The cafe at the edge of the highway

What did you expect to find when you walked in here?

Look around you.

Does the bar look spanking new? Actually, it's been here a few centuries. It's known a few million tears staining its top. Some conversations have been held over it that have lived on past their time.

On the walls, there's a lot of wood - again, just a few hundred (or thousand) years old. Pictures that tell ancient tales and draw you into their cosy world. Ancient tales that don't seem a day old - why, they might have happened yesterday.

You can get fresh doughnuts and hot coffee; or fill up with sandwiches over soothing tea. If you're famished, there's a feast in back. You're bound to find that just a bite goes a long way here. Food's just the beginning here; there's so much more. There's a piano if you want to put out a tune; a stage for a really laid-back band:) There's time, if you want to work out your song. We're all waiting to hear it, and we can wait forever.

Ernest mans the bar. He's been here since the place started; I can't remember if he ever wasn't there. He's seen a thing or two; have a chat. Nothing really distinctive about Ernest, he's just a regular guy who loves his job (how many have you seen?) He keeps getting better - it's not the service, it's the conversations. It's the meeting of eyes and the connections that draw in and hold. And he's one of the best.

There's Drew at the pool tables. He can crack any code; even wordlessness. Funny thing is, cracking a code just opens up a world instead of coming up against further walls. How does he do it? Doesn't seem worthwhile to find out, I just know that he does. Shoot some pool anyway; it may help.

There's comfy wingbacks and fluffy sofas to the right of the bar; if you like the feeling of putting your feet up and reading stuff...or just napping with a newspaper on your face. You don't have to chat unless you absolutely want to. Maybe someone'll turn up and you'll end up chatting till closing time, which might be never. Funny things happen here. Funny nice.

The place never closes :)

There's a garden out back. There are whispering pines there; as well as a good old garden pond with fish in it and lotuses. Take a stroll; you can't get too far away. No one gets lost here.

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Sometimes, I think of the past in here. There was a chap who came in who'd just backed up his car over his two-year old daughter; he hadn't seen her. We'd had to put him to bed for a while before we could do anything at all with him. Then there was a girl who had just set out to kill her parents. And the teenager who had run away from home because he'd found out he was diseased and couldn't bear to tell anyone. And then of course, the chap who was brought in dead; he'd died at our doorstep.

The stories keep coming back; of course there's no forgetting. But the thing that comes back most is the healing. No one leaves here till they're okay; and some have lived in here all their lives. They still are looking for reasons to go back out; some find reasons and leave, and others find ways to help in here while they're still looking for reasons. Still others have no memory of what they came in for, but they feel safe and never think of leaving. Some in here haven't spoken a word for centuries; and we wait......... but no one feels afraid here.

Sometimes (and only sometimes) I stand at the door and watch the highway. It's too fast for anyone. Just one moment of weakness or miscalculation, or the teeny lapse, and you're gone. There's no time out there; the only sounds are of screaming voices, overheated metal whizzing past at the speed of light, and metal clanging against metal. It amazes me that people pass by the cafe and don't come in......they just go straight on.

The edge of the highway is just beyond our walls, a barren, hostile rut of mud and slime. Beyond, there is the great unknown which we've only heard of.....all we know about it is that it exists and it isn't a nice place to be. Ours is the only cafe within miles either way............. and our doors are always open.

Like I said, we never close. There's no 'closing time'.

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So come on in. What's your story?