Coffee Shop

She had become lost in the caramel swirls trapped in the porcelain mug cradled within her hands. Its warmth was the only part of the outside world still registering in her mind, everything else having melted into a fine grey blur.

The answer had to be out there somewhere, on some unseen planet circling in her inner solar system, a place not known or observed by anyone directly, but that could be approximated by the emptiness of her stare. It had been out there for some time, just beyond the reach of her imagination, hidden in the void of interstellar distance. It was driving her crazy, but she knew that she had found it before. The question was where.

And in the real world, time still passed.

Feet scuffled across cheap tile beside her. Aluminum chairs slid through the slush that had piled up on the floor, and weight descended to the small table beside her. The coffee shop wasn’t exactly crowded, but for her, the proximity was just a little too close. It wasn’t as if this new entity was violating her personal space, but rather that they had disturbed the outer fringes of her galaxy, creating a new pocket for her query to hide in.

Noises, at first distant, then slowly closing in, entered her thoughts. The smell of Old Spice, then the slight pressure from the pads of finger tips. She was still lost in time, but place was returning quicker than she had anticipated.

“Are you okay?”

The voice was familiar, in more than one sense of the word. The grey cloud before her eyes coalesced into the face of her companion.

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

She stumbled into the present. Her left hand shifted from the mug, spreading digits pressed to the table, as the arm that supported it stretched and slid across the formica top.

“Ummm… Yea… I was just…”

She shook her head, clearing the distance she traveled through time and space as if it had been no more than a dream.

But one thing was bothering her.

The answer was still out there.