The Table … or Life Goes On

I’ve discovered an escape these last couple of months as I attempt to become a writer. It’s a local coffee shop that provides a slightly better ambiance than the four walls of my home office. Okay, it’s really a spare bedroom upgraded during this Covid period to be a home office. And the ambiance is actually way better at the coffee house. Plus there is coffee. I don’t’ really drink coffee. I drink a concoction with a lot of sugar and caramel but I still get to say I drink coffee. It makes me feel so grown up. Even my 30 year old daughter thinks I’ve joined the big leagues.

Now I’m not George R.R. Martin, nor, sadly will I ever be. But I have been trying my hand at a fantasy fiction novel (is that redundant, can fantasy novels be non-fiction?) with Kings and Queens and Princes and Soldiers. Of course, I’m not sure there’ll be much sex and the bad guys are pretty tame. Plus, I still haven’t figured out how to add a dragon, or some other mythical creature, created from the appropriate magic. Like I said, I’m no Mr. Martin.

What’s really captivated me though as I have attempted to write this best-selling, multi-volume book is a table. It’s not just any table. It’s The Table. You wouldn’t know it to look at it. Top made of four-inch planks of wood, held up by metal legs in each corner. The chairs are a gun-metal grey color, very utilitarian. Sometimes there are four of them, sometimes only three. It depends if one has been borrowed.

Why is it The Table? Because of Covid, the coffee shop had to reduce it’s seating capacity. There wasn’t a lot to begin with, but chairs and tables had to go in order to comply with social distancing standards. The tables needed to be at least six feet apart. Of course that doesn’t mean the people sitting at the tables have to be six feet apart. In the main section, this table has become the lone gathering place in the middle of the floor. The other seating arrangements were pushed against the walls, making it difficult for group arrangements. Semi-circles just aren’t as fun as full circles, especially when there are more than three people.

It has since become the center of life. I first realized it when I noticed a man, probably in his 30’s, sitting alone at the table, notebook in front of him. Two older men appeared at the front door of the place, saw him there and then went back outside. One of them had forgotten something and needed to go back to his car. The other man, acting nervously, would not enter the coffee shop without his partner. At that moment, I realized that these two individuals came to this little establishment to possibly fire the man sitting at the table.

Now my wife had been let go of a job at a coffee place; a Starbuck’s located in a grocery store. She still is reluctant to go back to the grocery store even though it wasn’t the store’s fault. It wasn’t even her fault as an international company decided to close down their nacent US operations. She worked in a small office, meaning physical space was limited, so her boss used the Starbucks to pass on the good word. He received the good word a couple of days later.

Sensing what could happen, possibly something rather traumatic personally for one of the individuals involved, I was mesmerized. While I really couldn’t hear what was said I was able to follow the path of the conversation. It was clear something had happened at a retail location the night before. The older man who had earlier forgotten something, was seemingly the one in charge, leading the conversation. The other older man, the nervous one was just there as a witness. He certainly didn’t strike me as the strong, silent type. The younger man was not totally unprepared for the nature of the discussion and he must have provided a defense that ultimately worked. He got to hold onto his job, but my sense was that he was given a very short lease in which to keep it. The two older men left together, the younger man stayed behind a bit, looking shaken, pondering what had just taken place.

I didn’t think much about the table again, until a couple of weeks ago. I walked past it to one of my usual seats, a high rise on the back wall that has a window to look out. Three young women were sitting around The Table, enjoying the freedom of a get together that Covid has limited elsewhere in public. From what little I heard and could understand, I gathered they were college students, but I didn’t ask for clarification. Soon their table grew to six occupants, all huddled close to each other in a circle, sans masks. So much for social distancing. I didn’t attempt to follow the conversations too closely, but I probably should have. Nothing graphic was said out loud but there was certainly a lot of innuendo. At the very least it would have provided good background material for some of the sexier scenes in my book.

Now, I have never really heard that much of what has been said at The Table these past couple of months, although the young women were a bit effusive at times and thus it was hard not to raise an eyebrow at time or two. I have become fascinated by the fact that live goes on despite how Covid has impacted us. Yesterday was the first time I was really interested in knowing the background of one of the participants. It was occupied by three people. From what I could tell it was a father and either his high school or college-aged son, along with some type of business advisor. It all seemed geared around a discussion of a computer-oriented education and/or job focus.

The father didn’t say much, and the son was attentive, following along with the advice that was being given. It was clear he was unsure about where he wanted to focus his efforts but appreciated all that was being said. It was the advisor, his back to me and doing most of the talking, who generated the most curiosity from me. Given the wealth of knowledge and diverse experiences he was expounding upon I had assumed he was of an age similar to the father. Therefore, I was a bit surprised as they got up to leave to discover someone seemingly no older than thirty, but who can tell these days. The benefit of the wisdom he was providing seemed to belie his time in the business world. The world of computers and programming and apps and mobile seem to be for the young.

As for today, I have no distractions as I continue down the path of Elves and Man battling for control over the fantasy world I have created. It is easy to concentrate on the written word in front of me. The Table is occupied by two women speaking some type of Slavic language, at least that is what I imagine - I’m thinking Russian but maybe it’s Polish. I have no idea what events or possible intrigues might be being discussed. Ultimately a young child joins them and the smiles and undicepherable dialogue continues and everyone is seemingly happy.

I think about what I would have missed had a stayed in my wonderful home office, dutifully keeping my distance from all. You do need to wear a mask upon entering this establishment and when you order, but as you go off to your little corner, you can choose to take it off. The mask that is. Certainly, it makes it easier to drink your medium hot caramel latte. That still counts as a coffee, right? I hear the sounds and words of life going on. Hiring and Firing. Love and heartbreak. And Family and laughter. And I’m encouraged for the future. Fortunately, from what I can tell, politics has not intruded in any of these conversations. People seemed to want to keep this spot a place of refuge from that part of the world. I hope it will not intrude too soon. Hopefully not at all.