Today's Special......Steak Sandwiches, Mash and A Pot of Coffee

I am thankful for the anonymity in here.

Time and space.....to watch ordinary people. Life. To think, ponder, wonder....... come to decisions rather than be forced upon them.

Over a cheap cup of overheated coffee and some really greasy food.

Today's colour is warm, mellow, dewy-eyed evening filled with many remembrances. The mood is upbeat..... time is on my side. Memories warm me. It's possible to live again.....

She sits alone, looking out the window. Long black hair. Young but not callow. I'll manage, take a few years but I'll manage. A weak but determined half-smile. The smoke from her coffee coils up, framing her lovely face with the mystery and the taint of hard experience.

My steak sandwich is cold. The bread is a bit soggy. The mash is a bit oily. The chips are also old. They'll do ...... no one here but me anyway. Nowhere to go either - it's early evening turning magically into night, and out there, the evening is a romantic one. Will I meet someone tonight?

"She's probably somebody's only light, gonna shine tonight....."


The sun sets dramatically, framed magically through the glass pane of my window. Soft lights dot the street. Teenagers in easy clothes and jeans revel in new, unbridled mirth - there are also those older, lost, failed, seeking some corner they can call their own and let their lives down gently.

Her eyes meet mine, for a few nano-moments in time. "Somebody's Baby" plays. There is no emotion in either her gaze or mine ..... we both know that we aren't going to chat. And yet, I wonder..... how did you get here? I can read the loneliness in your eyes. We don't need words, for deeper chords have been struck.

I resume reading John le Carre and she sips coffee. I glance at the street from time to time. I care a fig about time passing. All around me, so much happens. Cheap, ordinary deals are struck for a few hundred bucks. A couple of young boys mess about with their food. Families partake of ordinary, greasy meals, some swearing at their kids to sit still and eat.

She sips coffee, filling in some blanks somewhere in her life ...... and constructing pictures of what she now wants. Her eyes betray nothing. She isn't "Somebody's Baby" after all.

I read John le Carre.

Outside, night envelops all.

Time to head home now.......