Entry Seventy-two: Adam Mahoney, You Just Won!

[The next many entries are the current story I am working on. This is two of who knows how many will be posted. Enjoy it while it lasts...]

After grinding the beans then adding the grounds and water into the coffee maker, he flipped the switch to start the brewing process, pulled a chair away from the dining room table and dragged it into the kitchen, setting it in front of the far counter where the coffee was brewing. He sat down, lit a cigarette, leaned forward and rested his chin on the countertop, watching the slowly filling glass canister two feet away. As he continued to stare, the adrenaline from the earlier scare released from his body and he started feeling tired. He drew on the cigarette but its usual medicinal effects weren’t enough to cut through his haze. His eyelids began their flutter toward closing and he gave in, just for a few minutes, until the final growl and gurgle of the coffee maker alerted him that it was time to drink. He stood, ground out his cigarette in the sink and opened the cabinet door directly above the coffee maker, grabbed a large mug and reached for the sugar. He liked to add the sweetener first and let the hot liquid obliterate the crystals when they met at the bottom of the cup. Instead of his fingers hitting the metal of the sugar container they grazed against paper, an envelope resting against the container, white and clean, the size of a greeting card. It startled him not because he rarely received mail, which was true, but more because he hadn’t left the card there.

All words and images ©2006/J. Colle