUSMc

Cafe-Girl: A Girl Conquers World Novella

Deborah pulled into Mari's driveway and stared straight ahead, waiting for her friend to emerge from her two-story townhouse. Her friend was probably still busy inside getting herself dressed and in her best finery for church, for husband hunting as it were, and not at all ready to go as Deborah had hoped. Deborah just wanted to get this over with, not in the least because it was a church service, but because a thick fog of depression had descended on her since her break-up with Matthew. In addition to that, James had not called her in a few days since their last encounter and she was beginning to wonder if she had been used for some sort of emotional rebound from the loss of Eve. Raindrops started to fall on her windshield, slowly then faster, droplets of water pounding on the glass like the pounding of her heart against her beaten soul.

Across town, James sat in Sandra's apartment. He'd been there for the last week, at least, and had enjoyed it for the most part. The sex was good, the pot was chill, he could kick back and be himself with Sandra, no strings attached. The kids were decent and for the most part stuck to themselves. None of them seemed to realize what was going on with him and his mother, with their father in the guest bedroom. They hadn't really been able to figure out as yet what an “open relationship” entitled and where their parents relationship was headed. Maybe Sandra and her husband, Sam, weren't sure about that either, but to James, it did not matter. Or it shouldn't. He couldn't stop thinking about Deborah and of course any sort of enjoyment to be had that week had been clouded by this whole business of Eve. He had purposely not gone back to his house, he shared with his friend, Tony, in order to distract himself from the reality of it all. The police had asked him when he had last seen Eve and he honestly could not remember. He said that she had called him to come over a few days ago but as far as he could remember he hadn't gone. No reason, he had said, she was always after him for something and as far as he was concerned the marriage and relationship was completely over. And, Barbara the other barista had confirmed that he was at the coffee shop the entire time. It all seemed so hazy though, his life recently, he felt like he had moments that were complete black outs. Maybe he was smoking too much pot, maybe that was all it was. And Deborah? The night they had shared together, had it been just another way to distract himself from the murder and the loss or had it been the start of something beautiful? Had it happened at another time, when things weren't so complicated, would they have a chance? He felt bad for basically snatching her away from Matthew and he wanted to at least try and make things right with him. Maybe, maybe, at least try to explain. He sat there trying to find the words to explain to Matthew what had happened that night, how he had been in sucha fog that he hadn't really known what he was doing, and Deborah was there, so sweet, smelling so nice, so attentive to his every need, hanging on every word...and he had felt pulled to her days before. Sandra sat down on the couch beside him and the cushions bounced. She smiled at him, seductively, and handed him the pipe. He took it from her, touching her hand softly and slowly as he did so. Pressing the pipe to his lips and lighting it, he hoped this was just yet another way to distract him from all his dark thoughts.

Cafe-Girl: A Girl Conquers World Novella

Deborah stumbled home from the coffee shop, as the rain started to fall mixing with the salty tears falling down her face. She had made such a mess of things with all this love business. In one hand, she cared deeply for Matthew and had enjoyed their times together. But still, she felt this strange force of nature pulling her towards James, more and more. If there was such a thing as past lives, she and James had definitely known each other from before. That was the only way she could explain it to herself and to Mari, who was aghast with horror at the fact that Deborah had cheated on Matthew with James, of all people: the one they had nicknamed together “Scary Dark Boy”. Still, Deborah felt torn between the two of them, even now, after consummating some sort of an affair with James. At times, she saw herself spending her life happily with Matthew, a life spent together quiet and safe. At other times, the fiery presence of James stirred her creative side with a lust for adventure and darkness. She could never really decide though.

She moved into her bedroom, giving a slight nod to her room-mate who was in the living room watching TV and barely noticed her. Closing her bedroom door with a solid click behind her, she sat hard on her bed and stared straight ahead. The tears began to fall down her face in earnest. If only Eve had not been killed, if only she hadn't slept with James, life and love were getting so complicated. Maybe it was as easy as her Christian friends believed it to be, “Just give your heart to Jesus and you'll have peace.” She had given that her best try though, but still she felt an emptiness resounding inside of her. Emptiness that went on forever and that she couldn't quite find a way to appease. Maybe that's why she found herself falling for the trap of being nurse-maid to broken boys. James was certainly in that category, even before Eve was killed. And Matthew...a shattered heart from giving it to girl-friends of the past who could not share his open affectionate nature, who took advantage in one way or another. But, what about her? Who was there when she needed them?

