LJ Idol 10: Week 4: “I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where the puck is going to be."
This Is Only A Test
San Francisco, CA
Outer Richmond District
Tuesday, August 2nd
11:24 AM
The bell above the entrance jingles and Mackenzie looks up from where she is slicing tomatoes. Her coworker Gina straightens up from where she had been leaning over the register and surreptitiously slips her cell phone into the pocket of her apron.
The customer looks around and approaches the counter already pulling her wallet out of a small backpack.
“I’m so glad you’re open,” she says. She explains that she’s just visiting from Canada and asks for directions back downtown. Gina suggests using lyft. Mackenzie points her to the right bus stop.
The woman orders a latte and Mackenzie listens as Gina goes through what they’ve come to call “the script” as she rings up the woman’s order: “We bake them in house actually. Best scones in the city.”
Mac can’t remember how many times she’s had to explain what a blondie bar is and they took the London Fog off the menu because they got tired of explaining what it was* and hardly anyone ever actually ordering one. Now they all get excited whenever anyone asks if they make them because it’s like a secret menu like at In&Out.
Mac watches JC who is sweeping around the three small cafe tables but really stealth texting his friend Joe about their fantasy football teams so Mac volunteers to make the latte; washing her hands after putting the tomatoes into the refrigerator.
As she sets up the espresso shot Mac continues the conversation with the customer/tourist. They chat about San Francisco and how the woman had gotten up early to take a Muni bus out to the beach.
The klaxon begins as Mac is placing a pitcher of milk under the steam wand and she smiles to herself. She finds the sound oddly comforting and looks forward to hearing it wherever she happens to be in the city on any given Tuesday.
She glances at the clock then. It’s early this week she realizes with vague concern and tries to listen for the deep male voice that usually follows the whining alarm but it’s drowned out by the sound of the old semiautomatic espresso machine.
This is a test. This is only a test. She mimics the voice in her head.
The woman, Beth, Mac reads off the paper cup Gina had handed to her, stops in the middle of biting into her scone. “What on earth?”
“It’s the Tuesday noon alarm,” JC explains leaning on the broom. “It’s to alert the city in case of earth quakes and like tsunamis and stuff.”
“Oh. Well.” Beth, looks slightly distressed but she smiles politely when Mac hands her latte across the counter.
As Beth heads out the door another woman enters wearing dark sunglasses, her hair up in a ponytail and the sleeves of her blue uniform shirt rolled up to her elbows. She pulls her bluetooth ear buds out and lets them dangle around her neck at the same time she slides the sunglasses onto her head.
“How’s it going guys?” Lola asks rhetorically and entirely too enthusiastically.
Lola is the manager and lives three blocks away instead of across town like Mackenzie. Mac suspects it’s why Lola always shows up looking like she just stepped off the cover of a women’s fitness magazine.
“Can I leave? It’s been the slowest day on record.” Gina says.
Lola tells Gina to “load the fridge” and Gina sighs as she heads to the stock room.
JC starts sweeping a balled up napkin around Lola using the broom as if it was a hockey stick and supplying his own commentary “He fakes left, he fakes right…”
“Yeah, yeah, get back to work Gretzky.” Lola teases back.
“Aww c’mon Lola, we’ve had like four customers all day.” JC says.
“Really?” Lola asks as she stows her stuff behind the counter.
“It’s true,” Mac confirms.
Lola gets a a strange look on her face but then shrugs.
Mackenzie asks Lola about Sherman, her fiance who everyone calls by his last name.
“He said he wasn’t feeling well and decided to stay home from work today.” Lola explains. “I might walk over and bring him some soup on my break.”
Gina comes back then stepping around the counter with a case of Hansen’s root beer in her arms. As she sets it down on a table one of the cans slips out, falls and rolls across the floor.
JC stops it with the broom and picks it up. Thankfully it didn’t explode but it’s dented so they can’t put in the fridge. He hands the can to Mackenzie who opens it slowly over the sink and then pours it over ice and takes a sip. JC takes back the empty can, squashing it in his hand as he turns to Lola who had begun rearranging the mini bags of Kettle chips on the rack near the register.
“I bet you can’t get it under the back table,” he dares her smiling and wiggling the can in one hand and holding the broom out in the other.
Lola only hesitates for a minute before grabbing the broom. She makes the shot and everyone cheers. Mac sets down her root beer and goes into the supply closet. She comes back with a second broom. She tries to steal the can-cum-puck away.
“Oh, you are so on,” Lola declares.
JC retrieves the can and Lola and Mac face-off tapping the brooms together before JC drops the makeshift puck between them. Mac turns quickly and nearly trips bringing the broom up into the air.
“High sticking,” Gina calls out and Mac laughs; tries to regain her footing. Lola sweeps the can past her and Mac pushes her shoulder into Lola’s back.
Lola drops the broom and pretends to pull off a pair of gloves. “Oh you wanna go?” She brings up her fists and Mac grins and drops her broom pretending to step up to the fight.
JC whistles through his fingers and tells Mac to “cool off” in the “penalty box.”
Mac picks up her broom and hands it to JC. JC and Lola take a turn at playing keep away with the can while Mac sits on the counter to watch.
JC turns his broom flat to the ground and practically scoops up the can. It flies through the air and loudly bounces off the window right over the letter A of the word Cafe.
“Oh shit,” JC says but his laughter dies quickly.
There is silence then as everyone stares at the window for a minute.
”Do you see that?” JC asks. Across the street a small group of people are standing on the curb just staring at them.
At that moment the klaxon sounds again and then stops. None of the people on the curb move or even acknowledge they heard the sound.
“Hey guys,” Mac looks over at Gina who is looking at her phone, her face white.
It’s the sound of helicopters that makes Mac slide off the counter and step toward the window.
“Guys,” Gina says again a little more urgently.
“What is it Gina?” Mac asks quietly still staring at the street beyond the window.
“Twitter. San Francisco is under an Emergency quarantine? Like the whole city? Can they even do that? It’s gotta be a hoax right? I mean, right?”
Mac steps up to the door Lola following close behind. The group on the curb across the street all tilt their heads just looking at them.
“We should all leave, out the back. Now. C’mon.” Lola says barely above a whisper reaching for Mackenzie’s elbow.
Almost as if they had been waiting for a signal the odd group steps off the curb and begins shuffling slowly in unison toward the cafe. JC curses again in disbelief.
Mackenzie unties her apron and dumps it onto a table as the entire staff of the cafe collectively turns to run.
_______________________
*A London Fog is an Earl Grey tea in steamed milk and a shot of vanilla
This entry is dedicated to the staff of the Lookout Cafe #noregrets #nevergiveupneversurrender
and to Laura and Rusty who are my go to beta readers and personal cheerleaders, thank you!!
Edit: Here's the link to poll for this round http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=2060841