Circular nonsense Or Ice water is future tea

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.