She laid back on her unmade bed, the quilt made by her grandmother in rumples around her. The tears slid down her cheeks and onto her pillows and bedsheets. Crying softly, she felt herself slipping further and further into unconsciousness until suddenly before her standing was the beautiful girl from last night's dream, only now she wasn't as translucent. This girl was beautiful and bore a striking resemblance to herself. She slowly sat up in bed and stared dumbfoundedly.

“Release all of it,” said the girl. Deborah's jaw dropped open.

“You can speak?” was all she could say amazedly.

“Yes, yes I can,” the girl smiled softly, as if she shared a delicious secret with herself. “Until recently, I was a lot like you, very much in fact.”

“How so?” Deborah blurted out. The girl smiled mysteriously at her in response. “Who are you anyway? What's your name?”

“You know my name,” the girl responded. “You have heard a lot about me recently. A lot.”

Deborah's mind raced and she blinked, then looked aghast at the girl before her.

“Are you...are you...Eve?” she asked amazedly. “But, you're dead...or...”

“Yes, I am Eve,” the girl confirmed. “And, yes, you are right about that.”

“But then, how...why?” was all Deborah could say.

“I've come to you in a dream, Deborah,” Eve explained. “I need your help. They all need your help.”

“My help? But how? Why? And whose they?”

“Because...you are the only one that truly understands me, understands all of us,” Eve went on. “And they...why, the boys, of course.”

“What do I have to do?” Deborah asked without thinking.

Eve unclasped a necklace from around her neck and held it out to Deborah.

“Do you see this necklace?” Eve asked and Deborah nodded slowly, taking it all in. “Yes, take a good look at it. You find this, you'll know my killer.”

Eve returned the necklace to her neck, then turned slowly towards the door, readying herself to leave, not just this room but the planet itself.

“Wait, where are you...”, Deborah tried to stop her. Eve disappeared through the door silently. Deborah's eyes started to blink open and she found herself laying flat on her back, the afternoon had slipped into evening as she slept. “Going,” was all she said as she awoke. Her voice sounded hollow and lonely in the approaching dusk.

Deborah sat up in bed and looked out her small window, remembering the previous night with James. Her mind thought over the dream she had just had, wondering if it meant anything or was it just some crazy imagination of hers gone wild? She wondered if she should tell James about the dream, about seeing Eve. Was the girl even Eve or just what she imagined Eve to look like? She had never met Eve while was alive and had only really heard about her after her death. If it was truly Eve then, why was Deborah being chosen in this way, visited by Eve in her dreams?

Cafe-Girl: A Girl Conquers World Novella

At the bar, they moved to the exterior deck, up to the highest point, the crow's nest they called it. The dark night set in, drinks were ordered. James sat with Deborah close by, taking large gulps of his guiness to her gentle sips of red wine. Underneath the table, they held hands, Deborah's thumb rubbing over James' hand. Matthew sat across the table, pulling drags on his cigarette and barely touching his gin and tonic. He stared longingly and angrily over at Deborah and James. What the hell? I mean, he knew that the loss of Eve was devastating to James but all this attention she was giving him seemed to be surpassing what was needed for consolation. He noticed James leaning in and whispering into Deborah's ear, then found it strange when he, James, would turn his head slightly and look directly into Matthew's eyes. It felt almost underhanded, as if James was using his grief-stricken state to bed Deborah and take her directly out of Matthew's grasp.

Deborah got up and moved over to Matthew. She touched his shoulder lightly, then bent down and kissed him softly and chastely on the cheek.

“I think I'm gonna take off for the night,” she whispered into his ear. “I'll call you tomorrow.”

He looked at her, searching her eyes desperately, pleading for her to stay, to tell him the truth, was she really going home? Was she in fact going off with...after everything that had happened, what they had shared, she would just throw it away? He shook those thoughts off, he could not control her choices. And, although his heart was starting to break, he nodded and raised himself to her lips, kissed her sweetly and passionately a good night and farewell. She skipped down the stairs, through the bar, and out into the parking lot as she made her way the few blocks to the house with the room she rented. A few minutes later, James drained his drink and stood up, nodding around to his friends.

