COFFEE HOUSE

     Lisa settled in the middle of a sentence, put down her green bag from Columbia University, mumbled a few words, killed off the middle of a croissant, insisted on writing her diary, meets Andrei who,after reading a pirated Italian issued "Doctor Zhivago," suddenly found himself as a refuse-nik in New York City after a bout with the authorities.

    There was no doubt today they were meant for each other. Not The Neva or Brighton Beach or even Paris could separate or could keep them apart, regardless of Lisa's bi polarity or Andrei's playing sax at six in the morning.

   Everyone hears and captures a different high note in music, some picture landscapes,others
their last love affair.

     Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" fell out of her bag. Marlin Waters came here regularly and was a piano virtuoso,teaches at Julliard, smiled at the couple, his incisors poised for a battle of words but it was not to be for Lisa or Andrei who had to leave him empty of a purpose for his day.

Marlin had just copped a plea from the judge to show leniency for his non payed parking tickets. He stared out of a rainy side window reading in "the Times" about "the umbrella" protesters in Hong Kong as he and Leah Chang, his student and lover exchange momentary glance.

It would be a slow day writing in his diary, December 4, 2014.

Kyle makes his pilgrimage to Coffee House , feeling hard up while not doing his theology or watching his favorite gay German soap opera, being the son of Dr. Francis Rank who studied with Professor Van Doren, the quiz kid's father, and the late Father Thomas Merton. He has a latte and meets with his friend Lannie who appears on T.V. ads for peanut butter but wants to do more serious acting.

          "You're right on time, Lannie... for a change."
           "I had trouble sleeping. How about you?"
            "The same without encountering you. You do not like me as a peanut butter nutter and wrote               me a nasty note and sent it off to the press.You can be so brutal,Kyle, yet so sentimental."
            ''Chalk it up to my being German.
            "You could be a mensch.Where is the usual gang?"
            "Lisa must have been by with Andrei. Marlin, Leah also. I missed them all. I sometimes think                I'm missing out on life."
             A literary reviewer, young Marcus, joins Kyle and Lannie. His girlfriend Bettina has again
             left him.
            "I'm suppose to go to my shrink so I can't stay. Bettina is to model after receiving her Ph.D. in
             Asian Studies today. We all have to make a living in this economy."
             Marcus is planning to review "Suspended Sentences" by the French writer Patrick Modiano                who recently won a Nobel prize.
             Marcus takes it easy by taking a white pill.
             All of a sudden, the T.V. news anchor announces a future manned space launching to Mars.