Smile Sharing

Work this morning. Opening shift. It was pretty normal. I go, set up pastries, put out tables and chairs that weigh a million pounds each, and serve coffee based drinks filled with flavors so it doesn't actually taste like coffee.

If anyone, who I actually like, had been to ask me how my day was, I would have answered, "Mweh." That was until about ten.

I was making two iced lattes with sugar-free vanilla for two old ladies. As I was setting the first finished drink on the counter, the one with silver hair ran off to the toilet and the one with blue (I swear it was blue) hair said, "This should help us get to Ashland."

I stared at the shots pouring from the machine. The comment clicked. My head whipped to the left. "Where did you say you're going?" I asked with too much enthusiasm.

"Uhh, Ashland," she said, her eyes shifting down the hall. I'm sure she was hoping her friend would be back very soon.

"Are you going to see plays?"

"Uhh, yeah." She looked the other way, where a line of customers may have been, I wasn't going to look.

"Oh, you are so lucky."

"Really?" She turned toward me.

"Yeah, I've wanted to go to the Ashland festival since high school. I had planned a trip for this summer, but found I had no money."

"That's too bad. I go every year."

"EVERY YEAR?"

"Yup, I'm hoping to see ever play Shakespeare wrote up in Ashland. I think I'm nearly there."

"Wow. I wish I could go. What are you going to see?"

I heard the echoey thud of a paper cup being slammed down to my right. I ignored it and focused on the blue haired lady.

"Well, when we first get there, we're going to see the first part of Henry. Tomorrow is part two and a comedy. Day after that is part three and A Rasin in the Sun."

"When I made my plans to go, I was going to see the Henry series and Raisin and I wanted to see that Oedipus Complex, that looked really cool."

"If you're into that kind of thing," she laughed.

I smiled, "I just like the original and wanted to see this interpretation... Have you seen many repeated plays?"

"Lots, but they always keep it interesting, you know they change times, or let the new actors go a little wild. Last year there was one--I can't remember which, it was a comedy--that they set in the 50s with the puffy dresses and the suits and stuff." Her face broke into a huge grin. "And at the second act, one of the characters enters the scene in a VW van dressed as a hippy." She started to laugh and so did I. "It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen, especially with the Elizabethan coming out of his mouth."

The sliver haired lady came down the hall. "Is that mine?" she asked.

"Yeah," said blue.

Silver headed off toward the door.

"Thanks," said blue, following her friend.

"No, thank you," I said actually meaning it. "Have a safe drive and have fun up there. If you're ever in this store again, I'd like to hear more!"

Blue was at the door when she turned and sent a huge toothy smile my way.

I spent the last 90 minutes of my shift sharing that smile and singing all the tracks from TMBGs Flood.