“I gotta get home,” he explained. “Jut gotta process this, you know.”

Matthew stared him down but due to the growing darkness this opposition was lost to James, who seemed lost in the energy of his own mind, the thoughts racing from the loss of Eve to the connection he was feeling from Deborah. James passed Matthew, only giving him a slight nod of acknowledging a good-night, not wanting to spend too much time with idle chitchat unless guilt would overtake him or something like that would dissuade him from the mission on his mind.

Out on the street, James turned his mind and his body towards the house where Deborah lived. He moved quickly, taking longer strides than he normally did, even though his walk was fast to begin with. At her house, he peeked into her bedroom window and wrapped against the window pane. Her beautiful, sweet face peeked out into the darkness and smiled at him. She opened her window and leaned outwards.

“Can I help you?” she asked sweetly and flirtatiously, bating him.

“Yeah, can I come in?” came his reply. She cocked her head to one side and studied him, then answered with,

“You know, I really really shouldn't but--”

“But?” James was trying to draw her out, bating her while holding his breath with anticipation.

“I feel strangely pulled to you is all,” Deborah answered thoughtfully. “And it has nothing to do with...what happened today, but if I'm perfectly honest, I've been feeling it for awhile.”

James smiled mysteriously into her eyes and nodded.

“Yeah, me too,” was all he gave. She leaned farther out the window and looked deeply into his eyes.

“I know that I shouldn't, it's really not fair to Matthew or...but James, could you, would you, kiss me...just once?”

She closed her eyes and breathed out, as if in a prayer. And waited. Then, she felt the soft lips of James press against hers. She parted her lips and allowed his tongue to enter her mouth. In that way, they stood, time froze, the rest of the world faded away, and it was just them, only the two of them. Everything else that had happened before or would happen was non-existant. All that mattered was each other.

Finally, Deborah pulled away slowly and smiled at him.

“I'll meet you at the front door,” she pulled herself in and closed the window, moving down the hall towards the front door. He stood outside, shivering not just from the cold but from anticipation. Was this some kind of sandbag against the impending deluge of the complete loss of Eve or was this truly in fact real love? James shook it from his head and focused entirely on the here and now. Deborah opened the door to him and he entered. She took his head and led him towards her bedroom, opening the door and pulling him inside. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately, letting his hands explore her body. She groaned and backed herself against the bed, collapsing backwards onto it as he fell on top of her. And due to her compliance her, he took her, completely.

In the dark together they lay in her bed. He stroked the softness of her back and moved the hair from her face.

“What are you thinking about?” James asked.

“Just about us...and what I'm going to tell Matthew,” was all she could say, stifling back a sob.

“Well, he can't mess with fate after all,” James tried to reassure her.

“Do you believe in that? Fate? What about destiny?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he said.

“What's the difference? Between fate and destiny, I mean?” Deborah asked pushing herself to her elbows and looking down at him.

“Fate is the journey and destiny is the final destination,” James said slowly, allowing his words to make their emphasis. Deborah looked down at him, thoughtfully.

“I like that,” was all she would say. He pulled her down to him again.

“Now just relax,” he said. “Tonight we'll be together, just us, tomorrow we'll deal with everything else. The world is ours tonight, only ours.”

Deborah closed her eyes and she started drifting downward into dreamland. She found herself in some kind of in between place, between heaven and earth, a mist like fog covered the land and towards her came a bright yet translucent woman came towards her. It stood before her, floating above her. Its lips moved to scream, to garner her attention. Deborah called out, “What? What is it? Who are you? What do you want?” The translucent girl's face frowned, she looked beyond Deborah and fear overtook her face. Deborah turned around but saw only the misty landscape and nothing more.

“There's nothing to be afraid of,” Deborah said reassuringly, turning back around. But, she was gone. The translucent girl was suddenly and completely gone.

