The door opens to a new face

[Adou]

The door opens, ringing the little bell above it.

A still young (but not for long anymore) man enters the coffeehouse.
Nobody ever saw him here, and indeed he seems quite lost, a little tired
maybe, however friendly. He waits here a few seconds, waiting for his
eyes to accommodate the lower luminosity of the place, before watching
the patrons and salute them with a embarrassed hand sign.

He goes to Galileo, allured by the coffee smells like butterfly by a
flame, and says to him:

“Good morning, sir”, says the newcomer with a thick French accent. “Can
I have a double expresso, black, without sugar?
- Sure thing. You need a boost for the day?
- Indeed. A father of young children doesn't sleep well generally, and
even more so before an important job meeting. I need coffee and excuses
to procrastinate.
- You'll find both here”, says Galileo laughing.
“I thought so”, answers the brown- and long-haired man, with a shy
smile. “I asked for interesting Usenet places on the Internet (in a cool
little place outside the WWW called Gemini), and someone advised me to
try the Amethyst. He gave me a text that explains how it works here; I
tried to read everything but, like I said, I'm quite tired. So if I
break a rule, don't hesitate to warn me!
- We'll do. Welcome to the Amethyst, mister?
- Adou. Thank you.”

His coffee in hand, Adou joins a table and takes a laptop from his
backpack and tries, nor convinced nor convincingly, to work a little.
Everything on his attitude shows that he would be grateful for
interruptions.

[J Peters]

Gemini hears the bell signalling a new arrival in the place. She
doesn't recognize the man who comes in, so she stays in her comfy chair
away from the windows. When the newcomer settles in, she gets up and
brings over the bowl of leftover Easter candy.

"Some chocolate to go with that high octane coffee?"

[Ben Collver]

On 2022-04-28, Adou <ad...@in.valid> wrote:
> The door opens, ringing the little bell above it.

The door opens again and a middle-aged, slender man with a shaved
head ducks through the doorway. He folds up the umbrella and hangs
up a coat. He also goes to Galileo, and with a faintly Canadian
accent asks, "Good day, may i have a pot of green tea?"

- You got it. Want any sugar?
- No thanks, i'll drink it straight.
- OK, i will bring it to you when it is ready.

Approaching the table, he smiles at Adou and Gemini and asks, "Hi, my
name is Ben. Mind if i sit here and chat?"

[J Peters]

Gemini nods to the newcomer, and shoves the Easter basket toward the
middle of the table.

"Have a seat and help yourself."

[Ben Collver]

Ben sits and takes a chocolate. "Thanks!"

Gallileo approaches and sets a mug and a pot of tea on the table.
"Here is your tea. Can i get you anything else?"

"No, thank you for the tea."

Ben pours himself a cup of tea and waits for it to cool down a bit. He
looks at Gemini and asks, "How are things going for you today?"

[J Peters]

Gemini raises an eyebrow. "Do you really want to know?"

Gemini mulls over the day, the obstacles at work, the red tape and
bureaucracy raising her blood pressure, etc.

[Ben Collver]

Ben senses a warning and says "I hear you, that sounds unpleasant."
Ben sips his tea, then asks, "What do you do for fun?"

[J Peters]

Gemini looks out the window. "Today, I will probably take a walk on the
lakeside trail, even if it's a bit rainy. I enjoy being outside near
the shore, watching the birds." She reaches for a piece of chocolate.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to a wedding shower."

[Ben Collver]

Ben nods, "A walk in fresh air sounds healthy. That's cool that you
are near the lakeside trail. Today i plan to go to a powwow with my
sister."

Ben scans the coffehouse more carefully, and feels drawn to the
alcove, bookshelf, and bongos. "Nice place here."

[Skatha]

There's a distant crash in the back and a middle-aged woman stumbles out of a back room, her black outfit covered with cobwebs and dust. "Oh, new company!" Skatha exclaims, attempting to dust herself clean with no noticeable results. "Hello Ben, hello Adou! Good to meet you both! Hiya, Gemini - enjoying the heat wave?"

[J Peters]

Gemini tosses Skatha a damp rag to help with the dust. She nods toward
the Ghirardelli squares in the bowl. "I think there are a few dark ones
left."

[Skatha]

"Ahhh...dark chocolate...the cure for what ails me - thank you so much!" Skatha pats herself clean, then snags a piece. "It's the time of year when my can keeps trying to bring mice inside from the garage, so I've instituted a mouth check at the door. I feel like a border guard, shining a flashlight into the cat's face, but that rascal tried to bring one in THREE TIMES tonight!"

[J Peters]

Gemini smiles at the mental image of the cat with a mouse tail dangling
from its mouth. "Keep in mind that from its point of view, that rascal
is bringing you the best dark chocolate ever."

[Skatha]

Skatha laughs. "If only I wasn't emotionally allergic to his gifts! Also, in the last two days he's found the two mice he lost in the basement last week, and decided to bring them upstairs and hide them in the (used to be clean) socks by my bedroom. I'd move the socks, but now I'm worried about where else he'd hide them! It's funny, too - yesterday he was playing excitedly in the socks, and I'm all 'he thinks socks are fun, how cute!' until I moved them thinking I'd engage him more and then found the surprise hidden within. Yikes!"

[Ben Collver]

[Ben caught Covid and was offline quarantining. Now that he has
recovered, he has "natural immunity" as well as "vaccinated" status.
He spent the last 5 days of quarantine camping and hiking. Getting
ready for summer!]

Ben draws his attention away from the bookshelf toward the back room.

Aloha, well met Skatha! What's new for you?