Bird

Lately I've become a creature of habit. I go to the coffee shop and have my five shot venti americano, watch people walk by for a little while and read a book. God how I love the smell of coffee. I look forward to that warm, buttery feeling that fills my nose right before I drink it. I absolutely love that first sip. Every morning I hope it doesn’t burn my lips or my tongue, and every morning I don't care if it does or not. Sometimes the feeling I have reminds me of being a kid, and then I love coffee so much I wish I could marry it.

At my coffee shop a woman dressed in purple sits by the door and never smiles. She doesn’t look mean or sad, she just sits impassively. Even when someone talks to her for a few minutes she’ll answer but her face remains the same. Every once in awhile she wanders around the tables looking for something. Sometimes she’ll stand next to me for a minute or two and look for something on the ground. And even when I’ve looked with her, there is nothing.

When she isn’there or when she sits around the corner, a bird will land on my table and sit there waiting for me to leave my muffin or coffee cake alone. This bird, she just stands there without looking at me. Her tiny little back and head facing toward the street, waiting. One morning she hopped around and looked at me brazenly and I had to look away. I was hungry.

Don’t get me wrong, I always leave a lot for her to feast on, and I don’t move around too much because I want to see her nibble, fly away and come back. She always does.

This morning I was walking back home and as I passed the flower shop and watched the flowers bend in the wind. Coffee in one hand, crutches under the other arm to support me, it dawned on me: What if the woman in purples turns into the bird when I’m not looking? What if the woman who will not tell anyone her name and will not meet the eye of anyone, what if she becomes this tiny bird and she flies to different tables and waits. And what if when she’s a stoic, beautiful, old woman she walks around the tables looking down, what if she’s just looking for a place to land?