As Amro put the croissant and the coffee mug on "my" table - well what I thought of as my table given that I sat there 5 days a week at least- I angled my body in a way to face the street and started sipping that creamy legal drug. If caffeine tasted bad it would have been easier to resist! then again the same could be said of love. Or so I am told. Anyway, I did not want to resist this addiction. I had enough on my plate trying to survive this hell hole we were thrown into by a bunch of greedy men. People think criminals wear shabby clothes and lurk in dark streets but we know better now. Real criminals hide in plain sight and wear expensive suits and shiny shoes. They don't carry weapons they buy and sell them. They don't threaten you in order to take your money, they cajole you into giving it to them. I shook my head trying to turn off the flood of thoughts that was threatening to drown my peace of mind this early in the morning.
The surrounding noise seemed too loud for some reason. "I need better headphones" but my empty pockets thought otherwise. Damn that crisis and damn money!
The noise seemed to get louder, people behind the glass screen seemed to be moving too slowly in the street, cars too...
Suddenly, everything stopped.
heavy silence fell on me like bad news, and the surface of my coffee started quivering in the cup as if moved by invisble breaths. " Oh no!" it was happening again. A wave of nausea hit me so hard I nearly fell off my chair… instead it felt like I was swallowed by my cup, falling into the black hole of my visions.
Water! I felt water under my feet and looked down to see dying waves licking my toes as I stood watching the sun mirror its bright light on the silvery surface of the sea. It was a beautiful happy scene of children running around in their bathing suits, a couple building a sand castle and a family of five listening to music while enjoying a picnic that made me salivate. I stood there for a moment soaking the light, the heat, the music and the beauty of a surrounding happiness I had missed… when a gusty wind that came out of nowhere slapped me in the face. I looked up to see angry clouds rushing to block the sun… the sky turned suddenly grimly grey and as if on cue the sea started growling, its waves bumping against each other as if in a hurry to deliver bad news. The wind grew angrier… a small child started wailing as the wind stole his tiny red hat.
The sea suddenly rose. It rose as if defying the sun… as if one mighty wave wanted to bring the skies down.. It rose like an angry dragon set free and I could hear a howl that made my heart nearly stop. I was witnessing the furor of nature and the wrath of Demons. Suddenly the scene exploded and I was lost in the dark.
" hey , excuse me, can we share the electric socket? "
" hein" ??? …
" May I please plug my laptop here too ? "
I looked up to grey unsmiling eyes that reminded me of the angry sea.
But I was back in the coffeeshop looking dumbly at a foreign man asking to share my table.
A sneaky feeling told me that something was going to happen. Something big… soon.
And I had no way to stop it.