Amore

Or Love
It was going to rain later today. Pat rubbed absent mindedly at his leg, right above the prosthetic. He ignored the ache that pushed at the corner of his mind, continuing to drink his coffee and read his novel. Having most of the patio to himself, he was slightly startled when the barista asked him if he wanted a refill.
“I’m sorry, what?” Pat asked, being sucked out from the world of his book by the intrusion of reality. Looking up, he saw the outline of a woman, the sun peeking out of the clouds behind her. He shadowed his eyes.
“Do you want a refill, sir?”  She repeated, her face coming into focus as she stepped out from in front of the sun. Pat could now make out her friendly grin and Roman features.
“Oh, yes please, that would be lovely.”  Pat set aside his book and returned a more restrained smile.
The barista began filling his cup, her hair falling in front of her eyes as she leant over to pour the drink. Moving the errant hair behind her ear she glanced down at the book. “Demon in the Freezer, what’s that about?”
“Oh! It’s sort of a history of the eradication of smallpox, in a novel format. Pretty enjoyable. You, uh, ever read any of Richard Preston’s stuff?” Pat was rather pleased by this pretty company.
“No, not really. I don’t read much, but I do have, like all of Anne Rice’s stuff! You ever read those?”  She enthused.
Pat, not quite sure how to continue from there, besides a flat no, was saved by a man wearing a ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron opening the door and yelling at the woman. “Kelly! Get back in here! I had to serve table 3 myself!”
Kelly let out a huff, “I’ll be back to give you another refill, don’t go anywhere.”
Pat’s thoughts went something like this: “Am I being hit on? She’s gotta be hitting on me. Huh.  I… should hit on her back? Yes.”
The next hour passed with mildly successful flirting as he stayed at the café much longer than he was planning to. The conversations occurred in short bursts as Kelly kept coming back, pretending to refill his drink, and then leaving to deal with customers. And then in mid conversation Pat found it impossible to listen to his lovely waitress any longer. His gaze kept sliding off of her, to an empty space behind her.
Across the street, behind Kelly, a woman had stepped into view. In a completely involuntary action, his attention shifted entirely to this new woman.  And then Pat’s heart wrenched into a new position.  Several things happened in this instant. Kelly, following Pat’s line of sight grew pissed and stormed off.  Pat knew that he was in love. And lastly, Pat began to believe he was hallucinating. For, where the slender Japanese woman stood, there also stood a paper and porcelain ballerina. Where his hands should have been, were some metallic approximation of hands. The similarity to his traumatic memories of his missing leg only worried him more. With these hallucinations came a wave of doubt about his identity.
The woman crossed the street and entered the café. Pat allowed himself a moment of panic and hyperventilation. Words and images were streaming into his mind. The word Fetch repeated in his head over and over again. A sense of foreboding that he wasn’t real filled him to the brim. His first reaction is that Kelly was secretly crazy the entire time and had drugged him.  First step, control the breathing.  The second step will eventually come to him.
The second step is ignoring the hallucinations. A part of Pat likely was screaming at him to call an ambulance, however Pat’s reason is currently compromised. The third step wound up being a decision to stop drinking the coffee. And then Pat returned to step one when the ballerina came back outside. Step one was now meet this woman. A completely unreasonable step when worried that your perception of reality is fucked, but his heart almost leaped out of his chest at the sight of her.
The ballerina was attempting to leave the café with a chair; the cook and Kelly were attempting to stop her from leaving with said chair. The ballerina appeared to be yelling at them for spilling coffee on the chair. They appeared to be yelling at her for stealing the chair. In a dreamlike state, Pat got up and walked over to the confrontation, interposing himself between the ballerina and the employees.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll buy the chair from you. I’ve got about two hundred on me. It’s a good deal, you should take it.” Pat put a little emphasis on that sentence. Kelly, with an ugly look on her face, walked off. The cook, apparently also the owner, backed off a bit, but with a little convincing accepted the payment. Pat turned around to look at the ballerina. She clutched the chair protectively in her arms.
“I think I’m going crazy, but have we met before? This is weird, but-“
And then the ballerina was kissing him. And with his eyes closed, the hallucinations didn’t matter quite as much. She leaned back. “My hero. I knew you were special as soon as I saw you. I felt my heart leap out at you.”
"I... felt the same way, but I'm seeing all sorts of things. I'm trying to ignore it, but I see you and words visions come into my head. I see two of you, and two of me, and one isn't real and one is." The panic threatened to resurface in him.
Penny shushed him. "I have a story to tell you, and it might explain a few things."
Pat and Penny then left the café, a drizzle destroying Pat’s forgotten book. There was much talking of love which is the interesting part, and much talk of exposition, which is not.
Characters involved in this Chronicle: Penny, Pat Takahashi
Category:Fiction