"W-Where the hell am I!?"
I suddenly found myself inside a cozy cafe, sitting in front of a Barista preparing tea.
"Excuse me, where am I?"
I called the attention of the barista.
"Oh, welcome to Cafe Luna. You want some tea?"
He greeted me with a smile.
"No! I need to get out of here! My family! They're- They're!"
"Calm down, Sir. Your family is fine."
He snapped his fingers and a small mirror popped out. Inside the mirror I could see my daughter and my wife in a stretcher being picked up by paramedics.
"Is that my family?"
"Yes, sir. There's no need to worry, they will survive this."
I let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank God."
"So, how about some tea?"
"O-Oh, thank you."
I smiled and took a sip.
"Ahh. That's one calming tea."
"Glad you like it."
The barista smiled.
"What's the name of the tea?"
"Calmness."
"That's a rather fitting name."
He laughed.
"True."
I sat in silence for a while as the barista did some cleaning on his shelf. I decided to stand up after a bit and grab a hold of a book from the bookshelf. I opened it and it's some foreign letters I don't understand.
I brought the book to the counter and asked the barista about it.
"Hey, what language is this?"
The barista looked at the book.
"Oh, that? That's English."
"Huh?! How is this English?"
I adjusted my glasses then studied the letters once more but I still couldn't find a hint of English in it anywhere, it's letters are something I couldn't even describe. Maybe shorthand? Maybe hieroglyphs?
"Yeah, this is the first time I saw this. How is this English? I'm a linguist and any of these writing styles don't make sense to me."
"It's because you only study your world's language. That type of English doesn't exist in your world."
"In my world?"
He silently nodded.
"How can you study something that doesn't exist?"
He continued.
"Wait, just where the hell am I?"
I looked outside the windows and only saw darkness.
"I'm not on Earth, am I?"
"Yes, sir. This world only exists between the parallel universes. Meaning it both exists, and doesn't."
"Just what the hell is this place?"
He motioned for the chairs once more and I sat.
"This place is a safe haven for people. Think of it as a cafe, well… it is a cafe, but much better."
"Hmm, a safe haven, huh. How many people have been here?"
"This cafe has existed even before the big bang happened, so I lost count at about a million."
"A million?!"
Shocked, I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at the barista once more. His age doesn't make sense, he's in his early twenties at most!
… Then I looked around, none of these makes sense anyway.
"What kind of people come here?"
"You'd be amazed. Normal people like you, Heroes of myths-"
I almost choked on my tea.
"Heroes?"
"Yeah, heroes."
"Like the ones in books?"
"Books can be considered an alternate reality, right? It's a reflection of a writer's perspective or maybe even his ideal world."
"Unbelievable."
The mysterious barista just smiled in satisfaction.
I stayed silent for a bit and studied the interior of the cafe.
"You know, my wife would love this place."
I smiled and took in the calming atmosphere produced by the scent of different types of coffee and floral scents. They never fought for each other's place, they complimented each other in an extraordinary way that just puts your mind at ease.
"She always kept telling me she wanted her own cafe. She always loved coffee."
I laughed. I saw the barista staring at me quietly with a kind face.
"Actually, we met in a cafe she was working in!"
I leaned forward and told my story enthusiastically.
"Damn, y'know she was a looker! I mean, she still is, but back then people were literally taking her out every day!"
The barista sat and listened carefully.
"But she told me she liked me because I was the only one who was showing her the real side of me."
I rubbed my chin and thought about it for a bit.
"Maybe because she got fed up with people pretending to be someone they're not?"
Then the barista replied:
"Well, courtship does that. They say that the real relationship only starts when two people live together."
"Oh! That's true!"
I exclaimed.
"You, know! I didn't even know she sucked at cooking!"
I laughed reminiscing about the burnt eggs I had for breakfast years ago. They were burnt, but they were enough to warm my heart back then.
"Well, she has definitely improved now but damn that really surprised me."
We both laughed heartily.
"But the hardest part of our lives really came when she was pregnant with our daughter."
I looked down to the counter and gave a sheepish smile.
"She really had a hard time back then, and I really couldn't help her. I was away most of the time doing my research papers. I couldn't take time off."
The tone of my voice suddenly shifted into a much sombre tone.
"She kept saying it was fine and she can handle it, but I know deep inside she wasn't fine at all. But!"
I shifted the tone, get this sad shit away from me.
"We're way past that now! And look at us! We're happy!"
I laughed, relieved at the situation. Looking back, there were a lot of mistakes and things I'd like to change. Maybe this experience right here is a wake up call for me. This cafe, this atmosphere, and this mysterious barista.
I can't wait to come back to them.
"I'm afraid I cannot do that, Sir."
The barista suddenly interrupted my thoughts.
"Can't do what?"
"Send you back to them."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
His face turned stoic and his tone suddenly had too much weight in it.
"Sir, you didn't survive."
"What do you-"
I had a sharp headache and suddenly everything came back to me.
***
It was night and the road was dark. We just left the inn we were staying at and we're currently on our way home when all of a sudden a truck's headlight hit my face and blinded me temporarily. We were going downhill and I couldn't break in time before the crash.
I took the brunt of the crash and my vision suddenly faded.
That's how I found myself in Cafe Luna.
***
My heart stopped and my body slumped. It was like a weight was suddenly passed into me and I felt like I was Atlas holding up the celestial heavens.
It was too heavy for me.
"What do you mean?! You mean I died?!"
I looked at the barista with desperation. My breath started to have weight and my heart started to raise.
"Unfortunately, yes."
He said calmly.
The lights were out for me and I lost all hope.
"How..? Why?! I was planning to tell them about this thing! I… I just.."
As I was throwing tantrums, the barista patted my back.
"I'm sorry. But it's time for you to go, sir."
I looked at him, tears kissing my cheeks. I closed my eyes and his solemn face was the last thing I saw.