The Old Man

Things can get a little boring working at a dead end fast food joint. I never intended to make a career out of it but things just sort of worked out that way and before I knew it I had no where else I was qualified to work at. To quench some of my frustration about my failed ambitions I took to observing the people around me. It gave me something to do and since most of the town passed through our little establishment at one time or another I had lots of material.

One old man caught my eye after a while. In the way of old people with nothing better to do with their time, and nowhere else to go, he would come in and order a cup of coffee and sit, looking out our window for hours. There were lots of people like him, old, bored, and lonely. Our restaurant was something of a gathering spot for them, they would sit together and talk and swap stories while their coffees sat unheeded and growing cold. This old man didn’t sit with the others though and that was the first thing that drew my attention to him.

In general the old man looked like any other old man that you might pass in a small farming town. He wore jeans and flannel shirts, with boots, more practical then for any attempt at looking good. The only thing that really stood out was the battered and ancient looking white cowboy hat that he never took off. Sometimes, as he sat away from the others, just looking out the window with that hat pulled over his eyes, I thought he looked like the loneliest man on earth.

It was because he looked as lonely as he did that I finally broke my rule about never talking when I was supposed to be working if it didn’t have something to do with work. I was washing tables and when I reached the one across from his I said good morning. He didn’t answer back with anything out of the ordinary other then what was polite but it was a first step and it opened up further communications between us.

The next day the old man came in as usual and ordered his regular cup of coffee. We didn’t have any made so I told him that it was going to be a bit of a wait, knowing that he wouldn’t mind. In the past he had just went and sat down when we had to make the coffee and someone would have brought it to him but today he decided to stay at the counter while I brewed the coffee for him. We didn’t have any customers and I had already done all of my work so I decided some small talk wouldn’t be a bad thing.

“At least you know it will be fresh,” I said, motioning to the bubbling coffee maker. The old man shrugged and I was about to write off talking to him as a failed effort when he decided to speak.

“I don’t mind. I’m in no hurry,” it wasn’t much of a sentence but it was something and I felt rewarded. I was even more amazed when he continued. “You’ve been working here for a while now.”

“That’s right, it’s been five years now,” I said, flinching at the realization. Now that I thought about it the old man had been coming here for as long as I had been working.

“Do you go to the college?” the old man asked as I got out his coffee cup.

“Not anymore, I used to,” I admitted. I didn’t want to get into the details, I was still ashamed that I hadn’t been able to keep my grades up enough to stay enrolled.

To be continued...