Deborah woke with a start, trying to catch her breath. The moonlight streamed through the window, fell on her face. She looked about the room, for some explanation, at her room shrouded in semi-darkness with the moonlight falling ghostly on the surfaces of the objects in her room. Perhaps that was the cause of the translucent apparation in her dreams. She shuddered, looked down at James, and he stirred. Blinking his eyes, he woke up and stared up at her. Her face aglow in the moonlight.

“What's wrong? Why are you awake?” he said full of sudden shock, as if awakened from a dream that was fast turning into a nightmare.

“I had this dream, a crazy dream,” was all Deborah could say. James sat up and studied the girl next to him, waiting. “There was this girl, an apparation, not complete, like a ghost or...I don't know...and she was trying to tell me something, a warning, maybe, I don't know, some truth.”

There was complete silence as James took that in, studying every facet of her face. He waited for some bit of reason, or spiritual insight to come into his foggy, sleepy mind, something to say to appease her, distract her, maybe.

“Sounds like you had a visitation, is all,” he finally said.

“A visitation? What is that?” Deborah wanted to know, gasping.

“A visitation, someone from beyond this world visits us in the dream world,” James explained.

“Why?” Deborah asked furtively.

“Something they need to say, some truth they need to express, something they never got to say in their lifetime,” James answered.

“But then who is this person?” Deborah inquired, more to herself and to the heavens.

“Who knows?” James tried to reassure her, unaware of her true feelings. “Someone from your past, someone you know who has past on...”

“I don't really know anyone from my life that has died,” explained Deborah. They elapsed into silence, the moonlight enveloping them in mysterious wonder.

The next day, Deborah walked into the coffee shop, ready to face Matthew. He stared at her across the counter, stone-faced. He knew before she even could speak a word.

“Matt, I--” she started to say.

“He came over last night, didn't he? After you guys left the bar?” Matthew blurted out. Deborah stared down at the counter, not sure what to say. “Answer me, Deborah.”

Deborah looked up at him, her eyes met his, then she quickly looked away.

“Oh, all right, I see,” Matthew started. “You can't say anything, can you?”

“I don't know how to explain, Matt,” she stumbled out. “I mean, it just sort of happened, I felt these feelings coming on...”

“You expect me to believe...” Matthew tried to stop her.

“No, I mean, I guess so,” Deborah haltingly answered. “I mean, well, he...I tried to stop it, to stay away from him, but...”

“He can be very convincing, I know,” Matthew relented. He looked at this girl he had started to care for, had felt things he hadn't felt for awhile, had had hopes that something could turn into more. And then he said, “Just be careful there, I guess.”

“What do you mean? How?”

“Just that,” he sought words to explain. “He runs hot and cold, that one.”

“How so?” Deborah insisted on knowing.

“I can't explain, I mean, make you see,” Matthew answered. “But, you'll find out.”

Deborah looked at him, her eyes scowled. Inward Matthew cringed at this look of disapproval from a girl he had thought of as more than a friend. Like a young twenty-something he pushed those feelings away and blurted out in angrily, “Just go, all right?”

Deborah's face fell, crestfallen, lonely and Matthew's heart broke, but he squared his shoulders and crossed his arms, leaning against the back wall. She bit her lip.

“Matthew, I...I'm so sorry,” was all she could say and turned and hurriedly left the coffee shop before the tears could come in full.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmErRm-vApI

Cafe Girl: A Girl Conquers World Novella

An hour later, James came straggling back into the cafe. He looked beat. The rest of the gang had moved back inside as the early fall breeze was picking up and causing quite a chill. There was more than just the cool breeze causing a chill in the air as James walked in the door. The whole room fell silent. The other customers not part of the band of friends felt that same shocking freeze of discomfort. James' friends swarmed around him, hugs were distributed, claps on the back. The longest hug, most notably, came from Deborah whose heart was breaking over not only James' loss of his ex-wife, first love, but from the gruesome way that it had occurred. More than that, the very fact that a murder had occurred in this small town where nothing really ever happened, and then again, someone they had known, worked with, lived with, spent time with, was overwhelmingly too hard to take in all at once. They sat in silence at the tables in the back of the cafe, staring down at their mugs full of the morning roast. Matthew had given James a free cup in his favorite blue mug, on the house.

After awhile, Shaggy looked up and said, “Anyone up for a walk?”

