Sometimes Getting From A to Be

Sometimes getting from a to be can be so what was the word she was looking for? dreamlike.

She left her car unlocked without looking back and cut across the road through the haphazard morning rush hour such as it was out in the sleepy town thinking to herself the so-and-sos never pay attention to crosswalks anyway. She reached curbside where the coffee shop regulars had vacated table and chairs on the edge and pushed back under the overhang.

Oh yes. Thunderstorm on the way. Everybody who had any wits about them could see the nimbo-stratus heaviness and gloom fast descending from the east. Air temp had dropped and the smell of what exactly. That curious freshness. Maybe ozone?

The line leading to her morning fix shifted from one or more legs to another like a pantomime centipede body angled against the doorway and looping back inside where body heat was palpable and conversation was shall we say politely reflecting the state of the world at 7a.m.

She touched the headlines of today's Gazette and asked people seated and standing This anybody's? When she got the blank looks as permission she didn't hesitate and turned on the typical Martha performance that is doing something useful in an otherwise tedious situation. Make it fun. Right? Her eye caught a subheading bottom right that made her freeze and the room busy with lattés and mochas double shots and English muffins toasted crispy—all that disappeared.

Oh my God, she said aloud.

People she'd recognized from her community over the years people who would at one time have distanced themselves moved closer. What's up? Whatcha got there? But she didn't have time. She abandoned her place in line just as the barista called out Americano!