Voyeur

Voyeur

Hannah Ziomek

I have been nursing my iced vanilla latte for so long that it is starting to taste more like water than anything. As I look around the room I try to focus on the woman on her laptop by the window and on the cashier ringing up customer after customer; however, neither of them can keep my attention for long. I am waiting for a character that will blow me away but I realize that seeking this out is making my task even more difficult. So, I decide to focus on the most boring thing I see: an old man who is simply just sitting there. Unlike everyone else who is either chatting over coffee, or working on their laptops he just sits there. Amongst all the hustle and bustle of working life he just sits there. I guess that maybe an old man does not have much to do but I begin to imagine why he might be sitting there at a table by himself mid-afternoon on a Friday in Saratoga Springs. And I realize: he is waiting for someone. He looks like an average Joe so I decide that must be his name.

Joe sits in a coffee shop everyday and waits for his long lost love. Way back when he was young he used to be caught up in the busy daily life that surrounds him but now he has grown he focuses on the things that he left behind. They had met in this coffee shop. It was her summer job and he was staying with his aunt for the summer. Never had he seen someone so beautiful nor met anyone so kind. They had the summer of their lives but then it was over. He went back home and did not look back. He did not look back until he woke up one day, cold and alone, and realized the only thing that had ever been real in his life was the girl. And he decided he needed to get her back. He left everything behind and moved back into the house of his aunt who had recently passed. But the first thing he did, before unpacking or even going into the house, was run here. Here where he thought she would be. However, she was not here. Why would she be? Why would she wait for someone who had not waited for her? So Joe, decided that’s exactly what he would do. And now he sits here everyday hoping that she will return and he can hold her again.

I quite enjoy the story that I thought of in my head (I’ve always been a fan of stories about lost love and heartbreak). However, the story I found that I liked a lot better was the one that played out an hour later when I thought I had finished this prompt. The patient old man greeted the company he had been waiting for. A young woman holding her newborn baby hugged him and in Joe I saw a new face: the face of a smiling grandfather reunited with his family.

2:55 pm

Friday, February 22nd

Location: Uncommon Grounds