“I'm down,” Matthew said slowly looking over at Deborah, then James. “Barbara should be in to take over soon.”

Deborah touched James' arm lightly.

“You interested?” was all she could say. James looked up at her with hooded eyes, desperately trying to hide away all thoughts and emotions from the outside world.

“Sure,” he began slowly. “Yeah. The police are going to want to talk to Barbara, by the way.”

“Really?” Matthew wondered.

“Yeah,” James started to say then hesitated. “Well, she was working the day...it happened.”

They lapsed into silence. At that moment, Barbara abruptly entered the cafe swinging her purse with a joyful step to her walk.

“Good morning to all of you,” she chirped happily to the cafe and to her friends. She had had a good night before. The guy she had been crushing on for weeks now had finally got around to calling her. They had talked long into the night, and although she felt tired from their long nightly conversation, she was still high on the rush of infatuation. The faces of her friends' looked up at her, not reciprocating her happy mood. “Um, what's wrong?”

Matthew studied her for a long time, searching for the words to explain. But no thoughts came, he looked down again at his coffee cup, waiting for someone to speak. The others sitting around him eyed each other, wondering if anyone else was going to speak so they wouldn't have to do just that. Finally, James spoke, slowly, methodically, as if giving the blandest of evening news:

“The police were here earlier, they found Eve's body...”

“Found Eve's body?” Barbara interrupted. “What do you mean?”

Eve and Barbara had been friends before she and James had married. They had lived together as well.

James looked down at his coffee shop and sucked in air.

“She was murdered,” he said at last, fighting back the emotional upsurge that wanted to come out. Barbara instantly collapsed into a chair.

“What the fuck...you've got to be kidding,” was all she could say. Then, she fell into abrupt silence and there was nothing more she could say. She stared motionless into the space around her friends, not looking at them, not seeing them.

“So, the walk?” Shaggy asked again, helplessly. Slowly, the boys and Deborah got up from the table. Moving to bus their table, Barbara waved them off.

“I've got it,” she explained. “Gives me something to do, I guess, you all go do what you need to do.”

Matthew, James, Shaggy, Thomas, Ray, and Deborah moved outside into the brisk cool November air pulling their coats and warm caps around them, to block out the chill. But it was only an outward chill they could protect from, on the inside, they felt that chilling bite of grief overwhelming them with each step. They followed Shaggy up the street and into the park and kept walking deeper, deeper, higher, higher into the hills above. Climbing up ravines and sliding down riverbanks, they trek kept their minds off the despair down in the city, for awhile. At the top of the mountain, overlooking the city, Shaggy stopped them.

“Come here,” he said. “Gather around.”

He instructed them into a semi-circle, their arms encircling each others' shoulders, and together they looked over the entire city.

“Look at us,” Shaggy was saying. “Really, look at all of us, at least we have each other.”

Deborah felt a warmth to be included as she looked at all these faces. A sense of kinship and unity welled up in her, a deep bond of both joy and heartbreak formed within each of their hearts at that moment. Never before had their been a moment where they had truly been an us until that moment, atop the mountaintop, trying to find some healing from the grief dwelling inside.

James looked around at all of them, then out at the city, and the well of emotion that was damned up finally broke. He collapsed amidst the circle and without thinking Deborah moved to him, breaking from the arms of Matthew.

“James!” she cried and knelt by his side, taking him in her arms. He sobbed on her shoulder. The others moved awkwardly closer, patted him on the back, stood in silence waiting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDHY1D0tKRA

Cafe Girl: A Girl Conquers World Novella

She turned to her friend sitting next to her and gave her a big smile, nervously biting her lip.

“Hey Mari,” she began slowly. Mari looked over at her friend.

“Uh oh, what are you thinking?” came Mari's tentative reply.

“Can you take yourself to this church event?” Deborah blurted out quickly.

“What, how?” Mari wanted to know.

“ I mean, its only a few blocks away,” Deborah started to suggest.

“Deborah, what are you saying?” Mari demanded.

“You can walk, can't you?” Deborah finally blurted out.

“Well, yeah, I suppose I can,” Mari began and Deborah smiled and quickly said, “Great, so I'll see you later.”

