Four Cafes

Four Cafés ------------ Four cafés were at the extreme left of what I could see from my apartment window. There they were, sparkling in the cold night, trying to stand in for stars in the cloudy sky. I had visited these café-bars one by one as they were opened within the space of a year, all offering similar food: runny egg, soggy chips and pale baked beans. They had a touch of European chic in the quaint condiment containers, otherwise I could have been anywhere. I looked for some time at them on that January night, their being the only buildings of interest in my vista. Word had it they were all owned by the same man, which may or not explain why there were no closures. As I stared from my high up space, a solitary man entered the third café, otherwise I saw no one. I expected he was the owner. There he would be then, in the café called "Bar Three", reading the evening paper. That evening the paper was full of a murder story. Perhaps, but no... He was a genteel type, wasn't he? But there again, one can never be too sure... I decided to look for a new apartment the next day. THE END 2/16/2023