My husband went out in a good mood, saying he had lunch plans. He hadn’t been going out much lately.
My daughter and I both had things to do later in the afternoon, but we had some time before then.
“Should we go sit at a café for a little while?”
We got in the car and went out.
My daughter ordered an iced Americano, and I got a hot one. We took our drinks to a table by the window.
“Ah, I feel kind of tired…”
My daughter took a sip of her coffee and frowned a little.
“Could it be the caffeine? You had an iced Americano this morning too.”
“I don’t know.”
I took a bottle of water from my bag and handed it to her.
“Try drinking some water.”
As I watched her take a sip, I started to feel a little tired too.
I hadn’t even touched my coffee yet.
We looked at each other for a moment.
Then we laughed.
“Should we just go?”
“Yeah.”
Something about the air didn’t feel good.
We poured our coffee into takeout cups and left.
“It’s fine right after they open the doors in the morning,” I said as we walked out. “But the air in there isn’t very good now. Sometimes it’s fine, and sometimes it isn’t.”
Back Home
Back home, my daughter sat at the dining table with her coffee.
The weather had gotten cooler, so I put a slightly thicker blanket in the washing machine. Then I brought over the packages that had been delivered outside our door that morning and set them on the table.
My daughter spotted the figs.
“I want one.”
I cut one open for her.
“There’s a bug here.”
“A bug?”
I leaned closer.
At first I couldn’t see anything, but then I spotted a tiny bug.
“This one?”
“There’s another one here.”
“Where?”
I looked again.
There it was—an even smaller one.
“Oh. We’d better look carefully before we eat these.”
I checked the other figs and put them in the refrigerator.
They’re organic, but I need to wash them more carefully.
I thought about lying down for a while.
But as I put the rest of the groceries away, I didn’t really feel like lying down anymore.
Instead, I took a cold sheet mask from the refrigerator and put it on my face.
“Ah, this feels good. It feels even colder now that the weather is cooler.”
I went into the bedroom and thought I might sit at my desk and write for a while.
But the air in there felt a little heavy.
I didn’t want to sit there.
So I went back to the dining table.
I opened my laptop at the corner where my husband usually sits, put a cushion against the back of the chair, brought my Americano from the bedroom, and settled in.
“Do you mind if I put on some quiet jazz?”
My daughter said she didn’t mind.
I turned it on softly.
“This is the jazz I listen to when I write,” I told her. “It’s kind of like a signal that I’m going to write.”
Then I laughed.
“Now that Dad’s gone out, home is much nicer than the café.”
“It really is quiet when Dad’s out,” my daughter said, laughing too.
A moment later, she looked around.
“Ah, it’s totally a café in here. Can I lie down?”
“Of course. That’s your seat.”
She was about to lie down on the long cushioned bench beside the table, then went to her room, brought her cushion, and made herself comfortable.
The house was quiet.
Soft jazz played in the background.
Every now and then came the sound of my fingers on the laptop, stopping and starting.
Through the wide-open windows came the occasional sound of a car outside.
A cool breeze drifted in.
When I looked up, my daughter was asleep.
A little later, I could hear some kids outside getting louder. My son came out of his room and walked to the bathroom.
I began to feel like getting up and moving around.
All I had eaten that morning was a simple egg sandwich. When I boiled eggs for my husband’s breakfast, I had made a few extra. I mashed two of them with salt and mayonnaise, toasted some homemade bread from the freezer, and that was breakfast.
Maybe I’ll start making lunch soon.
Just as I thought that, my daughter woke up.
She went to the bathroom, came back, and said with a smile,
“This is really nice.”
She opened the bottle of water on the table, took a sip, and stretched out on the bench again.
The jazz had become a little more upbeat.
I stood up and peeled the cold sheet mask from my face.
Ah, this is nice.