And, she grabbed the handle of the door and got out before Mari could interject with “What are you going to do?” The only thing Mari could do then was get out of the car door just as her friend clicked the button on her keypad to lock the doors and watched as Deborah bounced across the street to her coffee shop, her coffee-boy. Or maybe could it be coffee-boys, Mari was starting to wonder as she noticed that not Matthew but James too smiled eagerly at her as she approached. Mari reluctantly turned shaking her head in wonder at her friend's wild ways and headed toward the church where she was sorting clothes for the church wide yard sale.

Deborah swung herself up the small patio steps and planted herself in Matthew's lap. He encircled her waist with his arm and pulled her tight against him. She was warm and he felt glad to have her sitting on his lap, his day was made if nothing more happened. Now, if only no more customers would come in that day, no more intrusions to this happy moment he felt, Deborah on his lap, yummy food that she had brought before him, and his good friends gathered around. In her mind, Deborah was feeling a similar thought, nothing mattered more than this moment, in his lap, the warmth of this arm against her back, the laughing boys around her, the good coffee, if all time could freeze and leave her here with him, with all of them, if life could exist merely in this moment, at this coffee shop....she leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips and he readily gave into her. She could feel the eyes of James poring into her and Matthew as they kissed but tried failingly to ignore it, that insane awareness of his presence drilling itself into her more and more. Footsteps approached and she pulled away. It was his friends, Thomas, Ray, and Shaggy who had finally made their way around to their daily ritual of visiting the coffee shop.

“Ahem,” Ray was beginning. “Sorry to intrude, but a cup of coffee would be nice.”

Deborah hopped up with a pat on the back from Matthew and Matthew led Thomas, Ray, and Shaggy into the interior of the coffee shop. Which left Deborah sitting across the table from James who looked directly into her eyes and held her gaze. To his surprise, Deborah didn't blink or look away.

“So, hi,” Deborah finally said.

“Hello,” James responded.

“So, how are you?” Deborah was continuing the conversation.

“Eh, all right, I woke up with this headache...again,” was all James would give.

“You have them regularly?” Deborah wanted to know.

“Lately, yeah,” James continued. “Guess I'm not getting enough sleep or something?”

“Why do you think that is?” Deborah pressed.

“Yeah, I don't know,” James began. “Bad dreams, maybe, nobody to keep me warm and safe...” He broke off and let his eyes study hers. Despite the mundane exterior of the conversation, she could feel the depth of her heart beating fiercely in her chest, a pull towards this man she had never experienced and had tried to hide from since her first encounter at the bar a few nights ago that went something like:

She was sitting on the table looking down at her Matthew, overwhelmed with passion, she leaned in and kissed him. It was there she first felt James eyes boring into her back side and almost on cue he asked, “Are you guys being cute?” She turned to him and bluntly asked, “Do you think we are being cute?” He nodded, blushing and their eyes met. She looked away then, back at Matthew, but something, some force beyond herself, drew her head back to face his. Their eyes met again and inside of them she saw...she saw him for all he was, deep fear and pain, longing, heartbreak, seeking...seeking something beyond this world, she saw herself. It scared her yet like a child attracted to a burning stove, or a dog to his vomit, she could not pull herself away.

And now, today at the coffee shop, sitting across from him again, their eyes meeting again, a question rose to the surface of her heart. A question that every young girl that has ever read the classics of Austen, Montgomery, the Bronte Sisters, or even Little Woman:

“Do you believe in soul-mates, like that there is one person for all of us out there?”

James studied her and was silent for a long time. Finally, he smiled knowingly at her:

“I believe that there is more than one soul-mate, just brought to us at different times of our lives to teach us what we need to for that season of our life.”

Deborah took that in and let it rattle around in her brain, let it sink in to follow her down through the ages as she went through her life. Years later, it would still resound down through time and make more and more sense as she experienced more that life had to offer.

“I believe in soul-mates,” was all she said then. He smiled at her knowingly and she willingly smiled back.

