by Anton Martin Smith antonmartinsmithwrites@gmail.com
A Gas-station coffee run it is.
“I’d like a flat white please”, I request.
“Do you wan’t sugar?”, she queries.
“No honey”, I say cheerily.
“If you keep talking like that you’ll get it served in your face!”
She is serious.
Her face is contorted, pained.
She’s in her 50s she has grey dreadlocked hair, a face lined by a share of hard times.
Up until that moment our customer to customer service relations had been friendly enough, perfunctory.
Aiming to quickly diffuse the moment I apologize.
“Oh sorry I didn’t mean anything by that, I didn’t mean to offend…I must be getting old”.
It seemingly half works – after all scolding hot coffee has not hit my face, has it not?
“Would you like a marshmallow?” She says in a as-per-standard-question way.
“No thanks” I say, wondering why she is offering marshmallows for a flat white.
She finishes & hands the coffee over.
I matter-of-factly pay, & leave to my awaiting vehicle which with my ‘ troublesome coffee’ in hand.
As I drive away wearing sunglasses, I glance in to see the counter area.
I’m ascertaining the body language after the unsavory event.
The other staff member that had witnessed it all is looking at me black faced – I take that as a minor win.
The one who served me is obscured.
As I post-mortum the situation – my internal narrative is of two strands:
One is self serving:
“Geez some people can’t control their emotions at all, why no sense of humor – especially in that role”
The other is of a negative bent:
“Oh no you’ve put your foot in it again – why did you say that you fool – ‘no honey’…Geez!“.
As I drive away to my home, I take a sip of the “troublesome coffee”.
I now know why she offered a marshmallow after I ordered.
The sweet taste is sickening.
It is very much a hot chocolate, & not a flat white.
So she has either intentionally or unintentionally punished me on the spot.
I do half a u-turn & then I think better of it & abandon the u-turn.
I’m again driving home.
I’m feeling a little mentally deflated about it all – not that it’s a big deal or anything.
When I enter my driveway I park & disembark & I suddenly perk up a notch.
“Ah…This is good writing material!” I have suddenly realized.
“Thank god I took up writing!” I say to myself with relief.
Writing really has added so many silver linings to the blackest of social thunderclouds that abound.
Of course the worry about this phenomena is that you will create drama in order to write about it.
I wonder – Am I already do this without knowing it?
the problem is of course. as they say – an old chestnut – but is it good or bad?
Well, I cannot categorically answer that – as the answer embodies a conflict of interest.
But as an imperfect, rough & contaminated answer I will say this:
If the results are good…
Anton Martin Smith Writer 