Okinawan Starbucks Blues

 

Yesterday I spent most of the morning in Starbucks with a good friend of mine from the US.  It was one of the Starbucks in Chatan facing Route 58 and a large American military base.  Not surprisingly those from the base and linked to the US military use this particular Starbucks for meetings with friends so the atmosphere is distinctly different from every other Starbucks on the Island.  The staff in this particular branch of the multinational coffee giant are for the most part fluent in English.  The staff have also dispensed with the somewhat strange and distinctly Japanese obsession with chiming your order several times in favour of the more efficient method of quietly repeating your order back to you clearly to check they got it right.  In my case it’s ‘Personal-cafe-mocha-tall-hotto’.  I am sometimes tempted to add half a dozen special instructions such as, skinny milk, extra shot, no whipped cream and extra chocolate sauce, shaken but not stirred, but that would really be too cruel -or would it? 

Dead On Arrival

 That day I came home as usual.  I called out but there was no answer.  In the other room I could hear the TV.  I put my head round the door and looked in seeing three faces glued to the screen.  I said ‘hello’ but no one so much as twitched.  I went to the kitchen to make some tea but my hands couldn’t seem to grasp the kettle so I just sat down at the table. 

After a while you came to the kitchen humming tunelessly and made some instant noodles for the kids.  I thought maybe you had forgotten me.  I tried to get your attention but you seemed to be preoccupied and didn’t notice me at all.  I went to the bedroom and lay on the bed.  After a couple of hours I heard the kids getting washed and giggling as they raced to put on their pyjamas.  Later I heard you sing a lullaby that made me sleepy too.  I called out ‘goodnight’ but no one heard me and by now I wasn’t really expecting anything else. 

I watched you watch TV and play with your laptop for a while and then you went to the shower then got ready for bed.  You didn’t say anything but just turned out the light.  Lying beside you I watched you.  I thought I heard you murmur my name once and your eyes looked a little moist.  It was time for me to leave and like a morning mist I felt my presence thinning ‘goodbye’ I whispered and, though it might have just been wishful thinking, I thought I saw you smile.