I walked into a coffee shop and found myself sitting on a
bar stool at the counter. I mean, the man at the counter looked as if he might
have been me.
‘Weren’t you here yesterday? I said to the older man with a
big red nose and a ruddy complexion sitting on a bar stool at the end of the counter.
He was drinking iced tea.
‘I think that might have been your former self,’ he said.
‘Well, who are you now? I said.
‘Actually, to tell the truth, I’m not quite sure,’ he
replied. ‘I was wondering almost the very
same thing when you walked in.’
‘Well, how about if I join you?’ I said.
‘Why not?’ he said.
I sat down with my glass of iced tea on a bar stool at the
counter. As I sat thinking, I slowly and quietly drank my iced tea. I mean, how
else would a man drink iced tea? But who was I, after all? I mean, who am I?
Eventually I raised my empty glass and asked the barista for
a refill of my regular currant iced tea.
‘Weren’t you in here yesterday?’ the barista asked.
‘Anything’s possible. Are you the barista who was working
here then?’ I said.
‘That’s just what you asked me yesterday.’ The young woman
set a full glass of iced tea on the counter in front of me.
‘Was I with anyone else?’ I said.
‘Well, it looked to me as if you might be talking to
yourself.’
She smiled.
That smile!
Suddenly I remembered that barista. It was her smile. Some
things are indeed unforgettable, after all. And she was simply herself.
And that’s when I realized just exactly where I was. I was sitting on a bar stool at the counter at my
regular coffee shop drinking my regular iced tea. I mean, I should say that I
was drinking the current currant iced tea. I mean, the currant tea tastes just
a tad sweeter than the regular pekoe tea. And, of course, yesterday’s water has
always been today’s tea. Or it will be. I think. And therefore I am. Or am I?
Iced tea is iced time. Currant or regular, you just add ice.
And I was indeed drinking iced tea. But still and nevertheless, who was I? I
mean, me?
The bell over the front door dinged. I looked up from where
I was slowly and quietly drinking my iced tea to see who it might be.
I had to laugh.
A man with a big red nose and a ruddy complexion was coming through
the door. He looked familiar. I wondered if he might know who I am.