“Hey, what's going on out here,” Matthew's voice broke the silence as he and his friends came back out to the patio, to smoke, enjoy their coffee, the sweet and idle conversation that only good friends shared. Deborah pulled herself away and looked up at her boyfriend, the happy glowing red-haired soul that stood before her and although her heart was soft towards hers, she saw now that something was missing from before, a happy serene connection between them. But, she kept silent on this, smiled at him, stood up, and motioned for him to sit back down. Once done, she sat on his lap again and turned her affections most pointedly towards him. The others, Thomas, Ray, and Shaggy, leaned against the wall or the patio stairs railing with their coffee cups perched in their hands, lit cigarettes dangling from their finger tips. A calm moment descended upon them, for that moment no one said anything but a bond was formed. If those passing by had stopped to notice, they'd see a group of twenty-somethings sitting around a coffee shop, idling their time away, maybe they would be wistful remembering their own youthful days, or maybe they would shake their heads in disbelief at the lazy young people...but no one would truly know, no one would truly see, that in that moment for those young kids on the coffee shop patio, a moment was shared that was a time outside of time, to not be counted against the category of other times...it was a stolen season of their lives outside of time. A moment of magic.

Shaggy was talking something about 9-11 being an inside conspiracy job. Deborah was lost in thought, falling for James yet dating Matthew, how could this be? She really liked Matthew, so much passion and they had fun together but something deeper pushed her towards James. Something akin to her favorite characters, Catherine and Heathcliff, from Wuthering Heights, she was starting to realize. Something bigger than herself, suddenly she was wondering if this was the reason for this moment in her life, why she was brought to this coffee shop. For this scary, dark boy that sat across from her, his eyes so deep, full of longing and pain, searching for...love yet totally and completely lost.

“Cops!” Shaggy exclaimed. “How fitting with what we are talking about!”

Thomas looked over at the approaching policemen. He shook his head in reassurance for Shaggy.

“They can't be coming here, we haven't done anything,” he said. “And even if they were, its a coffee shop after all.”

“Yeah, other people are allowed to come here,” Matthew laughed alongside Thomas. But the cops approached and stopped just shy of the patio. The patio bunch sat motionless for a moment. Matthew looked over at them and said,

“Um, can I help you, Officers?” which he realized was the most cliché question of all things to say to police officers but what else was there to say.

“We are looking for James Easton,” one of them was saying. Deborah was studying them. The one that talked had the traditional cop mustache, was white, was about 6', not too tall, medium built, with dark brown hair cut short. The other was stockier, black, with eyes that darted back and forth between each of them. Had they done something wrong? Why did they want James? Her heart swam over to James, in an attempt to protect, encourage, or even stand in solidarity with him. If she only knew...

“That's me,” James said, slowly standing. “What seems to be the problem?”

And, of course, Matthew thought, that question hit his out as being even more of a cliche thing to ask a police officer.

“Are you the husband of Eve Easton?” the stocky black officer addressed James. James gulped slightly, but only Deborah and Matthew noticed. Was he afraid of something?

“Ex-husband, but yes,” James explained. Ah, that was it, Deborah realized, he didn't want to be reminded of the hardship of divorce. That had to be it. “What about her?”

Both police officers looked at each other for a moment. The one with the cop mustache sighed, adjusted his belt, and then said, “I'm sorry to report but her body was found inside her apartment this morning--”

“Body? What do you mean?” James interjected without thinking.

“Your ex-wife was murdered,” The officer said as calmly and as reassuringly as possible. James staggered backwards. It was Ray that reached out his arm and brought him slowly back into the chair he had recently vacated.

“Who did it?” James was stammering out. “Who would do such a thing...?”

“That is under investigation,” the stockier officer continued. “We'd like to ask you a few questions, if we could.”

“Sure, yeah, whatever,” James said, absentmindedly, rubbing his temples with his elbows rested on the table. Deborah's heart melted, she wondered if his headache was back from this morning, and longed to reach over and soothe his worried brow. Suddenly, James was glancing up at her, Matthew was looking at her sideways, as she realized she had done just that. “Thank you,” James rumbled softly to her as she pulled her hand back and deposited it into Matthew's hand, giving him a reassuring smile.

“Do you need me to come down to the station?” James was addressing the officers. “Anything you need to bring these bastards to justice? Whoever did this is going to pay!”

Ray rubbed James shoulders as James stood up. James took a deep breath with that reassuring comfort and moved down the steps towards the policemen. They nodded at him and led the way to their car.