It started of as an ordinary day. I was sitting in a bustling roadside café waiting for my hot chocolate with extra-whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top. It was 8:30 in the morning. The sun had come up an hour ago but the early winter chill was still powerful. I wrapped my jacket tightly around myself as I longed for that hot chocolate. The traffic whizzed past me like bullets. The cafe was filling up as the heat was slowly gaining intensity. A young couple walked in and sat down on the table next to mine. They seemed like a happy couple who had just discovered love and fallen intensely and passionately into it. The boy could not keep his hands of the girl and the girl was smiling like she had just won a lottery. The waitress came to take their order, a very pleasing looking girl. The girl deceptively scrutinized the boy to see if he had noticed. But he had eyes only for her. The next to walk in were an old man and woman. It was instantly clear that they had been together their whole lives. The way they walked and stood next to each other it seemed like there bodies had become one. There was no need to talk or to ask. They seemed content to savour every moment just as it was. Then walked in a mother, her young son and her teenage daughter. The boy was happily eating a huge bar of chocolate which was all over his clothes and face. The girl was displaying an act of special animosity towards her mother. She wanted a coffee because she felt that she was old enough to have it but her mother didn’t think so. I could almost hear what she was thinking even from three feet way.
Suddenly the T.V. came on and on it was a horrific image. A quivering voice was saying , "And just in...an event that will change America forever." The image was of the twin towers falling and people dying in astonishing numbers every second. The news reporter was crying unable to say anything.
The pleasing looking waitress didn’t look so pleasing anymore. Her mascara was smeared as she dropped the coffee pot in her hand.
The girl on the table next to mine had tears in her eyes. The boy tried to comfort her but she didn’t want to be comforted. All she could say was, “Dad.”
The old man clutched his heart and the old woman closed her eyes like she was in pain. They held each others hands as if hanging on to their reality.
The son dropped his chocolate on the floor. The daughter went and hugged her mother.
I looked down at my table and saw that my hot chocolate had come and was already cold. But I didn’t feel like drinking it anymore because the person I was waiting for was never going to come.