They had taken to calling their favorite coffee shop by the name ” The Place.” It was much easier than saying the whole name every time. Eventually ” The Place” would morph into being called just ” There” as ” I’ll meet you There” but that was a couple of months down the road.
For now The Place was deserted because the college was on Spring Break and everyone who could get away left town. International students (too far from home for a brief 7 day trip) and lacrosse players ( women and men) stayed because their seasons were just ramping up. Everyone else was solid gone.
Their absences led to more parking available on campus and the surrounding neighborhood streets. And the Place had settled into a relaxing rhythm of not being a jammed and over crowded cacophony.
The mid -March afternoon sun was warm, not quite warm enough to enjoy coffee outside but sure as heck wonderful sitting in front of a full floor to ceiling window facing west.
Everyone seemed more relaxed with the reduced size of the crowd although for sure it affected the joint’s bottom line.
It was a peaceful afternoon which would have been more peaceful had everyone not known of the blizzard that was about to descend sometime after the sun went down.
There was a fiftieth high school reunion on the horizon which was a dramatic demarcation point in one’s life to be sure. Fifty years? It reminded him of a phrase he once heard spoken by someone at a wake,” The days are long but the years are short.” Fifty years!
For now they were just waiting for the sun to go down and for the snow to start falling and wondering what the world would look like tomorrow outside their front doors.
